How Polish entrepreneurs turn referrals into a business engine

A mysterious organization has, in just a few years, brought together 2,500 Polish entrepreneurs and reached 100 million PLN (approximately €23 million) in revenue. How Corporate Connections and BNI operate, their expansion plans, and what attracts well-known entrepreneurs are explained by CEO Ryszard Chmura.

Grzegorz Nawacki: A sect, MLM, Amway-style meetings – are you aware that this is how people sometimes describe Corporate Connections and BNI?

Ryszard Chmura, CEO of The Company, owner of Corporate Connections and BNI: We do hear those comparisons from time to time, mainly because our meetings are closed and held regularly. But in our case, there are no commissions for recruiting new members, nor for transactions between members. We make sure the model is fully transparent.

A sect? Well, sometimes we try to introduce changes within a group of entrepreneurs and encourage people to do things differently – but half of them simply don’t listen. In a sect, it would work quite differently.

So what exactly are you?

An ecosystem for entrepreneurs and a business community. In BNI, we bring together small business owners, while in Corporate Connections we focus on owners of large companies – those with revenues above 100 million PLN (approximately EUR 23 million).

The idea is to ensure that entrepreneurs have people around them who are at a similar level, so they can jointly grow their businesses through referrals and relationships.

What sets you apart from other business organizations?

First, the referral system and the way we measure outcomes. Second, the principle of first giving value to others. If you refer clients to someone and they start earning as a result, a natural willingness to reciprocate emerges. Third, it is a community of entrepreneurs at a similar stage of development.

After some time, it turns out that relationships and the ability to consult decisions with other business owners become more important than the business itself. Entrepreneurs face major challenges, dilemmas, and moments of doubt – they cannot always share these with close ones, and they cannot discuss them within their company without risking panic. Talking to someone operating on a completely different scale does not always help. Within our network, however, you can find someone who has been in a similar situation and is willing to share their experience.

So it’s more than a business club?

Yes. A club is usually associated with social gatherings. What we do is about real cooperation and the exchange of business referrals. Most entrepreneurs say that referrals are the best way to acquire clients. Our organization teaches how to build relationships and generate business referrals.

How does one become a member of such a community?

The easiest way is through a recommendation from someone already in the organization. A candidate attends a meeting, gets to know the format, and checks whether it suits them. We also have a verification process. We check whether the person is a business owner, what the scale of their business is, and whether they fit the relevant group. In the end, the members themselves make the decision – they must approve the new entrant.

So you can’t just sign up via a form on the website?

No. The point is not to dilute the community.

And once I go through all that, I’ll have to pay a fee. Apparently a significant one.

Fees start at around 10,000 PLN per year (approximately EUR 2,300) in BNI. In Corporate Connections they are, of course, higher, but typically amount to around 0.2% of a company’s revenue. This is not a cigar club – we don’t meet to drink champagne. Every entrepreneur knows how to do the math. If they don’t see value, they won’t renew the following year. Expensive is what doesn’t work. And in our case – despite rising fees in recent years – the organization continues to grow.

It’s hard to get in, fees are high, and then there is supposedly an obligation to be active, attend meetings, and help other members.

That’s true – we require real engagement. We do not want to be an organization with a long list of members who only pay fees. It can be compared to the recruitment process at a prestigious university. First, you have to get in, but then you gain access to an environment of entrepreneurs similar to yourself.

We provide a platform, a structure, and a community of entrepreneurs who want to help one another. And above all, we teach how to systematically build business referrals.

What does “systematically” mean?

If you ask entrepreneurs what the best way to acquire clients is, most will answer: referrals. But if you ask them what their strategy for generating referrals is – how many they want per month, how they generate them, whether they have a budget for it – nine out of ten have no plan at all. Instead, they invest significant money in reaching out to unknown prospects or in advertising. It’s a paradox. We teach how to make referrals not a matter of chance, but a system.

How do you measure the impact of such referrals?

Very precisely. If someone in the group refers me to a potential client and sets up a meeting, we record it as a referral. If that meeting leads to a contract – for example, worth 100,000 PLN (approximately EUR 23,000) – we document that the referral generated that amount of business. This allows us to know the real return on investment for entrepreneurs in our community.

Are there examples of truly large outcomes?

Yes. Wojciech Wolny joined Corporate Connections when his company, Euvic, had around 500 million PLN (approximately EUR 115 million) in revenue and an ambitious scaling plan. Thanks to referrals, he gained access to entrepreneurs who had already gone through a similar growth path. One of these relationships led to a major acquisition – the largest in the company’s history. Today, his business generates around 2.5 billion PLN (approximately EUR 575 million) in revenue. And there are many such stories, even if on a smaller scale.

And what is your own story within this organization?

