As Novac/Filip Pavic writes on the 16th of June, 2019, Gembox and Testdome, two Croatian sister IT companies, aren't unique just because their software is used by the likes of NASA, Microsoft, Verizon, UEFA and eBay, but also because they're the only Croatian startups who don't even have their own office, and according to them, that's actually intentional.

Both Croatian companies were founded by Željko Švedić, he's the owner and founder of Gembox, and he's the co-owner of Testdome with the director Mario Živić. These two Croatian companies are the pioneers of the new international IT trend, which encompasses so-called remote work, and their employees, who are mostly developers, work from home from around the world, they're scattered all over, from Australia and the USA to India and even Lithuania.

"We've realised that we can employ people from all over the world in this way, and that we're not always having to move into new and bigger offices. Programmers aren't bothered by that, they like tasks that are precise and they can sit comfortably for eight hours at their computers at home without needing people around them to motivate them. However, that's not for everyone, some find that working from home, in fact, means a ''free day'', Švedić said when describing the pros and cons of remote work such as this.

Gembox and Testdome employ a total of seventeen people, and although the stories of the two companies are inextricably linked, they deal with quite different things. It all began back in 2006, says Švedić, a native of Slavonski Brod.

After he resigned from Microsoft Croatia and then went to work for one year over in the US, Švedić returned to Croatia as a 26-year-old with a FER degree in his pocket and a few thousand dollars in savings. He was young and he had two options in front of him. His plans were either to launch something of his own, or get a job employed in some Croatian IT company. However, he decided, like a real developer, to retire to his basement and come up with some solutions that could make him some money. That was the beginning of Gembox's story.

"Back then, I programmed parts of the software, the component for importing and exporting data to Word, Excel, and similar formats. For example, if you go to the UEFA page to view the results of a match and download them in PDF format, it's very likely that our software was used,'' said Švedić, comparing it with the car industry - as there are small companies that produce car parts, such as airbags, and then all manufacturers incorporate it into their cars, just like Gembox produces parts of software that other companies then embed into their applications.

However, as goes the story for almost all Croatian companies, the beginning was extremely difficult, because he had no idea how to sell and properly place his product. He was forced to learn about digital advertising and website optimisation. After the first few years, Gembox managed to get up on its own financially, and then a new problem emerged - the problem of recruiting.

''When I became profitable, the second stage was to hire people, but I didn't know how to do it. The programmers who came to the interviews were quite weak in programming, regardless of their resume and what they were saying about themselves.

I realised then that we needed a better competence testing system. It was the start of the new company, TestDome, with which we created an online test system for job candidates,''

His acquaintance from back in his high school days, Mario Živić from Požega, played a crucial role throughout the whole story.

He got better acquainted with state-run IT competitions and tenders, Both of them, with several years of difference between them, were both national champions, and later they both won Bronze at international and European programming competitions.

Zivić also enrolled at FER, and remained close to the world of such competitions, he designed tasks for high school computer science competitions. Years later, more precisely in 2011, the pair happened to meet randomly, and Švedić then presented his idea to Zivić, which was the aforementioned online system for selecting potential job candidates. Zivić, who for nine years worked for Ericsson Nikola Tesla as a manager, recognised the potential and realised that he could contribute to the whole thing with his own extensive experience.

''Every manager can list several differences between good and bad employees, but they won't know how to test that out. The point is that candidates are best tested by applying knowledge rather than reproducing it,'' said Zivić, who owns 20 percent of this Croatian company, and who also holds the position of company manager.

What sets TestDome apart is the fact that job candidates, and these candidates may be applying for positions in sales, as managers, experts, programmers... are tested on real-world, real life examples of their potential job position, instead of undergoing universal and generic intelligence tests.

With this piece of Croatian innovation, a candidate for a project manager's position, for example, will receive examples of three projects and must be able to calculate the monetary valuation estimate to assess the risk of each project. A developer will get a code line with errors, and in ten minutes, he must find those errors and correct them.

