| MAIN FEATURE >
Cyber-teens turn business prodigies
Written by: Monika Mudranincová
Photo by: Vojtěch Vlk
How young is "too young" when
it comes to running a business? IT students and other technically
savvy teens are turning their love for computers and the internet
into profit-making ventures, and becoming entrepreneurs before they're
old enough to drive.
|
Jan Rambousek (17): Meet Mr.
Pixel
This native of Plzeň, who fought his way to
the finals of the Peugeot global designers' competition
with his design of a car for the future, became addicted
to the computer world at age 12. Star Wars started
his career.
THAT WELL-KNOWN sci-fi adventure film of the late
'70s was the initial inspiration for Honza Rambousek,
alias Mr. Pixel. He was interested in how the special
effects were created, so when he was 12 he plunged
into 3D graphics. The amateur soon became a professional,
and today he makes his living (with some assistance
from his parents) from graphics and web design. Although
he's only in his second year of electrical technology
vocational school, he works seven hours a day and up
to fifteen hours on weekend days. "It's ideal
that I can work from home. All I need is a computer
and the internet," he says with delight. His monthly
income ranges from CZK 10 to 30 thousand depending
on how many jobs he has running. He's 17, and doesn't
have a business license yet, so he's paid either in
kind (he recently got a camera for his work) or through
work contracts.
He sees his career milestone in his decision to create his own web site
and present his services on the internet. Clients found him, and his
job orders grew rapidly. For example, he worked on a project for Nike
and Česká spořitelna, and his most marked success to date was his design
for the Peugeot of the future. It's the first time in the competition's
three-year history that two Czechs made the finals (the other is 19-year-old
Michal Vlček, a student at the Zlín Institute of Applied Arts). Rambousek,
who designed a computer-controlled ATV called Tery, succeeded in the
competition, which had nearly 4,000 entrants. The inventiveness and audacity
of youth certainly helped. But he sees his youth as more of a handicap. "Some
clients don't pay a young guy as well as they do an older professional," he
complains. "But fortunately I'm getting older, so this is slowly
changing," says the young designer. "In the future, I want
graphic design to be only my hobby. After six years I've already had
enough of it," Rambousek laughs. While he hopes to graduate in two
years and then study abroad, for now he isn't thinking about what will
come next.
Monika Mudranincová
|
|
THEY ARE UNUSUAL, yet ordinary. Guys who play sports, listen to
hip-hop, go to pubs, chase girls. Nevertheless, they have experience
that many don't get until they're thirty. "I've lived the
American dream, but I paid for it - an initial lack of faith from
my parents, envy all around, and a total collapse of partnership
relationships. That was much worse than the obstacles I had to
overcome in business," says Lukáš Codr (25), a ČVUT (Czech
Institute of Technology) student and computer games designer who
appears regularly on Czech Television as co-creator and host of
GamePage, a computer games program.
Codr is typically representative of the teenagers who were born
in the eighties. These are young people who didn't live through
the rigidity of the planned socialist economy, but were hurled
into a capitalist arena where only the most capable survive. This
is a challenge, and an opportunity for them to show what they're
made of. While still in school, many achieved what their counterparts
in the former generation never dreamed of. But it isn't just youth
that sets today's teens apart from their elder competitors, it's
also their business field of choice. They're making ventures into
areas that reflect their generation - modern, dynamic, sexy. "We're
witnessing a clear tendency to abandon traditional manual production
and switch to business in the field of information technology and
services," says Vendula Mráčková, the executive director of
the Junior Achievement organization, which Tomáš Baťa founded to
teach business to children.
Today's young people use computers on a daily basis, surf the internet
like it was second nature, and create websites, graphic design,
or marketing presentations just as they would complete a class
assignment. Computers are their preferred tools for both entertainment
and generating income. The flexible world of information technology
attracts new entrepreneurs, because they're typically in high school
or college, which leaves them with no time and little money. "So
they're mostly drawn to fields that don't require fixed work schedules
or large start-up investments," explains Ondřej Bartoš, executive
director of the Tuesday Business Network association and a member
of the international Entrepreneur of the Year competition panel. "Quite
logically, they dive into business in IT, communications, and especially
the internet," he adds.
