SeedBlink Blog

We are delighted to introduce Vojta Roček, Partner at Presto Tech Horizons. In this conversation, he shares common misconceptions faced by founders and lessons learned from his entrepreneurial journey, including the sale of his company, Stories.bi.

As a Partner at Presto, Vojta focuses on supporting their portfolio companies, guiding founders to prioritize critical elements, and accelerating business development and partnership growth. With his experience as a founder, he also assists portfolio companies in crafting and executing effective exit strategies.

Vojta leverages his business intelligence, data analytics, and applied AI expertise, having co-founded and successfully exited an augmented analytics startup. He has mentored over 1,000 startups, established the largest community of data professionals in the Czech Republic, and made angel investments in several local companies.

Vojta’s journey of going from founder to investor

Vojta: I spent 10 years building my startup, identified a gap in business intelligence, and, together with my friends, raised half a million to develop an augmented analytics solution. This innovation even influenced Gartner to update their Magic Quadrant. We eventually exited to Workday, the world’s second-largest SaaS company.

After successfully exiting to Workday, he continued to work for the company for another three years. During this time, Vojta began investing in startups, experiencing initial failures due to common mistakes such as focusing too much on the product rather than its market potential.

I spent three years there as part of my earn-out, during which I started to invest in startups. While testing the waters, I met people from a venture capital fund who pointed out my mistakes. By learning from them and investing alongside them, I improved significantly.

That was why I eventually joined Presto as an exited founder and as someone who has been on their side. I am the one who understands startups’ and founders’ problems and knows how to talk about it with them.

Vojta's background as an exited founder is now leveraged in his role at the VC firm Presto Ventures.

What matters most? Market? Team? Product?

One key lesson Vojta emphasized was the importance of understanding the market over the team or product. He highlighted that while many founders prioritize the team or product, the market is the most critical factor for early-stage success, referencing Mark Andreessen’s principle. Vojta highlighted that 80% of a seed-stage startup’s success depends on the market.

Only customers hold true expertise.

While some VCs position themselves as product experts, Vojta believes only customers hold true expertise. He aims to talk directly to customers, asking simple but powerful questions like, “How important is this to you?”, “Why do you use it?” and “What would you do if this tool was taken away tomorrow?”

Even strong ideas can fail if the market is not ready or large enough, so as a founder, you must prioritize understanding your market thoroughly. Prioritize customer conversations and assess their genuine needs and willingness to adopt solutions – not necessarily yours, but focus on what they need. A good customer conversation should give you a solid overview of market readiness and insights on how to refine your strategies.

Vojta noticed that many founders expect their product to sell itself and are hesitant to lead sales efforts, which he believes is crucial, especially at the start. Vojta pointed out that even great salespeople might miss key market insights that a founder would catch.

In the CEE region, founders often focus on improving their product when sales drop, as that feels more familiar, instead of tackling sales or hiring skilled team members. While this is understandable, it can delay growth and make scaling harder. I remember working with a startup that created complex stock management algorithms. We had thought clients would use these advanced features for detailed inventory handling. But when talking to them, we discovered they were only using the product as a simple data analytics tool to see what they had in the warehouse. They weren’t even touching the sophisticated algorithms. It showed me that there’s often a big gap between what startups believe they’re providing and what customers actually need and use.

Investing in CEE – what makes it appealing for investors?

Vojta also shared his view about Central and Eastern Europe, and according to him, the region is marked by a distinct “hungriness” for success, especially in Eastern Europe.

In the CEE region, people want to succeed. They have a strong technological talent and less of a bullshit approach. That’s why I like investing in CEE.

While Western Europe emphasizes work-life balance and value-driven approaches, CEE professionals are known for their relentless drive, often putting in 14-hour workdays. This determination makes investing in CEE appealing to Vojta, as it comes with more genuine effort. Vojta also noted a missing regional point: the ability to sell the startup and communicate its value effectively. However, he observed this is gradually improving, aided by platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which encourage creative minds to improve their presentation skills. These tools are helpful for founders who need to learn how to pitch and market their ideas more efficiently.