''There's a trend when it comes to professions in engineering, the better the resume, the worse the employee. The ability to write a resume is a marketing capability, so if you're looking for someone to sell something for you, then you're judging a resume, but if you're looking for someone to design a nuclear power plant's software, you'll want someone who is introverted and for whom it's no problem to sit in solitude and write code,'' said Živić.

Additionally, thanks to the Croatian TestDome, the employer doesn't have to go through the initial selection or meet the candidates in their office because everything they need is right there online. 

TestDome and Gembox are yet more amazing examples of Croatian innovation, one of which works to limit time wasted by both potential employer and potential employee, giving way to a quicker and more efficient route of finding the right person for the right job.

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Students from several faculties across the Croatian capital of Zagreb and GlobalLogic joined forces in the name of the project which highlighed Croatia's talent and innovation in the field of technology and mechanics once again.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 13th of June, 2019, the company GlobalLogic Croatia and the FSB Racing team intensified their cooperation on the construction of the first Croatian electric car designed and made for an international competition, which is scheduled for the second half of this year.

Given the fact that GlobalLogic Croatia boasts rich international experience in software development for numerous world-renowned automotive brands, it will provide the Zagreb student team with consulting and other forms of support in designing the necessary software and addressing and resolving any existing disadvantages.

The team of Zagreb students working on the development of the very first Croatian electric vehicle made for an international competition due to be held later this year will also be assisted by the experience of the GlobalLogic company, which develops various software components for future electric vehicle platforms.

Otherwise, the FSB Racing Team is an interdisciplinary project of students from several faculties of the University of Zagreb, which is being financed and funded with the support of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, as well was by some private Croatian companies.

The main goal of this project is to create new generations of young Croatian engineers with practical experience, organisational and managerial knowledge, and a proper understanding of teamwork, hierarchy and the general business environment.

The FSB Racing team is now dealing with the final stages of the car's construction and will soon start with test driving at competitions.

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June the 13th, 2019 - Mate Rimac's story is inspirational to say the least, and is far, far beyond the Croatian average when it comes to creating your own company and seeing it flourish beyond your wildest dreams in a relatively short period of time. 

Rimac, an otherwise unassuming man from Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is no less than a genius dressed in everyday clothing. Not only is he the founder of Croatia's highly respected Rimac Automobili, the producer of the world's beloved supercars, but he knows the ins and outs of each and every detailed and intricate process involved in their creation, from start to finish. 

Mate Rimac is, without a shred of a doubt, the protagonist of Croatia's most successful entrepreneurial story. Having attracted the attention and direct investment from some absolute giants within the car world and beyond, including the likes of Porsche.

Recently, Mate Rimac and hia facility near Zagreb, where the supercars are made, were visited by British YouTuber Shmee150, who was astonished by not only Mate Rimac's knowledge of all of the processes involved, but with the fact that all of this is taking place in no less than Croatia, a country infamous for its red tape and failed investment stories.

Following the visit from the YouTuber, who Mate Rimac guided around the factory himself, speaking in perfect English, the Croatian entrepreneur decided to embark on his own YouTube series covering life and work within Rimac Automobili in Sveta Nedjelja. So far, he has uploaded three videos in the ''Discover Rimac Today'' series. The first video can be viewed here, and the second here.

In his new video, Mate Rimac takes us behind the scenes of the science behind the hypercar. Watch it here:

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of June, 2019, Fina declared New Yorker as the most successful retailer, while Zagreb's Global food (Globalna hrana) company in is the most successful entrepreneur in tourism and hospitality, and in the field of professional, scientific and technical activities, the winner is Booking.com.

The Karlovac-based arms producer HS Produkt was awarded the Fina's Golden Balance Award for the most successful company in terms of financial rating in 2018, and with this award for the overall winner, the Karlovac company was also awarded the Golden Balance for the most successful entrepreneur in the manufacturing industry.