It started by accident. By nature, I am an introvert. I don’t like events where I don’t know anyone, where I’m not sure who to approach. I don’t enjoy standing with a glass of champagne, pretending I know what is appropriate to say or to whom. Or figuring out what to do with the business cards I collect – whether it is proper to reach out and schedule a meeting.

So how does an introvert become the leader of the largest business community?

After graduating, I founded an advertising agency and started wondering how to acquire clients. No one in my family ran a business, I didn’t have entrepreneurs around me, and I didn’t know how to approach an unknown business owner. I happened to come across a BNI meeting. At first, I didn’t understand the idea – that entrepreneurs meet, help one another, and even pay for it through membership fees. But a friend who invited me said: “try it for a year.” And indeed, I began acquiring my first clients through referrals.

And you got hooked.

First, I participated as an entrepreneur in a single group. Then I joined its board and started establishing additional BNI groups in Kraków.

At some point, I realized the model works like a franchise. I became the first regional franchisee in Poland and created around ten groups. They brought together several hundred entrepreneurs and also significantly helped my own business. Eventually, I sold my advertising agency and decided to fully dedicate myself to building the business community.

Where did the idea for Corporate Connections come from?

We noticed a certain problem. Entrepreneurs would grow their companies within BNI, reach a few or even a dozen million PLN in revenue, and then… they would leave. Not because the system didn’t work. Their needs simply changed. They no longer wanted to meet every week with very small businesses. That is why BNI+ was created, and later the idea emerged to build a community for even larger entrepreneurs – those with revenues above 100 million PLN (approximately EUR 23 million).

How did the first group of large entrepreneurs come together?

I thought it would be simple. I have known Rafał Brzoska for many years, so I went to him and said: “Rafał, you know all the entrepreneurs in Poland, you attend all the conferences and appear in rankings. Give me a hundred contacts of large entrepreneurs and we will launch the first group.” It turned out that even such a well-known entrepreneur has only a few direct contacts to comparable business leaders, not hundreds.

That was a very important moment – I realized how difficult relationship-building is at the top level of business. It is a myth that large entrepreneurs know each other well. In practice, most of them have only a handful – maybe a dozen – truly close contacts.

I received five phone numbers from Rafał. Step by step, through referrals, the first group was formed and we began developing the project.

And then came the pandemic, which made in-person meetings impossible. Did it hit you hard?

Paradoxically, no. When the economy is doing well, our model works well too. But when a crisis appears – whether the pandemic or war – entrepreneurs need community and support even more. During the pandemic, we moved hundreds of monthly meetings online. We had know-how from the global organization and executed the transition very efficiently. As a result, the organization continued to grow during the pandemic.

What is your current scale today?

We bring together around 2,500 entrepreneurs, of whom approximately 300 are in Corporate Connections. That translates into more than 400 meetings per month and nearly 5,000 meetings per year – covering group sessions, conferences, and events.

In terms of business, we started at around 1 million PLN in revenue. Today, The Company group – which includes BNI and Corporate Connections – exceeds 100 million PLN (approximately EUR 23 million) annually.

And what is the potential?

There are about two million entrepreneurs in Poland, so we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We would like to grow tenfold.

So to about 25,000. I assume that would mainly be among the smaller entrepreneurs in that pool of millions. Can Corporate Connections also grow?

Yes. In Corporate Connections, we are currently at about 30% of our target. We estimate that there are around 10,000 companies in Poland that meet the criteria, and we aim to bring together at least 10% of them. We want to have 1,000 members in the Corporate Connections community.

How do you plan to achieve such growth?

We are not present in many cities yet. Our goal is to expand through regional franchises – local leaders who will build entrepreneur communities in their respective cities.

And you’re likely also ramping up the pace of sales. You can already hear from some former employees that you expect a lot from your staff.

I don’t deny that we expect a lot – but we expect a lot from ourselves as well. We are building an organization in which the largest Polish entrepreneurs operate, we learn from their successes and failures, and access to such an environment is truly limited. We invest in people, training, and technology because we know that is the only way to retain the best talent. And we do retain them – many people stay with us for five, eight, ten years. For me, that is a better indicator of organizational culture than the opinions of former employees.

Running an organization for entrepreneurs means close contact with founders and owners of rapidly growing companies. They can do everything, they must do nothing, and if they want something, they want it yesterday. So we need a team that can handle that pace. Yes – this kind of work is not for everyone.

BNI was not created in Poland; it came from the United States. Is it also growing there?

BNI is the largest organization in the world for small business owners, bringing together 350,000 entrepreneurs in 77 countries. It originated in the United States, but we have introduced many innovations, including BNI+, and above all Corporate Connections. We have just signed an agreement to introduce Corporate Connections in the U.S.

So now Poles will be building a business organization in the U.S.?

