CREAL CEO Tomas Sluka: "A company is a living superorganism"

10.01.2023 08:00, Morgane Ghilardi

CREAL develops and markets a new type of display technology for Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. Unlike existing solutions, CREAL's display creates fully 3D imagery that is entirely natural to human vision. We reached out to the company's founder and CEO, Tomas Sluka, to learn more about his perspective on entrepreneurship, company culture, and the value of one's work for our Founder focus series.

CREAL's track record illustrates its place among Switzerland's most significant innovators: The company made the TOP 100 Swiss Startup ranking every year from 2018 to 2022, placing fifth last year. Awarded CHF 30,000 by Venture Kick in 2017, the startup also participated in the Venture Leaders Technology program in 2018, which took ten founders on an investor roadshow in Silicon Valley. CREAL also won the Swisscom StartUp Challenge in 2019, earning a spot in a business acceleration program in Silicon Valley.

These achievements, among others, not only highlight outside recognition of the potential of CREAL's tech to shape how users will interact with the emergent metaverse, for instance; they also reveal the commitment fueling the company's advancement. Learn more about the company's founder and CEO.

Name: Tomas Sluka
Location: Lausanne
Nationality: Czech
Degree: Graduated in 2018 with a Ph.D. in Science Engineering from the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic
Job title: CEO
Number of employees: 24 FTE
Money raised: CHF ~16 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Venturelab evening courses in 2017

How did you come up with the name of your startup? 
I bought many domain names related to 3D visualization years before even having the problem to solve. I just saw 3D as the next step in communication tech. CREAL3D.com ("see real 3D") was one of them. Later we bought the CREAL.com domain from someone and renamed the startup.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
I was convinced that 3D visualization such as in AR/VR will inevitably become the next norm in communication technology, but I had a very unpleasant feeling from the first VR headsets. I knew why, but I didn’t see a practical solution to it out there. After months of exploration, the solution came to me, which had also obvious business potential. Founding a startup was just a necessary step at one point.

---

---

What advice would you give to your teenage self?
I would not intervene and let myself live the same life even though there were many hardships. Life is a complex game full of chances and we don’t know which crossroads or lessons were critical. The best intentions and advice can backfire and get you on the wrong trail. But to actually answer your question: I would tell myself to look at business as a positive mechanism - a positive-sum game - that creates true value for people.

What are you most excited about at this time in your life?
Besides my family, it is the startup game. The continuous uncertainty about how it will end up and the ups and downs on the way. Like in sports, I probably enjoy playing the game more than being the winner of a past game.

What is your evening routine (incl. the time you usually go to bed)?
Apart from being a night owl, I have no routine. I think that routines damage creativity. But whenever I can, I try to read a book until I fall asleep.

What is your favorite book and why?
I would put Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) at the top of my list. It provides a very unique point of view on how human societies develop. There are no better or worse peoples. There are better or worse conditions for development. We are no better than bacteria in a Petri dish.

What is one thing everyone should try at least once? 
Not that I would wish bad things on anyone, but I think that if a person goes through tough and desperate points in life, it makes them a better person.

Why did you become an entrepreneur? 
Because I wanted the opportunity to create something I'm genuinely convinced is useful and to do what I like to do. In the past, I also gained very broad experience and abilities to invest practically all my time in important work, which I thought is the right setup for entrepreneurship.
 

---

 

---

What is your ritual/routine before an important meeting?
I remind myself: fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

What is your favorite part about being an entrepreneur? 
Entrepreneurship made my life much more diverse. I doubt I would go through such a variety of experiences in other career paths.
 
What is your least favorite part about being an entrepreneur? 
Administration, paperwork, and fundraising.

What does success look like to you? And what does it mean to you? 
A clean conscience, knowing that I always played fair and tried my best to contribute positively to society. Even if it fails, I will know that I tried my best.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder? 
That a company is a living superorganism and that advice given at startup training workshops about company culture and "DNA" were not highlighted just to fill the time. These things really matter critically. A startup needs to behave like one body on one mission. Although this cannot be forced on anyone; it must happen naturally.