The Golden Balance is the award given by the Financial Agency (Fina) to the most successful entrepreneurs/companies in each business, it is attributed in the scope of the overall ranking of eleven financial indicators in five categories, according to the indicators of profitability, liquidity, indebtedness, activity and cost-effectiveness.

Out of the 131,117 companies who submitted their financial reports based on Fina's methodology, a mere 3,930 were selected, who then entered a shortlist for the award, which was comprised of 208 micro entrepreneurs, 2,527 small entrepreneurs, 978 medium, and 217 large-sized entrepreneurs.

In addition to HS Produkt, Gold Balance Awards were also awarded to Bovis from Viškovac as the most successful entrepreneur in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, followed by Radlovac from Orahovica in mining and quarrying, HEP Proizvodnja (Production) in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, and Spectra-media from Zagreb for water supply; sewage disposal, waste management and environmental remediation activities.

The most successful retailer, as previously stated, is New Yorker, while the Global food (Globalna hrana) company from Zagreb is the most successful entrepreneur in tourism and hospitality, and in the field of professional, scientific and technical activities, the winner is Booking.com.

Among the construction industry, the Split Road Company was awarded, Zadar Airport was proclaimed the most successful in the field of transport and storage, and Hewlett Packard was awarded by FINA in the field of information and communication activities.

Minister of Economy, Darko Horvat, pointed out that all winners won awards in conditions where there is no improvisation, only the facts and figures referring to the last year in which the Croatian economy grew by 2.6 percent.

Horvat estimated that the first quarter of this year opened a "new perspective" and that the second quarter would be "similar." In the first quarter of 2019, Croatia's GDP grew by 3.9 percent in comparison to the same period last year. He hopes for the economy to grow by 5 percent next.

He pointed out that the competent ministry and Fina worked together on several projects, mentioning the creation of a legislative framework that will allow for e-bills to be exchanged from the beginning of next year through already existing infrastructure.

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It's become somewhat the norm to read about the huge amounts of talent and innovative skills this country has to boast about, from incredibly sporting stars to entrepreneurs, inventors and scientists. For such a small country with a seemingly continually decreasing population, it has a lot to offer. Croatian students are among those who consistently showcase their abilities across a very wide range of skill sets and fields.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 6th of June, 2019, talented and innovative computer game development students at Croatia's Algebra High School have launched a campaign for their interesting new product on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, their product, called Brawlament, was created by these students during this academic year.

The eleven-member team from this highly respected Croatian educational facility went step by step from their initial idea of their product's prototype right up to the realisation of their final product, after which they decided to take advantage of possible crowdfunding opportunities so that they could raise the necessary funds to allow for market entry and eventual commercialisation of this new Croatian game.

With the creation of this new game, the team of inventive creators wanted to revive the ''mood'' of old hits that users are nostalgic for and still very happy to play now when given the chance to.

"The team is made up of a number of game developers, and they may still be students today, but if we look at the campaign phase before the launch on Indiegogo and the campaign phase now, we can honestly say that they really are true game developers.

Our team consists of programmers, 2D and 3D artists, sound artists, and some of them also work on our social networks and websites,'' said Jurica Adamek, a computer science student and assistant in the development of computer games at Algebra.

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As Marta Duic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of June, 2019, Mario and Marijana Bošnjak's entrepreneurial story began nearly twenty years ago. After successful domestic production, this pair of Croatian entrepreneurs started producing gin last year, and they recently opened the Bošnjak Beer&Gin Bar in Nova Gradiška, Slavonia.

"Our entrepreneurial journey began as a hobby, and my husband had had the idea of ​​creating his own product and experimenting in various fields for a long time. He grew up in a family where everyone did everything in the homemade way, from sausages and cakes to bread that his mother had prepared and when he finished college and started working as a forestry engineer, then the idea found him. Back then, we lived with a lady of Czech origin who told him how her grandmother brewed beer, and the bottom of her drawer she found a recipe that was written in an old manuscript, and it had everything that's needed for brewing beer,'' Marijana Bošnjak recalled.

