This is the story of how a single click on Facebook can change the direction of an entire life. How a chance encounter in an international marketing group turned into a friendship that later gave rise to Editee – one of the most successful Czech AI applications, generating millions in monthly revenue.
Come back with me to 2017, when it all began.
The United States, dropshipping, and first contact
It all began sometime in 2017–2018. At the time, I was living in the United States and, alongside my other business activities, I was interested in dropshipping, which was flooding the internet and Facebook back then.
For those who do not know what it is – dropshipping is a business model in which you set up an online store and connect it to wholesale suppliers. They then ship the goods directly to customers under your brand. The difference between the wholesale and retail price is your margin. You never physically handle the goods; you only sell them.
Back then, it was most commonly done through AliExpress or other Asian wholesalers. Delivery to the US was relatively fast thanks to the duty-free zone (and today it is even faster than it was then). I built a fairly popular online store focused on Fortnite merchandise, which was doing really well at the time.
I was active in many international Facebook groups – some had tens or even hundreds of thousands of members – and I read practically everything. People shared their experiences, tips for setting up ads, SEO tricks, and basically everything a dropshipper was interested in at the time.
And one day, in one such group, I came across a post by someone named Štěpán Hlinka.
He wrote about how he had helped a client scale an online business – probably some kind of information product. Amid the flood of English names and comments, a single Czech name suddenly stood out. I clicked through to his profile, saw that he was Czech, and added him as a friend, mostly as a joke.
I had no idea what role he would one day play in my life.
High Ticket Accelerator – my first investment in Štěpán’s knowledge
Even back then, Štěpán was sharing a lot of interesting content. At the time, he ran a course called High Ticket Accelerator, in which he showed how to sell more expensive products using online advertising. And he really is a specialist in performance advertising – today I know that he is an exceptional specialist.
I decided to buy the course. It cost around $500 at the time, making it one of my first and largest investments in online education. Naturally, I was nervous – I had never spent that much money on a similar course before. But sometimes you have to take a risk.
And I have to say that the course was excellent. It was clearly structured, practical, and immediately useful. To give you an idea, Štěpán was already managing enormous advertising budgets for clients back then. Today, he has invested more than CZK 150 million in paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Google, so I know I was learning from the best.
After purchasing the course, we stayed in sporadic contact. We followed each other on Facebook and occasionally exchanged messages, but nothing bigger was happening yet.
Round two: collaborating on an SEO course
After some time, our paths crossed again. It was still during the COVID era – I believe it was 2020. At the time, I was preparing my own online SEO course and needed someone to help me with advertising and campaign setup.
The choice was obvious – I hired Štěpán as my mentor. He helped me manage the ads and set up the campaigns, and together we fine-tuned the entire launch to make it work.
And I have to admit – it worked very well. The course took on a life of its own and made decent money. After a while, however, I stopped actively promoting it because other projects in America took over my time. And so our paths diverged a little once again.
An attempt to build a programming academy
In 2021–2022, we reconnected. This time with a more ambitious plan – together, we wanted to build the largest online academy for aspiring programmers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Online programming courses were popular at the time, and demand for them was growing relentlessly.
We began creating content on TikTok to attract people to our Discord group. The first videos performed very well – some even received hundreds of thousands of views. I programmed the entire platform, while Štěpán handled the marketing.
But – as often happens – we never quite finished the project. We both had other things underway as well. Štěpán was working intensively with clients on coaching and ad management, while I was focused on international shipping, an online store, and several other activities. The academy therefore remained unfinished, with an open ending.
Perhaps, however, this was precisely the “trial by fire” we needed before the most important thing, which was still to come.
The turning point: a phone call in the fall of 2022
In the fall of 2022 (I think it was November or December), Štěpán and I had another call. I had messaged him about the limited liability company we had established together earlier. It was a simple decision – either we would do something with it, or we would shut it down entirely and I would set aside time for something else.
The call was supposed to be short. Instead, it lasted almost two hours.
And during those two hours, we began discussing something that was starting to transform the entire world – artificial intelligence. ChatGPT was exploding in America at the time, Microsoft was beginning to pour huge amounts of money into OpenAI and AI (it later turned out to be tens of billions of dollars), and we both felt that this was something the world had never seen before.
We agreed that it was the future. And that it would be a shame to simply sit back and watch. I was expecting the birth of my daughter at the time, so we gave ourselves a month to do our own research. We agreed to call again over Christmas and discuss whether it was worth pursuing.
New Year’s Eve 2022 and the first line of code
Christmas arrived. We called each other over the holidays, went through everything again, and both reached the same conclusion – we’re doing it.
At the time, I had practically no experience with artificial intelligence. But as a programmer, I knew I would dive in and see where it took me. I believe we had our final conversation on New Year’s Eve 2022. The decision was made.
I do not drink alcohol, so January 1 was a completely normal working day for me.
And so, on January 1, 2023, I wrote the very first line of code for what would later be called Deeply.cz and would later still be renamed Editee.com.
It took us until roughly February–March 2023 to develop the first MVP. At the time, it was a very simple application – only a few basic AI templates, no major features, no AI images, just the basics. But we launched it at an excellent time.
And because Štěpán is a master of performance marketing, the entire project began growing extremely quickly.
To this day, I remember spending entire nights working on certain features. When we were adding AI image generation, I had no idea how any of it worked. I spent days sitting in front of my monitor, and by the third day I was so frustrated that I almost wanted to give up on everything. But I gritted my teeth and finished it – and in the end, the feature worked.
