There are not many companies in Central Europe that have the potential to be unicorns. However, American David Miller has already decided to start several projects from Slovakia.
What are the advantages of building a business in Slovakia, and how have you translated your experiences from successful companies like Exponea and Minit into the startup Purple Path, which focuses on marketing of software companies?
I started in a junior copywriting position, and they needed someone who spoke English. After two years, I moved up, but one of the unique things I learned was how to make decisions, test, learn, and make mistakes. Mistakes were part of the job and even a plus. The pace at which we worked suited me well. The same was true at Minit. When I finished at Exponea, I sold my shares in Elite Language Services because I was tired. I was the CEO of a school with 42 employees while also working full-time at Exponea (acquired by Bloomreach). However, after two days of being ‘off’, I realized I missed working on something.
Your break after that was only two days?
I’m not the type of person who sits at home in front of the TV with a bag of chips. I got an offer to be Head of Content for Minit (acquired by Microsoft), but I told them it wouldn’t be full-time because I didn’t want to work for anyone full-time anymore. I started by doing a complete content audit and eventually told them to forget our original agreement; I was going all in. When I finally left Minit, I knew which direction I wanted to take. I wanted to transfer my knowledge of content marketing to other B2B software companies. We developed a concept and found that it was worth bootstrapping from our own resources.
Outwardly, it seems like a wide range of companies you've worked for; you also had a language school and an agency, Red Basket. What parallels exist among them?
Elite Language Services was a language school for employees of companies, so we were also B2B focused. I transferred all my skills into Red Basket and added the B2B SaaS sector.
But you said you didn’t want to work full-time, yet you created several companies.
It’s definitely ironic. I didn’t want to work for anyone, so now I work for everyone. That’s what entrepreneurship is about, especially when you work in the B2B segment. You’re not selling candy in a store; your customers are companies, and you have to meet their demands. So while you may not want to work for anyone, you end up working for everyone. On the other hand, I’m much happier than if I were employed full-time by someone else.
What are the advantages of building and scaling businesses in Slovakia compared to the USA?
In Central Europe, there aren’t as many companies and startups with the potential to become unicorns. There are many smaller startups that carry the risk of failure. But that risk is significant anywhere in the world. The success rate for exits when building a SaaS business is low anyway. There have been a few in Slovakia, but it’s still a relatively new market, and we have learned a lot in a short time. When we look at Silicon Valley, it took them decades upon decades. We have a community here, which is fundamental; however, venture capital funds behave differently than in other parts of the world. They still want to take a relatively large slice of the company early on.
Is our lack of competition here an advantage compared to markets like the USA?
It’s easier to grow here locally but harder to scale globally. If you’re a company from New York, it’s easier for you to break through in your home market with over 340 million people. From Slovakia, you naturally go to the Czech Republic, Hungary, or Poland. But then what? Companies from the UK aren’t interested in your largest customers being major brands in Slovakia. However, some companies have managed to overcome this challenge.
How has Slovak culture influenced you as an entrepreneur?
I’ve worked with leaders from around the world, but you can recognize a good leader anywhere. A good leader knows when to push and when to guide people. We also have examples in Slovakia of individuals with truly unique qualities who know how to leverage them to build great things.
For example?
Definitely Peter Iríkovský from Exponea. He knew how to manage a company of over 150 people so that we were all excited about what we were doing. This type of leadership is rare; it was similar at Minit.
You mentioned founders from companies you've worked with, and now you co-founded Purple Path with some former colleagues while creating a nationally diverse team—was that intentional?
It’s natural. We’ve known each other for years and trust each other. Our CEO Andy Culligan was originally VP of Marketing at Exponea; Markus Reutner, who oversees digital efforts also worked there. They have successful careers in the B2B sector behind them. Another co-founder I met through projects we worked on together. Yes, we are nationally diverse but share the same professional DNA. Part of our values is “get shit done” and do it right. So if you share this mindset with your co-founders, it makes sense.
Do we have enough similar talent in Slovakia for building startups?
That’s a tough question. I'm not sure how many new startups are born here each year, but I definitely feel there’s competition for talent. However, it's possible to attract talent from all over the world, which is important. There will always be challenges here; if Google wanted to attract the best talent, they had to introduce sometimes crazy benefits, not just unlimited vacation days. Additionally, if you want to attract top talent, you can’t pay them €1,500 per month.
I'm not sure how many new startups are born here each year, but I definitely feel there’s competition for talent.
Let’s get back to your current business that we've touched on briefly: what does Purple Path focus on? It originated from your B2B software business foundations…
At first, we locked ourselves in an office in Vienna and tried to figure out how to scale a business globally from Central Europe. We found that companies, and our then-potential customers, were busy. I'm not saying what they are busy with isn’t important; they just aren’t doing what they should be doing to achieve their KPIs. Our “aha moment” consisted of parts: First, we wanted to create go-to-market strategies for companies but not as an agency.
