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Martin Toma is one of the founders of itrinity, a company that today forms an important part of the Pale Fire Capital portfolio. In an interview for Slovak Forbes, he described the roots of itrinity’s success and the DNA on which it continues to build to this day.
Slovaks Quietly Build Their Software Empire
Forbes.sk, September 1, 2025, Simona Gulisová
The Slovak software company itrinity reached its first million without an investor. Then came the first acquisition. And today? A portfolio worth millions.
“Itrinity isn’t a unicorn chase. We’d rather have a reliable racehorse,” says co-founder Martin Toma with a smile in an interview for Forbes.
Together with Peter Hrbáčik, they built a tech company that may not make headlines every week, but is quietly and systematically creating something unprecedented in Slovakia: a global SaaS empire with millions of customers, eight products, and a portfolio they largely acquired themselves — from their own profits.
They started modestly. Peter had the first product, an SEO tool called KWFinder, and was looking for someone to help take it further. Martin, a fresh graduate of STU, dreamed of working for a Western company, but found something even better: a partner who knew what he was doing, and a product already used by tens of thousands of people.
From that small idea grew a company that today serves over seven million users worldwide — from the USA and Canada all the way to Australia.
The best-known tool in their portfolio is UptimeRobot, a website monitoring tool that has become a global leader in its field, trusted by brands such as Adidas, IBM, MasterCard, MIT, and the National Bank of Canada.
And even though itrinity is now a major player in the global market, it has preserved some of its garage spirit — no outside investments, no loans, no hierarchical corporate structures. Just pure business, efficiency, and product passion.
Martin Toma speaks not only about how to build a globally successful company without external capital, but also about how the Slovak team is searching for new acquisition opportunities through its own AI system, how negotiations with founders of companies they want to acquire unfold, and why he believes that employees should benefit from the company’s success just as much as its founders.
In 2015, as a fresh STU graduate, you joined Peter Hrbáčik, who had already created KWFinder and scored a success on Reddit. What was that moment like when you decided to leave the “traditional” path and dive into a startup?
My meeting with Peter was quite random. At that time, I was finishing my studies at STU, but I had already gained some work experience. I had tried developing custom software based on client requirements, but it was frustrating for me. I would spend months building something I didn’t believe in, and I had a strong feeling that nobody would actually use it.
That’s why I started looking around for international companies that were creating products for a large number of people. I applied on one of the job portals, specifically targeting the Western world. I imagined working for a company in, say, England, while living in Slovakia and benefiting from geographic arbitrage.
And that’s when I got a message from “some Peter from Prievidza.” At first, I was skeptical, but when we met and he showed me what he was working on, I realized it was exactly what I had been looking for. He had a product called KWFinder, a keyword research tool that was already being used by tens of thousands of people worldwide. And Peter was the one directly deciding what the product looked like and where it was heading.
Shaped by Failures
Before KWFinder, Peter had gone through a series of less successful attempts. How did that shape you as co-founders while building the company? What lessons did you take away?
I think those experiences shaped us very strongly. Peter had already gone through many attempts — easily ten years of trying out different projects. When he finally succeeded with KWFinder, we realized very clearly that we had hit “product–market fit.” In other words, we had created a product that truly resonated with the market. That’s when we told ourselves we would go all in, with full energy, not just treat it as another experiment.
It was never about chasing unicorns. We wanted a “reliable racehorse” instead.
Itrinity was never a unicorn hunt. We wanted a “reliable racehorse” — something that would last for decades. Among ourselves, we even joke that itrinity is our retirement savings. That perfectly captures our approach: thoughtful, long-term, and responsible.
Do you consider yourselves a startup? Or not anymore? This term is often understood very broadly in Slovakia.
It’s true that the word is used often and not always precisely. I think the label technology company fits us better. Specifically, we’re a SaaS company — we offer software through a monthly subscription model, similar to Spotify.
We’re not a startup in the sense of having raised external capital, aiming to grow extremely fast, and then make an exit. We’re more of a fast-growing tech company. And since we’ve been highly profitable practically from day one, it’s probably not a typical startup story.
But a Slovak tech company acquiring other firms sounds a bit like science fiction. When did you first think about buying instead of just selling?
A few years after KWFinder became a success. Our first acquisition was in 2018, but the idea of making such a move had been present even earlier. As part of our long-term thinking, we aimed to build something sustainable for decades.
Theoretically, we could have focused only on growing our first product, but the classic investment rule of risk diversification proved true for us. It also made sense strategically, so we decided to pursue that path as well.
How many products do you currently have in your portfolio?
Right now, we have eight products. The first one was our own. The remaining seven we gradually acquired.
Do your products connect with each other? For example, do you offer customers multiple tools as a bundle?
This type of sales hasn’t really worked for us so far. Most of our customers use one specific product and are satisfied with that. When we talk about seven million customers, that’s the total across all products. The largest one is UptimeRobot, which accounts for about half of that number.
