INOGILE / Starbug is expanding into the Czech Republic

From a business perspective, if a company has been operating steadily on the Slovak market for a long time, it’s completely natural that the first country for expansion would be the Czech Republic. It was no different in our case. Personally, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, and it took almost two decades before we decided to take this step this year.

We have provided many software solutions outside of Slovakia, but the primary market has always remained Slovakia.

For me, being in direct contact with customers is an essential part of the work. Anyone who has collaborated with us knows that I’ve long been opposed to purely online calls and trying to find solutions over the phone or a web browser. If you want to deliver high-quality, tailor-made software solutions to a customer, you need to be with that customer in person.

This is also one of the reasons why the Czech Republic is our first target market. It’s easy to meet in person and even plan meetings in the morning, because the geographic distance between cities is relatively small.

Another perspective on expanding into another country is cultural closeness, mutual trust between the states, and personal relationships. Here, without a doubt, there’s no question—it simply works.

Starbug, as a Slovak company, will continue to operate from its current premises. INOGILE is a separate company that, while having absorbed extensive knowledge from the IT sector, is an independent legal and organisational entity. I see the name change as an opportunity to differentiate ourselves and also as a fresh impulse for building the brand, just as Starbug successfully did in Slovakia.

And a side note… we wanted a *.com domain, which Starbug was not willing to sell :)

Just like in previous years, we had a company event again this year, where we regularly meet but also share the company’s financial results, the projects we have completed, and our plans for the new year, including how our programming work has progressed.

This year, however, it was different. The final part of the presentation had a different style than our usual Starbug presentations, and at the end, the INOGILE logo appeared. While the fact that we plan to expand into other markets might have been expected, the way it was revealed all at once at the company event and under a new identity was definitely a surprise. Our team had been diligently preparing the branch opening for more than six months, keeping it within a small group of people.

Managing the legal matters, rebranding, establishing the headquarters in Prague, and the sheer amount of preparation for contracts, marketing, and all the necessary details was extremely demanding. We wanted to keep it as a little surprise, to show that we are doing well, that we want to move forward, and at the same time not distract our team during their programming work.

Was it a pleasant surprise?

Definitely yes.

I would like to thank the entire Starbug team and everyone who worked on this important milestone. We are excited to bring over 20 years of IT know-how to a market that is geographically and culturally closest to us.

From INOGILE’s perspective, I believe that Starbug will remain our partner, even though it is now officially a separate brand and legal entity operating in Slovakia.