The first beer Mario brewed with his mother in their family home was done in 2000, so we can even go as far as to say that he was a pioneer in the field of Croatian craft beer, which has rapidly gained popularity over the last few years.

Soon after, they started building a place for home-brewing and even launched rural tourism on their estate. "Then, I worked in a tourist agency and the natural idea was to create a home-brewing tasting area combined with rural tourism on the property, with basic beer production. We got support from the Ministry of Agriculture and the 80,000 kuna we got, we used for construction works in the yard. We've created a tasting area in the yard of Marijana's family home, and every year we're upgrading and arranging as much as we can with our finances.

They started with the tasting area in 2008, and it was two years later when they started to receive the first groups of tourists. They also started presenting their products at fairs, both local and in the wider area, including at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce's (HGK) Kupujemo Hrvatsko (Let's buy Croatian) fair, thus bringing their products a wider audience.

Bošnjak explains that there were great challenges ahead of them, because at that time, they were the only ones in that business alongside Velebit Brewery and Pivovar Medvedgrad in the whole of Croatia, and there were no small breweries with whom they could consult. Soon after the tasting was set up and they experienced their very first successes in this field, in 2014, they opened a company because the production had just been part of an OPG until that point.

Then, these Croatian entrepreneurs contracted service production and the whole year round, their beer was filled in bottles and distributed throughout the whole country, but due to the change in excise laws, they quickly returned to smaller production volumes on their own family estate.

"The beer is unfiltrated, not pasteurised, it's a pure live product like fresh milk that needs to be well preserved. Our product is lighter, it doesn't have a lot of hops like other types of beer, which is actually a natural preservative. That's precisely why it's more easily damaged and that's why we don't pack it into bottles, but instead distribute it as a draught beer,'' Bošnjak revealed. Three years ago, they decided to devote themselves to rakija, especially to those made from corn, because in Brod-Posavina County, there's the most of this type of culture more than anywhere else in Croatia.

They've already offered rakija made from beer to their guests in the tasting area, but they didn't like it because they weren't used to it and traditionally they drink more fruit-based rakija such as that made from plums, pears, and so on.

Last year, this pair of Croatian craft beer entrepreneurs launched their MB72 gin, 300 litres in the first year alone, and this year, their latest entrepreneurial act is the opening of the Bošnjak Beer&Gin Bar in Nova Gradiška.

By opening Bošnjak Beer&Gin Bar, they employed waiters as the first employees from outside of their family, this contributing to the local economy.

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Croatian olive oil, particularly that from Istria, is known and respected worldwide as among the best on the planet. Having received numerous awards and recognitions, any lover of this golden liquid (the type that isn't beer, that is), should make sure to pay this stunning region of Croatia a visit.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of June, 2019, in the very heart of olive oil heaven, also known as Istria, lies a sort of elixir of life - virgin olive oil. The Grubić family has been manufacturing and processing such olive oil for several decades and continues to introduce yet more new trends in this competitive industry.

The story of the olive oil made in Bale, Istria, dates back to 1927, as Emanuel Grubić, owner of the oil mill, told Poslovni Dnevnik, describing the date when the first "modern" oil mill was built, which remained in operation for a further 38 years.

It was eventually closed back in 1965, but the Grubić family halted its decay and dilapidation, purchased it and renewed it during the 1990's, and so preserved the rest of the line. There was no complete restoration, but the past and the future of Istrian olive oil and olive growing as a whole can be looked into further within the building's museum, which showcases old exhibits with stone mills, presses, hydraulic pumps and more.

There is also the modern Pieralisi olive processing plant. The museum and the new part are divided by a glass door, behind which lies the ''new'' olive oil experience.

Today, the family from Bale, Istria, deals exclusively with olive oil and cold processing, and they currently work to produce three different olive oil varieties.

