Introducing StartupYard Portfolio Manager Jaromir Beranek

We’re pleased to introduce Jaromir “Mirek” Beranek, the latest member of the StartupYard team.

Mirek joins us as a full time team member and Portfolio Manager. It will be his responsibility not only to keep track of and stay in contact with the startups we have accelerated in the past, but also to advise and consult with startups during and after our program on matters of finance, financial reporting, and investment planning. Mirek will also manage StartupYard’s own budgeting and contracts with incoming startups.

Jaromir studied International Management (CEMS) at the University of Economics and Law at Charles University in Prague, taking exchange semesters in Management at the University of Cologne and Law at NOVA Southeastern University in Ford Lauderdale. In 2011, he joined Telefónica’s Aspire Graduate Program and spend the following three years on different assignments in finance, strategy and marketing in Prague and Munich. Mirek is also a veteran of Wayra CEE, the Prague-based branch of a global accelerator network, where he took care of financial matters and portfolio valuation.

I caught up with him this week to talk about his new position with our team:

Hi Mirek, welcome to StartupYard! What makes you want to work with startups?

Let’s put the question differently: What makes you not to want to work with corporations? Then it would be much easier for me to answer: the corporations I have worked for are incredibly slow, most negotiations are very political, middle management often lacks both education and capabilities, no one outside the board has the authority to decide anything and many colleagues felt demotivated and transmitted their foul mood to others, including me.

I simply had to find a different place for self-realization where I could use what I had learned and make some impact. Luckily, the opportunity came at the right time and it was quite easy for me to get used to this Brave New World. First it was Wayra and now it is StartupYard. Of course, even startups can be slow, incapable and helpless at times. But in general, I feel that on this side of the fence I can see results quickly while having fun and doing the work my own way.

Can you tell us a bit about your background in the corporate world?

Being an alumnus of an international management program, I was almost pre-destined to be successfully lured by a corporation once done with the university. And I really liked it at first.

Having gained some internship experience from the time of my studies, I suddenly felt like I became a true member of the big world consisting of huge buildings with shiny glass façades. I wanted to work on interesting projects and be seen. But instead I found myself sitting behind a computer screen all the time and there was no one who would care.

Thus I started learning and learned quite a lot from finance, marketing and strategy. But the frustration began to snowball gradually. Once back from my foreign placement in Munich, I somehow resigned myself to it, and kept on going to work just to make money and make sure I have enough free time to do what I like most. All in all, it hasn’t been a very shiny experience, and now I know for sure that if I was to return to a corporation, I would have to design my own role first and have at least some executive power.

What made you want to become a member of the StartupYard team? What do you hope to accomplish here that will have a lasting impact?

Well, because you are all very nice guys in the first place, that’s an easy one! But seriously, people always make a huge impression and here I felt we would fit well together. Next, I wanted to follow up with my previous work for Wayra and give an afterlife to all those beautiful charts and models I have built. 🙂

Talking about my footprints, I want to make our financial reports at StartupYard more user friendly, both for us and the investors and then, hopefully, help create a solid and trusted alumni pool where investors could come and pick from them– sort of plug and play. Nice and neat.

And one more thing, I want to help build a strong community around StartupYard so we are heard and seen and more talented entrepreneurs join our acceleration program.

What do you think are important qualities for someone working in accounting, and financial control?

Clearly, to be a good financial controller you have to develop some kind of affection for numbers and tables. It’s definitely useful if you have strong computing skills and can visualize graphs and models you want to build. Analytical thinking is definitely an asset if you want to work with the results further and reflect them in your business.

When it comes to data collecting and work with excel, you have to be patient and thorough but at the same time be determined and know how to make the others give you all the information you need. If you work often with invoices and paperwork, it’s also quite important to be well organized and remember all due dates and deadlines.

You’ve been brought on as Portfolio Manager for StartupYard. How can StartupYard improve our support of alumni?

From my experience, whenever you leave an organization you have been a member of for some time, you tend to lose interest in a few years. Therefore, we need to communicate with our alumni more frequently, tell them about all important events but most importantly invite them for at least two community events every year and make sure they really come and talk to us.

However, this is only possible if you can offer something valuable. In our case, the key should be our contacts to investors and continued mentoring and business consulting. On the other hand, we shouldn’t promise what is impossible – there should be realistic expectations set from the beginning and a mutual relationship of trust. Eventually, I would like to make the StartupYard be seen as a “safe harbor”, a place where all alumni may come to for a piece of advice, sympathy and also a friendly kick if needed.

How do you envision your role with the incoming startups in 2016?

I could be talking about my big dreams and great ideas but the truth is that my role at StartupYard was defined quite clearly. Therefore I know that I will be responsible for a successful and timely negotiations and contracting in the first place.

In order to avoid the nightmare scenario of not having signed one or more contracts by the end of the acceleration period, I have to meet our new startup co-founders very early and build relationships with them. Then, hopefully, they will be also open to share their financials with me, which I need to work with not just to establish business value of the portfolio but also to help them set realistic goals and secure financing under fair terms.

To sum up, I would like to be a partner to them and make sure they make the most of their business.

On this topic, in your experience, what are some of the most common and problematic mistakes that startups make when it comes to their accounting and financial practices early on?

The biggest mistakes some of the startups make is that they completely give up on planning their revenues or only do a few “pro forma” tables.

I agree that it might be difficult to predict your business development if you have just started but it tells a lot about your level of competency and trustworthiness to potential investors. Also it helps to give the starting business some direction.

Another common mistake is that startups tend to rely heavily on first investment prospects based on initial meetings with potential investors or even only on declared interest. It’s important to realize that negotiations may last several months and if you aim too high, you may easily run out of cash and make a fool out of yourself. That was just to name a few common mistakes, but I could continue for hours and I don’t want to be evil! :laughs:

What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of finance and startups?

Most of all I love hiking in the mountains and outdoor sports. Usually, you would find me running, roller-skating, biking or skiing in the winter. Less than I used to but I still play drama with my friends in a student artistic group OLDstars. I also used to play music quite a lot before: clarinet, saxophone, guitar and a bit of singing. Over time, I started to prefer going to theaters and concerts as a visitor, having realized that I will never be as good myself.

Two years ago, I meet a group of very interesting and active people in Vacation School Lipnice, who organize one or two week experiential courses and workshops for groups of people across generations. There you learn by playing games, discover new things about yourself, fight your fears and make new friends. I would like myself to organize a course like that to promote political and journalistic engagement among high school and university students.

Last but not least, it’s also worth mentioning that my friends and I write a blog about Prague confectioneries www.cukrousi.cz.