My Story

cezary-pietrasik my-story

My desire for tasting the full thrill of life took me from working 17 hour days in Investment Banking to traveling to China via the Trans-Siberian Railway, swimming from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco in less than ideal temperatures, and riding horseback through a desert for a week camping and sleeping under the stars.

cezary-pietrasik my-story

My desire for tasting the full thrill of life took me from working 17 hour days in Investment Banking to traveling to China via the Trans-Siberian Railway, swimming from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco in less than ideal temperatures, and riding horseback through a desert for a week camping and sleeping under the stars.

Making things better has been my passion forever. As an economist by training, I love making the most of the resources that are available. I also enjoy using the circumstances that I am handed to achieve the best possible outcome. I took this approach in my work in private equity, but also in my charity work (The Butterfly Effect Foundation) where we work to transform children’s lives using cost-effective methods.

This native desire to improve the world led me to quit a highly remunerative career in private equity in London and move in 2018 to San Francisco to start a preventive digital health company, with a mission to save thousands of lives that do not need to be lost. It was a bit crazy to move to a country I didn’t know and start a new business in the industry I had no experience in. But against the odds and after a pivot, close to when I wanted to throw in the towel, it worked.

Making things better has been my passion forever. As an economist by training, I love making the most of the resources that are available. I also enjoy using the circumstances that I am handed to achieve the best possible outcome. I took this approach in my work in private equity, but also in my charity work (The Butterfly Effect Foundation) where we work to transform children’s lives using cost-effective methods.

This native desire to improve the world led me to quit a highly remunerative career in private equity in London and move in 2018 to San Francisco to start a preventive digital health company, with a mission to save thousands of lives that do not need to be lost. It was a bit crazy to move to a country I didn’t know and start a new business in the industry I had no experience in. But against the odds and after a pivot, close to when I wanted to throw in the towel, it worked.

On my deathbed I would love to feel that I have lived my life to the fullest and made a positive difference. That’s why I am on the lookout for great ideas for the world and studying how to implement them. Outside the charity work, I hope that my work on helping Polish and European defense (in form of Citizen Army book) and how to make the world less stupid (as in Homo idioticus book) will make some positive difference. As a co-owner of the leading behavioral AI company (Synerise), I also feel tremendous importance of how we organize our society in the age of AI or AGI.

In the meantime, I am exploring our world and living life to the fullest!

On my deathbed I would love to feel that I have lived my life to the fullest and made a positive difference. That’s why I am on the lookout for great ideas for the world and studying how to implement them. Outside the charity work, I hope that my work on helping Polish and European defense (in form of Citizen Army book) and how to make the world less stupid (as in Homo idioticus book) will make some positive difference. As a co-owner of the leading behavioral AI company (Synerise), I also feel tremendous importance of how we organize our society in the age of AI or AGI.

In the meantime, I am exploring our world and living life to the fullest!

Here is a brief summary of my professional and academic path.

I want to try life in multiple areas and industries, so thus far I had a stint as an investment banker, twelve years of being an investor and then several years as an entrepreneur.

Business experiencearrow-black

2022-present Synerise (San Francisco/Miami)

President and co-owner of Synerise, a behavioral AI company that predicts people’s behaviors. Synerise models surpassed those of Google DeepMind, Baidu and Nvidia in terms of prediction efficiency. Synerise clients include Nike, T-Mobile, IKEA, Hugo Boss.

2022-present Carpathian Partners (San Francisco/Miami)

Co-Founding Partner and Venture Partner at Carpathian Partners. Carpathian Partners invests $5-15m tickets into late venture/early growth B2B software companies from Central and Eastern Europe with global ambitions.

2018-2022 Healthdom (San Francisco)

Founder & CEO of the digital health company focused on prevention of diseases by timely, highly personalized screenings and testing. I moved to Silicon Valley from London, built the company from scratch to a leading product in its category, secured large b2b partners and created a cash generating enterprise.

2010-2018 Warburg Pincus (London)

Head of Central & Eastern Europe at the oldest and one of the largest private equity funds in the world. Warburg Pincus manages $80bn+ worth of assets and invested in over 1,000 companies
2017-2018 Head of Central and Eastern Europe
2010-2017 Senior Associate in TMT Team, then Principal in the Healthcare and Consumer Team

2006-2010 Mid Europa Partners (Warsaw/London/Budapest)

Associate Director at the time in the largest private equity fund in Central & Eastern Europe. Mid Europa had at that time €3bn assets under management and was investing out of a €1.5bn fund.

2004-2006 JP Morgan (London)

Top-ranked analyst in M&A department at JP Morgan in London. Advised on takeovers and acquisitions with major focus on Telecom, Media and Technology.

Intershipsarrow-black

2004 McKinsey & Company (Warsaw)

restructuring of an airline and telecom loyalty

2003 UBS Investment Bank (London) & JPMorgan (London)

mergers & acquisitions modelling and presentations

2002 PricewaterhouseCoopers (Warsaw)

slide-making & research for corporate finance

2001 Nestlé (Warsaw)

building an automated reporting system for B/S and P&L

2000 Lumena (Warsaw)

assisting in various tasks at this IT firm, not much glory here

1999 PPA Bank (Warsaw)

testing of the new online banking system

Educationarrow-black

2002 London School of Economics and Political Science

Master’s in International Management within the framework of Community of European Management Schools (CEMS)
A semester abroad at Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien in Austria (Spring 2003)

1999 – 2004 Warsaw School of Economics

Master’s in Finance and Banking
Graduated top of the class (No.1 out of c. 1100 students)

Academic achievements & publicationsarrow-black

2016 “Citizen Army”, a book on defence doctrine for Poland, based on international comparative studies, strategic, financial, military and historical analysis.

