My Professional Scrum Training
This week it was time for education. As we are using the Scrum framework in Sprend, so first I had an opportunity to learn about it in real practice. It was interesting to find out that the term "Scrum" was first used by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in their ground-breaking 1986. paper “The New New Product Development Game“. They borrowed the name from the game of rugby to stress the importance of teams in complex product development.
This online course was organised by Agilist IT & Scrum.org with a great trainer Ana Roje Ivančić. For two whole days, we learned, practiced and overcoming obstacles. In a team from several countries: Slovenia, Romania, Argentina and Croatia. It's nice to know that Scrum is not something like a set of rules, it's a philosophy that allows us freedom. When I started to read the guide, one sentence of Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland stuck in my head: "We are humbled to see Scrum being adopted in many domains holding essentially complex work, beyond software product development where Scrum has its roots." To use word "humble" shows us what should be a part of us. How we should respect, feel and listen to the other people around us. When we talk about the team of people, they'll never become a real team if we can't achieve more than usual.
It is necessary to see in people what they may not even see sometimes. Praise them for their qualities. Not to react sharply to their failures but as an opportunity to learn. All of this may already sound worn out or simple, but in fact, it is still unattainable often. If we have that base to which we apply Scrum, we are on the side of success. In every sense, business and human.
After six unknown people from different parts of the world collaborated for two days, we said goodbye. There was no opportunity or time for more than a greeting, but at the last minute, as if it was hard for us to disconnect. And that’s when I first realized what online means. One button makes you leave. I walked out of the building, looked around, people were ordering food at a nearby fast food, children were entering the music school, cars were sliding down the street, and I felt like it's hard to disconnect for a real. With much more knowledge and a sense that learning needs to continue.
A new sprint is starting.
Days & Weekends
There is a lot on Fridays. Happiness, hope, expectations, high spirits. Perhaps we should make the most important decisions on that very day when we have the most optimism. In the case of absence, it will easily happen that we take it from others around us.
Mondays are hated by the whole world. It's not easy to be the first day in a week. But to be honest, it's not easy to be first in anything. Recently I've heard a great theory about Tuesday. My colleague claims that Tuesdays are even worst. They're not Mondays, so there's no simple reason to hate them. It's not the beginning of the week but we're not in the middle yet. It's a day you’re just waiting for to pass. We have no opinion about Wednesdays. Except that according to them, we measure how the first part of the week is over and the one we prefer follows.
Even if you love your job, you are not immune to those world's feelings. However, it's Saturday tomorrow, a day you decide for yourself.
Sprend wishes you a great weekend!
Who's standing behind Sprend?
Arne Evertsson
If you would like to know who's the captain of Sprend, here is the answer. It's Arne Evertsson, a developer speaking Esperanto and Croatian (one of the hardest languages in the world). Since always, he had a wish, to make a business of his own. As they say: "Fortune favours the bold" and he made it. Today, Sprend is expanding, having a Stockholm and Pula office.
Who is Arne? To know that, the best way it would be reaching in his childhood, but we'll skip that for now. In his early twenties, at the university, Arne made an educational game "Metris". He had his first job in 1995. and he was a freelancer in 1998. His first file-manager application called „UploadFolder“ was made in 2000.
But except for knowledge and talent, Arne likes to mention the ones who were together with him on the path of creating Sprend. Some of them working with him for shorter periods, others for longer but in the end, he managed to create Sprend - a company for sending large files with great business philosophy. Christoffer, Joakim and Stefan were those people, standing beside Arne at one point. Everyone who ever wanted to build something by himself knows how support is requisite. Tanja Evertsson was this strength all the way.
Today, Sprend's team of five is working with motivating business philosophy, in a stimulating, stress-free surrounding with a lot of humor. The one who brings it is in most cases is Arne himself.
“Metris” educational game Arne made in 1993.
T: Was it hard to let other people in Sprend?
A: No, not at all. I was searching for people for years. Sometimes I think that I spent too much time on that. Finding them, taking time to meet them, but in the end, very few were the right ones for Sprend. Maybe they didn't find the idea interesting enough (laughing).
