PAMETNA HRVATSKA Timothei Jukić; powered by Janaf

Guest Timotej JukićHosted by Boris ŽivkovićMay 3, 2026

Timotej Jukić

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

The rise of the freelance economy brings both promise and complexity. Millions of workers seek autonomy and flexibility, but often face a maze of international payments, tax obligations, and employment status uncertainties. Timotej Jukić, co-founder and regional director of Native Teams, has built a platform to cut through that complexity. His company offers a single solution for global employment, payments, and invoicing, born from the very frustrations he and his co-founders experienced as freelancers themselves. This conversation explores how that integrated approach removes the friction from modern work, allowing individuals to operate globally without the burden of setting up their own companies. You'll leave understanding how a unified platform can redefine the experience of independent work, making it truly flexible and secure.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Native Teams was built "by freelancers for freelancers," as Timotej Jukić puts it, because its founders couldn't find adequate solutions for payment, employment, or taxes. The best products often emerge not from spotting a market gap, but from solving your own most acute and personal problem.

Before Native Teams, freelancers had payment tools or self-employment solutions, but "there was nothing where everything was in one place" to address several aspects simultaneously. The true innovation isn't always a new function, but the consolidation of existing, fragmented services into a seamless whole.

A freelancer using Native Teams receives an employment contract, pays contributions through the platform, invoices clients, and gets their net earnings directly to their bank account, all "without opening a company." The most valuable service for independent professionals often isn't new revenue streams, but the complete removal of administrative overhead.

While the working style is different, the legal status of a freelancer using Native Teams is "a normal employee-employer relationship," as Jukić explains, under local laws. True flexibility in modern work doesn't always require inventing new legal categories; it often means adapting existing frameworks to new realities.

Although the IT industry forms the "vast majority" of Native Teams' clients, Jukić notes they are now serving "several different industries," including journalists. If your solution solves a fundamental problem, its applicability will expand beyond your initial target, signaling a wider market than you first imagined.

Asked if "freelancer" is merely a nicer term for "precarious worker," Jukić responds, "I wouldn't necessarily agree with that," arguing it's simply a different way of working that suits some individuals. The perception of non-traditional work depends entirely on whether it's a choice driven by autonomy or a default born of necessity.

The pandemic "changed the whole scene" for remote work, Jukić observes, "forcing many companies to switch to this way of working" and realize its viability. Often, the fastest way to accelerate adoption of a new work model is an external shock that removes the option of maintaining the status quo.

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