A year later, they decided to start selling the Vyfakturuj.cz system. “Martin originally programmed it for his own purposes, as no similar program suited him,” explains Edita Dostálová.
They started at home in their bedroom, where they had two tables and a padded door to keep out the baby’s noise. “We worked without weekends and I took care of the children while Martin and his friend from Brno programmed the new system,” Edita Dostálová remembers the company’s early days.
The first year of the joint venture was challenging. But the company gradually developed, the number of clients increased – and so did new employees. Later, the second product SimpleShop was created and the company subsequently got its current name. The original one was Webovky.cz and, according to Martin Dostál, it did not match the offer of the company creating the invoicing system and did not seem so trustworthy.
“The basic condition for the new name was a free Czech domain. At the same time, we liked the letters D and B next to each other, until finally Redbit was born. We like Červená and bit belongs to the IT environment,” said Martin Dostál.
We don’t want to be a giant corporation
Today, Redbit is profiled as a company with a family feel, where people collaborate and get together outside of work. The Dostálovs are surrounded by a team of young people, and the company plans to develop further. “When selecting a new employee, we do not only look at his professional qualities, but also at the fact that he fits into our team. That’s why during recruitment we give both sides time to think, if one or the other side doesn’t feel it,” Edita Dostálová described.
The Dostáls divided the powers. While Martin is the head of the development department, Edita takes care of marketing and customer care. “We want to grow to a maximum of thirty people so that everyone knows each other. Our dream is definitely not a corporation with five hundred employees,” they agree.
On the contrary, their dream is to organize educational events similar to Barcamp Kolín in 2018 and 2019. They would also like to create a technical center where people could meet, share knowledge and experience. “We want to develop new products and services that will correspond to modern trends and the needs of our customers,” added Edita Dostálová.
The story of Redbit on the timeline from the perspective of Edita Dostálova:
2012 – Martin publishes a simple invoicing program Vyfaktuj.cz and gives it to people for free
2016 – after an era when he managed websites and e-shops, he decided to persuade a friend from Brno and together they immediately
02/01/2016 is embarking on a redesign of the entire system in order to launch it into the world in April. Of the people who had been there for years for free, 43 switched to the paid part (I still remember the first customer).
2016/06 – marketer Dan Nytra asks us if Martin could add a sales form for selling online products to the invoicing
2016/09 – Together with marketer Dan, Martin launches the second SimpleShop project
And so we suddenly had 2 startups that didn’t earn anything at all (CZK 5,000 per month), but we had a lot of fun and believed in it.
2017 – a friend from Brno is moving to Australia, but we have added 2 helpers = there are 4 of us and we are moving to the first small office in CEROP. The Webovky.cz company is changing its name to Redbit (we don’t actually make webovys).
2018 – 2 more people are added = there are already 6 of us
We are organizing our first Barcamp Kolín
On weekends, we tour many events and process tickets with our system – the third SimpleTicket project is being created.
2019 – 7 people, the second year of Barcamp Kolín
2020 – 8 people, covid, we take turns in the offices, every 1 person, 1 office, 1 day, the rest is at home. We are closing check-in and SimpleTicket. We had started the third year of Barcamp Kolín and we canceled it.
2021 – 8 people, after several bad experiences with recruitment, we have confirmed that we want to carefully select people for the team. We ditched the recruitment and put in 3 days for a trial before we hire a person.
2022 – 13 people
2023 – 15 people, we are moving to new offices in Kutnohorská street, we are starting to prepare a new project around the sale of content, membership and subscription and to connect it with our already existing products
2024 – now 17 people
In addition to them, we also have about 12 external advisors and consultants with whom we collaborate and consult on professional matters.
In the future, we want to go to a maximum of 30 people so that we can get to know each other well and go out to events and joint Redbitchats together. That’s why we want to be more efficient and do more meaningful things for people.
Mr. and Mrs. Dostál introduce themselves:
We have 2 wonderful daughters. In our free time, we plan various trips or like to play computer games. We like to go around various conferences or participate in backpacking expeditions. Our passion is the organization of survival courses for campers.
Edit: I am from Liberec and originally a teacher in the 2nd grade – Czech language, history. I graduated from the business academy, then the pedagogical faculty at the Technical University in Liberec. I loved teaching – especially working with growing teenagers and my history. Originally, I fought tooth and nail to work with Martin, I just enjoyed learning. Once Martin needed help to start a project and I threw myself into the online waves with gusto. After 8 years of learning, 3 schools in Liberec, Pilsen and here in Planany, I left the school as a teacher for good. From the beginning, I only focused on marketing, corporate finance and customer support. Gradually, I started to enjoy building a team, planning strategies more and more, and in 2019 I took over the company from Martin.
Martin: I graduated from the Kutnohorsk Industrial College and then the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Pilsen. I have been programming since I was 14 years old. I started with simple websites and gradually moved to designing more complex web systems. My goal was to make work more efficient and faster and to eliminate the daily unpleasant routine for entrepreneurs. I work at Redbit as the founder, owner and lead developer. When I’m not working, I go to Czech forests with a group of friends or travel abroad without a specific destination.
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