We are bombarded daily with new influencers, and you watch their progress for some time, only to realize that nobody is born perfect. You see how lame and cringy some people are in the beginning, but they stick to what they do, creating content every day until eventually they get better at it. That is inspiring because it makes you realize that you have to start small and lame to get better and successful.

Vojta also pointed out significant challenges European startups face, particularly in the bureaucratic aspect. He highlighted the need for an initiative to reduce bureaucracy, noting that there is currently no designated effort to push back against these regulatory demands.

“There is no real standardization. You can never be sure of everything. I would like to measure how much time entrepreneurs spend with bureaucracy in general and why nobody responsible for changing these laws has some KPIs in place to reduce that time.”

Vojta also expressed his support for the new EU initiative to incorporate startups more effectively, but at the same time, it reminds us that there are countries with problems around mindset and positioning.

“In CEE, the more successful you get, the more lonely you are, especially if you work hard. You are perceived as someone who is often overdoing it – ‘You should be working less...You should take a break and come to the pub...You should act normally, like the rest of us, etc. Also, there are still some countries where if you say you are an entrepreneur, it carries a stigma. To some people, it still sounds like you are stealing money from the state or from other people...That mindset has to change.”

Founder mistakes and misconceptions

Common founder mistakes often begin with overconfidence and resistance to feedback. Vojta observed that some founders, particularly those who experienced initial success or possess strong technical skills, can fall into the trap of believing they know best. This mindset can impact your company's growth, as you may dismiss valuable insights from investors, mentors, or even customers.

“Usually, founders don’t listen to us for the first 12 to 18 months after raising a round. They have money and feel like they hold all the power. This is why we are trying to invest in founders who are responsive to feedback, to whom we can speak regularly and help them drive things.”

Another significant challenge is the struggle with delegation and scaling. Many founders, especially those in the early stages, are used to handling everything and find it difficult to trust others with important tasks.

"We avoid investing in people who think they know everything best, who believe they’re always right, and who find others to blame rather than taking a look at themselves. It’s either customers don’t get it, or investors are idiots, or employees are not working fast enough – it's always someone else's fault. It’s difficult to work with people who can’t delegate and who can’t internalize their own wrongdoings.”

The reluctance to delegate can result in burnout and hinder the company’s ability to scale efficiently. According to Vojta, successful founders must learn to pass on responsibilities and build a team that can support the company’s growth.

Another common mistake founders make is assuming their product will sell itself, which rarely happens. Founders are expected to own the sales efforts, especially in the early stages, and if not run the meetings, at least attend them to gain insights.

“Even the smartest salesperson in the world cannot realistically portray why sales are not going as planned because there is a lot of ‘meat’ and feedback in those sales meetings. They don’t hear it properly, or they don’t want to talk about it because they want to present themselves and their position as the best solution for the startup or product they’re helping to sell. This is why I think founders have to attend sales meetings and listen to what’s happening.”

Another mistake Vojta pointed out is that founders often struggle with hiring and delegation, especially when faced with sales challenges. Their instinct is to focus on product development—something they are comfortable with and can control—rather than engaging in additional sales efforts or training new hires.

“When things go south, founders' instinct is to build a better product because that’s what they understand, and that’s what they can do. So, they would rather build new features than go to another sales meeting. A similar thing happens when hiring. Founders would rather do everything themselves, even if they spend a lot of time doing it. They work hard and push things forward rather than hire and onboard someone else.”

Building a repository of real and useful resources for founders

In his investment activity, Vojta realized that many startup challenges are repetitive, leading him to compile useful resources and articles into a centralized Notion database for founders. He believes existing startup guides are often too broad or overly simplified, so he aimed to create a digestible and targeted repository.

This Notion page helps founders find relevant information quickly and encourages them to reason from first principles. He uses it as a filter—if founders return with questions after consulting it, he knows they have significant issues worth discussing. We hope you’ll find it useful, especially if you plan to approach Vojta or Presto Ventures to discuss a fundraising deal. :)

Connect with Vojta

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Presto Ventures

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