We are founding creative and transformation studio Tempo

This week we sent out a press release announcing that we are founding a new studio, Tempo.

Its story began taking shape in the late summer of 2023. That year the two of us (Honza Jelínek and Honza Páv) had several big projects together behind us, and over the summer we both traveled a great deal.

Each of us on a different part of the planet, and in our heads the same thought — one we had discussed many times over the years, and one that kept us both up at night:

How to build a company that lets us keep our personal freedom (without becoming either a slave driver or a slave), develop our own identity and profile (without becoming our job title), and work alongside other professionals as one well-coordinated team (without ending up isolated as freelancers and taking our know-how to the grave).

From the very beginning it was clear that we couldn't build Tempo as a classic start-up — we had to start creating the conditions and space in which “it just happens.”

In the autumn we rented an entire floor on Klimentská Street in Prague, invited a few close collaborators, and began searching — for words, symbols, a culture, methods and models of working together. It was around that time that Bohunka Hihlánová also joined us and became another of the studio's key partners.

On real projects we learned what we can — and above all want to — do differently from what we know from agencies, corporations, and our own exited companies. An idea grew into a brand, a group of people into a team, our experience into the foundations of a methodology, and our shared values into a culture.

Now it's time to tell the world about Tempo, to bring more talented creators and changemakers into the team and into our professional network, and to gradually grow our impact.

Over the coming years, we want to be a partner to major Czech companies on creative and transformation projects, while at the same time building our own disruptive projects and start-ups. Step by step, we want to turn Tempo into a methodology and education hub, with development programs focused on creativity and business.

Tempo isn't a one-year plan, nor a company built to be sold. Tempo is a harbour. It doesn't push anywhere. But its gates are open. The people here know both courage and humility; they listen and lend a hand. They are used to taking responsibility for their own lives, their work, and the world around them.

For us personally, Tempo is a plan for how to spend the rest of our lives in the company of great people, in a culture of wholeness and sincerity, with the best possible base from which to launch every new initiative. It is also a way not to become yet another “crazed boss at the top of the pyramid” and to fall asleep each night in quiet humility, with a smile on our face.

What the coming years will actually bring remains to be seen. As the motto of one of our existing partners — the School of Improvisation — goes: “Let yourself be surprised. Don't let yourself be caught off guard.” That's exactly what we intend to do.

The Tempo story is just beginning. Do you feel it resonates with your own — personal or business? Get in touch or write to us directly at studio@tempo.ooo.