VRIJEME JE ZA GOSPODARSTVO Andrija Čolak

Andrija Čolak has built a career out of spotting the overlooked — from the frustration of finding a boat berth to the simple act of losing an umbrella. His approach isn't about chasing grand, complex ideas, but rather about identifying everyday annoyances and turning them into scalable solutions. He believes that the most impactful businesses often emerge from the "banal and obvious," as long as you're willing to just start and figure things out along the way. He is perhaps best known for Surfin' Fry, a Croatian brand that went from near collapse to operating in twenty countries. But his latest venture, Port Hop, tackles the chaotic "first come, first served" reality of nautical tourism with a simple booking app, much like hotels have had for decades. Čolak’s insights extend beyond individual ventures; he's now a consultant, dissecting why Croatia lags globally in domestic franchise systems, and making a counter-intuitive case for why government intervention is the last thing an emerging industry needs. This conversation explores the surprising origins of successful products, the structural reasons why some economies nurture entrepreneurship more than others, and why, for some businesses, the best thing a state can do is nothing at all.