Exactly. A Polish company will teach Americans how to bring together large entrepreneurs. What we achieved in Poland – bringing together 300 entrepreneurs in under six years – is a global anomaly.

And what is your goal in the U.S.?

This year we opened an office in Manhattan and hired our first employees. We would like to launch the first Corporate Connections group in New York within a year, and then expand into every state through franchises. Every member of our organization can already use the Manhattan office.

It is well known that the business landscape in the U.S. operates on a completely different scale. What kind of entrepreneurs are we talking about?

We are still studying the market, but we estimate that we will start with entrepreneurs generating at least several tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue – so, by U.S. standards, this is a mid-sized business segment.

In February, a think tank was also added to your ecosystem. Why?

With several thousand entrepreneurs in one community, we realized we can do more than just business. During the war in Ukraine, entrepreneurs from our community helped raise 100 million USD in aid, and later more than 120 million PLN (approximately EUR 28 million) for flood victims. That led to the idea of a think tank – a place where entrepreneurs can jointly discuss what needs to change to make it easier to do business in Poland.

Some say a think tank is a step toward entering politics.

We do not want to engage in legislation or lobbying. That is the role of other organizations – employers’ associations or the Social Dialogue Council. Our role is rather to mobilize entrepreneurs and collect their input. For example, in the deregulation project, we collected more than 15,000 proposals for legal changes from entrepreneurs and citizens. We then organized them and passed them on to the government and organizations responsible for the legislative process.

Above all, we want the voice of entrepreneurs to be better heard in public debate.

What problems do entrepreneurs most often report?

First, a sense that they are an undervalued social group, despite generating two-thirds of GDP. Second, a complex administrative and tax system. This is compounded by high energy prices and a lack of systemic support for international expansion. Many entrepreneurs have capital and want to invest, but in Poland they often encounter barriers.

Is the goal to change the image of entrepreneurs?

In Poland, the image of the “bad private owner” has been deeply rooted for years. Yet most entrepreneurs honestly build companies, create jobs, and pay taxes.

Moreover, many of them are involved in social and charitable initiatives, often without any publicity. We want to change that and show that entrepreneurs are an important part of society.

How is the culture of doing business in Poland changing?

The Polish economy is still young – we have had a free market for only about 30 years. However, we are seeing significant change. Entrepreneurs are becoming more open, they want to grow in a more systematic way, and they are increasingly building relationships with other entrepreneurs. This means that business communities will become increasingly important in Poland.

Will technology and AI change business networking?

Technology already helps us. We analyze data from thousands of groups around the world and use AI to better match entrepreneurs. But at the same time, we observe the opposite trend: in an increasingly digital world, people need direct relationships even more. Therefore, the future is a hybrid model – technology supports, but relationships are still built by people.

You recently launched a new brand: The Company. Why?

We have several communities: BNI for small businesses, BNI+ for companies with revenues above 10 million PLN (approximately EUR 2.3 million), Corporate Connections for companies above 100 million PLN (approximately EUR 23 million), and CC+ for the largest entrepreneurs. In addition, there is a foundation and a think tank. We want to show that this is one ecosystem supporting entrepreneurs.

Where do you see The Company in 10 years?

We see The Company as a global platform for entrepreneurs – a leader in Poland, with the ambition to bring together several hundred companies in the U.S. within a few years, and in the longer term to build one of the largest business ecosystems in the world. We are creating for large companies what BNI has become for smaller ones.

Key Takeaways

1. The Polish model has global ambitions. An organization developed in Poland has reached a scale that makes international expansion possible, including entry into the U.S. market. This reverses the usual direction of expansion – this time, a Polish company is exporting know-how to a more developed market. At the same time, the growth potential in Poland remains very large, as the number of entrepreneurs significantly exceeds the current scale of operations. The strategy is based on developing local communities and franchise structures. The ambition is to create one of the largest ecosystems of entrepreneurs in the world.
2. Networking is not a matter of chance, but a system. The greatest value of organizations such as BNI or Corporate Connections lies in structuring the process of acquiring clients through referrals. Instead of relying on occasional recommendations, entrepreneurs learn how to build relationships and generate referrals in a systematic and measurable way. Each referral and the resulting contract are tracked, allowing for a real assessment of return on investment. This approach changes the way sales are understood – from ad hoc activity to a long-term strategy. For many companies, it proves more effective than traditional marketing or cold outreach.
3. In business, the importance of community and trust is growing. Entrepreneurs increasingly need not only customers, but also an environment in which they can exchange experiences and consult decisions. Especially at higher levels of business development, there is a need to talk to someone facing similar challenges. Such communities become spaces for support rather than purely transactional relationships. In practice, relationships often turn out to be more important than the referrals themselves. This shows that business is increasingly based on trust and the quality of relationships, rather than merely the scale of contacts.