What is the maturing, potential future Czech Bill Gates like? He
spends his days in school, which frustrates him, as he'd rather
spend his time on the internet. After school he heads home, turns
on his computer, and handles missed calls from clients. Late at
night (sometimes near dawn) he falls, exhausted, into bed. In the
meantime, his parents wag their fingers at him, warning that if
he neglects his studies his future will suffer. Not surprisingly,
parents play a large role for a beginning entrepreneur like this.
For one thing, he generally has his company headquarters in their
apartment. He saves on office rent and can work in the most leisurely
environment possible. "I prefer doing more creative work in
the bathtub," Codr explains. "In a time of water-proof
notebooks, amplified hands-free, and Wi-Fi connections, it's no
problem to manage five people from the tub." he laughs.
Youth versus experience
Thanks to his youth, an aspiring Czech Bill Gates is generally
creative and is willing to take chances and break down ingrained
stereotypes. "But a disadvantage of youth is that young people
can slip up on their dreams due to insufficient foresight," Bartoš
warns, pointing out that a lack of communication skills may put
a young entrepreneur at a disadvantage against more experienced
competitors. Mráčková agrees - she sees assertiveness and competitiveness
as the keys in business. She says young people must not only create
their products or services, they must also sell them successfully.
But most schools don't teach such skills, and furthermore, young
people with no business background or contacts don't have sufficient
credibility with clients. Youth itself often becomes an impediment
in personal contacts as well.
"
Being young is seen as an obstacle. I've often arrived for a meeting
and people were taken aback by my age," says Jiří Peterka
(17), who founded the Business For Youth (B4Y) platform, an association
of young IT entrepreneurs under 21 years old. Jan Bárta, the founder
of B3net, comments, "I decided to let my beard grow, so I'd
look older. Now, fortunately, I have a bald spot, too," he
jokes. Jan Rambousek (17), a high-schooler and graphic designer,
describes his personal "handicap" that comes with his
age. "Some clients thought I'd be satisfied with a lower fee
because I'm so young. But I do the work just as well as older experts," he
insists. Many teenagers face similar problems, and that's why they
like doing business over the internet - no one sees them when they're
communicating electronically, so the client needn't know how old
his business partner is.
In spite of these and other differences, there isn't necessarily
an antagonistic division between young and older entrepreneurs.
Those with more experience can lend a helping hand with capital
for new start-ups. This is similar to what investment company Benson
Oak does under the leadership of Gabriel Eichler. He thinks the
level of Czech and Slovak programmers is very high and deserving
of investment. Benson Oak supports Grisoft, an antivirus company
that competes locally with foreign firms. "It's important
to support young people in IT, because they have new ideas and
new solutions for problems. And it's important to the country that
they not go abroad," Eichler explains. "But for now their
creations aren't financed, so they have no backing." One way
to resolve this situation, according to Eichler, would be for the
state to create suitable conditions and infrastructure for such
companies, thus attracting investors. He also advocates the closest
possible ties between firms and technical schools.
Business versus books
Diligent students with eyes on the entrepreneurial prize may choose
to run a business while attending school. "It's like having
two jobs," Peterka says. Codr has a similar arrangement. "I
work about twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and I only take
one weekend a month off to clear my head," he explains. But
Codr doesn't talk much about his extracurricular activities when
he's at school. His ČVUT professor, Gustav Tomek, the chief economist
in the electrical technology department, didn't know about Codr's
work until he saw him by chance on television, speaking about computer
games. He wasn't surprised. "About 80% of the students in
our department are involved in business. I'm not against it, but
I don't like it when they neglect attendance because of their work."
Setting limits and priorities is necessary to handle the potential
overload of working and studying at the same time. In that respect,
most of those we spoke with are responsible about their education,
as well as with their money. Instead of wowing their classmates
with expensive cars or fancy electronics, they prefer to invest
in their future. They're aware that falling behind in such a rapidly
developing field doesn't pay, and that starting an IT firm requires
enormous investments in equipment and technology. So they plow
the money they make back into their businesses. Zdeněk Cendra (19),
whose firm, SuperNetwork, has monthly revenues of over a million
crowns, says "It never occurred to me to set aside, say, thirty
thousand. We put almost everything we earn back into the company." Hearing
this strategy, many managers and directors twice Cendra's age would
certainly smile, and nod wisely. performance now."
|
Jan Řežáb (18): In the right
place at the right time
Redboss, which develops and sells mobile games,
has monthly sales in the millions of crowns and employs
several dozen people. All of them are older than their
director, eighteen-year-old student Jan Řežáb.
