Strategic Management: Helping Young Startups

Providing strategic management advice is one of the many benefits received by Y Soft Ventures portfolio companies as part of its Genuine Smart Money approach to investing in young startups.
 

In this area, I often talk with startup management teams or CEOs about topics that are more about successfully building and growing their company and the business decisions they need to make. Y Soft has learned from over 18 years of being in business, and these young companies can learn from their mistakes. In fact, I always advise the startups to make their own mistakes rather than repeat mine.

The topics can vary from hiring (and firing decisions) to focus and lack thereof (which is a lesson I learned the really hard way) and, most of all, not overcomplicating things (I am still learning). A typical topic can be about how to design products, improve efficiency, understand engineering processes, and understand customer needs.

 

"Ondrej is an entrepreneur with a deep technological background and he is one of the most technologically literate business leaders I’ve ever met. Perhaps thanks to his background and experience, Ondrej has a very good understating of what it takes to be a founder of a deep technology company. I always find it easy to talk to him about our business challenges and I like that he is always very clear about his view. In situations when he felt somebody else would be better equipped to advise on my problem, he was always ready to make his broad network of connections available. Since the time we have known each other, Ondrej has advised me on topics including business strategy, product questions, and R&D.”
Jiří Matela, CEO and co-founder, Comprimato.

"Ondra is able to help us in many areas – from R&D, and QA to business things and company culture. He has quite a big overview and is able to discuss things clearly, and I’m sure that every one of our discussions and Ondra’s hints/help is based on his long-term experience – I’ve never heard any bullshit from him. And this is exactly what we need – we need to listen to experienced people who are able to go back in time and discuss the problems we’re challenging today as they were in exactly the same/similar situation few years ago.“
Petr Chaloupka, CEO and co-owner, GreyCortex.

“Experience, imagination, and insight are what I value the most about Ondrej. I mean this not just with regard to technology or R&D but also with many strategic and operational issues that are critical for fast-growing technology start-ups.“
Pavel Chmelař, Sales Director, Grey Cortex.

Part of my role also involves providing input to the Y Soft Ventures team on what to look for when evaluating potential investments. I am also asked on occasion to present to start-up companies about Y Soft’s history, and I try to stay active in the Czech Republic as much as I can (I have now moved to the US and work out of our Dallas office), meeting with entrepreneurs.

When I am back in the Czech Republic, I will find time to teach at the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University and work with Startup Yard, an accelerator for technology startups in Central Europe, where I will be a mentor.