Who we are
Strong Europe is being initiated by Marek Rosa, founder and CEO of Keen Software House and GoodAI, with Martin Hák and Ivan Manolov as founding collaborators.
Marek is a builder and entrepreneur behind projects such as Space Engineers and GoodAI Swarm Robotics. His role in Strong Europe is to catalyze the first step: bring people together, fund the first validation phase, and help find the Founding CEO.
Strong Europe is currently in formation. We are looking for the people who can turn the idea into an independent, trusted, self-sustaining movement.
The idea
Our goal is to strengthen truthful European confidence: help citizens become more resilient, ambitious, cooperative, critically thinking, and optimistic about the future.
Institutions are downstream of culture. Culture is downstream of individuals.
If Europeans are passive, cynical, divided, and afraid, no institutional reform will be enough. Strong Europe works on the cultural and individual substrate: stories, creators, communities, rituals, practical civic action, and a shared sense that Europe can still build.
We want a strong, united, ambitious Europe that acts as one when it counts: able to defend itself with real capability — including a credible European defense — stand on its own without leaning on outside powers, integrate Ukraine, lead on AI and energy, and compete with the US and China as a power of 450 million people. A real entity, not a market for others — while preserving our national cultures and humanistic values.
Why now
Europe faces major long-term pressures: geopolitical fragmentation, security threats, AI disruption, energy and resource constraints, competition with the US and China, overregulation, low ambition, and weak shared identity.
Europe has enormous strengths: people, culture, science, technology, creativity, rule of law, and humanistic values.
But strength must become visible, shareable, and actionable.
What we are
- a bottom-up culture engine for European confidence,
- a way to make resilience, ambition, cooperation, and European identity visible and shareable,
- a platform connecting ideas, creators, donors, civic partners, and communities,
- a pan-European movement that proves itself in one market first, then scales on real results.
What we are not
- a political party,
- a hate movement,
- fake grassroots,
- one temporary campaign,
- a think-tank that only writes papers,
- a project dependent forever on one founder.
Values
The soul of it: humor, compassion, an open mind, and the belief that life isn’t zero-sum. The rest keeps it honest.
Humor and compassion
Truth spreads better when it’s alive — and should never be used to humiliate vulnerable people.
Open mind
Curiosity and cooperation across bubbles.
Non-zero-sum cooperation
Creating value together beats tribal defeatism.
Truth and transparency
No hidden sponsors, fake facts, bots, or fake grassroots.
Meritocratic, with a human face
We want excellence, ambition, responsibility, and dignity together.
Proud, but not blind
We are proud of Europe, tolerant, and clear that Europe can do better.
Red lines: no hate or scapegoating, no rage farming, no personality cult.
What we want to build
- Promote European identity: highlight European excellence in science, arts, business, sport, technology, and civic life while preserving national cultures.
- Build a grassroots network: creators, local communities, salons, meetups, interviews, events, libraries, and shared rituals.
- Amplify through others: inspire and equip independent creators and influencers to carry the ideas in their own voice, and inspire existing aligned movements to pull in the same direction. Strong Europe scales the idea — it isn’t a content machine.
- Take civic action: petitions, letters to MPs/MEPs, practical campaigns, media work, and low-friction ways for citizens to help.
- Build real strength: European unity and credible defense, technological and energy sovereignty, leaner and smarter governance, deregulation that unleashes builders, entrepreneurship, and ambition — ready for the AI revolution.
- Fund and protect the engine: transparent donors/sponsors, creator support, governance, and anti-capture rules.
What that looks like in practice: European Stories — short films about real people, not institutions (the Czech baker who supplies Viennese cafés). Intimate European Salons of 30–100 people. A Europe Day moment every May. Creator challenges around European strengths. Warm, funny chain emails built for parents and grandparents. Even repairing a neglected chapel as a small, visible act of civic pride.
The public movement stays human-led. Technology and AI are internal leverage, not the soul of the movement.
