It aims to represent the interests of the Czech startup ecosystem in dialogue with the government, Parliament and political parties. It will focus on the preparation of high-quality analyzes and specific proposals for legislative and systemic solutions to improve the Czech startup ecosystem and their subsequent negotiation with the political sphere. The association is led by Martin Jiránek, an experienced expert on legislation, politics and lobbying.
The first members of the Association are venture capital funds Credo Ventures, Presto Ventures and Purple Ventures, technology startups Keboola, Liftago and Oddin, as well as other key players in the startup community – Sparring and Novalia, legal offices focused on the technology sector, the JIC innovation agency, the StartupYard accelerator and business Opera hub. The Association is now negotiating with dozens of other partners.
Based on dozens of in-depth interviews with Czech startup founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, VC funds and experts on legal and tax systems, the Association has defined seven specific obstacles and challenges that it now wants to focus on changing.
7 main areas that need to be addressed:
- ESOP: A meaningful way to offer a stake in the company to everyone involved in its success
- HPP vs. Self-employed: an inflexible system unnecessarily ties the hands of startups
- Starting a business is administratively and tax-intensive
- The life cycle of companies is burdened by unnecessary and inflexible bureaucracy
- Pension funds cannot invest and investing lacks tax incentives
- The state does not allow easy access to and work with public data
- There is no economic strategy for the development of the startup ecosystem
There are many individual problems and possible measures for improvement and they concern several areas – taxes, labor law, capital markets, business start-up, incubation, technology transfer and others. In order for the changes to have the greatest possible benefit for entrepreneurs, investors, the ecosystem and the state, it is necessary to perceive and address them in a connected manner. The association will therefore lead a discussion across the entire sector and collect specific initiatives for negotiations with politicians and officials. The team will prepare analyses, policy papers and other proposed changes, which it will actively advocate, and last but not least, it will work to strengthen media and public communication of key topics.
The main goal of the Association for the coming months is to work together with partners on a comprehensive proposal for interlinked legislative and systemic measures to create one of the best startup ecosystems in Europe in the Czech Republic. The subsequent task will be to present and discuss these proposals with the political parties so that they can ideally be put into practice in the next election period.
The association plans to use sector synergies and cooperate with existing organizations such as the Czech Fintech Association, Czech Founders, the Czech Association of Angel Investors (CBAA) or the Czech Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (CVCA) – as well as with specific initiatives such as ESOPasap – in promoting common goals. In many cases, cooperation and dialogue is already underway.
“The Czech Republic still lags behind European countries in support of startups. We want to change that. The goal of the Association is to strengthen the startup sector in proposing and promoting key changes. We want to represent all startups, investors and other ecosystem players. We will be a relevant partner for politicians – an organization that will experience it, propose solutions and help with their implementation” says Martin Jiranek, The Chairman of the Association.
More information about the Czech Startup Association at www.startupczechia.cz
