Prague doesn't get the credit it deserves as a product engineering hub. The narrative around European tech tends to collapse into London, Berlin, and Stockholm, leaving an entire tier of cities that are genuinely excellent for building companies largely undiscovered.
The talent story starts with Charles University and CTU — two institutions consistently ranked in the top 200 globally for computer science and engineering. The graduates are technically rigorous, multilingual (most are fluent in English alongside Czech), and experienced with EU regulatory frameworks from day one of their education. Hiring costs are roughly 40–50% below Berlin for equivalent experience levels.
The timezone is underappreciated. CET/CEST puts Prague in a narrow overlap window with both US East Coast mornings and Singapore afternoons. For a company building products for European customers but partnering with US investors or Asian manufacturing, Prague is one of the few cities where a single working day can cover all three zones.
The infrastructure has caught up. Fibre internet, co-working density, a functional airport hub, and Schengen-area freedom of movement mean that the practical friction of building here has collapsed over the last decade. The funding ecosystem is thinner than London's, but that gap is closing, and the cost advantage means you can reach profitability on less capital — which matters more than ever in the current climate.