T: Can we talk a little bit about leading people? I need to say, I noticed at our meetings that there are always much more things you have done than you are saying out loud. In general, people do the opposite.
A: Is that a question?
T: No, you're right, it's not. It's my noticing, and I know you would never say it for yourself. So I needed to. Do you find it easy for people to work with you?
A: Not at all. There were people who didn't like it. I'm very stubborn. And I'm a perfectionist. But also, I believe that in companies the hardest thing can be when the small problems became big problems. Like: "I'm the owner and I have a demand". Then you have classical "us" and "them", the owner and the employees.
T: What is your way then?
A: My golden rule is to behave toward others as you would like them to behave to you. Honesty is the quality I appreciate. Always stay honest. Things can be simple. When I speak with my customers on the phone, if they have some obstacle, I'm always trying to help and if that doesn't work, I offer them money back. You know, when someone is completely honest, people can feel it. In general, they never want their money back and in the end, we always find a great solution. You have many services when you get no reply emails, why? Is that polite? If you have a problem is it good to send a message: "Thanks for contacting us, but we don't want to speak about it now". We need to be available.
T: You're letting people make mistakes, not expecting perfection in every step of a working process, why is that?
A: By making mistakes people learn. It's very human to want to avoid pain, if you know there'll be punishment, you'll try to avoid it. But be able to talk to your boss, that's something.
T: How would you describe Sprend to someone who has never heard of it?
A: When you are feeling lost and lonely and a stranger turns to you, smiles, and says, would you like to join us? But in simple boring terms: Sprend helps you send files that are too large to fit in an email.
This is how our Pula office looks like
We had empty walls. Our space for making an office. The place in which we'll work, have new ideas, make our lives better and I always imagine, in some forty years this will be a building that retired me will pass on the way to the green market, thinking: it was one of the best jobs I ever had. But before future carrots, broccoli, fish, or salad, this is a short video about how it was and how it is today:
Sprend's customer support service - a real thing, not a myth
A topic about customer support services deserve to have a song. I really don't know how anyone yet didn't write one about such an important feeling: desperation while you're trying to reach it. It would become a huge hit. Millions of people would sympathize. It would be number one during the working part of the week. Then it would fell to second place, because of an even greater one: "Why are weekends passing so fast?". And on a third-place after, you're guessing the title: "Oh no, it's Monday again!".
To whom could you complain if the service for complaints is not answering you? Let's start from the beginning. It's a familiar feeling for all of us. Part of the story where we need to decide will we buy something and that is the last time that we'll have control over the situation. This light and great feeling. Everything is possible and our life will be changed after. No matters are we buying a toothpick (which is a really important thing in certain moments) or a house. Only in the case we walk away at that point, without buying it, this will become a perfect product for us. Our memory will bring it to perfection. But we don't have time for the imagination of feelings. The things are simple, we need something and it needs to fulfill the purpose.
It's not easy to stand behind the product or service after selling it. Not to make people feeling good only in those 10 minutes before buying it, but also, the whole time after. Be real. Even with the best ones, sometimes we have questions about it, but does it often looks any different than standing on the high hill and shouting it into the void? This echo we hear after is the same question returning to us, instead of the service providers.
Sprend has a different way from the beginning of its existence. Arne Evertsson, the founder, is still one of those who you'll get on the phone or by email, very easily if you have any questions regarding sending large files. Today, Tanja and Karin are the ones who joined him. No matter if you're using Sprend for free, or you're a paying, PRO user with more advantages, you'll get help. With our servers in Sweden, you can send large files easily, securely and fast.
With Sprend, you don't need to climb a mountain. Only if you like it and if you do it for sport.
And what after March 8th?
On the day when we started to think about this topic, Rosa Luxemburg was born. It's Friday, March 5th. Years and years passed after her, and a lot of things should have been changed. But is there something new we could tell? Probably not.