And now for the best part – more than 1,000 customers, and we had never met
And here comes the part that leaves everyone speechless whenever I tell them this story.
From the moment Štěpán and I met on Facebook – sometime in 2017 or 2018 – until the time we launched Editee, ran numerous advertising campaigns, operated a company together, and acquired more than 1,000 paying customers… we had never met in person.
Our entire collaboration took place exclusively online – through Facebook, Messenger, Zoom calls, phone calls, and later Slack. We discussed strategy, finances, the product, marketing campaigns, hiring people, and even personal matters. And I had never shaken his hand.
Looking back on it today, it is actually an interesting example of how much times have changed. In America, this is common – people build entire companies through Slack and Zoom without ever meeting. But in the Czech Republic at the time? It was more the exception than the rule.
Our first meeting: a podcast in Brno
We finally met in person thanks to an invitation to a podcast in Brno. Štěpán was invited as a guest – and he originally wanted to do the entire interview online, as he was accustomed to doing for some of his media appearances.
But I persuaded him to come in person. The argument was simple: “Come on, let’s finally meet. We’ve been working together for some time, we have a company together, thousands of customers – and we still haven’t even met in person.
Štěpán eventually agreed. He came to Brno, recorded the podcast – and we met for the first time in our lives. And I have to admit, it was a somewhat surreal moment. I was standing in front of someone with whom I had spent countless hours on calls; I knew his family, his plans, his strengths and weaknesses – and for the first time, I could shake his hand. We had years of business partnership behind us, and only now did it feel real.
Since then? We mostly meet completely by chance
Here is another interesting thing – since that first meeting in Brno, we have only seen each other from time to time. And most of the time, it happens completely by chance.
Our best story happened at the airport in Qatar. I was flying with my family from the Maldives, while Štěpán was returning from Bali. Neither of us had any idea that the other was flying on the same day, let alone through the same connecting airport. I was headed to Vienna, while he was headed to Prague.
And then suddenly, we were standing face to face in the middle of the Doha terminal. What are the odds? That we would fly on the same day, from different parts of Asia, and meet during a layover in Qatar? The probability of something like that must be a fraction of a percent, but it happened. We chatted for a while, laughed about it, and then each continued on our flight home.
The last time we saw each other was at a conference in Miami, where we had both traveled for business. After the conference, we spent a few days together – discussing new plans for Editee, sharing our market experience, and looking at what was currently happening in the American AI ecosystem.
If someone told me this as somebody else’s story, I probably would not believe it could work. That you could successfully run a business with someone you meet only a few times over the years, and usually by chance at that. But it does work – and to this day, it works extremely well.
To Frosty :)
Who is Štěpán Hlinka today?
If you have not encountered Štěpán yet, let me briefly introduce him – it is worth it.
Štěpán is a former football player. He had a big dream of becoming a professional footballer and played in the third division, but when he did not make it onto a top-flight team and then suffered an injury, he began looking for another path. And that was the turning point – he discovered the online world and dropshipping, and gradually worked his way up to become one of the leading Czech experts in digital marketing.
Here are several key figures that reveal a great deal about him:
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Since 2017, he has been fully dedicated to performance marketing
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He has worked with hundreds of clients from around the world, many of them from the US
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More than 2,000 students have completed his educational courses, with even more using Editee
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He has managed more than CZK 150 million in paid advertising campaigns
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In 12 months, Editee achieved revenue exceeding CZK 70 million with a 40% profit margin
Štěpán has appeared as a guest on several well-known Czech podcasts, including:
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Dan Tržil’s BYZNYScast – where he spoke openly about why he had to abandon his dream of a professional football career and how every failure brought him closer to the AI business
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Hustle & Chill – where he took listeners inside his Prague apartment and office and discussed his journey from dropshipping to generating millions in revenue
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Financially Literate – an interview about the journey to building a million-dollar business, developing a personal brand, and the future of AI
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Kid Ajvn podcast – where he discussed how an athlete’s mindset helped him in business
Outside business, Štěpán is an avid traveler – on average, he visits around 10 countries a year. Incidentally, he was one of the people who kept encouraging me to travel to Asia, especially Thailand, where he regularly returns himself. And I have to admit – after my first visit to Thailand, I agreed that he was right.
What have I learned from the whole story?
Looking back today, it is amazing to see how a small interaction on Facebook in an international marketing group turned into a project now used by thousands of people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Here are a few lessons I have taken from it:
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Investing in education pays off. The $500 I spent on High Ticket Accelerator was one of the best expenses I have ever made. Not only because of the knowledge, but also because of the connection that came from it.
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Regularly meeting and communicating with people in your industry has unexpected value. Most of the time, you do not know what will come from what – but if you surround yourself with quality people, sooner or later something interesting will emerge.
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Good timing is half the battle. If we had launched Editee a year or two later, it probably would not have worked so well. A year or two later, the market would already have been saturated. That moment at the beginning of 2023 was ideal.
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Persistence wins. Together, we had several projects that did not go according to plan. But those “failures” taught us what not to do and how not to do it – and moved us closer to what ultimately succeeded.
And the most important thing? Find a partner whose strengths complement your own. I am a programmer and product builder; Štěpán is the marketing brain who knows how to sell the product. Without him, Editee would never have reached where it is today – and likewise, without my own technical work, I would have had nothing to deliver.
If you are not following Štěpán yet, I highly recommend his YouTube channel and his profiles on social media such as Instagram. He regularly shares online marketing and business tips there that anyone can learn from.
And what does the future hold for Editee? More on that another time.