Sometimes it happens that a customer discovers another one of our products and starts using it as well, but that’s more of an exception than the rule.
Steady Pace
Have you ever had an acquisition that didn’t work out as expected?
That can only really be said after a longer time. We started acquisitions in 2018 and kept a very steady pace. We made one acquisition every two to three years, which gave us the chance to carefully think through each step. And those first ones — for example, EmailListVerify, UptimeRobot, Warmup Inbox — were really very successful. We were able to pay back the purchase costs within two to three years for all three.
Last year, we decided to step up and buy more, to test our capabilities — both the AI system within our structure and our people. Adding three products and 20 new employees is no easy task. So far, it’s cautiously taking shape; profitability is excellent, even though growth hasn’t been as fast as we hoped. But we’re still working to change that.
You’ve mentioned your own “AI-based scouting system” for finding acquisition opportunities. Could you reveal a bit of this closely guarded know-how?
Our goal was to identify companies with strong potential that are not yet on the radar of big players. For example, we don’t mind at all if a product is run by just one person (a so-called solo founder, editor’s note). That was also the case with what is now our biggest product, UptimeRobot. Its founder, Umut from Turkey, was also its sole developer. For large funds, that’s a “no-go” because they immediately ask questions like: Who will maintain it? Who will handle the technical operations?
But we have the advantage that within our internal team we have developers, marketers, and customer support who are flexible and able to handle multiple products at once. This allows us to smoothly integrate a new product into the portfolio and keep everything running.
To manage this on a larger scale, we built a fully automated system. It regularly scans hundreds of thousands of domains and products and, based on various data sources, determines their traffic, market activity, size, and potential. The entire process is automated.
So you have your own tool that identifies potential acquisition opportunities. Is there a difference between what you’re looking for and what private equity funds look for?
Yes, definitely. We also look for traction and a certain size. We don’t buy completely micro businesses. Let’s say the lower threshold for annual revenue is around €500,000, or we like it if the growth is very strong. So it’s not exactly “angel investing.”
At the same time, we can work with projects that funds would already reject because of various “imperfections.” That’s where we have an advantage, because we’re able to accept a certain level of risk and issues that others wouldn’t deal with.
And what about the teams? Do they stay in the company after the acquisition, or do you take everything over yourselves?
It depends on the case. For example, with TouchStay we took over quite a large team — 15 to 20 people — which for us is already a big number.
But we’ve also had cases where we only bought the “assets”: source code, access credentials, domains, customer database — and had to study everything ourselves, take it over, and get it running. Usually, the deal includes a transition period, let’s say three to six months, during which the original founder transfers know-how and technical details to us. But often it’s a full exit — the founder wants to hand over the project and move on, without having to stay involved for years.
Rocket Growth
The company TopicRanker more than tripled in size a year after the acquisition. What do you do with products post-acquisition that allows them to scale like this?
I’d like to say we have some secret recipe, but in reality, it’s a combination of multiple factors. Of course, we have proven tactics across our eight products. We always try to apply them to any new acquisition. That certainly contributed to that rocket-like growth.
At the same time, it’s absolutely key that we correctly identify a product with potential and buy it at a good price. In the case of TopicRanker, it was literally a “moving train.” The product was already growing before the acquisition and didn’t stop afterward — quite the opposite.
Do you finance all acquisitions from your own resources? No loans or external investors?
Yes, exactly. From the beginning, our goal was to operate without external capital. This aligns with our strategy: we’re not building a unicorn, but a reliable racehorse.
If you want to become a unicorn, you almost always need large amounts of outside money. We didn’t have that ambition. We wanted to grow more slowly, sustainably. And because we were highly efficient from day one, we generated enough cash flow to invest our own money.
We never rushed anywhere; we weren’t pressed for time. In fact, I’d say we enjoyed it. At the same time, we wanted to maintain 100% control — no loans, no investors. Neither Peter nor I, nor the rest of the team, were prepared to answer to investors at the end of a quarter about why results weren’t even better. We wanted peace, stability, and full freedom in decision-making.
You’ve also built your company around having no rigid hierarchy, with everyone working directly on products. How did you manage to convince nearly a hundred people that this model works better than the traditional one?
It’s true that we don’t have a classic corporate hierarchy. Our biggest difference compared to the traditional model is that we’ve completely eliminated middle management. We operate very simply: we have a small top-level management team, for example a Head of Marketing, and directly under them are 20–25 people. These are experienced, independent senior specialists who don’t need constant supervision.
And how did we convince them? We actually didn’t have to. People who join us give it a chance, observe for a while, and when they see that it works, they have no reason not to believe in it.
Even before the pandemic, you were operating remotely. Is this connected to your model?
