“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” (African proverb)
On 24 April 2024, the Faculty of Economics and Business in Osijek hosted the presentation of the CroStartup association was held, an organisation that aims to strengthen the start-up community in Croatia, share knowledge and resources, work on removing regulatory barriers to the creation and development of entrepreneurial ventures, and put Croatia on the global map of the start-up community. The presentation was given by Marijana Šarolić Robić, Vice President of the association and one of the founders. Marijana pointed out that the world of start-ups attracted and infected her, “because when you enter it, you realise that anything is possible”.
After the presentation of the association, Ivan Rajković, the founder of the start-up Spectre from Valpovo, which was founded in 2016 and is developing a product in the field of augmented reality technology (“hand tracking technology”), that is recognised on the global market, told his entrepreneurial story. In addition to the story of his entrepreneurial venture, Ivan also shared with the students his thoughts and experiences with the process of starting, managing and developing a business. One of the key messages emphasised highlighted by both Marijana and Ivanis that people are the beginning and the end of every story and that if we want to achieve great things, we cannot do it alone, and that it is important to know how to get back on our feet after failures, which are not really failures, but lessons from which we can learn a lot.
The Faculty of Economics and Business in Osijek is one of the members of the CroStartup association and has been working for many years to promote entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset and to develop entrepreneurial education programmes. Due to its international recognition in this field, it was awarded the UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship Education in 2018.
