Petr Šedivý has a rich career behind him, which includes a whole range of different fields. In recent years, he has been investing in the Venture Club, a group of now 280 private investors who invest their money and support medium-sized companies. “We live with our companies, our minimal help consists of mentoring. We have invested in roughly twenty projects from various fields,” says Šedivý in the Peak.cz podcast.
The link to the article and podcast is here (34 minutes). Our CEO Venture Club Invest was interviewed by Libor Akrman.
The private investor club Venture Club is devoted to a specific sector of investments. In terms of volume, the risks lie somewhere halfway between private equity and venture funds. In the next Peak.cz podcast, we talked about this world of investments with Petr Šedivý, the club’s executive and partner.
“If you put together more people who can put together more money and add knowledge from their fields, and at the same time it’s people you’re friends with – that’s why the social-investment club – then you actually know what to expect from whom. Everyone brings not only money, but also competence to the joint project,” says Šedivý.
At the same time, he himself went through a rather complicated path to the world of investments, as his original profession was to be a doctor. Circumstances forced him to find himself in the world of IT, where he used his medical knowledge to develop information systems for pharmaceutical companies. However, the advent of the cloud marked the end of the IT career and at the same time the transition to investing.
“From the beginning, we always said that we wanted to do things that we understood why they could work. That’s why we always buy shares in companies, we don’t replace a bank to lend to companies. We try to do projects that are primarily from the Czech Republic with the possibility of expansion abroad,” notes Šedivý, adding that since the club’s inception, its members have invested a total of over five hundred million crowns.
In the podcast, we further discuss the social side of the Venture Club, which is related to the investment side; how they choose companies for their investments; plans for the future or investments that have already taken place successfully within the Venture Club.