We recently had the privilege of having an insightful conversation with Rafał Jankowski, Founder and Co-owner of Cafe Finance Group. As an experienced financial expert, starting his career path from banking to founding the group, Rafał’s journey has been transformative, combining finance with technology and entrepreneurship.
As a group of financial experts with over two decades of experience, Cafe Finance offers top-notch financial management support services for all business sizes. Building an ecosystem of companies and projects where finance blends with innovation, Rafał Jankowski is also empowering entrepreneurs with financial awareness.
Career Trajectory of Rafał Jankowski
We started the interview by asking,” Could you tell us about your professional career and how it led you to where you are today?”
Rafał shared, “My professional path began with finance in its most classic form, i.e., banking — numbers, models, reports. Over time, however, it turned out that numbers alone are not enough if they are not accompanied by a vision. That is why I started combining finance with technology, strategy, and entrepreneurship.
Today, I run Cafe Finance Group — an ecosystem of companies and projects where finance meets innovation. It’s a journey from cash flow analysis in Excel to building the SmartFi platform, from a traditional CFO to an entrepreneur investing in technology and new business models.”
Navigating through Challenges
Challenges are a part of every professional journey’s evolution. So, we asked Rafał Jankowski, “Thinking about your career, what were the biggest challenges you faced and how did you deal with them?”
“The biggest challenge has always been reconciling ambition with market realities. On the one hand, I wanted to develop innovative projects, but on the other, I had to pay the bills and manage operations.
I coped by dividing tasks into two levels — today and in five years. ‘Today’ is operational discipline, i.e., budgets, cash flow, processes. ‘In five years’ is the vision of where I want us to be, and what products I want to create. This approach has saved me more than once from excessive optimism or the trap of short-sightedness,” he explained.
A Seamless Balance between Vision and Requirements
We further asked, “How do you maintain a balance between long-term vision and short-term operational needs?”
Rafał added, “I have a simple rule for this: vision is a compass, operations are steps. If you only look at your feet, you will lose your direction. If you only look at the horizon, you will trip over the first stone. That is why I manage using a dual focus model; I plan strategically, but at the same time, I keep my finger on the pulse of operations, using financial dashboards, KPIs, and liquidity indicators.”
Current Offerings at Cafe Finance Group
Interested to learn more about his services and any exciting additions in the company’s pipeline, we asked Rafał Jankowski to share the same.
“Today, Cafe Finance Group has several pillars: accounting outsourcing, CFO on demand, financial and organizational audits, the SmartFi platform integrating accounting, CRM, and analytics, capital market investments, and social projects.
In the future, I want to add a more developed AI module for financial analysis and predictive analytics for business. I believe this will be a real revolution – not just reporting on what has been, but predicting what is yet to come,” he mentioned.
Assessing the Market Trends
To learn how Rafał Jankowski ensures his company stays ahead of the curve in a dynamic business landscape. So, we asked, “What methods do you use to analyse market trends and how have they influenced your business decisions?”
He reflected, “I combine three perspectives: data, experience, and intuition. On the one hand, I use reports, industry analyses, and AI tools, and on the other, I talk to entrepreneurs, customers, and partners.
And intuition: it tells me which signals are noise and which are harbingers of change. Thanks to this, I have invested, for example, in the digitization of financial services and built a specialization related to finance in the sports industry.”
Impact of Digital Revolution
How has digital transformation affected your business model?
He responded, “Digital transformation has turned us from an accounting office into a financial advisory center, operating on a FaaS model (Finance as a Service) and acting as a financial partner for our clients, rather than just ordinary accountants.
We overlay all this with a technological solution in the form of SmartFi. All this proves that even in such a traditional industry as finance, it is possible to create tools and solutions that really make life easier for entrepreneurs. Instead of telling the client to bring their documents, we say: Let’s analyze your numbers so you can make better financial and business decisions.”
Envisioning the Future
To gather Rafał Jankowski’s perspective on the influence of emerging technologies on his business, we asked, “Which new technologies do you think will have the greatest impact on your industry over the next five years?”
“AI, without a doubt — but not as a buzzword, but in real applications: cash flow prediction, risk analysis, accounting and consulting automation. Plus blockchain in the context of asset tokenization and transaction transparency. And in the background – the growing role of cybersecurity, because the more digital the business, the greater the need for data protection,” Rafał explained.
Fostering a Healthy Work Space
Employees are the backbone of every business. To learn more, we asked, “What strategies do you implement to maintain a high level of employee engagement and satisfaction?”
He replied, “For me, three things are key: autonomy, development, and meaning. People don’t want to be cogs in a machine; they want to have an impact. That’s why I give the team space for initiatives and competence development, while showing the greater meaning of our work — not just the balance sheet and income statement, but the real impact on what entrepreneurship looks like in Poland.”
Crafting a Strong Legacy
We ended the session by asking, “How do you want your company to be remembered, and what steps are you taking to ensure that legacy?”
“I want Cafe Finance Group to be remembered as a company that made finance simpler and business more sustainable. I create solutions and systems that allow entrepreneurs to grow instead of drowning in bureaucracy. In short: less paperwork, more growth,” Rafał concluded.
To learn more about his journey, connect with Rafał Jankowski on LinkedIn.
Find Cafe Finance Group on LinkedIn and visit their website https://cafefinancegroup.com/
Also Read :-
