I grew up in a teacher's family in the Czech Republic, creative, driven, oriented toward contribution. But like much of post-communist Central Europe, the culture was built around performance, achievement, and resilience. Emotions were weakness. Vulnerability was something you pushed past. You showed up, you delivered, you were strong.
That shaped my career. Over 12 years I moved across science, education, hospitality, NGO work, SaaS, and digital transformation, always driven by the same thread: systems, networks, communities, and how things connect. I was good at it. And I kept pushing.
By 2023, I was on the edge of burnout. Not from laziness, from the opposite.
The turning point
2024 became a sabbatical and a reconstruction. I stopped performing and started listening.
Part of that journey led me to volunteer at a retreat centre. It was the first time I experienced, up close, the extraordinary power these places hold, the transformation that happens when people are given the space, the guidance, and the community to slow down and go inward. I was moved by how profound the impact was. And struck by how few people even know places like this exist, let alone how to find them.
That question stayed with me. Yoga, mindfulness, somatic approaches, trauma-informed therapy, Eastern philosophy, indigenous wisdom traditions, these weren't hobbies. They became the tools through which I rebuilt my understanding of myself and the world.
I didn't find wellness. I was returned to it.
The moment the idea was born
Travelling through New Zealand, I kept wanting to find something, a yoga class, a sound healing session, a massage, a local therapist. Every time, it was the same experience: Google Maps shows you random results with no context, no trust signals, no community. You click through five platforms. You guess. You hope.
This should not be this hard. The experiences exist. The people offering them are extraordinary. The demand is clearly there. But the infrastructure to connect them, locally, warmly, with trust, simply doesn't exist.
That was the seed of Wellnest.
Why Lisbon
Lisbon chose me before I chose it. It's a city with a particular energy, close to the ocean, far from the performance treadmill of Northern Europe, attracting people who actively want to invest in themselves before they give to others.
My personal Lisbon story is also the product demo. Finding a good yoga studio was a battle, Google Maps, multiple platforms, trial and error, no reliable signal. I got lucky. A chance encounter led me to a teacher who led me, completely by accident, into a community that became my local family here.
That's what Wellnest should make possible for everyone, not through luck, but by design.
The vision
Wellnest is not a directory. It's not a booking tool. It's infrastructure for local belonging.
The most powerful moment in wellness isn't the class. It's the community you find around it, the people who share your values, your curiosity, your commitment to growth. Technology is brilliant at scaling that connection. But it has to start locally, with real density, real trust, and real human warmth.
I want every city to have its own Wellnest, a nest, so that anyone who arrives, whether for a week or a lifetime, can quickly find the practices, the spaces, and the people that make them feel whole and at home.
And longer term: wellness support is standard for sports performance. It should be standard for human wellbeing too, for individuals, for the hosts building communities and brands around their practice, and for employers who want to genuinely invest in their people.