PAMETNA HRVATSKA Ana Fresl

Guest Ana FreslHosted by Boris ŽivkovićMay 3, 2026

Ana Fresl

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Public procurement often conjures images of opaque processes and favoritism. But what if the deeper challenge isn't corruption, but the raw economics of inflation, scarce labor, and full order books? Ana Fresl, director of Projekt Jednako Razvoj, has spent years advising both public buyers and private bidders on the intricacies of government contracts. She argues that today's procurement landscape is shaped less by backroom deals and more by the simple fact that 'suppliers are full of work' and often reluctant to bid at all. This intimate understanding of market dynamics led her firm to build Matea, an application designed to bring clarity and efficiency to public tenders. Matea aggregates and filters vast amounts of public data, giving companies a clear view of past contracts, current opportunities, and future plans – a strategic advantage in a complex market. This conversation cuts through the usual platitudes about public spending, offering a grounded perspective on how real-world market forces are reshaping who bids, what gets bought, and for how much. You will walk away with a sharper understanding of the practical challenges facing both sides of the public contracting table.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

The Matea application doesn't discover new public procurement data; it takes what is already public and organizes it. The innovation lies not in access to information, but in transforming scattered records into structured, actionable intelligence for potential bidders.

With 23,000 contracts signed annually and 18% of Croatia's GDP flowing through public procurement, the market is larger than many realize. This scale means government spending represents a significant, often overlooked, commercial opportunity for a wide array of domestic businesses.

Matea organizes information into 'yesterday, today, and tomorrow,' showing past contracts, current tenders, and future procurement plans. This approach proves that strategic sales in complex markets are built not just on responding to open calls, but on understanding historical trends and anticipating future demand.

Matea is offered as an affordable annual subscription, built for a mass market rather than a select few. This pricing strategy suggests that for a data product to be truly effective, accessibility and widespread adoption are as important as the quality of the data itself.

Her firm, Projekt Jednako Razvoj, began in 2009 by advising clients on how to secure and manage EU funds. This initial work, which required guiding clients through public procurement to spend those budgets, demonstrates how solving one complex client problem can organically lead to expertise and new product creation in an adjacent market.

"In four out of five construction bids, no offer is below the estimated value," the guest notes. This stark reality reveals that the core problem in public procurement is often less about corruption and more about inflation, full supplier backlogs, and a genuine scarcity of competitive bids.

A recent client was quoted a year to a year and a half for an electric vehicle delivery. This example illustrates how global supply chain disruptions and extended lead times for essential goods are becoming a significant, often underestimated, obstacle in public procurement, complicating project execution more than typical administrative delays.

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