In anticipation of Avast’s thirtieth anniversary, we sat down with our founders, Pavel Baudiš and Eduard (Eda) Ku?era to talk about Avast’s history and its future. The two men met in a world marked by its profound lack of freedom, and together navigated changing political, social, and technological circumstances to build the Avast we know today — a company that makes it possible for hundreds of millions of people to enjoy true freedom online. In the course of a few hours, we heard their take on writing the precursor to the Avast antivirus, creating their own company in the wake of the Velvet Revolution, becoming a serious player in the global antivirus market, and going all-in on the freemium business model, without which there would be no free Avast security today.
