On having patience while building a career in VC with Ondrej Bartos, GP at Credo Ventures.

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On having patience while building a career in VC with Ondrej Bartos, GP at Credo Ventures.

Building a career in VC is not easy, but we are here to guide you. Tune in for insightful stories and lessons learned from the early investors of UiPath.

Patricia Borlovan

Feb 20, 2024

Transcript

Join us for a new episode of the NEUVC series dedicated to those embarking on their journey in the VC. In this episode, Freddie Macpherson, Associate at Isomer Capital, and Linda Võeras, Investment Manager at Karma Ventures, are joined by Ondrej Bartos, General Partner at Credo Ventures.

Ondrej is the Founding GP at Credo Ventures, a €75M Seed stage venture fund in Prague (and a bit elsewhere!) to back Central Eastern European Tech Startups.

Credo is investing out of Fund IV with a total €250M AUM and an established portfolio of 60 companies and notable investments, including UI Path, ProductBoard, PriceFX, Resistant AI, and Eleven Labs.

Watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧

Scroll on ⏬ For the chapters & core learnings 🧠

This episode is brought to you in partnership with — Zero One Hundred.

A unique and curated setting for private equity and venture capital LPs and GPs to unite. The 10th edition gathers leading investors looking at the DACH region.

Check it out

Chapters:

00:02:00 - Focus on Early Stage Investments
00:04:10 - Spotting Patterns in Venture Capital
00:06:17 - The Beginning of Venture Investing in the Region
00:08:39 - The Growth of Tech Talent in the Region
00:11:00 - The Growth and Progress of the CE Region
00:12:59 - Building Relationships through Networking
00:15:08 - Finding Great Deals in the Startup World
00:17:25 - Learning from Investments and Founders
00:19:49 - Evaluating the Right Investment
00:21:50 - The Risk of Investing in Startups
00:24:13 - The Role of Luck in Success
00:28:26 - The Importance of Founder in Startup Investment
00:30:45 - The Importance of Respect and Honesty in Relationships
00:35:16 - Listening and adding value in boardrooms
00:37:38 - The Role of a Board Member
00:39:53 - Skills for Success in Venture Capital
00:41:53 - The Importance of People in Venture Capital

Q: What skills have been crucial for your day-to-day activity?

Ability to prioritize.
VC people work very autonomously, independently.
Every day is different, and you have to be able to prioritize tasks, things, actions.
And don’t forget to stay positive.
VC can be a hard job with ups and downs, companies going bankrupt, and things not working out. Unless you stay positive, you might not have the best mental health. It’s not a job for everyone.

Q: Advice on what you would do if you were starting again today?

People matter more than markets and products.
People told me this when I was starting out, and it’s not that I didn’t listen. But, the deep acknoledgment came with experience, and I feel like it always does.
Second, wait for it. It’s gonna take a lot longer than you think.There will be times where you’'ll want to quit because it’s taking too long. You haven’t seen the NASDAQ IPO. You haven’t seen the unicorn.
You need to build patience.

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Fund Modelling Workshop & Mixer | 11th of March | 🌍 London, UK | Join waitlist.

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Hear firsthand from a true giant upon whose shoulders the European tech ecosystem stands tall.

Investing & scaling in Romania and beyond | March 18th, 12-1 PM | Register here.
Speakers: Bogdan Iordache, Founding Partner at Underline | Karolina Mrozkova, General Partner at Credo Ventures | Dan Mihăescu, Founding Partner GapMinder | Jakob Stein Investor at Creandum | Enis Hulli, Founding Partner at 500 Emerging Europe | Marius Istrate, ex-UI Path CPO & Chairman at TechAngels