How did your journey to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CTU begin?
I went to a grammar school in Beroun, where I was already working on the school’s website and I was really interested in IT. I was looking for a university where I could keep developing this interest, but at that time, there weren’t many options. There was only the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University (CUNI MFF) and the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE). CUNI MFF was too theoretical for me, and VŠE was too business-oriented.
I read in a newspaper that FEE CTU was launching a new programme called Software Technologies and Management (STM, the predecessor of today’s Software Engineering and Technologies programme). It felt like the perfect middle ground – more practical studies that stayed close to technology. So I enrolled in the very first year of STM.
What are your memories of studying at FEE CTU?
I have very fond memories of my time at FEE CTU. I made a lot of friends there, many of whom I still see regularly. I think university is also very much about the connections you make; many people I met at FEE CTU now work at companies like Google or have started their own businesses, which is also valuable professionally.
Did you have a favorite teacher?
Definitely Associate Professor Zdeněk Míkovec, who supervised both my bachelor’s and master’s theses. We got along very well on a personal level. I always tried to make sure that what I worked on wasn’t just something to be tucked away in a drawer, it needed to have real-world value. Assoc. Prof. Míkovec supported me in that, so I kept working on Settle Up across multiple courses, and eventually, it became the topic of my master’s thesis.
It’s said that Settle Up was inspired by your own experience – when you and your friends went on a ski trip, everyone paid for different things, and it became confusing and awkward. Later, you developed the app as a semester project at FEE CTU. Was that ski trip the moment you decided to solve this problem with an app, or did it just inspire you later when you were choosing a topic for your coursework?
It actually came together nicely. I went on the ski trip right after being told to come up with a topic for my semester project. So while we were struggling with shared expenses on the trip, I was also struggling with finding a project idea. (laughs) I combined the two, and during the semester, I created the algorithm that became the foundation of Settle Up.
Do you remember which course it was for?
Yes, it was for Combinatorial Optimization; that’s where I developed the algorithm that calculates debts between users. Later, I expanded the project in other courses from different perspectives, like user interface design. I gradually worked on different parts of the app across several semesters, and for my thesis, I brought everything together including the business side. It’s not enough to just build an app and publish it; you also have to know how to handle users, translations, marketing, and other operational matters.
Did you release the app only after graduation, or already while studying?
Already during my studies – actually quite early. About a month in, I had the very first version ready, and I kept improving it. By the time I wrote my thesis, I already had data from real users.
Was there anything that surprised you during the app’s development, whether early on or later while maintaining and improving it?
Plenty of things, it’s been a long journey. (laughs) But one moment really stood out, about seven years ago. For a long time, Settle Up was just a side project, but then we decided to go all in. However, the app had become outdated and needed a complete rewrite – new design, new backend, everything. We spent over a year rebuilding it from scratch. When we finally released the big update, we received a lot of negative feedback.
Users were used to how things were, and suddenly we changed everything overnight – the design, the backend, the monetization, even the name. In the Czech Republic, it used to be called Dlužníček, but now it’s Settle Up worldwide.
That was a tough moment but we learned that big changes should be introduced gradually, not all at once. We could have changed the name six months earlier instead of doing it alongside everything else. We could have updated the backend while keeping the old design for a while. If we had rolled the updates out step by step, it would’ve gone smoothly. But because we changed everything at once, it was a “big bang” of sorts and it went badly. Still, through patient communication and bug fixing, we managed to turn things around.
Did you ever feel like giving up?
Yes, especially during that period I just mentioned. We thought we might have gone too far. We also had some larger competitors, which was discouraging and made us wonder if we could compete with them at all. But in the end, we pulled through.
How did you overcome those moments?
At first, I worked on the app completely alone, which was difficult. It’s easy to start doubting yourself when you’re on your own. Later, I managed to build a small team, which helped immensely. We’re all friends and support each other. In the beginning, I could move fast since I didn’t have to discuss things with anyone, but in the long term, that’s not sustainable. It’s much better to build something together with friends.
Do you have any other projects or apps you’re proud of?
One of the recent apps I worked on was My Škoda, a really nice app for Škoda Auto. It’s now their main app for car owners. Previously, Škoda had its features scattered across multiple apps, and they wanted to consolidate everything into one central hub, so this project was very important for them.
As developers, we were given a lot of freedom in technology choices, and Škoda wanted to ensure top quality. The code was really well written. As a fun fact, we had 90% unit test coverage, which I had never experienced before. It’s rare to see unit tests used so extensively.
I really enjoyed this app’s development, the project was technically very engaging. Several companies collaborated on it, and I worked as the app’s architect. Coordinating different teams and coding approaches was a great learning experience.
What are you working on now?
For over a year now, I’ve been fully dedicated to Settle Up again because we saw a great opportunity to increase our market share. Our main competitor, Splitwise, which has always been bigger than us, recently restricted its free features and started pushing users to pay. That upset a lot of people, and many of them are switching to our app. So we’re working hard to catch up and even surpass them.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
My biggest hobby is LARP – Live Action Role Play. It’s basically acting out roles in real life within a group, but without an audience. It partly originated from Dungeons & Dragons, but has evolved quite a bit. It’s all about experiencing emotions and living through different roles, often in historical settings. Once, for example, we played Czech legionnaires in Siberia, marching through the snow, and another time, we were medieval knights in a castle. Besides LARP, where I also meet lots of friends, I enjoy playing video games; Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of my favorites.
Do you have a favourite programming language?
For a long time, I wrote in Java, but I’ve since switched to Kotlin. For Android development, there’s really no other choice nowadays. But I like Kotlin not just for Android, I’ve used it on the server and for scripting, too. So yes, Kotlin is currently my favourite programming language.
What do you enjoy most about working as a software engineer?
I often switch roles. At Škoda, I was more of a manager and architect, I had to attend many meetings and the job was more about soft skills. Now, in our small five-person team, everyone has to do a bit of everything, and I’ve returned to coding, which I love.
Overall, I don’t want to stagnate; I enjoy trying new things. I used to focus more on backend development, working with data, but now I’m playing with UX animations and experimenting more. Frontend development moves fast, and code becomes obsolete quickly. And of course, there’s artificial intelligence, which I’ve also been exploring lately.
Some people claim that developers will be among the first to be replaced by AI. What’s your view?
The first to be replaced will be those who refuse to use AI in their job. It’s just another tool we need to learn to use. It’s like back in the day – if you couldn’t “Google,” you had a problem and had to learn. But AI isn’t a miracle cure that replaces us; it’s simply a tool to work with.
What advice would you give current students at FEE CTU?
Don’t be afraid to start and put even a small project into production. Don’t keep it hidden in a drawer. The easiest way is to start small. There’s no point trying to build the next Facebook. Instead, take one of your hobbies—say you’re into model airplanes—then build an app for airplane modelers. You probably know others in the same hobby; test it with them, publish it, and see where it goes.
Photos by Petr Neugebauer, FEE CTU
