PSIHOLOGIJA USPJEHA Damir Sabol

Guest Damir SabolHosted by Tanja PuretaMay 3, 2026

Damir Sabol

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Damir Sabol has a knack for seeing the future of technology long before it arrives. He founded Iskon, Croatia's first private internet service provider, at a time when most people hadn't even heard of the internet. Later, he launched an e-invoicing service years ahead of market readiness, only to pivot to a mobile app that scans paper bills – a technology now ubiquitous. This pattern of prescience, coupled with a rare ability to ruthlessly cut projects that lack product-market fit, has defined his career. His latest venture, Photomath, recently secured a $200 million investment, a testament to his enduring foresight. But the path was never straightforward. Sabol's story is one of identifying the next big wave, navigating the inevitable market resistance, and making the cold, rational decisions required to stay in motion. Readers will walk away considering the true cost of being too early, the value of direct experience over abstract knowledge, and the hard-nosed discipline required to abandon even deeply personal projects for the sake of a better future.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

In high school, Damir Sabol "didn't really need pocket money because I figured something out," copying games for profit. Entrepreneurial drive isn't always a formal career choice; it often begins as an innate inclination to identify needs and create solutions, even in informal, early contexts.

After years of reading six-month-old American IT magazines, the moment Sabol first "tried the internet" at FER instantly clarified its world-changing potential. "That defined me," he says. Direct, personal experience with a nascent technology often reveals its true power far more effectively than abstract knowledge, becoming a defining moment that shapes a future career.

As the founder of Iskon, Croatia's first private ISP, Sabol expected universal internet adoption in two years. "My foresight was accurate for ten years, not two," he admits. Being first to market with a technically sound idea isn't enough; timing the market's readiness is equally crucial, as even correct long-term predictions can lead to a challenging, ahead-of-its-time launch.

His e-invoicing service failed because "the market wasn't ready," with 90% of people still wanting paper bills. The pivot: an app to pay paper bills by scanning them with a phone camera. When the market resists a new technology, don't force it. Instead, meet users where they are by adapting the technology to their current habits, even if it feels like a step backward – that's how new solutions become ubiquitous.

Sabol describes the difficulty of working on a project for "three or four years and then saying, 'No, not this.'" Yet, he states: "I don't have a problem with that. Emotions need to be removed; it has to be a rational decision." The ability to dispassionately abandon a long-invested project, prioritizing rational market signals over emotional attachment, is a rare and essential skill for entrepreneurs facing a lack of product-market fit.

Sabol explains that his e-invoicing project failed because "we weren't solving a user problem. That's called product-market fit. In my opinion, we didn't..." A technically sound product will struggle without genuine product-market fit, and recognizing this absence, even after significant investment, is a critical step towards re-evaluation and finding a real user need.

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