A PERFECTLY tailored suit, the demeanor of an experienced
businessman, well arranged priorities, and the enthusiasm
of youth. This is the impression Jan Řežáb makes when you
meet him. He owns one of the largest mobile games vendors
on the Czech market, but his route to success wasn't linear. "At
first my parents were skeptical of my activities and shooed
me away from the computer," says Honza, recalling his
start in business with a smile. He fell under the spell of
computers - computer games in particular - at age nine. He
wanted to learn to create some games himself, but got sidetracked
by his interest in mobile phones. At first he distributed
free image SMS messages to mobile phones through his server.
Gradually he built up contacts with similarly focused enthusiasts. "I
had friends from the internet, and we exchanged various services.
It was a closed world to which our parents had no access,
and I enjoyed it," Honza recalls. In 2000 he and a friend
created an internet portal for mobile entertainment and mobile
phone games - www.redboss.cz. Customers paid for games using
SMS messages, and in December 2002 the firm posted CZK 150,000
in sales.
Today redboss has 25 full-time and 60 external employees,
monthly sales of about CZK 1 million, and a new office in
Slovenia. It is developing several products, including 3D
JAVA games and various action strategies that it sells through
mobile operators. "We want to become one of Europe's
largest firms in this field," says Řežáb with conviction,
adding that he'd like to at least earn his engineering degree,
because society still judges people more by the titles on
their business cards than by their accomplishments. This
third-year student at a private gymnazium in Plzeň sums up
his success in a few words: "I was just in the right
place at the right time."
Monika Mudranincová |
|
Jan Bárta (19): A trade in two cities
He founded and ran a successful
firm, B3net, which he sold at a profit last year. Then
he graduated from high school and went to study in London.
Now he's planning another business.
"WHEN I WAS in high school I worked from 3 to 9 at
night, I slept on Saturdays, and on Sundays I was back at
work," says Bárta, who started in business at age 15. "I
knew a good team is the basis for success, so I got three
partners together who had real e-business experience and
we founded B3net." Jan, a minor, owned 50% of the limited-liability
company through his mother, and the other partners owned
the rest. In 2001 they started as an internet advertising
agency that represented several websites for advertising
sales. But competition in on-line advertising was becoming
stronger, so Bárta switched to mobile marketing. "We
bought the nabit.cz service, which allowed logos to be sent
to mobile phones over the internet," he explains, adding
that B3net acquired many interesting customers like Škoda
Auto, Toyota, Unilever, and Tipsport, soon becoming one of
the most sought-out mobile marketing firms. "We made
good money, but it was important to me to see the company
grow, so we reinvested everything in development. CZK 15,000
a month sufficed for financing my life as a student," he
recalls.
Last summer disagreements arose concerning the company's
further direction. This resulted in Bárta and one partner
leaving after splitting off part of B3net's assets (the nabit.cz
brand, the business.nabit.cz technological platform, and
some clients), which they sold to ATS Praha, the largest
mobile content firm in the Czech Republic. With a clean reputation
and a good profit, Bárta is making new plans. "I'm working
on a project that deals with distributing mobile content
to mobile phones in an entirely unique way." As he is
now in his first year of studying economics at University
College in London, he's planning on establishing a joint-stock
company with a subsidiary in England.
Monika Mudranincová |
|
Naďa Rysková (21): One-way ticket
to success
Starting a company isn't easy; doing so when studying
for your high school examinations is even more challenging.
But this is what Nad'a Rysková successfully achieved when
she set up Net Travel, a Prague-based online travel agency.
FOUNDED IN 2003, the firm is one of the top three internet
travel companies in the Czech Republic, with a staff of 23.
Rysková founded the company with her boyfriend and fellow
director Richard Cvach (30) when she was 19, although she
had already thought about setting up her own company at the
age of 15. "I worked at a travel agency, on a student
job, which inspired me to set up Net Travel. I had the feeling
that in my firm I could do things far better," she says.
Rysková also had a clear vision of her future. "I imagined
that at 20 I would have my own business, where I would work
in a managerial position," she explains.
As a director, she is achieving this goal. "I constantly
bring enthusiasm and optimism to the company," declares
Rysková, but despite the dynamism and energy of youth, being
a young entrepreneur can have its problems. "Because
of my age, it wasn't an easy task to command authority and
respect in employees," she says. Perhaps most difficult
of all was the balance of study and setting up the firm. "I
left study to a minimum and devoted myself to setting up
the firm. A year later I successfully passed the leaving
exam and continued at Net Travel," recalls the entrepreneur.
