Szymon Boniecki co-founded Monterail, the Wrocław software house, in 2010 and runs it today as co-CEO. In a 2019 interview with the Polish blogger Artur Kurasiński, he described starting with a handful of people working out of a rented apartment (Kurasiński).
From a rented apartment to 838 square meters
By 2019 the team had passed 100 people, and its office had grown from 30 square meters to 838, Boniecki told Kurasiński. From the start, foreign clients made up more than 90% of revenue, which he called a stroke of luck for a Polish firm facing falling margins on custom software.
He said Monterail was one of the first Polish software houses to keep its own design team as a core part of building apps, and that the firm had no secret sauce beyond steady work on the value it adds.
Choosing to be built to last
Asked how the company would survive another decade, Boniecki said the founders weighed fast growth and market share against longevity, and chose what he called a “built to last” organization. In practice that meant above-market margins and a focus on preventing burnout among staff.
One result was a sabbatical: an extra, fully paid month of leave once every five years for the longest-serving team members. He was clear that it was not a loyalty tool, and that nobody faced consequences for leaving after taking one.
Buying studios in 2025
Monterail has since grown by acquisition. In 2025 it bought the Polish studios Untitled Kingdom and EL Passion and Lakeview Labs of Chicago, Illinois, adding healthcare, mobile, and product teams, and it now sells itself as a builder of AI-native software. Boniecki shares the top job with co-CEO Bartosz Rega. Our Monterail review covers what the combined firm offers buyers.