Mateja Horvat
Episode · #661
POSLOVNA ŠPICA Mateja Horvat
Guest Mateja HorvatHosted by Saša PetarMay 3, 2026
Mateja Horvat
About this episode
What you'll hear in this conversation
For a language often considered 'small,' the market for learning Croatian is substantial, a fact Mateja Horvat understood long before most. When she launched SpeakCRO in 2011, teaching Croatian online to foreigners seemed like a niche bordering on nonexistent; people often asked, 'Who even wants to learn Croatian?' Yet, a decade later, her online school has grown from a single teacher to a team of eight. Horvat's experience reveals how technology can illuminate hidden demand, connecting a scattered global diaspora and new arrivals with a language that matters deeply to them. This conversation explores the unexpected scale of niche markets and the quiet shifts happening right under our noses.
Insights from the conversation
What to take from this episode
01
Mateja recalls that in 2011, when she started SpeakCRO, the most common reaction was, 'Who even wants to learn Croatian?' Yet, the market was clearly there, simply unrecognized by other providers. The absence of competition often signals a market waiting to be served, not a lack of demand.
02
Mateja points out that Google search has only been around since 1998, and smartphones since 2007 — technologies we now take for granted. These relatively recent inventions enable businesses like SpeakCRO to exist, reaching students globally. What seems like a given today was impossible just a few decades ago, creating entirely new business models.
03
SpeakCRO's market is not uniform; it includes second, third, and fourth-generation Croatian diaspora, business people, foreign students, and the non-Croatian speaking family members of all these groups. A niche market is rarely monolithic; understanding its distinct segments is key to designing offerings that truly meet varied needs.
04
Mateja mentions a student from California who wanted to learn Croatian to speak with her grandmother on Korčula, a dialect distinct from standard Croatian. SpeakCRO addresses this by matching students with teachers from specific regions. Hyper-personalization, even in small language markets, addresses specific needs that standard offerings ignore.
05
In 2011, Mateja realized SpeakCRO had almost no competition, despite the online teaching technology having existed for at least a decade. This made her wonder how many other 'fantastic ideas' were hiding in plain sight. The biggest opportunities often come from applying existing, overlooked technology to an unmet need, not from inventing something entirely new.
06
Mateja states that we are currently living through a 'revolution' — not just an industrial one, but a period of profound technological and social change. She predicts this era will be studied centuries from now, much like past revolutions. These periods of rapid, fundamental change offer an abundance of new possibilities that simply did not exist before.