·
All episodes
Ivan Bešlić
Episode · #703

PSIHOLOGIJA USPJEHA Ivan Bešlić

Guest Ivan BešlićHosted by Tanja PuretaMay 3, 2026
About this episode
What you'll hear in this conversation

Ivan Bešlić, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SofaScore, began building what would become a global sports data platform not with a grand vision, but with a simple principle: "always do something new." This relentless pursuit of the next best thing wasn't a luxury; it was a survival strategy born from watching every previous digital platform—from MySpace to forums—eventually fade. His story isn't about avoiding failure, but embracing it. Bešlić and his co-founder Zlatko Hrkač have launched and retired countless projects over the years, including an app for the now-defunct Windows Phone. What remained was a habit of constant iteration, a daily commitment to making something "a little better than what it was the previous day." This approach allowed them to scale SofaScore from tracking top-tier leagues to enabling parents to log data for their children's amateur matches, all driven by user demand. You’ll hear how this everyday discipline, rather than theoretical business strategy, shaped a company that now aims to capture "every game in the world."

Insights from the conversation
What to take from this episode
01
SofaScore started by taking "something that already existed, but a little better" – specifically, bringing live sports results from clunky websites to early smartphones. The fastest way to a new category isn't always invention; it's often out-executing incumbents on one key dimension, like mobile accessibility.
02
Bešlić lists MySpace, personal blogs, and forums as projects he and his co-founder launched and watched fail, alongside a Windows Phone app that no longer exists. The lesson isn't just to move on from failures; it's to constantly reinvent, because "if we stayed with what we were doing, there was a very high chance it might no longer exist."
03
Faced with limited resources, Bešlić says "it's necessary to miss some opportunities to create space for new things that are coming." The counter-intuitive truth is that you can't regret the opportunities you didn't pursue; focus is what allows you to become the best at what you *do* choose to do.
04
The user base for SofaScore spans from Zlatko Dalić, coach of the Croatian national football team, to everyday fans tracking niche sports like water polo and women's tennis. The true market for sophisticated data isn't just one segment; it's a spectrum from elite professionals refining their strategies to casual enthusiasts following everything that matters to them.
05
After exhausting top-tier data sources, SofaScore developed the SofaScore Editor app, allowing parents to input live data for their children's amateur matches. This model of user-generated content for "lower leagues" expands market reach beyond what central teams can collect, turning every fan into a potential data contributor.
06
The idea for user-generated data came directly from emails where users wanted to track both Real Madrid and their local team, and from players sending in their own photos to update outdated profiles. The most valuable product extensions often come not from market research, but from listening to explicit, even niche, requests from your most engaged users.
07
Users "want some perfection of data," a desire Bešlić compares to correcting Google Maps opening hours. While true perfection is unattainable, this user drive for accuracy creates a powerful self-correction mechanism, where a community will actively improve the data if they feel ownership over its quality.
08
Bešlić traces his entrepreneurial mindset not to business books, but to a childhood where, like his co-founder, he had to chop wood for a stove to stay warm. This "do it yourself" upbringing instilled a habit of daily incremental improvement—just "making something a little better than what it was the previous day"—which proved more impactful than any theoretical strategy.
Explore further
ScenariosBusiness challengesCardsEducational cardsTimelineTopic evolution