Zijad was born in Dvor na Uni and finished primary school in Banovina. Informatics and architecture have always been his great loves, so he decided to enrol at FOI in Varaždin and continue his studies there.
It All Started With Web Programming
He got his first computer at the age of 15, which turned out to be a very good investment, considering that a year later he started working on websites and earned his first salary, which, as he notes, was much better than his parents' salary. This was a motivation to start doing web programming.
Zijad freelanced throughout high school and partook in many school competitions. In his third year of college, he decided to try his hand at entrepreneurship. He opted for a start-up; he opened his own company and graduated from college in parallel. At one point he employed 11 people in his firm, and it seemed he could not get better.
This experience taught him many things – from how to find and fill a market niche, how to launch a product on the market, to management skills and leading a team of 11 people. Soon even more beautiful changes took place in his life – his son was born. The time has come to find a safer job in this post-crisis period – when it was somewhat harder for small firms to get serious jobs – and take care of his family.
In 2014, he came to Zagreb with his family, where he immediately found a job in a corporation and experienced product management at the enterprise level, where there are large teams which work for large companies.
Why Zijad Decided to Join Serengeti Team?
He joined Serengeti at the recommendation of a former colleague who presented him with the idea of developing the first Serengeti product, which seemed like a big challenge, so he decided to join us.
Not long after, a good friend with whom he had originally started his start-up also joined Serengeti – which was a winning combination for us.
Zijad is currently on the position of Chief Development Engineer and is credited with developing our first product – a rapid application development platform that provides the entire infrastructure needed for operations and product development and saves product development time by up to 80%.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit – The Foundation of Success
He also expresses his entrepreneurial spirit by taking care of his bees. Yes, you read that right. Our Zijad is very versatile, so he started his family farm Castania almost 10 years ago in Banovina, which is an area extremely suitable for beekeeping. He currently has a honey bottling plant in Petrinja, and our offices in Serengeti are full of his sweet products.
Zijad loves traveling and excursions in nature, barbecuing with friends, fishing, and in his free time, he enjoys manual woodworking. “Think outside the box” is his main motto, and he strives not to be mainstream by any means.
