Ryszard Szopa
About Ryszard Szopa
Ryszard Szopa (also known as Ric) is an engineering leader based in Warsaw, Poland. Crunchbase lists his education at the University of Warsaw and KU Leuven. He was a software engineer at Google from October 2011 to March 2016, and also worked as a site reliability engineer there. He then served as CTO of MicroscopeIT from 2017 to 2018, and Crunchbase lists him as its founder.
In 2019 he was CTO in Residence at Inovo Venture Partners, and Crunchbase now lists him as a Venture Partner at Inovo.vc. He joined Affirm in May 2021 as Director of Engineering and Site Lead for Poland. Affirm's announcement thanked him for leading the setup of its Warsaw office and said it planned to hire 100 engineers in the first year. The same announcement credited him with experience in scaling engineering teams, site reliability engineering and machine learning projects. Crunchbase also lists him as Engineering Manager at Asana since December 2024. His public Medium bio mentions AI, scalability and startups as interests.
He has written publicly about startups, including a post proposing a test for technical defensibility and one on building a technical organization.
Crunchbase lists one personal investment, one portfolio company, no lead investments and no exits. The investment is a seed round in Respeecher, where he is listed as a non-lead investor alongside Network.VC. Crunchbase hides the date and amount. He is also listed as an advisor to Lofty, starting April 2020. Advisor roles are not investments.
His one listed investment, Respeecher, is the only AI-related deal in the public record we found. His Crunchbase bio says he is passionate about AI and startups.
He has not published a thesis, stage preference or check size that we could find. The one recorded deal was a seed round. His engineering background suggests he can assess technical teams, but he has not said what he looks for in pitches. His writing on technical defensibility is the closest public signal of how he evaluates technology. He is based in Poland, and his Inovo.vc role links him to the Central European startup scene.
- Respeecher: seed round with Network.VC, listed on Crunchbase with Szopa as a non-lead investor. Date and amount are not public.
Investing activity
Ryszard Szopa has made 1 investment according to Crunchbase across 1 portfolio company, and has founded 1 company.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Ryszard Szopa
Is Ryszard Szopa an angel investor?
Crunchbase lists him as an individual investor with one investment, a seed round in Respeecher. He is also listed as a Venture Partner at Inovo.vc.
What does Ryszard Szopa do?
He is an engineering leader in Warsaw. Crunchbase lists him as Director of Engineering and Site Lead for Poland at Affirm since May 2021, and as Engineering Manager at Asana since December 2024.
What stage does Ryszard Szopa invest in?
His only recorded investment is a seed round. He has not publicly stated a stage focus.
What is Ryszard Szopa's check size?
It is not public. Crunchbase hides the amount of his Respeecher investment, and we found no statement from him on check size.
Has Ryszard Szopa founded a company?
Crunchbase lists him as founder of MicroscopeIT, where he was CTO from February 2017 to December 2018.
How can founders learn how Ryszard Szopa evaluates startups?
He writes on Medium about startups and engineering. One post proposes a test for whether a startup's technology makes it defensible.
Where is Ryszard Szopa based?
Ryszard Szopa is based in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
How can founders reach Ryszard Szopa?
Founders on Lounge can see Ryszard Szopa's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Ryszard Szopa to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.