Tomasz Karwatka: more than 60,000 books sold in a single campaign

A book the market was asking for

Tomasz Karwatka has spent 20 years building technology companies that operate around the world. He sold Divante at a valuation of PLN 260 million, and Callstack at a valuation of PLN 500 million. Over those years he collected a mass of notes and frameworks from building companies. He started writing them down — with a few people in mind. When he published fragments on LinkedIn, entrepreneurs asked for more. The interest appeared before the product existed.

That became “The 5. The first five years of running a company” — a book for business owners, most of whom will not survive the first five years. Tomek writes about finding an idea, working with co-founders and investors, winning customers, building a team, and preparing a company for an exit. No theory. Stories from his own companies instead.

A launch with a larger goal

Tomek prepared the launch with the BRAVE team. From the start they wanted it to be more than another business-book launch. They set a large goal: the entire profit from The 5 and The 5 System would go to the Connected Polish Forest — a project of the Las Na Zawsze foundation, which buys valuable forests in order to protect them forever.

The goal was 25 hectares. That is why, during the launch, the screen did not show a revenue counter. It showed a counter of square meters of forest.

Seven weeks with the community

The whole campaign lasted just under seven weeks. In that time readers did not only wait for the book. They helped make it: they voted on the cover, commented on fragments, and read drafts before they went to print. The first step toward buying was a pre-order — anyone who ordered the book by the end of November received it with the author’s handwritten signature.

On 10 December 2025, The 5 Live took place — a 9-hour online event on two stages, with several dozen guests. The broadcast has more than 50,000 views today. That day also opened the sale of The 5 System — a package for entrepreneurs and their teams, with courses, recordings, an audiobook, an AI assistant, and copies of the book to give away.

The campaign ended with more than 60,000 copies sold (in print, digital, and as part of The 5 System), including more than 10,000 printed books. 462 entrepreneurs joined The 5 System, and the goal was exceeded — the profit protected 28 hectares of old forest.

Nine hours of live buying

The ebook and The 5 System were sold through Easytools. The 5 System had to be ready from the first minute: announced at the right moment, buyable during the broadcast, and available immediately after purchase.

Sales started before the broadcast began. Before the stream started, purchases of The 5 System had already protected the first 6 hectares of forest — more than 20% of the goal.

A checkout that survived the launch

The launch lasted the whole day, and every announcement from the stage, a new guest, or another email could send thousands of people into the checkout at the same moment. At that scale, stability mattered most. The Easytools checkout handled every purchase through the whole event, including the moments of heaviest traffic. Anyone who wanted to buy the book or join The 5 System could do it immediately — and every purchase meant more square meters of forest.

What makes this story stand out

Tomek did not invent a product and then look for customers. He shared what he knew for free first, and the book existed because people asked for it. Then, instead of talking at the audience, he brought them into the whole process — from the cover to the launch.

What matters most is a goal larger than the sale. Buyers got a book they were looking for anyway, and along the way they protected a forest. That made people talk about the launch much more widely than about any other business book.

Summary

Tomek and the BRAVE team showed that a book launch can be an event with more than 50,000 views. It takes knowledge people actually need, a community that feels like a co-author, and a mission people want to support.