Introduction
Most of what we write about is recruiting infrastructure: ATS connections, job boards, applications flowing back where they belong. This recap is different. It is about the people side of building a company, and about one of the founder communities our co-founder Julia Komkowski is part of.
On 24 and 25 October 2025, the Sigma Squared Society held its flagship summit at the Palau de la Música in Valencia. Julia, Kini's co-founder and CTO, has been a Sigma Squared Fellow since October 2024 and joined the summit as a member of that community, not as an exhibitor or speaker.
TL;DR
- What: Sigma Squared Summit 2025, the yearly flagship summit of the Sigma Squared Society, a nomination-only community of young founders.
- When and where: 24–25 October 2025, Palau de la Música, Valencia, Spain. It was the second year in a row in Valencia.
- Size: the organiser counted 400 attendees, with Fellows from 5 continents and 35+ countries.
- Kini's role: a founder appearance. Julia Komkowski attended as a Sigma Squared Fellow. Kini had no booth, talk or sponsorship.
- Takeaway: after her first summit in 2024, Julia summed up the community in three lines: community fuels growth, vulnerability builds trust, small moments matter.
- Next: the 2026 Global Summit takes place in Vienna on 30–31 October 2026.
What was the Sigma Squared Summit 2025?
The Sigma Squared Summit is the yearly flagship event of the Sigma Squared Society, a non-profit community of young founders run by volunteers. The Society describes itself as a community of 1,100+ young entrepreneurs, present on five continents and in 35 countries. Entry to the fellowship is by nomination only, and the summit itself is invite-only.
The 2025 edition took place on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 October 2025 at the Palau de la Música in Valencia. It was the second summit in the city in a row: the 2024 edition was held at Las Naves in Valencia in November 2024. Startup Valencia, which supported the summit with the City Council of Valencia through Valencia Innovation Capital, reported that the programme included talks, panel discussions, co-working sessions, visits to accelerators and networking events.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Event | Sigma Squared Summit 2025 |
| Dates | 24–25 October 2025 |
| Venue | Palau de la Música, Valencia, Spain |
| Organiser | Sigma Squared Society |
| Attendance | 400 attendees (organiser) |
| Kini's role | Founder appearance: Julia Komkowski as a Sigma Squared Fellow |
Why was Kini's co-founder in Valencia?
Julia Komkowski co-founded Kini and leads it as CTO. She joined the Sigma Squared Society as a Fellow in October 2024 and took part in her first summit in Valencia a month later. The 2025 summit was her return to the same city and the same community.
This was not a Kini sales trip. Kini did not appear among the event's partners or speakers. After the summit, Julia shared the organiser's recap post on LinkedIn, which is the public trace of the weekend on her profile.
What did the organisers highlight from Valencia?
The Sigma Squared Society summed up the weekend in its own recap:
400 attendees, 2 unforgettable days and countless inspiring conversations later, our flagship Sigma Squared Summit 2025 has officially concluded.
Sigma Squared Society on LinkedIn, 29 October 2025
Three points stand out in the organiser's and the host city's material:
- A global room. The organiser thanked Fellows who travelled from 5 continents and 35+ countries.
- Founders and investors on one stage. Speakers included Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps, George Robson of Sequoia Capital, Fred Destin of Stride VC and Sebastian Pollok of Visionaries Club.
- A wide range of fields. According to Startup Valencia's recap, projects were presented in green technology, artificial intelligence, digital health and social entrepreneurship.
What has Julia said about the Sigma community?
Julia has not published her own post about the 2025 edition. She did write about her first summit, the Sigma Squared Society Summit and Co-Working Week in Valencia in November 2024:
Experiencing the Sigma magic for the first time was truly inspiring, grounding, and full of unforgettable moments.
Julia Komkowski on LinkedIn, 2 December 2024
In the same post she listed what stood out to her:
✨ Community fuels growth: Inspiring people keep you motivated. ✨ Vulnerability builds trust: Openness creates deeper connections. ✨ Small moments matter: A quick chat can spark big ideas.
The third point is also why a founder event can be worth the trip, even without a booth or a stage slot.
with your stack?
What does a founder summit have to do with recruiting integrations?
Directly, not much, and we would rather say so. Sigma Squared is a cross-industry founder network, not a recruiting or HR tech event. Its value for Kini is indirect. The Society's own description is access to like-minded founders, investors, mentors and partners, and for a young company that is worth a lot.
What Julia builds day to day is Kini, a managed connectivity layer for recruiting. Kini connects applicant tracking systems, job boards and recruiting agencies. It operates the ATS integrations as an ongoing service, with monitoring, retries, recovery and connector maintenance included. If you want to see what that means in practice, the overview of all integrations is a good start, and the article on Managed Recruiting Connectivity explains how this differs from a unified API or a general iPaaS.
Where can you watch or read more?
- Sigma Squared Summit 2025 aftermovie on YouTube, published by the Sigma Squared Society in May 2026
- Startup Valencia's recap of the 2025 summit
- The official Sigma Squared Summit page
- The Sigma Squared Fellowship
The next Global Summit takes place in Vienna on 30 and 31 October 2026, returning to the city that hosted the first summit under the Sigma Squared Society name in 2021. If you work on recruiting technology and want to talk to Julia in the meantime, you can book a meeting with the Kini team.
