In Croatia, there is a lack of collaboration between corporations and startups

After several months of announcements, the first Croatian national association of startups named CRO STARTUP has officially been launched. On this occasion, the first conference was held at the new Algebra campus, where, alongside the organizers and the association’s management, representatives of startups and Eve Peeterson, a representative of the Estonian startup ecosystem, participated.

In her opening speech, the association’s president, Hajdi Ćenan, emphasized that the whole point of this organization is to connect and share experiences among representatives of startup companies.

– We have achieved certain things in the last few months since we announced the establishment, but this is the first event, a conference, that should empower the community and share experiences and knowledge and a broader picture. Until now, it has all been one-on-one, over coffee or lunch – said Ćenan.

Eve Peeterson, a representative of the Startup Estonia association, was the first to show examples of good practices and emphasized the need for good legal regulations for further developing new startup companies.

In Estonia, numerous representatives of companies have united and submitted a proposal to the government for the inclusion of startups in the economy, and a consequence of this proposal is the appointment of an IT minister.

– Croatia was the only EU member state without a Startup organization. Although there are several smaller organizations, it was necessary to establish a national association that would help beginners and serve as a starting point for them – said Ćenan.

Since no one can know everything, CRO STARTUP has gathered people from various fields in its management. In addition to the association’s president, Hajdi Ćenan, members include Maja Brkljačić (AlgebraLAB), Darko Jovišić (Robotiq.ai), Božidar Pavlović (Jackie agency), Mario Frančešević (SeekandHit), Srđan Kovačević (Orqa), and Nikola Pavešić from Infobip, as well as Marijana Šarolić Robić from the law firm MSR.

– It is stressful to establish a startup, and that is why we are here, to socialize and provide support to others – said Jovišić, adding that it is very important to have a mentor who will advise and connect startups with potential clients.

The management members also emphasized that they want to encourage a network of business angels and make Croatian startups recognizable in the global market.

The second part of the conference was marked by the panel ‘Three Generations of Startups,’ featuring Hrvoje Ćosić from Aircash, Anto Širić from Sportreact, and Matija Žulj from Agrivija. In the discussion, they commented on how much has changed in the last ten years and compared the situation in starting and running startups then and now. 

All speakers agreed that there is a lack of collaboration between corporations and startups in Croatia, as large corporations and state-owned companies often collaborate with startups. An important change that has occurred over three generations of startups is access to information, but the biggest problem remains the administration, which consumes too much time that could be used for advancement.

After the panel on the three generations of Croatian startups, Božidar Pavlović touched on the topic of financing, but through the lens of considering when startups should and should not accept offered terms, and what some key moments to think about when raising funds are.

Daniel Ackermann from Degordian and Vedran Vukman from Revuto also shared their experiences.

Ackermann spoke about how different it is to run an agency and product-oriented business and what they learned from launching Mediatoolkit ten years ago and how they applied their experience in launching Stethoscope.

Vukman shared something about the crypto world, especially NFTs, and about the new and unexpected business models that are emerging based on that technology.

The event concluded with a very important topic about how crucial it is to try, and even if one does not succeed, how valuable the experience and lessons learned are for future projects. This was discussed by Zijad Redžić from Serengeti, whose unsuccessful experience in launching his own startup a few years ago now immensely benefits him in his work.