This is how I "failed forward" in 2024

In 2024, I have worked harder than in the past five years. Since selling my last company in 2019, I've dedicated my time to promoting startup entrepreneurship in Czechia, my home country, and beyond. I've also begun work on my most ambitious initiative yet. The war in Ukraine threatening European sovereignty, European tech innovation stagnation, and recent Trump victory in the US presidential elections have prompted me to broaden my mission—focusing on tech innovation in Europe as a way to restore prosperity and sovereignty to the continent I call home.

I believe Europe must do better.

Europe lags behind in 80% of future critical technologies, with no European companies among the top 10 tech firms by value. While the US has created six trillion-euro companies in 50 years, Europe has none worth even €100bn. European startups receive 60% less funding than their US counterparts, severely hampering global competitiveness. Europe must excel in tech innovation.

Czechia needs to keep up with Europe

The Czech startup ecosystem faces several significant challenges specific to our country:

1. Too few innovators - Czechia has fewer startups per capita than Germany, Austria, and other neighbors. Schools don't teach entrepreneurship. Czechs are risk-averse and penalize entrepreneurial failure. Low immigration of tech experts and low IT sector unemployment lead to reduced competition.
2. Underfunded ecosystem - VCs invest less in startups compared to neighboring countries. Pension funds and institutional investors avoid investments into VC, and local billionaires who built wealth in traditional industries rarely invest in local high-tech innovation.
3. Inefficient governmental support - The leading political coalition has been ineffective in advancing laws that boost entrepreneurship, angel investing, and startup innovation. Public money goes to one-time grants and loans rather than structural support for startup and VC/angel ecosystem growth.

I am not whining.

These market conditions form the foundation of my work, where I humbly try to contribute to meaningful change.

I've made many mistakes this year and haven't accomplished everything I set out to do. Moreover, none of the real progress would have been possible without my amazing business partners, colleagues, and teams I've had the privilege to work with—and from whom I've learned so much this year.

And I am not winning, either.

Failing forward is my life motto. It means accepting that everyone makes mistakes daily, but making the same mistake twice is unacceptable. This motto has guided me for nearly 15 years, and though I've sometimes failed to make only new mistakes, I at least try to report my successes and failures as truthfully as possible. I'm not seeking prizes or social gratitude—my goal is to contribute value to meaningful change.

I welcome any comments, corrections, or ideas for improvement. If you find any of these initiatives inspiring and feel called to contribute, please DM me. I’d love to talk to you.

Here's my failing forward report of 2024:

Czech Founders

Wins:

?? The non-profit community of startup founders grew organically to 1.200 members and is the largest unified voice of the local startup and investor ecosystem. Our long term ambition is to help create 10.000 startups and make Czechia one of the most important European tech innovation ecosystems.

?? Barbora Werdm?lder joined as Managing Partner in March 2024 and helped strengthen our focus on community-driven public policy advocacy and system change. She quickly built trust within the community, expanded our ranks of Patrons, and has worked passionately since then. I transitioned to a non-exec board position with about 6h per week time allocation and provided financial backing.

?? Czech Founders strengthened its ability to deliver results at both EU and local level by joining European Startup Network , Asociace podnikavé ?esko (Association for Entrepreneurial Czechia) and working closely with ESNA and KRIS (more below), Svaz pr?myslu a dopravy ?R / Confederation of Industry CZ , and others.

Jobs done:

? United over 150 top local entrepreneurs and investors to push for employee stock option plans law reform.

? Organized the first internationally attended roundtable with government officials, public policy experts, entrepreneurs, and investors on Improving European Tech Innovation.

? Organized multiple community breakfasts, failing forward workshops, etc., and continued to provide open data about the startup ecosystem.

Fails:

?? ESOP - Despite investing over 500 hours in developing new employee stock options law suitable for startups, we haven't crossed the finish line yet. Additionally, the reform of technology academy transfers for tech spinoffs stalled when the Minister for Science and Research was replaced. A revised version of the legislation was submitted just before Christmas.

?? Sustainable financing - Despite a very low annual budget (~€0.2m) supported by hundreds of hours from dozens of dedicated expert volunteers, the non-profit's runway is below 12 months and still depends on philanthropic donations.

?? Competition - I failed to establish a working partnership with a recently launched local Czech startup association, causing unnecessary duplication of efforts and market confusion ("Why are there two non-profits doing the same work?", people ask). We may join forces in 2025.

