Futured: The Experts in Mobile Apps

We talked to Lukáš Strnadel of Futured about the mobile application, and he had the following to say:-

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Lukáš Strnadel: I believe that we’re doing just fine. We’re all healthy and trying to keep our positive mindset. It was quite frustrating in spring where the first wave struck the Czech Republic and Europe, but I believe that everything is going back to normal soon.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Futured.

Lukáš Strnadel: I started working on IT in my 16’s when I was working as a freelance designer—designing small websites for local companies. When I was 18 and could become a legal entrepreneur, I worked for big clients, still in the safety of my parents’ house. Therefore it was quite easy to start a company in my 20s because I had quite a successful career ahead of me at that age. 

So I started my own company, named it The Funtasty and now, our name changed to Futured, we’re a team of 45 great people and making the best mobile application you can think of! 

How does Futured innovate? 

Lukáš Strnadel: We’re trying not to stand in one place for a long time. Continually playing with new technologies, new hardware, 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Lukáš Strnadel: It was quite scary in spring. By one day (the day of my 30th birthday), the government shut down the economy and closed basically everything in the Czech republic. That day 95 % of incoming communication shut down. Our clients needed to design their plans and scenarios, no blame there and did not have time to think about applications and stuff like that. They were thinking about their future, about what’s ahead. The situation calmed down in a month, two or so. And after that, we all figured out that the apocalypse is not going to happen, ATMs will not come back, and zombies are still in lock-down in Egypt. And at the end of the day, many more companies were thinking about innovation and digitalization because if one is running, let’s say museum, he/she needs a plan B if visitors can not come. So now we’ve had a lot of inquiries from companies from fields we’ve never thought of before. I firmly believe that IT will be the “winner “after the end of this.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Lukáš Strnadel: Act quick. Be prepared. And if you are not, prepare your plan for a crisis ASAP. Communicate with the team, be honest and calming. And, of course – financial planning is supercritical for such an event.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Lukáš Strnadel: Take pills. It seems to be a joke, but it is not. But for real – anxiety has been a big topic of my life. I started to have it when I started the company and got my first big client; things were failing, the client did not pay, I had to pay my colleagues, and therefore – all went black. I spent three months at home, in bed, unable to eat real food, only liquid ones (mind you, I am a big foodie, so this was maybe the worst). So one of my big topics in public space is to scream that mental health is really important, that the business owners or executives are humans too, and there is no same about mental issues, anxiety, and stuff like that. Now I am trying to separate my working time and personal life; I’ve started to have challenging hobbies (I’ve started to scuba dive although I am terrified of dying, and also I’ve started beekeeping), turned off all my notifications, I do not have a computer in my house, etc.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Lukáš Strnadel: Basically, creative software companies. Not huge IT sourcing companies. We’re trying to stay super focused by doing only mobile apps (the native one), and this is something that many of our competitors are not doing. Many mobile developers in Czech are also doing web development etc. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but on the other side I really believe in specialization, so this is not going to be our way.

Your final thoughts?

I believe I said enough. 

Your website? 

www.futured.app