fnGlobal Keynote & Roundtables with Tomas Kratky (December 9, 2025)

Some founders build for IPOs. Others build for freedom. In this fireside chat, Tomas Kratky, founder and former CEO of Manta, shares how he intentionally designed his startup’s path toward a strategic acquisition rather than a public listing—culminating in Manta’s successful exit to IBM in 2023.

Tomas will unpack how a deliberate partnership strategy turned competitors into suitors, including how his team “grew on the back of” enterprise giants like Informatica, SAP, IBM, and Collibra by targeting their customers and exposing their weaknesses in the process.

He’ll also dive into the realities of selling as a small startup to Fortune 500 clients—how a handful of large enterprise contracts can both accelerate and endanger growth, and the hard lessons learned in balancing customer demands with long-term product vision.

Expect candid insights on go-to-market strategy, enterprise sales, and optimizing for a strategic exit from a founder who’s lived it.

Opening Remarks @ 9:30am PT

Join us for opening remarks with Dina Wagner, Head of Member Success at Founders Network, to get the latest updates from the Network and opportunities for getting involved.

Keynote Speaker @ 9:40am PT

Tomas Kratky is the founder and former CEO of Manta, a leading data lineage platform that helps enterprises gain transparency and trust in their data environments. Tomas led Manta from its roots as a consulting project in Prague to a global enterprise software company backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Credo Ventures, culminating in its acquisition by IBM in 2023.

Over more than a decade as a founder, Tomas has navigated the full entrepreneurial journey—from bootstrapping and raising venture capital to scaling internationally and achieving a successful strategic exit. Now based between Prague and San Francisco, he serves as an angel investor and mentor, helping founders master go-to-market strategy and enterprise expansion.

Stage-Based Roundtables @ 10:30am PT

Community Partners:

Jeff Erickson

Jeff leads the Partnerships Team at Forecastr — a leading FP&A software company that helps startups create kick-butt financial models to impress investors, confidently raise capital, and effectively run their businesses better.

Jeff serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies and is an active angel investor. He's passionate about startups and enjoys working with founders and mentoring entrepreneurs.

Jeff is an experienced entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of a successful consumer goods company that he rapidly grew from $1M in sales its first year to over $40M in annual revenue in its fourth year of operations and was ranked #138 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.

Prior to founding his own company, Jeff was a partner at Beanstalk Partners where he led the sales and business development activities. He also served as the National Sales Director for a venture-backed tech startup where he generated over $45M in client contracts and developed the company’s channel partner program.

Jeff has a degree in accounting and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah. After receiving his MBA in Finance from the University of Utah he served as the Vice President of Investments for Sentry Financial Corporation.

Blake Caldwell

Blake Caldwell is the CEO & Founder of FoundersBoost. He has 350 alumni, 100 new startups a year, 8k newsletter readers. He's driven by his passions to create and build community. He's also the founder of 2332 Collective (music production & festivals with the goal of bringing music to West LA) & The MoGuard (consumer product cup attachment protecting glorious mustaches).

FoundersBoost is a free pre-seed & seed stage mentorship driven pre-accelerator helping promising tech-startups with accelerators, investment, and revenue.

Guests Are Welcome!

Please bring a guest! Every member can bring one (1) guest to each event. Each guest must be a full-time tech startup founder so they can bring new perspectives, skillsets, and experience to your chapter.

All guests must be full-time tech startup founders and you can register them directly on this function page. See How to Register a Guest here.

Confidentiality Policy:

All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record. In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity.