The Czech Startup Kingdom, a new initiative established by CzechInvest to support the Czech startup community in the UK, has launched on Wednesday 23rd February in London. The kick-off event took place at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London, a partner of the event and supported by the British Embassy in Prague. The event was powered by CzechInvest.
Czech Startup Kingdom is a networking platform for Czech startups, tech companies, innovative entrepreneurs and investors operating in the UK or intending to open the UK entity. The main goal of the platform is to exchange contacts, information and share tips and ideas to enrich everyone involved.
Over 50 attendees came across to listen to inspirative speeches and panel discussions and, of course, to meet each other in person. Madam ambassador of the Czech Republic in London, Marie Chatardová, opened the session and explained the strengths of the British market and the vastness of the local startup ecosystem. She encouraged all companies to exploit the opportunities in the UK.
Christian Kumar, CEO at Capital Kinetics, took the floor after that. As an experienced investor and entrepreneur, he has a lot to say. The main message was to motivate startups to do business in a smart way and so Christian provided many great tips. The first panel discussion followed while Christian remained as a moderator. A great group of debaters came together to discuss areas of business development that some of the startups may overlook – talent attraction, PR, marketing and legal issues. The professionals that kindly shared their experiences were Barbora Fintova, Talent Acquisition Partner at Just Eat Takeaway; Joanna Dodd, Director at Rochester PR and Martin Cook, Director and lawyer at Burges Salmon.
How important is to have a national community overseas? The answer is simple … a lot! That was a topic presented by Matouš Michněvič, VP of Digital Consumer Engagement at Mastercard. Matouš shared his very personal stories during his wandering throughout the world. “Whenever you are, it is always an advantage to have a community where you can share both personal and business experiences and where you can ask and get advice”, he added.
Éanna Kelly, contributing editor at Sifted, invited three Czech startups already operating in the UK to share their views in the last panel discussion. Radek Stejskal, CEO at Adamapp; Jan Hause, CEO at Applifting UK and Dali Svec, Director at Lipoelastic UK. It is not an easy task to start a business overseas, especially when you decide to enter one of the most developed markets, such as the UK. There are many barriers but many opportunities. All debaters agreed that every company should do its homework – a deep market analysis. It is also advantageous to be involved in business communities to meet people and share awareness of the company’s products and services.
The vibrant atmosphere continued after the debates during rich networking. “We will continue to support Czech startups in the UK further and will prepare more Czech Startup Kingdom events”, says Erik Bolebruch, Director of UK Operations at CzechInvest.