From the first website to the house in Klenovec.
First websites
He grows up in Brno. At thirteen he starts his first web project. At fourteen he sells his own SMS gateway and buys his first laptop with the money. Then he builds websites to order, and more and more design. He writes himself that he was not yet nineteen and orders were coming to him from all over the world. Lupa.cz, 11. 7. 2012 krm.sk, About us
Arounded: a car from a neighbour
In his final school year he starts the startup Arounded. Through it people borrow cars from each other, much like flats through Airbnb. The idea comes in mid-2011 from his colleague Pavel Smílek. They begin developing in December. Martin is the founder; he is at Arounded from January 2012 to May 2014. CzechCrunch, 31. 12. 2023 E15.cz, 29. 8. 2012 his own CV, 2019
Seven people and the T‑Mobile Rozjezdy competition
In summer 2012 Arounded has seven people, around 400 users in Czechia and two rentals a week. Besides a small investment, Martin pays for it from his savings from web design. In the T‑Mobile Rozjezdy 2012 competition, Arounded is in 2nd place in the South Moravian Region, among the three that were awarded. T-Mobile, 17. 9. 2012
A talk and the end of the startup
In March 2013 a recording of his talk about Arounded comes out. In June the startup announces that it is joining the Prague firm abdoc. It builds websites and apps to order; its people later create the tool Avocode. The business was not a success, CzechCrunch writes about Arounded. At abdoc Martin is a designer and client director from July 2013 to May 2014. abdoc.net, 2014 archive his own CV, 2019 Buď FIT, 28. 6. 2016 CzechCrunch, 31. 12. 2023
His own studio, Ents
In spring 2014 he leaves abdoc and looks for a name for a new brand. He chooses Ents, after the Ents, the shepherds of trees, with the motto “Don’t be too hasty”. The company Greenwood Ents s.r.o. is founded on 8 September 2014. He designs websites and tests the designs on prototypes. Czech Commercial Register martinhalik.cz
Skypicker and a camp in Klenovec
Designers at Ents are designing Skypicker, a flight search engine, later Kiwi.com. Over the summer holidays Martin and his friends go to Klenovec to help with a children's camp. At first they wanted to go to Africa or Ukraine. Barcamp Brno 2016, abstract
He leads design at Kiwi.com
From January 2016 he works for Kiwi.com as a client, and in June he joins the company. There he is in turn a UX designer, a product designer, head of UX and head of design. At the start he builds the whole design team. The company grows from thirty people to two thousand. He gives talks about the work at Barcamp Brno and at Impact Hub Brno, and he writes about the tool Framer. David Tuč later takes over leading design. Martin goes on designing the homepage, by now mostly from a distance. In January 2019 he leaves Kiwi.com. martinhalik.cz krm.sk, About us CzechCrunch, 31. 12. 2023 his own CV, 2019
The house in Klenovec
With colleagues from the company he buys a house in Klenovec. Once every three months they are meant to meet there, work, and help people along the way. The colleagues gradually lose interest. Martin stays. krm.sk, About us
romamission.eu, Our story: “after buying the house, 2016”
A dead end at the end of the village
On his way to a craftsman he wants to take a shortcut. He turns into a dead end, straight into a Roma settlement. For several months he gathers his courage and prays. Then he takes a few balls and goes to the children.