I grew up in communist Czechoslovakia, where the regime fell when I was fourteen. A few years later, just days before my seventeenth birthday, the country was connected to the Internet. In many ways — both figuratively and quite literally — the world opened up at the same time I was coming out of childhood. Experiencing that transition firsthand left me with a lasting appreciation for freedom — and for the opportunities it creates.

I started more seriously as an entrepreneur while still at university, co-founding and running several tech and non-tech companies. That experience — the combination of excitement, uncertainty, and overwhelming chaos — shaped how I think about startups to this day. Over time, I found myself increasingly drawn to working with founders, connecting them in networks and communities rather than building companies myself (which I wasn’t very good at), I did a bit of angel investing and I guess that eventually led me to venture capital.

In 2009, I co-founded Credo Ventures with Jan to back founders from Central and Eastern Europe at a time when the region was largely overlooked by global investors. What started as a somewhat non-obvious bet (which many smart and experienced people discouraged us from) has since evolved into a conviction: exceptional companies can be built from anywhere, but the best founders tend to emerge from environments that force them to be resourceful, resilient, and quietly ambitious.

I’ve been fortunate to work with founders at companies like UiPath, Apiary, Pricefx, Resistant.AI or Productboard, among others. But venture has a way of keeping you humble — outcomes are never fully predictable, and luck plays a larger role than most people are willing to admit. I try to approach the work with that in mind.

I don’t think of myself as a typical “finance” investor. I’m generally more interested in how products are built, how decisions are made under uncertainty, and how founders think, than in the financial engineering around it. The early stages — when very little is defined and small choices matter disproportionately — are what I enjoy the most.

Outside of work, I spend most of my time with my wife Regina and my kids Max and Mia, and increasingly value the ability to move between places and perspectives. I’m drawn to long conversations, ideas that are not immediately obvious, some even contrarian and questions about how technology shapes the world in ways we only understand in hindsight. I’d love to play tennis and golf well but I don’t.