"We haven't got large plants and industrial halls, we cultivate two varieties and we concentrate on the quality rather than on the quantity. On our eight hectares [of land], about 1,700 olive trees have been planted, from which ten farmers harvest up to 200 kilograms per day, manually, so that the fruits aren't damaged, as is the case with mechanical harvesting. We produce and sell up to 6,000 bottles a year. These are olives that are over 400 years old,'' Grubić stated, adding that they're also engaged in service activities and therefore process olive oil for their partners, too.

The taste and the top quality of their olive oil has been recognised abroad as well as here in Croatia; having been placed among the best extra virgin olive oils in the entire world, as well as earning other similar titles, numerous times.

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Foreign trade chains operating here in Croatia are increasingly promoting Croatian products and businesses, as well as on other markets on which they operate.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/VLM writes on the 6th of June, 2019, last year, large, medium and small Croatian producers exported their products through Spar Croatia to Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy in the amount of 68 million euros, or more than half a billion kuna, and some of them now appear to be eyeing up a far more distant market - the Chinese one.

Spar's hypermarkets in Rijeka, Zagreb and Zadar were visited by a high delegation consisting of some of the leading people of Spar China, from five Chinese provinces, as well as the president of the China's trade and franchise association, Guo Geping.

The products of selected Croatian suppliers such as Vindija, Kraš, Gavrilović, Dukat, Podravka, Badel and others were looked into and considered as being potentially good to export to the Chinese market. Spar is currently present in seven Chinese provinces with more than 350 stores, with an impressive annual turnover of more than 1.5 billion euros.

However, although intensifying cooperation on exports of foodstuffs from Croatia can be expected, this mostly covers pork and processed products, such poultry and fish, Croatia ad China have signed a protocol on the possibility of exporting milk and dairy products from Croatia to China, after the approval of veterinary certificates.

However, previous experience suggests that Croatian producers, small ones operating within the EU or indeed worldwide, find it much easier to ''penetrate'' the world through Croatian or other leading retail chains already operating on particular markets.

''Trade chains such as Spar, Kaufland and Lidl already enjoy good business cooperation with our manufacturers in Croatia. And of course, it's much easier to transfer these relationships to the other markets where they operate,'' said Ante Madir of the Croatian prosciutto cluster.

He pointed out the fact that it's even better to have Croatian ham and other types of cured meats have a chance of promotion in stores and at leading fairs in other countries such as the Parisian SIAL or Berlin's Grüne Woche.

As business relations between Croatia and China continue to grow stronger, perhaps many of Croatia's best loved domestic products asife from dairy, from Kraš and Gavrilović to Podravka, might find themselves sitting proudly on the shelves of well known chain stores in China.

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June the 5th, 2019 - Mate Rimac is by far one of Croatia's most astonishing entrepreneurial success stories. While many try and few manage to succeed thanks to the endless amounts of red tape the Croatian state likes to place in the way of any possible chance of success, this innovative Croat is one of the very few who was doggedly determined, and ended up experiencing success nobody could have ever expected, much less himself.

Recently, we wrote two articles on filming at Rimac Automobili near Zagreb, one of which involved a British YouTuber, Shmee150, visiting the home of Croatia's miraculous supercars and leaving amazed by its founder, who guided him personally around the factory speaking in perfect English.

The YouTuber was also clearly taken aback by his intimate knowledge of every detail involved in the production that takes place at Rimac Automobili's plant. The fact that all of this was happening in Croatia also came as an obvious shock to the YouTuber, who was more than grateful to the amazing Mate Rimac for his time.

It seems that this extremely talented Croatian entrepreneur born in Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina, got a bit of a taste for filming at his plant, and created a series on what takes place there. Rimac has since uploaded episode one of ''Discover Rimac Today'' on YouTube, where he uploads videos in a series about all the goings on within his company, showing them to the world, with he himself as the guide.

