Karolina Pelc: From Casino Floor to Tech Founder

In an industry historically dominated by suits and predictable plays, Karolina Pelc is the breath of fresh, high-octane air we’ve all been waiting for.

As a visionary entrepreneur and investor, she gave the business world a masterclass in execution when she founded BeyondPlay, secured a casual €7 million in funding, and within a breathtaking three years, orchestrated one of the fastest, most lucrative exits the iGaming industry has ever seen by selling to a premier U.S. gaming giant.

Naturally, the global stage came calling. When she isn’t being recognised as a LinkedIn Top Startup Development Voice, you can find her sharing strategic insights at Richard Branson’s exclusive Leadership Summit on Necker Island or taking the stage at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield.

Karolina’s path to the top hasn’t been conventional, and that is precisely why we love her. In her new book Her Play: Making Your Own Luck, she shares her incredible story from casino floor in Poland to her multimillion pound StartUp exit.

We sat down with the woman who rewrote the corporate playbook to talk funding, fast exits, and how to master the art of the ultimate power move.

Karolina, your career began as a casino dealer in Poland before you transitioned into the corporate tech world and eventually founded BeyondPlay. Looking back, how did the high-pressure, intensely performative environment of the casino floor shape your resilience and build the confidence required to survive as a tech CEO?

People often assume dealing cards taught me how to gamble. In reality, it taught me the exact opposite.

The casino floor is not a friendly environment; it is a highly pressurized, heavily scrutinized space where you are constantly on display. Every single action is governed by strict process, mathematical probabilities, and absolute emotional control. In that environment, you quickly learn that resilience isn’t about bravado—it’s about maintaining complete composure under pressure. You learn to read confidence, fear, greed, and human behavior in real-time, long before anyone teaches you formal leadership.

Looking back, I realize I wasn’t just learning how to manage a floor. I was learning how to stay anchored when everyone around me was losing their heads. As a founder, that baseline of psychological stamina and unshakeable confidence turned out to be the most valuable asset of all.

Moving from a secure executive role to founding your own startup is a massive gamble in itself. What was the exact moment or realization that convinced you it was time to “bet on yourself,” step out of your comfort zone, and build something from scratch?

There wasn’t a dramatic moment where I woke up and decided to quit.

I’d spent years moving from marketing into product, strategy, and leadership roles, and with every promotion I became increasingly interested in diagnosing systemic business problems rather than simply executing someone else’s vision.

The idea behind BeyondPlay actually came from watching a younger colleague use Tinder. It wasn’t gaming that inspired me; it was human social dynamics. I became fascinated by how modern digital experiences could create shared, communal moments between people.

At some point I realized that if I didn’t build it myself, someone else eventually would. Founding a company wasn’t about leaving my comfort zone. It was about reaching the point where staying comfortable became the bigger risk.

You successfully raised €7 million in investment, a feat many founders dream of, and it all started with a compelling PowerPoint presentation. For founders who are currently struggling to get investors to see their vision, what is your secret to cutting through the noise and building a pitch deck that commands that level of trust and capital?

To be completely honest, I don’t think it was the pitch deck itself that secured the funding.

Our approach was certainly innovative—as a deck teaser, I produced a high-quality, hand-drawn animation that cleanly answered three foundational questions: why this problem, why this solution, and why us. But the reality is that investors were backing my personal brand, my existing network, and my proven track record of working with innovative companies and challenging the status quo.

If you are a founder who doesn’t have that established track record yet, you have to lean heavily into your own unique competitive edge. But I wouldn’t overthink the presentation itself. In an era where AI has democratized access to knowledge, learning how to format a standard, best-practice deck is a baseline skill. Your deck opens the door, but your personal credibility and execution strategy keep it open. Investors back conviction and people, not just slides.

Navigating the Tech Boys’ Club

The gaming and venture capital sectors are both notoriously male-dominated. As a female founder pitching to rooms that rarely looked like you, how did you navigate those biases, and what advice do you have for women trying to claim their space in heavily gatekept industries?

I’ve never walked into a room expecting people to lower the bar for me because I was a woman. Equally, I don’t pretend bias doesn’t exist.

My approach has always been to become impossible to ignore through preparation. Competence is incredibly difficult to argue with.

I also think women sometimes underestimate the value of authenticity. I never tried to become “one of the boys.” True authority doesn’t come from mimicking the existing culture; it comes from introducing a sharp, strategic perspective the room is currently lacking. The investment landscape is evolving, but decisiveness remains the universal currency. Don’t wait until you feel entirely ready to take your seat—very few founders ever do.

You built, scaled, and sold a multimillion-pound company while also raising a family. Society often frames motherhood and entrepreneurship as being in conflict, but how did being a mother actually give you a competitive advantage or sharpen your leadership skills in the business world?

We need to be honest about it: balancing both is incredibly hard, and there is no way around that reality. Success always comes at a price, and that price can often mean compromising on how present you feel during your child’s upbringing. It doesn’t have to pull you away entirely, but the tension is always there.

