🇬🇧 | Before We Shine Again: Words we're sending to our startup friends

Many unicorns are running around now. The sad fact that some people lost their job or clients might be an opportunity for you. So many super interesting people are free on the market and you can get the required know-how or talent for a good price. Be creative, think about various forms of partnership: contract, mentoring, projects, advisory. Hire if you can!

- Matěj Matolín, Talent Partner @ Impulse Ventures

‍

Focus, don’t get distracted by everything going on around you. Focus on your cash and focus on being continuously able to solve a big pain point for your customer.

- Andrej Kiska, General Partner @ Credo Ventures

Markets are down and there is not so much venture capital floating around. Young and innovative companies are likely to suffer. I’m getting stressed about it too and I do worry. It’s hard to turn that off. But you need to be the one, who shows courage. Do it for your customers and your employees. Focus on the next milestone, the next roadblock. Do your best work and take all of this as a challenge. This craziness won’t last forever. Data from China and S. Korea show that it’s gonna get better. Your company will survive this - and if it won’t, you’re going to resurrect it in a few months. In a few years, you won’t even remember.

- Jan Roose, CEO & Co-Founder @ Fireball

My favourite artist once said “I believe in the kindness of strangers”. I think being kind to each other is now more important than ever. We are all in this together, whether we like it or not. Make sure to be kind to yourself, communicate with your team and help others if you can. You never know - one little gesture, purchase or donation can change someone's life and support their business.‍

- Klára Horton, Founder @ Before You Shine

My startup career started in GoodData, a Prague-based business-intelligence startup, in 2007. Lehman Brothers collapsed not long after we started our first fundraising round. It was brutal, but as Roman Staněk liked to say "we survived, most of our competitors didn't, so afterwards, the market was left for taking". The next weeks and months will be tough, mostly mentally, but if you'll survive, this is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After all this pandemic craze is over, the world will emerge to a different, new equilibrium. Entire business segments will be wiped out, entire new segments will be open to discovery/disruption. The society will rebalance, which is fortunate for those who adapt quickly and innovate. Startup folks - you're about to go on the ride of your life.

- Jakub Nešetřil, Founder & CEO @ Česko.Digital

Nobody expected this. Let's not blame ourselves, let's not waste our energy. Instead, send your energy where it's needed the most. Let's be there for our team, our partners, our customers and others. Work together to view our product and business from a different angle and find out, to to make it profitable event in the worst of times. Good luck to us all!

- Andrea Bohačíková, Founder & CEO @ M.Arter

I always tend to look at things from the bright side, as I believe every situation creates new opportunities. You might feel a bit overwhelmed and unsure about the future of your project now, but it might actually be a good time to rethink your strategy and business model. For example, imagine you run a Job board where hundreds of companies advertise their available positions. Because of COVID-19, no companies are hiring now, and working from home is getting more and more popular. So, instead of stressing out and worrying about losing one of your revenue streams -> pivot, turn the business model upside down and start offering remote job positions, or even allow remote workers to offer their skills. You can apply this pivot tactic to everything.

- Michal Ptáček, Co-Founder @ CzechCrunch

It takes courage and immense amount of belief in what one does and hard, never-ending work to run a successful startup - It is a wild ride, always, and one of the hardest (but arguably the coolest) things people can do in their lives. So the situation like we are all facing nowadays is not that different from any other day in the lives of founders - it has always been hard, and you’ve already succeeded where most didn’t even start. Always have that in mind. You have the inner power to make the difference, and you’ll persevere no matter what.

- Jiří Třečák, Co-Founder & CEO @ Supernova

Crisis either makes you or breaks you. Sure, the market situation isn't great. It could easily kill my company and many others. But we can either sit back and cry or get up and approach this as a big opportunity. Just think about this: Everyone is now starting from 0. Large corporations and startups alike. And what is the one thing startups have and corporations lack? Speed. Let's use it to our advantage!

- Andrea Knopová, Co-founder & CEO @ Impromptme