Czech Founders VC

Wins:

?? Our community-driven VC, leveraging capital and expertise from 45+ leading local tech entrepreneurs, grew by 11 new investments (21 total to date), reported its first exit, and saw multiple companies raise follow-on rounds. This performance ranks Czech Founders VC in the top quartile of pre-seed VCs with 2022 vintage according to Carta.

?? 100% of portfolio founders have benefited from working with our LPs who are all accomplished founders and key operators (mentoring, consultations, etc.), fulfilling our mission.

?? Seven startups completed Sherpa, our in-house founders-to-founders acceleration program, and four raised subsequent rounds. Many top founders and experts volunteered over 100 hours for workshops and mentoring sessions.

Fails:

?? New products - As a product-building VC at heart, we failed to launch several new services to support our portfolio. We kept postponing tasks instead of acknowledging our need to focus.

?? Brand confusion - We failed to launch our planned new website that would clearly present who we are and how we help. Our VC brand emerged from the Czech Founders non-profit community, whose research helped define our mission to bring pro-founder terms to pre-seed investments. Many community members became our LPs or mentors. While we're proud of this origin, we want to be clear: the VC is organizationally and financially separate, though we support the non-profit through profit carry and resources to help achieve their goals.

In progress:

?? United Founders - Our new venture launching in 2025. It continues our efforts to support ambitious startup founders with unprecedented value at a European scale. I'm extremely excited about this new venture and look forward to sharing more soon. Follow United Founders to stay updated.

Other projects:

Book ??

I failed to complete my book for ambitious startup founders, initially planned for Christmas 2024 release. Having finished roughly 70% of the content, I couldn't reach the final draft with my co-author and need to return to the drawing board in 2025. I owe this to the 15+ exceptional entrepreneurs and startup founders who shared their life stories and invaluable knowledge for this project.

ESNA - Europe Startup Nations Alliance ??

As an advisory board member since 2023, I've represented Czechia among 22 EU countries at two ESNA internal conferences, discussing EU tech (de)regulation, market data access, and specific policies contributing to European tech innovation growth.

I contributed to launching KRIS (A coordination startups and investors group), founded by the CzechInvest to accelerate the implementation of Startup Nations Standards locally.

Druhá ekonomická transformace

(aka The Second Economic Transformation) ??

I moderated a Startup Success session at the Revize ?eska conference, featuring the Czech president, leading business leaders, and entrepreneurs.

In a Capital and Startups working group, I collaborated with Tomá? Salomon (Ceska Sporitelna), Borkovec Petr (Partners), Michal Nydrle (Next Wealth), and others to develop a strategy for boosting tech innovation capital and improving education for aspiring startup founders.

Nadace OSF - Open Society Foundation ???

As a board member since 2023, I've contributed to the governance and oversight of the country's third-largest foundation, which has invested tens of millions of euros over thirty years in strengthening democracy, independent journalism, and civil society. I helped develop the new investment strategy (crucial for generating operational funding), ethical fundraising policy, and shared community-building insights at the Stronger Roots conference.

Moonshot Platform ??

This international acceleration and leadership program for ambitious impact founders led by Yemi A.D. had a remarkable year. As a board member, I supported the Moonshot Camp (Ostrava and Prague, Czechia) and Moonshot Awards (NYC, USA). In New York City, we announced the partnership between Moonshot and United Founders, committing $5M to Moonshot project startups over the next four years.

Flying Founders (aka M??E? PODNIKAT ) ??

Muzes Podnikat (with its new English brand "Flying Founders") has conducted educational workshops at 400 Czech high schools, inspiring over 70,000 students (about ? of the total market) to consider entrepreneurial careers over the past 12 years. As a board member since 2021, I've worked with the CEO and board on company strategy, marketing, and fundraising. I continue to be impressed by the organization's positive impact despite limited resources.

Thank you.

Thank you to my team, supporters, and fellow founders who've shown patience in working with me this year. If you've read this far, you're either my wife (Kristyna, thank you for everything!) or a truly motivated reader. Help me make only new mistakes in 2025—we can accomplish more together.

I'm looking, not exclusively, for talented VC investors, analysts, product owners. DM me.

Happy New Year and let's keep failing forward.

Vit