Following a crowdfunding campaign that raised $100.000, a young Croatian startup is about to conquer the international scene with their innovative product
The Croatian startup CircuitMess presented their DIY video game console MAKERbuino at the technology expo CES2018 that is taking place from January 9 to 12 in Las Vegas. MAKERbuino sparked interest from multiple investors, including the American giant Amazon and the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform, reports Novi list on January 10, 2018.
Last year, CircuitMess won 'Most Promising Technology Startup' at Idea Knockout, a startup competition organised by Bug magazine in collaboration with HT. The first prize involved the amazing opportunity for the winner to showcase their work at the 50th edition of CES, along with other 600 startups from all over the world gathered in Eureka park in Las Vegas. More than six thousand new companies applied, but only the most innovative ideas made the cut.
MAKERbuino was quick to raise waves both in regional and international media, Forbes being the latest major publication to interview Albert Gajšak, the 19-year-old founder of CircuitMess. According to the young inventor, the tehnical specs of the product are somewhat rudimentary, but what makes the console attractive is a certain retro appeal - and the do-it-yourself factor: MAKERbuino allows its owner to build it from scratch before they put it to use.
Gajšak sees the console not only as a gadget, but as an educational tool as well: “I tell parents that you can buy a MAKERBuino as a substitute for roughly the price of a single video game. Kids spend more than 6 hours a week playing games. What if you could spend a part of that time as an educational playtime where they could learn electronics and programming?", he said for Forbes.
The road to success was rocky at first: even though MAKERbuino got a lot of positive feedback at the 2016 Maker Faire in Rome, Gajšak was still left with a burning problem: the lack of funding. "I was spending all of my pocket money on the project," Gajšak said for Forbes. "I didn’t even have enough money for lunches at school. I was borrowing money from friends [...] and skipping haircuts“, he added. Infinum CEO Tomislav Car helped him to turn things around by investing in CircuitMess in exchange for a stake in the company, and encouraged Gajšak to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The goal was set at $10.000; 25 days later, the raised sum stood at $100.000.
At the moment, the base unit will only cost you $49. More than 3000 pieces have been sold globally thus far, and the company will probably see a spike in profit after CES.
CircuitMess currently has a team of three full-time employees and six part-time members, not counting Gajšak who manages marketing, social media, customer support and the webshop. He plans to continue developing a line of DIY tech products. "CES definitely opens the door to the international scene, from the US to the UK, Germany and other major markets, which is why I believe it will help us to commercialise our product", he concluded.
You can learn more about MAKERbuino here and follow CircuitMess on Facebook.
