”It's not all party, good times, celebrations, and then ringing the bell at NASDAQ. It's not all that. Most of it is a bit of misery and sadness and impostor syndrome and doubts”, tells us Ondrej Bartos, our first guest for the Work in Progress podcast.

Ondrej Bartos is the co-founder and general partner of Czech venture capital firm Credo Ventures, one of the largest VCs active in Central and Eastern Europe.

A former entrepreneur turned investor, Ondrej entered his first successful business venture when he was still in college, in the late 90s.

Several companies later with activities in event management, consulting and IT, Ondrej realized that entrepreneurship isn't his game, so he turned consultant and angel investor. 

He is currently managing the early stage venture capital firm Credo Ventures, which he co-founded in 2010. Credo has built a portfolio of over 60 companies in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia, Slovenia, and has a track record of exiting more than a dozen companies through an IPO or sale to companies such as Oracle, Cisco, or Miro.

Ondrej and his team at Credo Ventures also supported two unicorns emerging from the region, RPA leader from Romania, UiPath, and global customer-centric product management platform from the Czech Republic, Productboard.

Ondrej was our guest for the premiere episode of the Work in Progress podcast and we talked in depth with his about his shift in career that led him to confounding on the most appreciated venture capital firms in Europe, how his experience as an entrepreneur helps him relate to the founders, as an investor, his process when evaluating startups and the fear of missing out among investors.