Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Right company, wrong place: why I moved my startup from Prague to Amsterdam

Right company, wrong place: why I moved my startup from Prague to Amsterdam

This Prague-founded startup didn't find the funding or the momentum it wanted until it moved HQ to Amsterdam. They've never looked back.

Most founders will agree that timing can be everything when it comes to business success. What fewer people talk about is how crucial location can be. Not every business idea is born in the right market. And while you can’t win if your business isn’t born at the right time (I’m looking at you, pre-Google search engines), you can control where you are based.

In April 2013, I accepted Richard Valtr’s offer to join his startup, Mews. We were building a cloud-based property management system to run hotel operations, booking, payments and guest management, and given my decade of experience at various hotels, I thought we had something special on our hands. But for three years, we couldn’t pick up momentum, and it began to grate on the team. We couldn’t raise the money to grow, and we couldn’t grow enough to widen our pool of potential investors.

And so, five years ago, we moved Mews from Prague to Amsterdam — and haven’t looked back. We were just in the wrong location to make our company a success.

Here are my takeaways from moving Mews to the Netherlands, and some food for thought for founders who think they might have the right company in the wrong place.

Our culture clashed with local investors


In 2013, we began the process of raising seed funding for Mews. After three years, we had a couple of term sheets from Czech VCs. However, at that point in time, the Czech market wasn’t ready for the cloud and the level of automation we were working on. Western Europe has long been ahead of Central and Eastern Europe on this front — an issue that leaves many promising startups in the lurch.

Czech VCs were looking for B2C startups that could reach hypergrowth quickly, as opposed to B2B investments such as Mews. Our key focus at the time was to continue building the product. The terms we were offered weren’t agreeable, particularly on minority protection rights.

Most of our customers were based in Prague, but our plan was always to build a global company


The Netherlands has been a far better fit in terms of investors. The country is a haven for cloud and payments companies, so investors know the landscape well and aren’t so laser-focused on revenue in early-stage companies. As the market is quite developed, Dutch VCs are more confident in valuing potential in complex technology.

Our customers called us home


At this point in Mews’ journey, we had around 40 customers and £30k-40k monthly revenue. Most of our customers were based in Prague, but our plan was always to build a global company.

About a third of our customers were located in the Netherlands, and they were our most supportive. As a customer-centric business, it made sense for us to be close to a community that “got” the product and wanted to help us make it even better.

It’s time to lower the barrier to startup success


Moving a startup across borders is painful. It was necessary for us to sell our own intellectual property to our new entity in Amsterdam — but after that, our most important big-budget expense was our lawyers. Attempting to draft your own agreements will waste more time and money than it saves (I’ve tried) — but a legal professional with expertise in tech and intellectual property will make a move easier.

The Western European startup ecosystem should do more to support early-stage tech businesses in underrepresented regions.

The longer you wait to move to a new country, the more complex and costly it becomes


Social media has no borders — and for founders who are considering moving abroad, it’s a great place to test the waters. I’ve been active on LinkedIn throughout my career, and found that it pays to play the long game. By the time Mews actually landed in Amsterdam, I’d made local connections who helped us hit the ground running, pointing us towards potential customers and employees in the Netherlands.

Always look ahead


The longer you wait to move to a new country, the more complex and costly it becomes. With just a few employees and an early iteration of our product, we had little to lose.

Now we’re on to the next stage: talent-first, location-second. That means being a fully distributed company that hires talent anywhere in the world. This year, we committed to becoming a fully distributed, global company. And while location is becoming less important the more we scale, it was key to get it right in our earliest days. I’d challenge more early-stage founders to ask themselves the question too: am I the right company in the wrong place?

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
×