Rimac's success has been barely comprehensible, especially in the face of the common negativity and range of ''impossibilities'' investors and entrepreneurs often find themselves in here in Croatia. The Croatian state's dark and murky waters are apparently no match for Rimac, and his company has experienced a truly incredible level of growth in the last few years while others stagnate in the face of Croatia's outdated, often unforgiving and draconian policies.

Instead of being bogged down in complaining about the state and drinking coffee all day, Rimac just keeps on going. He has now uploaded the second part of his series. Watch it here:

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As Novac/Nikola Patkovic writes on the 3rd of June, 2019, although they've only just stepped out into the often confusing teenage world, they already have virtually defined their life goals. In their case, it's easy to talk about a group of very young girls who are offering the world an outstanding picture of Croatia.

These youngsters from Osijek, sisters Jona and Nika Važić, Helena Floreani and Klara Uranjek, are students from Osijek who are working alongside their counterparts from Đakovo, Iva Mijakić, Ana Švegli and Marina Ćurković. At first glance, the group look no different to your typical group of young girls, who don't appear to differ remotely from their peers. However, if you dig just a little below the surface, surprising and impressive details of the lives of these girls who, when leading by their own example, could be models and a stimulus not only to their peers but also to numerous adults across the country who would prefer to do little else but complain.

Apart from the fact that they are all excellent students with an average of 5.0, all of these young girls have a whole host of additional interests and activities. Volleyball, dance, acting, athletics, gymnastics... these are just some of them. However, the reason they're so interesting lies in what connects them all, namely, programming and robotics.

Jona, Helena, Nika, Klara, Iva, Ana and Marina are the cream of the crop of Croatian programmers and roboticists in the competition of students from the sixth to the eighth grade in elementary school, which has recently been confirmed at the Croatian Super League finalists of the Croatian Makers League organised by Nenad Bakić, who has been the founder and the biggest populariser and developer of STEM area development in Croatian primary schools for a few years now.

After they were declared the best in Croatia last year, Osijek locals Helena, Nika and Klara came to Zagreb last weekend for a competition consisting of 40 teams and around 150 contestants under the guidance of Tomislav Pandurić, where they took home the title of vice-champion, while their friends from  Đakovo, Iva, Ana and Marina, brought the bronze home.

This time, gold went to boys from Križevci, but the girls still went home more than proud of their acheivements.

''Although we didn't manage to defend the title, of course we were satisfied, especially since the competition had also advanced, so it wasn't easy to get such a good result. In addition, the task we had was very difficult, so our success meant more. To be the second in the competition of 40 teams from all over Croatia is a big thing and we're very happy with our performance,'' the youngsters from Osijek are all in agreement and happy with the results.

Their friends from Đakovo also said that they had been expecting a high ranking.

''Because we've been at the top of Croatia for years, as we've now confirmed. However, we had some minor problems and half an hour before the end of the program we realised that we'd be unsuccessful, but in the end, we still managed to get through and we did a good job,'' said the students from Đakovo.

This time, the topic at hand was ecology. All of the teams had the task of programming robots so that they could perform tasks such as waste sorting, as well as hold mutual communication between two robots.

They say it was difficult and a tense experience. They only spent about three hours programming, during which they were left entirely alone and with their knowledge, and mentors could no longer offer any help.

Their task was to program mBoot to pass through a tunnel that changes its lighting level, so the timely detection of that change with the help of a sensor has to be taken into account, not to mention the robot's ability to continue going down its path without hitting the tunnel walls. After that, the robot had to detect the colour of a certain card, each of which meant a different type of waste, and after detecting it, he had to find a cube of the same colour and move it to the place foreseen for that kind of waste. Then, he should send a message to another robot, who should return to the start of the road on the same route. From the results, it's obvious that the girls did their job very well.

When their teacher was asked why this segment is full of girls, and where all the boys are, the teacher laughed and smiled at the successfull girls from Slavonia and said that the girls drive them off when they start talking.

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Click here for the original article by Nikola Patkovic for Novac/Jutarnji