Jiri’s Journal #3

Hi friend,

Public journal #3 is finally here with my 2025 life updates. Writing this from Mallorca while listening to this song and drinking great coffee at Mistral. I've been here two weeks on a one-way ticket. No plans, no agenda. After exiting my company, I invited friends to come here and spend a week together. Then last Sunday, after they left, my fiancée and our kitten Jimmy arrived. Now? Just working remotely, playing padel, and figuring out what's next.

The last 12 months have been absolutely wild.

Back in fall last year, I got engaged in SF with the love of my life. Then in March, I exited VOS.health to Spring Health for millions of dollars. Spring is a US mental health unicorn, pretty crazy journey getting there. Now I'm working there on building an AI-led mental health care platform. For me personally, it's my first time ever being employed. Interesting and insane how different it is from startup and entrepreneurial life.

Also, this year I did something that's only possible with AI. Nobody knows this yet. I built and scaled an AI B2C app and sold it 4 months later for nearly 7 figures ($) to a Spanish app publisher. Full story coming in a future email. Today's fast-moving AI world feels like a golden time for building software.

Next thing that happened this year... I got obsessed with padel.

Like really obsessed. Moved from casual games to actual tournaments. And because I can't do anything halfway, I founded a community called "Founders Racket Club" (you can join). We did our first tournament in NYC this fall (over 30 app founders participated. Thank you RevenueCat for sponsoring this tournament), then the next tournament happened in San Francisco. And Prague is next later this month (last 4 spots left). The whole idea is just getting founders together. If you play padel or tennis, come join us. Would be great to see you on the court.

Here's what fills my days now:

My daily job is building an AI mental health platform at Spring Health. It's been a great learning experience.

In my free time, I'm building something new. It's an AI-first SW company, currently in stealth mode. I'll share more when the time is right.

I'm mentoring three ambitious SaaS startups. I'm really enjoying helping other founders and apps grow.

I started angel investing into ambitious startups, with small tickets and very hands-on support in the early days. If you know someone building something great, I'd be happy for an intro. I'm particularly interested in investing in SaaS/Consumer subscription businesses.

I started my first IRL community, Founders Racket Club, and organized the first tournament. It's making me excited to keep hosting these events, my goal is to do at least one tournament every month for now.

Bara and I are planning our wedding in Italy next year, can't wait!

and much, much more…

Some other stuff you might find useful or interesting. Just random things from my everyday life that come to mind right now...

For app builders - check out the 2025 In-App Subscription Report by RevenueCat and also this from Adapty. Really good data in there.

Been vibecoding a lot with Cursor AI and Lovable lately. Try them if you haven't. The AI growth this year is insane. Send me what you're building with them! (for example I always struggle choosing the right meal when I'm in a new restaurant, so last time while waiting for food, I vibecoded this tiny fun app to solve it.)

When you're thinking about what to get for Christmas this year, I fell in love with this cool website where you'll find everything you need.

Library of great software recommendations here.

Some people asked me about my padel equipment, so my current racket is this one, and I play in these all-time favorite shoes.

We started using this platform for sourcing UGC creators to market our B2C apps, and the first results are great. Check it out.

I'm thinking of doing a Padel + Coworking retreat in Spring 26 for 10 founders (DM me if you're interested in joining).

This year I did my first private equity investment via a multifamily office. If you're interested to learn more about this topic, let me know in DM and I'll do a dedicated email about this area if there's enough interest.

I'm still bullish on crypto - especially SOL and ETH.

Last few weeks I've been addicted to this new Netflix series called "House of Guinness" (similar vibe to my favorite Peaky Blinders) and also "Billionaires' Bunker"

I went to a mobile app conference in NYC last month. Some good insights, video recording included here.

One last thing. I'm also building something for consumer subscription apps. Launching soon. If you want early access, hit reply and tell me what you're working on.

The AI wave is here. The tools are insane.

The timing is perfect.

It's time to build.

Jiri