Pawel began his journey in martial sports back in 2001 as a BJJ enthusiast. After struggling in a restrictive corporate job for several years, Pawel left to make a mark on the industry he’s truly passionate about: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Without any technology experience, Pawel has now launched BazaarMMA, a revolutionary platform connecting global Martial Sports brands with athletes all around the world, who care about making a fashionable impression on the gym floor.

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I used to have ambitions to work in some top-tier company. I wanted to learn marketing from the best of the best, and with some dedication I made it to Ogilvy, one of the biggest network advertising agencies in the world. Initially I was super excited, but I quickly realised I had no influence on the product strategy. I became frustrated because I wanted to be a part of something where I could have more direct impact. So I decided to build that something myself.

With the help of my friends and training buddies, in 2012, we opened a BJJ academy in the center of Warsaw. It was exactly on Valentine’s Day. There were weeks I wouldn’t even step out of the academy. I was just eating there, sleeping on the mat and training. BJJ lifestyle to the fullest! A number of my students reached a certain threshold, but it didn’t feel like this “thing” I could develop indefinitely. I remained a coach as a hobby and went to work again on a more scalable idea.

That’s how I got into the clothing business.

I started a brand for people enjoying an active life, not necessarily only those training BJJ. It was alright. We had initial success, particularly with making “Keep Calm and Train Jiu-jitsu” t-shirts and Dragon Ball Z rashguards. What’s cooler than submitting people while looking like Goku or Vegeta?!

We even obtained an official licence, although the process was 9 months long, expensive and as it turned out later, unnecessary. In the meanwhile some other brands started to do similar designs.

Designing, testing, making improvements and then finally having to market the products was an expensive and exhausting process. The greatest challenge we faced however, was reaching enough people in a short enough time span. I was testing various marketing channels to let people know about my brand, but because there was no single point of contact, this was a tiresome process.

I also started researching how others were doing it, in the hopes of finding a solution, but ended up discovering so many amazing brands I had no idea existed! Incidentally, I met several brand owners who were also struggling with the same problem.

Around the time this thought was cooking in my mind, something bad happened to me. I invested too much, too quickly and simply didn’t do my math well enough. Before I knew it, I was bankrupt.

If you’ve ever struggled financially, you’ll understand how I felt. I was hopeless and miserable. Being broke really sucks. The situation stayed like this for a few months and when I felt like the situation was completely hopeless and there was no way out, I got a call from my BJJ coach, Mariusz Linke, that changed everything.

Mariusz informed me, “There is Macaco seminar in December. I want you to be there as my brown belt”. That was the time I got promoted to black belt. I think it was the happiest day in my life so far. At this point I had been working for 13 years so I thought to myself, “Pawel, If you managed to last long enough to get a black belt, you will work out your life shit as well”.

With my newfound positive attitude, I gained greater clarity in other areas of my life, including having a clearer idea about how to finally have a bigger and more sustainable impact on the BJJ community.

I decided to give this “all premium martial sports brands in one place” idea a shot. I couldn’t code or do graphic design, so I had to find someone who could. First option was obviously friends. Soon enough it appeared the scope of work greatly extended the amount of time they could spend on it.

I tried hiring people from sites like Freelancer and UpWork, struggled with incompetence and overcommitment, and some of them who outright tried to scam me. Others were leaving in the middle of the job. However, my persistence paid off and I ultimately found trustworthy and professional people to help complete the project.

I also convinced two brands to work with me and sell products through BazaarMMA. I am eternally grateful to Manto and Poundout owners for putting their trust in me. Soon after that came the real breakthrough.

I was accepted into a startup pre-acceleration programme, Huge Thing. It was organised by the venture capital company SpeedUp Group in order to teach promising entrepreneurs, observe them, and ultimately invest in the best among them. There were 17 teams with excellent ideas, experienced members and many with working MVPs.

Huge Thing lasted for 3 weeks. There were lectures, mentoring sessions and individual consultations everyday. It ended with a pitch in front of the investors, similar to the Shark Tank TV show. There was a lot of pressure, given the high calibre of competition, and I felt like my chances were slim. Nonetheless, I gave it my best shot and held my breath for 6 weeks waiting for the final verdict.

At the beginning of December the decision came through. Exactly one year after I got my black belt, a VC fund wanted to invest in BazaarMMA! I assembled the remainder of the team with the help of my mentors along the way and we started building the platform on a full scale.

On 1st of February 2016, we launched BazaarMMA and have been gathering more and more brands to join the platform. My intention has always been to make a helpful impact on the MMA and BJJ community, and our whole team is confident that making it significantly easier to connect brands with fighters in one place will revolutionise the way martial athletes shop.

So as we’re developing the platform, I’d love to reach out to the BJJ community as your opinions matter the most to me. Here’s what I’d love to know.

What bothers you about shopping online for gear?

How do you decide what makes an awesome brand?

What would be a killer feature you’d like to see on BazaarMMA?

If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions you’d like to discuss privately, please feel free to email me at pawel@bazaarmma.com.