Pierogis & Pull Requests: Apollo’s Poland Offsite

There’s something magical about seeing your remote teammates materialize in real life. You know these people through GitHub comments, Zoom calls, and Slack messages. But suddenly, they’re there in a Kraków 🇵🇱 hotel lobby, holding a coffee, making actual eye contact. And for a moment, your brain short-circuits. Massive kudos to Piotr Dyba - Engineering Manager and Adam Kuzmierz, Senior Engineer, for helping put this blog together with the stories and photos 📸

From July 1st to 3rd this year, 60 of us from Engineering and a few cross-functional teams came together in Kraków for three days of ideas, alignment, and more than a little scavenger hunt drama. We’ve more than doubled our EMEA footprint over the past year most of that growth right here in Poland so it only made sense to host our offsite where the momentum is real.

It was more than just an offsite. It marked the launch of long awaited Poland entity, a growing hub for engineering talent, and a chance to connect as people—face to face, context-rich, and slightly more sunburned than we expected.

🛠️ Yes, we bonded. But we also built.

We’re remote-first at Apollo. That means offsites like this aren’t just a break from the day-to-day they’re where the deeper technical conversations happen. Where questions get asked not in passing, but with space to breathe. And where teams finally get to walk through whiteboard ideas without using the Zoom drawing tool.

Over the course of a couple of days, we ran a slate of lightning talks that reflected just how much is moving across Apollo’s platform:

• "What partial data loading looks like in practice and why it matters"
• "Where Apollo AI fits into our product today and what it might unlock tomorrow"
• "How our teams are pushing the limits of the platform to dogfood it across Engineering"

There were talks on usability, sessions that sparked hallway debates, and more than one speaker who left people lining up afterward with follow-up questions. One of the Engineers described the vibe as “like an internal dev conference, but with pierogi.”

And then there was Capture the Flag. A two hour, hands on Dragon themed security and debugging competition that lit up the ballroom with the unmistakable energy of focused engineers doing what they do best: solving hard problems fast.

The teams were competitive, the puzzles clever, and the post-match Slack thread? Glorious chaos.

🤖 The AI session? Let’s talk about it.

Like many teams exploring this space, we’re moving fast. During the offsite we had a session around how we can utilize AI during our daily lives and it sparked discussion, surfaced questions, and gave us space to experiment with the technology and how we think about using it.

It also reminded us that it’s more valuable to step into the mess and explore together. That spirit curiosity over polish, momentum over perfection felt very Apollo.

Look at how we integrate AI at Apollo!

🤩 Customer Obsessed As Always

During the offsite we had a rare opportunity to step out from behind their keyboards and connect directly with one of our customers. Yaryna Pikhmanets from Eleks joined us! Hearing firsthand how our platform supports their day-to-day work was both inspiring and eye-opening. The client walked us through their workflows, pain points, and favorite features—which sparked rich conversations and plenty of ideas for future improvements. For many of us, it was a refreshing reminder of the human side of the code we write every day. There’s nothing quite like hearing about your product in action, solving real problems, for real people. It deepened our empathy, sharpened our focus, and left us excited to build with even greater impact.

🧠 Ask Me Anything: Leadership, Unplugged

One of the most valuable parts of the offsite was the personal, face-to-face access to Apollo's leadership team. In a rare break from Slack threads and Zoom boxes, team members had the chance to sit down with our leaders in candid, face to face AMA sessions. The questions were thoughtful, wide-ranging.

These conversations peeled back the curtain on company strategy, personal leadership journeys, and the “why” behind some of the bigger bets we’re making. For many, it was a chance to ask the questions that don’t always fit into a quarterly all hands and to hear the kind of off the record context that only happens when you’re all in the same room.

✨ Outside the Conference Rooms

The rest of the offsite was exactly what you’d hope for: high-trust, high-laugh, slightly overcaffeinated energy ⚡️

As part of an unforgettable team building adventure, our engineers set off on a whimsical scavenger hunt across the historic heart of Kraków with our newly matching swag! The journey began at the legendary Wawel Dragon statue, where teams brought folklore to life through theatrical photo recreations. From there, they climbed to the Wawel Castle Courtyard, transforming into monarchs and subjects to deliver dramatic royal decrees. Along ul. Gołębia, teams embraced their inner pigeons, parading down the narrow street in choreographed flocks. A sweet pause awaited at Good Lood on Grodzka, where creamy ice cream fueled the fun. In the bustling Main Square, participants posed playfully with the iconic Eros Bendato sculpture, and in the vibrant Kazimierz district, they captured murals and street art that spoke to their souls. A moment of quiet reflection followed at the Dżok the Dog monument, honoring loyalty and beloved pets. Finally, at Stara Zajezdnia, the adventure culminated in laughter and camaraderie as each team proudly named their fictional tram line, marking the end of a day filled with creativity, collaboration, and city-wide exploration.

There were impromptu rooftop chats, neon-drenched laser tag battles (engineers are secretly terrifyingly good at tactical team sports), and more late-night dumpling recommendations than anyone asked for but we’re grateful all the same.

Somewhere between the team dinners, AMA sessions, and too many Kielbasas at Stara Zajezdnia, we remembered that connection isn’t just nice to have in a remote team it’s infrastructure. It’s what makes the async work possible. It’s what turns “I’ll take a look” into actual collaboration.



We left Kraków with ideas we’re excited to chase down. With context that makes the next Slack message easier to write. With a sense that this thing we’re building isn’t just growing in scale—but growing up. And yeah, with a few bruises from laser tag. Worth it. 

At Apollo, you’ll be joining a global team of fantastic engineers who thrive in a fully remote environment—spread across continents, but connected through deep technical collaboration. Our recent offsite in Kraków 🇵🇱 reminded us how powerful it is when this distributed brain trust comes together: whiteboards full of architectural ideas & lightning talks that felt like an internal dev conference.

We’re scaling fast, expanding our engineering hubs worldwide, and exploring new frontiers in AI, usability, and platform performance. If you’re excited to shape the future of Apollo alongside world-class peers, come build with us.

Interested in joining our team? Check out our careers page!