It seems everybody wants to produce smart benches.
What oil is for Saudi Arabia and what chocolate is for Switzerland, smart benches are for Croatia. After Ivan Mrvoš, an inventor from Solin, has already created a serious business exporting his smart benches globally, there is a new young entrepreneur in a different part of Croatia who is working on intelligent bench technologies, reports Poslovni.hr on February 25, 2018.
The QBen company from Zlatar in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region north of Zagreb is owned by 19-year-old innovator Marko Varga. He established his company in 2017, and this week he has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the development of a new model of the smart bench project which he presented last year.
“We are already selling the QBen Silver model, with the price of 13,500 kuna, while the price of the new model, QBen Wave, will be around 20,000 kuna. The higher price is a consequence of more complex design solutions and an improvement in functions, battery and chargers. The model now has four USB chargers and two wireless chargers,” explained Varga.
He said that for him the smart benches are a challenge because they include a combination of several different technologies – hardware and software components – and they are not a static product. “They react to the environment and can be programmed to adapt the way they work to different weather situations in order to perform their primary function in the best possible way. We entered the market when there were already several other producers present, and therefore we wanted to use our project to differentiate ourselves and offer to the potential buyers a completely new product,” he added.
The main construction and components of the product are procured in Croatia, but they assemble some of the parts themselves since it is sometimes difficult to find the appropriate ready-made solutions.
“We are a young team, and it is crucial for us to achieve continuous improvement in this customer-oriented business. Therefore, we are trying to improve what is most important for users with each new model of the bench – the design of the bench as a visual element and charging devices as its primary purpose. As far as entrepreneurial spirit is concerned, I think I have always been inclined to be my own boss because I believe that a lot more can be learned when you are not limited to pre-determined tasks and duties,” concluded the young innovator from Zagorje Marko Varga.
Translated from Poslovni.hr.