2005 Parts of Master’s thesis published in Rynek Kapitałowy (Capital Market) – a magazine of the National Bank of Poland

2002 The Best Student of Warsaw 2002

2002 The Best Economics Student of Poland

2001 Special prize of the Rector of Warsaw School of Economics for academic performance

1998 The Best High School Student of Siedlce Voivodship in Primus Inter Pares competition

Other engagementsarrow-black

2018-2023 Member of The Long Now Foundation, Foresight Institute

2015-2018 Member of Future Leaders, the initiative gathering junior Managing Directors of the UK Private Equity industry promoting charitable work and venture philanthropy

2005-present Founder & President of the “Butterfly Effect Foundation” which supports education of children from rural & underprivileged background

2001 Vice President of Top Ten, the association of ten best students at each year of study at Waraw School of Economics

2001 Vice President of AIESEC at Warsaw School of Economics

Here is a brief summary of my professional and academic path.

I want to try life in multiple areas and industries, so thus far I had a stint as an investment banker, twelve years of being an investor and then several years as an entrepreneur.

Business experiencearrow-black

2022-present Synerise (San Francisco/Miami)

President and co-owner of Synerise, a behavioral AI company that predicts people’s behaviors. Synerise models surpassed those of Google DeepMind, Baidu and Nvidia in terms of prediction efficiency. Synerise clients include Nike, T-Mobile, IKEA, Hugo Boss.

2022-present Carpathian Partners (San Francisco/Miami)

Co-Founding Partner and Venture Partner at Carpathian Partners. Carpathian Partners invests $5-15m tickets into late venture/early growth B2B software companies from Central and Eastern Europe with global ambitions.

2018-2022 Healthdom (San Francisco)

Founder & CEO of the digital health company focused on prevention of diseases by timely, highly personalized screenings and testing. I moved to Silicon Valley from London, built the company from scratch to a leading product in its category, secured large b2b partners and created a cash generating enterprise.

2010-2018 Warburg Pincus (London)

Head of Central & Eastern Europe at the oldest and one of the largest private equity funds in the world. Warburg Pincus manages $80bn+ worth of assets and invested in over 1,000 companies
2017-2018 Head of Central and Eastern Europe
2010-2017 Senior Associate in TMT Team, then Principal in the Healthcare and Consumer Team

2006-2010 Mid Europa Partners (Warsaw/London/Budapest)

Associate Director at the time in the largest private equity fund in Central & Eastern Europe. Mid Europa had at that time €3bn assets under management and was investing out of a €1.5bn fund.

2004-2006 JP Morgan (London)

Top-ranked analyst in M&A department at JP Morgan in London. Advised on takeovers and acquisitions with major focus on Telecom, Media and Technology.

Intershipsarrow-black

2004 McKinsey & Company (Warsaw)

restructuring of an airline and telecom loyalty

2003 UBS Investment Bank (London) & JPMorgan (London)

mergers & acquisitions modelling and presentations

2002 PricewaterhouseCoopers (Warsaw)

slide-making & research for corporate finance

2001 Nestlé (Warsaw)

building an automated reporting system for B/S and P&L

2000 Lumena (Warsaw)

assisting in various tasks at this IT firm, not much glory here

1999 PPA Bank (Warsaw)

testing of the new online banking system

Educationarrow-black

2002 London School of Economics and Political Science

Master’s in International Management within the framework of Community of European Management Schools (CEMS)
A semester abroad at Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien in Austria (Spring 2003)

1999 – 2004 Warsaw School of Economics

Master’s in Finance and Banking
Graduated top of the class (No.1 out of c. 1100 students)

Academic achievements & publicationsarrow-black

2016 “Citizen Army”, a book on defence doctrine for Poland, based on international comparative studies, strategic, financial, military and historical analysis.

2005 Parts of Master’s thesis published in Rynek Kapitałowy (Capital Market) – a magazine of the National Bank of Poland

2002 The Best Student of Warsaw 2002

2002 The Best Economics Student of Poland

2001 Special prize of the Rector of Warsaw School of Economics for academic performance

1998 The Best High School Student of Siedlce Voivodship in Primus Inter Pares competition

Other engagementsarrow-black

2018-2023 Member of The Long Now Foundation, Foresight Institute

2015-2018 Member of Future Leaders, the initiative gat hering junior Managing Directors of the UK Private Equity industry promoting charitable work and venture philanthropy

2015-2018 Member of Future Leaders, the initiative gat hering junior Managing Directors of the UK Private Equity industry promoting charitable work and venture philanthropy

2005-present Founder & President of the “Butterfly Effect Foundation” which supports education of children from rural & underprivileged background

2001 Vice President of Top Ten, the association of ten best students at each year of study at Waraw School of Economics

2001 Vice President of AIESEC at Warsaw School of Economics