SG Bratislava: Three Months of Slovakia's Top Founders

If you joined us on the 25th of August, you had a chance to catch the kick off to the Startup Grind series in Bratislava at the private residence of the British ambassador with Rasto Kulich, country manager of Google Slovakia. Even with a refreshing sprinkle of rain, the event drew over 140 passionate founders and community members. We couldn't be happier. Our second event, also summarized here, introduced Zdenko Hoschek, founder of Slovakia's largest discount portal, for an honest journey through failures and successes that brought him to the founding of ZlavaDna.sk.

The biggest is yet to come: join Startup Grind Bratislava on October 28th at Impact Hub Bratislava for an evening with Michal Stencl, founder & CEO of Sygic. Sygic is the world´s most downloaded offline navigation service and one of Slovakia's most successful companies. Get your ticket while they last!

SG Bratislava: August with Rasto Kulich of Google Slovakia

The event opened with a welcome speech from Andrew Garth, British Ambassador, joined by a special live video feed from the Startup Grind founder, Derek Andersen, to welcome Bratislava to the Startup Grind family. After learning of the Startup Grind values and global reach, many people said this call made their night.

We immediately got to the main event: our interview with Rasto Kulich, moderated by Marek Zamecnik, SG Bratislava Director. We learned of Rasto's origin story, his education at Harvard, his curious journey to Google, his love of Slovak folklore and its startup community - and some advice to keep growing. Catch the full interview below.


The night was still far from over. The interview was followed by a panel discussion on the digital future of Slovakia moderated by Marian Gazdik, Startup Grind London Director. Rasto was joined on stage by Ivan Stefunko, managing partner at Neulogy Ventures, for the topic.

SG Bratislava: September with Zdenko Hoschek of ZlavaDna.sk

Feeling the energy and support of the community, we used the momentum of the first event to host our second Startup Grind event just days ago, on the 23rd of September, at KPMG, with Zdenko Hoschek, co-owner of ZlavaDna.sk – the largest and the best-known discount portal in the whole of Slovakia. In Slovakia, almost everybody knows ZlavaDna.sk (and Creative Web´s other portfolio companies), but Zdenko isn't a truly public figure, making his Startup Grind appearance become one of his first spotlight moments.


Zdenko didn't hold back as he was interviewed by RubixLab cofounder Martin Joakim Flood Hauge. Zdenko's charisma was matched by his honesty, giving viewers a full perspective of both his successes and his disasters. 

Zdenko's journey started with a great job that paid very well - at the cost of his happiness. After many years of personal problems and professional failures, he went on a spiritual journey of self improvement for himself and his family, coming out happier and more driven. He stressed that you cannot do work you don't love, even with pay and fame. You simply have to dedicate yourself to things you truly love and which are expressive of your being. Add to this hard work, wisdom, and luck - and you may, just may, have a successful business. Of course, you should still take the shot.

That's Zdenko's biggest message: choose a path you love, really do it, take that chance, bet on it and then work so hard for it. Your success story might be there waiting for you, but you have go down that risky entrepreneurial road and chase it.

We truly advice you to hear it all, so you can watch the whole interview from this amazing night here.