It’s like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but in startup world, y’know?
My favourite story to tell about what I get to do for a living is about that time when I got sent to Croatia, on a mission to explore a largely untapped market and young startup ecosystem that we do not hear much about — at least not within Asia.
Unconventional is when your boss throws you the opportunity to go to Central Eastern Europe just weeks after Singapore tightened COVID restrictions due to the spike in outbreak numbers in Summer 2021. While hiring and travel budgets across organisations around the world were frozen in pandemic-stricken uncertainty, the beauty of startup culture is working alongside an open-minded team, adaptable to change, that move fast in execution.
Contrary to its reputation, the pandemic is not always bad news. What we observed from our global team was when one region of the world is closed, somewhere else is open; When Asia’s borders remain closed because of Delta-variant’s viral spreading, it was no surprise to us when we heard from our Europe team that most of the continent was actually open for summer travels.
The moment my 2nd vaccine was effective (two weeks after receiving the shot), I was on the plane out of Singapore, on a completely off-beat track. Croatia was not as well-known a destination to Asia — and when one mentions Europe, it is often attributed to Central Europe (UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, etc.)…not its Eastern counterparts.
Without knowing what to anticipate, except new experiences to be lived out, I had a mission to accomplish: exploring a new startup ecosystem, being the boots on the ground, and to come back with insights and learnings.
Singapore’s airport was unrecognisable, being cordoned off into various sections. At the check-in counter, I had to present documents and prove I was traveling for work. All the staff were decked in hazmat suits, and only people embarking on flights could enter the airport. It was almost foreign to the Changi Airport I spent my teenage years camping out of, studying for exams.
Leading up to this flight, there was little time to prepare to travel — it was on a week’s notice, there was still work to be done, and a lot more to figure out.
I headed straight to the tram and was in the heart of the city in six stops, alighting at the doorstep of Hostel Swanky Mint, which was to be my accommodation for the next few weeks during my stay in Croatia.
Two weeks in, Zagreb was sunny and quiet… Despite having met some founders, I learnt that most locals had flocked to the costal towns while it was still the summer holidays, and some told me that I arrived at the ’wrong’ time of the year to talk business.
<aside> 💭 Pro-tip: Don’t land in Zagreb in mid-Summer if you’re planning to launch a business then— as with Europe, most people are away on vacation. Croatians tend to be more family-oriented than their central Europe counterparts… a little similar to Asian families where they tend to live with family instead of moving out of home, and are more interdependent on one another.
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Among some of the 60+ meetings over the course of two months, including visits to co-work and/or serviced offices, incubators, investors, university innovation hubs, I got to meet the brightest startups who were shaping the future uniquely in their own ways.
While in Zagreb, one of my most impressionable meetings in Zagreb was with Albert Gajsak, the Founder of Circuitmess. Albert is a college-dropout who bootstrapped his business by winning prize money from competitions and scaling it to a company with annual revenue of US$4 million and a team of 20+.
Circuitmess is a startup empowering STEM education with hands-on experience. If you've ever wanted to feel like the Caped Crusader, try assembling the CircuitMess Batmobile™! It is designed to help children and adults understand the basics of new technologies and become STEM superheroes of the future.
Sipping on a mango mojito at Swanky’s bar one afternoon, I met Filip, who supports companies with the tokenisation of assets on the blockchain. It was through him I got to discover what a physical ledger was (think: physical wallet for your crypto assets).
Since the Croatians took their summer vacation seriously and were by the sea at least for another four weeks, I decided to leave Zagreb and trail across the country to meet other people in the startup ecosystem.