Yes, definitely. But the main reason for the remote setup wasn’t the pandemic — it was talent availability. For our specialized roles, it’s challenging to find the right people, even across all of Europe, let alone in a single location. Remote work allows us to select from a much wider pool of candidates.
Where are your people located today?
Most are scattered across Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but we also have employees from Southeast Europe, for example Cyprus and Serbia. Additionally, we have people from Portugal, France, and a few Slovaks and Czechs living in Thailand. We even have a handful of employees in South America, mainly in customer support roles, where we need to cover different time zones.
Investor Partnership
When you started working with Honza Bárta from Pale Fire Capital, you approached him yourselves. What made him stand out compared to other investors?
Honza Bárta may be less known in Slovakia, but in the Czech Republic he’s a prominent figure — an investor and, to some extent, an influencer in digital business. You could say he’s a pioneer of internet entrepreneurship in our region.
Peter had followed him during his “searching” years, when he was experimenting with various projects. He liked Honza’s way of thinking — often going against the grain, having strong opinions, and many times proving to be right even when others initially didn’t believe him. That’s what attracted us. We felt that having a partner like him could help us, for example, in selecting suitable acquisitions.
So we’re talking about an investor, but you claimed you didn’t want one. How does that work?
It wasn’t a traditional investment into us as a company, which wouldn’t have aligned with our previous approach. In 2018, Honza and we agreed to go fifty-fifty into acquisitions together. Not in a way that he would become a partner in itrinity itself, but that we would split ownership of a given product we purchased. And subsequently, we also split the profits equally.
So itrinity as a company remains yours, but the acquisitions are co-owned with Pale Fire Capital?
Itrinity is ours, but all subsequent acquisitions were 50/50. Recently, however, we decided to simplify things further. To avoid complicated ownership structures where some products were only ours and others co-owned, we agreed to buy out the stake in our first product (KWFinder), which had previously been solely ours.
Formally, we merged the entire portfolio so that each product is now 50% owned by itrinity and 50% by Pale Fire Capital. A simple, transparent structure.
Dmitry Dragilev from TopicRanker, whom you acquired, already had three exits, including selling a company to Google. Why did he decide to work with you instead of continuing on his own?
It was interesting because he reached out to us. He did so via a connection to our first product, KWFinder, which is part of the Mangools SEO tool suite. Dmitry operates exclusively in this field and was familiar with these tools.
In his effort to find a suitable buyer for his new product, he approached us as a relatively well-known and established player in the space. Although he lives in the U.S., he identifies more with the European mentality and lifestyle, which he saw as a plus.
We had a video call where we exchanged views on the product, the SEO market, and its changing dynamics with AI. He really liked our way of thinking, brainstorming, and overall approach. As a result, he offered us the opportunity to acquire a majority stake in his new project, with the understanding that we would work together on its growth.
Artificial Intelligence as a Tool
We’ve also talked about AI, and it seems that you’re responding to this technological wave differently than some other companies. What role does artificial intelligence play in your strategy?
We certainly don’t approach it skeptically, but we’re not blindly enthusiastic either. We’re somewhere in the middle. Our strategy has two dimensions. The first is acquisitions — how AI affects our selection and evaluation of companies to buy. The second dimension is the internal use of AI in managing and developing our products — and there, we go “all-in.”
For example, we recently hired our first AI automation specialist, who has experience in automating business processes. In addition, every employee has access to top AI models and is encouraged to find ways to simplify or speed up their work.
So the goal is to increase efficiency, not reduce headcount?
Exactly. Our employees don’t have to worry that automating tasks will cost them their jobs. On the contrary, we’ve always seen efficiency as a path to growth. We have eight products and one main team. It’s completely normal, for example, for a content writer to create articles for four different products.
For us, AI is a tool for scaling. We can acquire additional products without having to increase the number of employees at the same pace. The result is higher profits, a larger portfolio, and simultaneously the ability to better reward people. Thanks in part to our employee stock ownership program (ESOP), the company’s success is directly reflected in their compensation.
You often mention that you’re “founder friendly.” How exactly do you differ from traditional investment funds that buy startups?
We’ve already touched on much of this — for example, we accept things that conventional funds would reject.
But it’s also about how we conduct conversations. When we’re looking for new acquisitions, we’re not in the position of fund managers, and the founders know that. Most of the time, we don’t talk about sale conditions or lawyers; we talk about the business itself — what excites them, what doesn’t, and how they envision its future.
We want to know whether they want to fully exit the project or continue with it. And then there are practical differences. Our acquisition process takes weeks, not months. We do basic due diligence to avoid major issues, but no one here is pressured or judged for not having every Excel sheet perfectly prepared.
Žatecká 55/14, Praha 1, 110 00
jsme@palefire.com
Get in touch with us to explore new opportunities
and share your ideas.
Žatecká 55/14, Praha 1, 110 00
jsme@palefire.com
Get in touch with us to explore new opportunities
and share your ideas.