Shortly after the company was founded the other two of the
four directors, Petr Staněk (27) and Jan Staněk (29), who
were friends of Rysková and Cvach, joined Net Travel. They
brought their internet and management skills to the company,
which in turn has been beneficial to Rysková. "Working
with the partners gives me the chance to develop my knowledge
and experience," she says. Rysková has her later career
mapped out, and she is thinking about investments in the
years to come. "Then I would like to devote myself to
a family and children," she concludes.
David Creighton |
|
Zdeněk Cendra (19): Setting his own
train in motion
This teenaged entrepreneur, who
runs a firm with six employees from an apartment in Vinohrady,
completed his formal education with high school. "In
the real world, no one asks if you were the valedictorian,
it's more a matter of your abilities," Zdeněk says.
It seems that he's clear about where his priorities lie.
He wasn't even 15 when he started with projects on the
internet. He enjoyed distributing SMS information messages
to mobile
phones, but his allowance from his parents didn't cover his
financial needs, so he started a business that didn't require
a large initial investment - webhosting. He started out alone
in his parents' apartment in Liberec. They initially saw
his business enthusiasm as a brief aberration, but when they
saw that he was going to sleep at 2 am and getting up at
6 am, they started trying to dissuade him. "They were
afraid I'd neglect my studies," recalls Cendra, adding
that his daily attendance at an electrical technology vocational
school slowed down. "It was a pretty critical problem," he
laughs. He no longer has such problems: he graduated from
school, rented office space in Prague, and went into business
big time.
SuperNetwork, of which he's the sole owner, offers webhosting
under the name SuperHosting.cz to several thousand customers,
including Oskar, Toplist.cz, Kasa.cz, Tyden.cz, and many
others. The firm, which last December posted turnover of
more than CZK 1 million, employs guys Zdeněk's age. "We
have a flexible approach to customers, and we work when it's
necessary," Cendra says. On the other hand, he admits
that it's not all so idyllic. One problem, somewhat determined
by his age, is internal management. "I never studied
it, and I have no experience with managing people. I always
worked alone, but suddenly I have six people here, and I
have to deal with it," he explains. When asked if skipping
college meant giving up a bit of his youth, Cendra says, "I
don't mind. I'm doing what I enjoy. I don't want to jump
off a moving train."
Monika Mudranincová |
|
Marek Antoš (25): A knack for
writing and IT
At age 14 he started writing software
reviews, at 16 he published a book on the internet and worked
full time as an editor, at 18 he gave his notice and went
into business to have time for studies at three colleges.
The story of Marek Antoš (25) shows that age plays little
role in IT fields.
"
Today there are more young entrepreneurs than there were
when I started," Antoš observes. "But is it easier
or harder for them today? I think it's about the same - you
have to have a good idea and the desire to realize it, you
have to be persistent, and you also need a little luck," he
adds with a smile. He could be describing the story of his
business. In elementary school he started writing for PC
World magazine. At the same time - around 1994 - he first
encountered the internet, a new phenomenon that so captivated
him, he wrote a book about it. Thanks to this he wasn't unknown
when he went into business, which helped him in negotiations
with his first business partners.
In February 1998 he and his friend, Petr Tesařík, founded
Internet Info, and in April they launched the Lupa.cz website.
The basis of its content was evaluations of the quality
of internet service providers (ISPs), supplemented by daily
articles on Czech Internet happenings. The firm's revenues
came from the sales novelty of the day - banner advertisements
- and sales of ISP evaluation results. In less than a year
in 1998 they took in CZK 300,000, and a year later they
made
a million, as they added ISP market studies, which were
of great interest at the height of "net fever", to
their portfolio. Until 2000 they operated as a "bedroom
firm", both working from their homes. Then they decided
on the next step - renting an office and hiring employees.
They also added to their activities. "We had Lupa, which
was well established, but we knew that our business would
be more stable with more media," says Antoš, explaining
why they set up Měšec.cz, a financial website that is today
the largest of its type.
And the firm grew: the number of sites managed by Internet
Info is now ten, it has 20 employees, and 2004 sales amounted
to CZK 15 million. Today the content websites are supplemented
by two on-line shops and by the firm's most rapidly growing
activity - the "Dobrý web" project, which provides
consulting for website operators.
Petr Vykoukal |
|
