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Tomas Laboutka

Entrepreneur - Business Builder - Leap by McKinsey

Tomas Laboutka is a prominent serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive with a successful track record of building and scaling ventures in Asia and Central Europe over the past decade.

He co-founded the highly successful venture HotelQuickly, an APAC-focused B2B/B2C mobile travel app, where he served as CEO for five years, raising $15M in funding and growing the company to over $100M in revenues with a global workforce of 120+ employees.

In 2017, Tomas successfully sold HotelQuickly to a Private Equity fund and later transitioned to join the innovative digital business-building practice 'Leap by McKinsey' as an Expert Associate Partner.

He leverages his 10+ years of entrepreneurial experience to accelerate product-market fit cycles, build impactful companies, and drive innovation in the region in his role at McKinsey.

Tomas is also a host of 'The Venture,' an insightful podcast from Leap by McKinsey, where he engages in authentic conversations with exceptional venture builders in Asia, sharing their entrepreneurial journey and insights.

Apart from his venture-building endeavors, Tomas has founded, led, and mentored various entrepreneurship and leadership communities globally, including SEA Founders aimed at supporting Series A-B CEOs in scaling their businesses.

An accomplished thought leader, Tomas has been recognized with accolades such as 'CEMS Alumni of the Year' in 2017 and 'Forbes 30 under 30'.

His educational background includes studying International Management at CEMS and Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, as well as holding degrees from The University of Edinburgh and University of Economics, Prague.

With an extensive professional history that includes leadership roles at notable organizations like McKinsey & Company, SEA Founders, and HotelQuickly, Tomas Laboutka continues to make significant contributions to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and business landscape.

Highlights

Nov 9 · linkedin

We built a leading B2B online platform, starting remotely, during the pandemic! I’m incredibly proud to have contributed to the McKinsey & Company & CP AXTRA PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED partnership to build Makro PRO and scale it across Thailand. With our business build, we’ve integrated a fragmented supply chain, and helped to address the challenges of the 350k+ restaurants, cafes, and hotels in the country to keep their business running.

In a remote-first set-up (and hybrid subsequently), we managed to: 🚀 Ship the first Makro PRO app within 3 months reaching a 4.75/5 app stores’ rating 🚀 Become the #1 app nationwide 🚀 Serve thousands of orders a day 🚀 Build a team of 200+ people, hiring, up & re-skilling them to support a digital business 🚀 Impact an entire organization of 20,000+ people at Makro …and so much more

Two years on, Makro PRO cemented the leadership role, going from strength to strength.

Top of mind 3 learnings from the business build:

💡Understanding your customers is second to none:  Everybody, including top management should spend time with your target customer segment, truly understanding their pain points, daily challenges and needs. Go out on the streets, “attach yourself to the hip” of your customers, look at their processes, their spending, their frustrations. This is invaluable in shaping winning value proposition - whether it’s product, assortment or your channels

💡You will only run as fast as your slowest team member:  Establish an agile culture throughout the organization, including non-obvious roles (finance, exec leadership etc). You really want to ensure everyone is laser focused on resolving the next big bottleneck for execution. Be disciplined in keeping the most important things, the most important things.

💡You are competing for the best talent globally:  Whether you see this as a great threat, or an opportunity, you are right in both cases. Creating a distinct employer value proposition will serve you well. Leaning on your unique mission, the advantages of your mothership, or the ways of solving the problem (whether it’s tech or the culture you are building) can help you stand out.

I’m thrilled to have grown as a leader and venture builder through this experience, alongside a team of dozens of fantastic McKinsey colleagues and Makro PRO team members.

The reason why I joined Leap by McKinsey in 2020 was to launch new digital businesses. Leveraging the unique advantages of McKinsey and our clients, building upon my 15+ years of CEO and entrepreneurial experience. My ambition was to reach product-market fit at a much faster rate, and build impactful companies that truly shape the region. Working on Makro PRO has fulfilled and exceeded that aspiration! 🚀

📖Check out our story about Makro PRO: https://mck.co/3snz44C  🎧...and listen to The Venture episode with Mac, the Head of Makro PRO where we talk about further challenges and lessons learned during building and scaling: https://mck.co/3DzsR7E

Apr 21 · linkedin

The latest episode of #TheVenture podcast with Thomas Gros, the CEO & Co-Founder of circulee just dropped! The rising start-up for pre-owned digital HW for SMEs is growing fast, and Tomas has shared with me an array of lessons across the spectrum:

  • How to launch a circular business model in a new market & segment
  • How the backing of a corporate investor with resources and a long-term vision has enabled go through the "fundraising winter" and stay focused
  • How strong purpose enabled him to attract the right talent
  • ...and the many challenges that are still be cracked along the start-up journey

Listen to the episode: Apple: https://lnkd.in/ge_2U9zu Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gPHA5WAW

The article is also transcribed on McKinsey & Company Website: https://lnkd.in/gtZz8jhF

#VenturePodcast #LeapbyMcKinsey #businessbuilding #startup #preownedIT #circulareconomy #sustainability #Innovation #podcast #interview #venturebuilding

Tomas Laboutka
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Location

Singapore