We ingrain ourselves in their company, with a seat in leadership because we need to dive deep into their entire business—into all the tools they use and the people they have on their team—to see what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes we need to redefine their ideal customer profile, if it has been incorrectly created or hasn’t been updated for a long time. We look at the markets they currently operate in and where they want to go next. It’s not about stopping by once a week as consultants offering advice before leaving again.
That sounds like a lot of work; how many are there in your company?
We’ve built an extensive network of marketers—that’s probably one of our biggest advantages. One thing we expect of every marketer who works with us is whether they share the same type of DNA; they can’t be seen merely as consultants or agency people because we aren’t, and can’t be, perceived that way.
How long does it take you to identify problems within companies?
We have an introductory meeting where we mainly get introduced as new employees by the company; however, we can ask tougher questions because we're there not only as management but also from planning and execution perspectives. This means our leader, Andy, spends considerable time with company leadership at this point while other attributes are set up simultaneously.
How do you identify clients who need your services?
We have specific criteria because we’ve developed our ideal customer profile as well; primarily focusing on B2B SaaS companies that generally achieve annual revenues between €20 million and €50 million. Also Series A stage or slightly before or after this round seem ideal for us when getting involved.
Why did you do this?
We believe in the need for the product; the co-founders identified and saw enormous potential because nothing similar exists on the market, which is one of our main criteria. The second factor is securing funding; early-stage companies often struggle with this issue; there are likely marketers who can help them grow further but we usually focus on companies that have already found market fi and their challenge might be how to enter or expand into markets, like America.
What is the difference between you and traditional marketing firms?
Traditional marketing firms tend to be much larger but aren’t as agile, they charge premium prices yet have longer execution times; getting into a company and understanding its status quo can take months. Then starting or implementing plans they proposed can take additional months, so we're talking about loads of time and resources being wasted during this period. They also focus more on traditional consulting.
How long does it take you?
We can do it tomorrow and that's our biggest asset.
You’re a diverse team from different countries doing business from Bratislava but registered in Ireland—what's behind that?
Currently, we see greater value in Ireland and more generally in the UK. It’s advantageous for us to have our company registered there. Just like other Slovak firms wanting business in America will give themselves a physical address in New York, we do something similar but often find ourselves in Dublin where we also have clients.
Are you building your company as a scale-up or do you also have external investors?
We prefer bootstrapping businesses. Last week I attended an event with venture capitalists, some of the largest on the European continent and they asked me if we had investors. I said no, we're bootstrappers, which made me laugh because it must sound quite vulgar to them. We invested our own capital totaling €700k, with our goal being over €1 million in revenue next year based on how our current pipeline looks.
In our startup community there remains an opinion that Slovaks are great programmers but struggle with sales—how do you view this from an American perspective?
Before becoming a marketer, I worked in sales, so I'm drawing on my sales experience as well. Andy our CEO has similar experiences. I think that's why we communicate so well. I'm not sure if Slovaks are born salespeople but that's okay. Some things can be learned but either it's part of your personality or it's not, honestly speaking. Quite good salespeople have now emerged from Slovakia.
How does Purple Path identify what is the biggest challenge for a company?
There’s no universal fix. It involves hard work. We have to dive deep, become fully integrated and transparent, participate in leadership meetings, conduct analyses, look for gaps and weaknesses within the team, what they're doing well and what they're not. There are many blind spots and we have to closely collaborate, creating clearly aligned teams serving as their go-to-market team, there's no separate sales team or marketing team. They all have to run together.
What trends will come to this area?
Working with external fractional marketing specialists, such as us, will be a trend because they are not consultants. The consultant will come, give advice and leave, passing you the responsibility of executing the plan. In my opinion, fractional marketers are a trend due to the post-COVID period, when many great CMOs lost their jobs. Many have said something similar to me. They don't want to work for one brand anymore. They’ve had enough because they could lose their job tomorrow due to external factors beyond their own control.
I look more at what teams need to be efficient and create quality output.
The second biggest trend, of course, is AI. I am a content person and it is good to know the many tools that are offered to us to use. But it's not just that you can create videos, images... I look more at what teams need to be efficient and do quality things. Basically, you're transforming your six-man team into an efficient AI-based team that looks like you have 12 people.
You have already launched many companies, business ideas, some of them work at the same time. So what does the future hold for you? Do you already have a new project?
Of course, we are already thinking about it as co-founders of Purple Path. There are potentially two more companies that could grow out of the business, but we can't get distracted by that right now. We are very good listeners of the market and I think there will be a lot of copycats competing with us over the next year.
Simona Gulisová is the editor of Forbes magazine, where she covers topics related to startups, technology companies, and venture capital investment. Additionally, she is the creator of the podcast Forbes 30 Under 30. Previously, she worked at Hospodárske noviny. She studied journalism at Comenius University and mass media communication at Pan-European University. You can reach her at simona.gulisova@forbes.sk.