Accepting that reality is where long-term vision becomes essential—not just for the business you are building, but for the life you are hoping to create for yourself and your family.

On a practical level, motherhood completely changes how you prioritize. When your time is strictly finite, you stop confusing being busy with being productive. It forces you to build high-impact teams and gives you a brutal efficiency. Most importantly, it anchors your perspective. Children remind you every day that business isn’t the entirety of life, and keeping that healthy distance ironically makes you a much sharper executive.

You’ve spoken candidly about imposter syndrome. Despite your massive success, did those feelings of “undeserved achievement” ever creep in during your journey, and how did you manage that inner critic—especially now as you pivot into your new journey as a published author with Her Play?

Of course I experienced it, again and again. Every milestone—every promotion, board seat, fundraising round, and corporate keynote—initially felt entirely unfamiliar.

And truthfully, it crept right back in when I stepped onto this entirely new path of becoming an author. Staring at a blank page to write Her Play required a completely different kind of vulnerability than drafting a business roadmap.

But at some point in my career, I simply stopped calling it a “syndrome” and stopped viewing it as a blocker. I shifted my focus to a fundamental truth: arriving at any new place of growth or reinvention requires passing through temporary discomfort. Once you start viewing that inner friction not as a sign that you don’t belong, but simply as proof that you are pushing your boundaries into new territory, everything changes. Confidence isn’t something you possess before you act; it’s the clarity you earn because you had the grit to step into the discomfort anyway.

The Art of Making Your Own Luck

People often look at massive exits and attribute them to being in the right place at the right time. Your philosophy, however, is firmly rooted in making your own luck. What does “engineered serendipity” mean to you in practice, and how can leaders actively build their own lucky breaks?

Engineered serendipity is the idea that while you can’t control macroeconomic outcomes, you can dramatically increase the statistical probability of opportunities finding you.

Every meaningful breakthrough in my career can be traced back to a conversation, a cold introduction, or a calculated risk I chose to take long before there was any obvious reward.

Most people wait for total certainty before making a move. I’ve learned to move while the landscape is still hazy. Meet more people than feels comfortable. Ask more questions than feels natural. Put your work into the world before it’s perfect.

Luck rarely knocks on the door of people standing still.

BeyondPlay was acquired by a massive US market leader, FanDuel, marking a stunning multimillion-pound exit. How early in the startup lifecycle did you start planning for this exit, and how do you build a company so intentionally that a market leader feels they have to acquire you?

We didn’t build BeyondPlay to sell it quickly. We built it to solve a genuine problem exceptionally well.

That said, I always believe founders should understand who potential acquirers are from day one. If you know what strategic gaps exist in the market, you can position your company accordingly.

Our focus was never on becoming bigger than everyone else. It was on becoming uniquely valuable. Ironically, companies often become more attractive acquisition targets when they stop obsessing about exits and obsess instead about creating something customers genuinely can’t live without.

The next chapter

With the BeyondPlay chapter successfully closed, you are now focusing your efforts as an investor. What criteria drive your investment thesis now, and what parallel challenges do you look to solve across data-driven, heavily regulated industries?

I don’t actually invest in health tech specifically. My approach is entirely founder-first: I invest in individuals who thoroughly impress me above all else, and where I feel I can genuinely move the needle. I want to back companies where I can add value that goes far beyond writing a check—providing practical, real-world execution strategies and, more importantly, mindset advice.

That said, I do have a particular interest in impact-driven startups and a strong commitment to backing underrepresented founders, particularly female entrepreneurs.

Across any sector, the operational challenges remain highly similar. They are heavily regulated environments where user trust is the primary currency and where success requires a rare balance of rapid innovation and compliance. I look for the leaders capable of navigating that exact tension.

You are passionately dedicated to backing female-focused businesses and leveling the playing field for women in business. From your new vantage point as an investor, what is the biggest systemic change needed to get more capital into the hands of female entrepreneurs?

I don’t believe women need lower standards. They need equal access.

Too much investing still happens through warm introductions and existing networks, and historically those networks haven’t always been particularly diverse.

I’d like to see more women not only founding companies but writing investment checks, sitting on investment committees, and becoming decision-makers themselves. Capital follows familiarity. The more diverse the people allocating capital become, the more diverse the founders who receive it will be.

Finally, as a mother and a businesswoman, what kind of legacy are you looking to build?

Success has changed meaning for me over the years. Earlier in my career it was about titles, milestones, and proving something to myself. Today it’s much more about expanding what’s possible for other people.

If my son grows up believing that taking bold moves is normal, that resilience matters more than perfection, and that character matters more than status, I’ll be incredibly proud.

Professionally, I hope Her Play encourages people to stop waiting for permission and to realize that luck isn’t something reserved for a fortunate few. It’s something we actively participate in creating. Because at the end of the day, the legacy I’d like to leave isn’t simply a successful company or a successful book. It’s a mindset. One that reminds people they are capable of far more than they currently believe.

• Her Play: Making Your Own Luck is on sale now.