What the first year looks like
Now
Strong Europe is in formation. The one next step is to find and back a Founding CEO. Marek funds the start and opens doors; the CEO builds the thing.
First 90 days — validate
A funded sprint to prove the pull is real: map who’s already doing pieces of this, line up the first donors and creators, ship a first public activation — a petition, a creator challenge, a salon — and write the trust rules. The bar isn’t “fund everything.” It’s evidence that funding, creators, and distribution are real.
By the end of year one
A live Czech pilot: the first European Salons in Prague and Brno, a Europe Day moment, the first funded creator challenge, the first paying supporters, and a funding pipeline that can carry a real pilot — a model worth copying to the next city.
The deal on money: Marek funds the first 90 days — that’s it. By day 90 the bar is a real external funding pipeline (first paying members, donor and sponsor commitments, grants in motion) that can carry what comes next without Marek as the permanent wallet. Then a clear go / no-go.
Concrete year-one targets — supporters, chapters, events, budget — live in the internal business plan, so the CEO is measured against numbers, not vibes.
Why this can work
This isn’t wishful thinking — the pieces are already proven, just never combined into one engine:
The demand is real
Pulse of Europe drew hundreds of thousands across 130+ cities in 2017 — then faded because it had no model. We keep the energy and add the engine.
Membership funds values
Deník N sustains tens of thousands of paying subscribers in Czechia. People pay for things they believe in, when the quality is there.
Brands can franchise
TEDx runs thousands of self-funded local events on one shared standard. Reach scales while the central team stays small.
The money exists
The EU’s CERV programme has €1.55B earmarked for exactly this kind of civic work — alongside small donors and values-aligned sponsors.
We are looking for a Founding CEO
The next step is to find the person who turns this vision into a real Czech pilot. This is a full-time founding role for someone who can move from vision to execution: build the first team, raise support, recruit creators and partners, launch first public activities, protect trust, and measure whether the movement is working.
In practice, your first weeks are a phone in one hand and a doc in the other: calling creators, donors, librarians, and civic partners; running the first small salon; shipping the first public activation; writing the red lines that stop this being captured; and building one pitch you’re not ashamed to show. You report what actually moves people — tracked separately for the like-minded, the neutral, and the skeptical.
What the first 90 days look like
- turn the vision into an executable Czech pilot plan,
- map and start engaging existing initiatives and aligned movements, creators, donors, advisors, and partners,
- build a first donor/sponsor pipeline,
- inspire and equip the first creators, influencers, and civic partners,
- launch a first public activation — a petition, creator challenge, event, or campaign,
- draft governance and red lines,
- set up a measurement framework for media reach and real-world impact.
How this works
- A short paid exploration sprint (2–4 weeks) to test fit and sharpen the plan.
- A funded ~3-month ignition sprint, personally backed by Marek — this is ignition money, not a standing budget.
- From there it runs on what you raise — members, donors, sponsors, grants. Any further runway is funded by that pipeline (at most a capped, milestone-gated bridge), never open-ended.
- A real CEO / co-founder role once there’s evidence you can move money, people, and public output without Marek as the engine — or the wallet.
We’re looking for someone who has
- proven ability to execute independently,
- experience in movement building, community, media, campaigns, startups, fundraising, or civic projects,
- the ability to ask for money and close commitments,
- strong Czech and English communication,
- creator/media taste and strong trust instincts,
- strategic thinking plus weekly execution discipline.
The 90-day bar: prove real funding pull, creators, distribution, and credibility — first money in, and a believable path to fund the pilot without Marek. Not “raise everything” by day 90. Prove it can stand on its own.
If you’re interested, or know someone exceptional, send a CV or profile and a short note: what would you launch in the first 90 days, who would you call first, and how would you measure success?
Subject suggestion: Founding CEO
Applications open until 1 September 2026.
Join / help
We are also looking for creators, donors and sponsors, civic partners, researchers and advisors, and people who can help with communities, events, media, technology, and operations.
Contact: go@strong-europe.org