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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCzech e-commerce has grown up and I saw it in the screwdrivers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not nostalgia. It is good news. Companies have grown to the point where they outsource the booth build. The owner has no reason to be there the day before, because that is what people are for. He shows up in the morning, when the doors open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except the people who show up in the morning are exactly the ones I wanted to ask something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I prepared one single question and spent the whole day carrying it around the Industrial Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which one contact changed your business?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked it of eight people who count for something in Czech e-commerce. Owners, CEOs, people from the leadership. I expected them to agree at least a little. They did not. The answers split into two camps, and one of them hit me so hard I did not know what to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is what I found out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One: it comes from somewhere you are not looking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jakub from Leadhub told me how one Friday afternoon he got a text from someone he did not know. We are looking for a salesperson, heard you left somewhere. He took it as a completely random message. They met, they talked, and today he works there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo that genuinely changed my life.\u201d Dominik from Grizly put it more broadly and landed on exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the end the best business comes from someone you would never have expected it from. It pays to be open and to take an interest in what people actually do.\u201d This came up with almost all of them. Nobody named a person they had picked out and deliberately gone after. It was always a coincidence, and it only happened because that person showed up somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two: it did not work out quickly for anyone<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the part I should probably stick on my monitor, because it runs against everything that gets written about networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dominik from Grizly met his future investor eight years ago. Then they spent a year and a half talking about whether to do it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was really about building the relationship, about having the same values and the same intent, not just the money up front.\u201d Milo\u0161 from DPD reached back even further. His answer was twenty years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I met my original boss, who had emigrated from Czechoslovakia back in the day. He gave me a few pieces of advice on how to move around the business world, and I am still grateful for that.\u201d Neither of them talked about a contact from last week. They talked about something that started years ago and paid off much later. Which is a little uncomfortable, because it means you will see the result of tonight somewhere around two years from now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three: it is not a sales channel, it is insurance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Petr from Boost.Space named this one for me, and it shifted how I think about what we actually do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe moment I am dealing with a problem, I have people around me who have already dealt with it and can give me some inspiration on where to go next. And the other way round, when I have a problem, I have enough people around me I can help.\u201d Most people go to networking events wanting to sell someone something. Then they are surprised it does not work. Because it is not selling. It is insurance you pay for up front and claim the moment something goes wrong. And something always goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then someone told me it all comes down to money<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All day people had been telling me how important relationships are. Then I lay down on a sun lounger next to Dan from Buzzoons and asked him when was the last time someone helped him and wanted nothing in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is pretty hard, because I am a fairly transactional person. Damn, I have to be honest about myself here. So it all comes down to money.\u201d I asked him who it had not been about money with, at first glance. He said nobody. Then he added that his parents help him in business, but they want something too. Not money, but driving out to see the grandmothers and taking care of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could have left that out, because it does not fit a nice article about networking. Except it is the most honest answer I got that day, and I think more people have it in their heads that way than are willing to admit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of them answered: none<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Honza Tlap\u00e1k from Ecomail was the only one of the eight who said he has no such encounter. And then immediately added that, well, there was this one meeting in a pub where they said they should start some kind of email tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that meeting is Ecomail today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says about himself that he is not a conference person. And when I asked him what brought him here today, he answered that he lives nearby and it is on his way home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Jakub Honz\u00e1k, Leadhub<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Dominik P\u00edchal, CEO & Founder Grizly<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Dominik P\u00edchal, CEO & Founder Grizly<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Milo\u0161 Malan\u00edk, CEO DPD CZ<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/andrekohout.cz\/pisu-si\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/reshoper-foto-4-ve-stredni-velikosti.jpg\")
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Petr Gy\u00fcre, Demand Generation Manager Boost.Space<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Daniel Rykr, CEO & Founder Buzzoons<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n