PAMETNA HRVATSKA Davorin Ambruš, Marko Šimić i Vedran Bilas, powered by Janaf

Guest Davorin, Marko i VedranHosted by Marijana MatkovićMay 3, 2026

Davorin, Marko i Vedran

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Forget the image of the twenty-something founder fueled by ramen and ambition. The most successful entrepreneurs, according to MIT research, are often closer to forty, bringing a depth of industry experience to their ventures. This perspective, shared by the dean of FER, Vedran Bilas, grounds the story of inMSense – a deep-tech company spun out of the university, developing advanced mine detection technology. Davorin Ambruš, Marko Šimić, and Vedran Bilas, all researchers and founders, discuss how years of academic work at FER translated into a life-saving mission, recognized by the NATO DIANA accelerator. They offer a rare look into the long, patient road from scientific inquiry to impactful technology, and the university's role in nurturing it.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

MIT's research on successful entrepreneurs in the U.S. showed they were typically forty-year-olds, bringing previous industry experience to their ventures. The businesses that scale are often built not just on fresh ideas, but on years of accumulated practical knowledge and a seasoned understanding of a sector, proving that experience, not just youth, drives enduring success.

FER has licensed intellectual property from its research to about thirty companies over the last decade, founded mostly by its own researchers. The university's model isn't designed to get rich from these spin-offs, but to keep talent within its ecosystem and attract new financial resources that wouldn't exist otherwise.

Behind what inMSense does are years of serious research work, combining seemingly disparate disciplines like computational electromagnetism and artificial intelligence. Deep tech ventures are not overnight successes; they demand a significant, patient investment in interdisciplinary academic grounding before any commercial product can emerge.

Our path towards this technology, which we hope will save lives, began about thirteen years ago, explains Davorin Ambruš, responding to a question about whether inMSense is 'too late' for Croatia's demining. Developing critical deep technology is a long-haul commitment, often initiated by foundational research and non-commercial funding long before market readiness, as the problem extends beyond any single country's timeline.

The first project that really paved our way was funded by the late Sir Bobby Charlton's foundation from Great Britain, making FER the first institution outside the UK to receive such support. For deep tech with a humanitarian focus, early-stage development often depends on mission-aligned grants and non-traditional funding, proving the concept before commercial investors are typically interested.

FER's mission is to strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit in students, encouraging them early on to create ideas, share them, communicate, discuss, and commit to realizing them. Fostering an entrepreneurial mindset within academia is about cultivating initiative and problem-solving, not just about launching companies; the business outcome is a byproduct of this broader intellectual development.

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