Her Play - by Karolina Pelc (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Forget polished playbooks and sanitized lessons--this is the raw, unfiltered story of a woman who started as a casino dealer in post-communist Poland and sold her startup in one of the fastest exits in the industry.

What if the greatest gambles are not on the cards, but on the life you dare to build?

Karolina Pelc wasn't born into boardrooms. Her story began on the casino floor in post-communist Poland, launching a two-decade journey that took her across countries and continents through the global gaming, entertainment, and tech industries before she founded, scaled, and sold her disruptive startup to FanDuel, the number one gaming brand in the US in one of the industry's fastest exits.

But Her Play: Making Your Own Luck, is no sanitized business manual. In this fiercely honest and electrifying debut, Karolina plunges readers into the career and chaos, power plays and personal pivots, wild decisions, and private revelations of an unconventional path. From gritty encounters and psychedelic insights to building a career while navigating profound personal challenges, she shares raw stories from a dynamic industry while never promoting the acts within it.

Before she built and exited her company (a story for her next volume), Karolina navigated a world of intense pressure--balancing the scrutiny of high rollers, the complex dynamics of international business, and the private battles fought in silence. She shares it all: the doubt, the hustle, the heartbreak, and the audacious spirit that saw her through. Along the way, she reflects on diverse perspectives and challenging ideas, confronting them with candid insight. From sailing the globe on cruise ships through daring move into the nascent world of online gaming and tech to reshaping her understanding of self and success through profound awakenings, this memoir lays bare the experiences that forged her path.

More than a chronicle of a career, Her Play is an invitation to look beyond surface-level achievements and understand the internal engine of resilience. Drawing on Karolina Pelc's original HerPlay framework, it shows how to turn resilience into your greatest asset, rewrite the rules to win at your own game, and master the art of engineered serendipity--making your own luck one bold move at a time.

About the Author

KAROLINA PELC is a trailblazing entrepreneur, investor, and storyteller whose two-decade journey through the high-stakes world of gaming and tech has made her a leading voice in the industry. She began as a casino dealer, rose through senior leadership roles at global online gaming companies, and ultimately founding BeyondPlay, the B2B software company she scaled to a landmark acquisition by FanDuel, the number-one gaming brand in the United States, In one of the industry's fastest exits--less than three years.

Karolina has held senior leadership roles as vice president and chief product officer at international gaming groups, led her own company as CEO, and served on the board of a Nasdaq-listed technology firm. Across these experiences, she has navigated male-dominated environments, broken barriers, and turned chaos into a competitive edge --lessons that shaped the foundation of BeyondPlay--often under the scrutiny of the public eye.

Recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Startup Development Voice and featured in Business Insider, Karolina is also an alumna of the Necker Island Leadership Summit, a global gathering of entrepreneurs and changemakers. A sought-after keynote speaker at international events, she shares candid reflections on entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation.

Today, she channels her experience into HerPlay, an investment and mentorship platform that supports emerging founders and ensures every story has a place at the table. In her debut book, Her Play, she reveals the turbulent and transformative experiences that forged her resilience and inspired the HerPlay framework--a mindset that encourages readers everywhere to keep betting on themselves.