Marin Medak

Even before graduating from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in 2016, he had been on a number of sports expeditions and gained diverse entrepreneurial experience.

The most resounding expeditions involved him rowing across the Atlantic and across the Eastern Mediterranean, which he was the first in the world to do. On his first expedition, he was accompanied by three other sea enthusiasts, with whom he set out in 2012 on a 45-day journey from the Canary Islands all the way to Barbados, under the sponsorship of Tuš. He raised a substantial portion of the funds for the expedition by designing nine niche websites for the Italian market, which enabled him to raise as much as EUR 25,000. On his second expedition he was joined by Huw Kingston, an Australian, with whom he confronted harsh weather conditions, which is why Marin says this undertaking was his most challenging thus far.

Marin records these adventures on his blog, which he publishes on his website, where information about his business successes can also be found.

A business project he started in 2013 is especially interesting, as this is where Marin first combined his passion for water sports with the world of business. He established a brand of key rings shaped like different boats, called Hobkey, and achieved great success as these now bring joy to sports enthusiasts in as many as 34 countries worldwide.

So far, Marin Medak has also established two start-ups. The first was founded in 2014 and was called Oivo. It involved the making of a small, elegant and practical iPhone charger, which looked like a regular key ring. The project was posted on Kickstarter, but unfortunately a few fateful mistakes at the stage of entering the market meant the project was not successful. He tried again, with the same team, in early 2019, and set up an online store called Della Spina, which enables the purchase of prescription glasses at about half the cost of those in a regular optician’s shop. The team succeeded in this because they have their own laboratory, produce the frames themselves and work without any intermediaries. In addition to a lower price, Della Spina stands out because it enables the option of testing three models of glasses for a period of one week, whereby the customer is not obligated to purchase them. The project is currently extremely successful, leading the team to open their first actual shop in July 2019, with plans for expansion to the Italian market in 2020.