Croatia, like many other countries in the world, came to the absurd. Flowers on March 8th have lost their true symbolism. If the flowers themselves knew the reasons for giving it on that important day, it would just wither. If the struggle living inside of us could scream, the sound would be loud and painful. If the fear and limitations of men and women who still oppose women's rights and achievements could be painted, the canvas would be left blank because such ideas are leaving nothing behind. But yet, they're the most dangerous ones.
March 8th is the day of those who continue to fight every day. And the flowers are theirs but not the world. So let’s trade flowers for the world.
Our online Christmas party and how we beat 2020.
At the end of the strange year of 2020. we had an idea of how to steal the fun and make an online party. The initial thought was to gather a few of us to make a toast. "Why not bigger?" it was a magical touch of Tanja. Very soon we had a plan for how to invite all the ones who helped us in a process of starting with the Sprend office in Pula.
The first thing I saw when I joined was Karin's Christmas dress and a glass of wine. I haven't seen that image in a while since bars and restaurants are shut down in Croatia. My sister Petra was there, she helped us with her advice, support and sharing her brilliant analog photos with us. My brother Andrej who made a great job with the survey amongst the students at his university and my father, who was something like a great keeper of Sprend from the beginning, on the way of founding. A retired banker who still adores his job and credit rates are still one of his favorite topics.
It may seem that I gathered my whole family here, but I didn't. That's just half of it.
Tanja and Arne, masterminds of Sprend. Ratomir, our new member in the role of a developer in the Croatian office. Amir as the character who assembled all the IKEA furniture, and at the end of this task, he was sitting in the office and thinking about what would be like to become a carpenter instead of teaching and writing books. You can not say that Sprend doesn’t change lives. Not to forget our special guest: cinnamon rolls representing Swedish spirit in Croatia. The first time I tasted them was last summer made by chef Dennis, a 15-year-old, already great person.
Everything went so natural during our online party, small talks, laugh (especially at Arne’s stories; there is a rumor you can hear that laugh even today in some parts of Pula) and a very important part: Tanja's presentation, mentioning and thanking the ones who were on this path with us. Very emotional, showing how people who don't even know each other can make unity and make things bigger.
I lived again through those beautiful two days with Tanja and her friend Johanna when they came to Pula in October for a firm founding. After they traveled for an enormous number of hours and the hardest rain in the recent history of Pula was not welcoming them, they were bright and positive. Johanna is the person you meet and from the first second, you know there'll be pleasant and interesting talks. I felt I'll miss them on my walks when they'll go back home. Johanna was the only person who was charmed by the old facades of buildings in a center of Pula. That can describe her approach to everything.
So I'm writing this down, not to bother a reader with the things that maybe are not so interesting for the ones outside of this group. My intention was to say how we have never missed other people like today. With no enough social life, we intensify activities within our homes or in nature. But in the end, we need interaction, parties and fun. So we made it. Even online, even with all the things happening around us, we were happy, entertained and it was for real, not only to satisfy the form. It was a good year for Sprend and it ended in the same spirit.
I hope that very soon it'll be possible to gather people for real. To hug without a fear, to travel, or to stay at home because it’ll be our decision and no obligation. We expect simple happiness.
In that spirit, Sprend team wishes you all the best in 2021!
What students want from their first job
Pay junior developers only in cake. That’ll keep ’em happy.
In preparation for hiring our first developer, Sprend cooperated with Andrej Gardijan on a survey of computer science students' expectations on their first regular job. The participants are students of University of Rijeka Faculty of Engineering.
The method and full result is available on Andrej’s GitHub page, Student Poll. Being the geek he is, all charts were created by code written in Python. 💻😎🐍📊
The purpose of the survey was to make sure our job offer exceeded expectations. I was most curious about the preferred salary level, on the office, and if there were any surprising needs or wishes.
Sprend’s plans for the office was to find a city center location, because that’s where I would like to work myself. Pula isn’t Zagreb so the traffic situation is different. Also, I highly recommend walking or cycling to work which makes you immune to traffic jams anyway. The survey says that 4 out of 5 students prefer a downtown location. Our address in Pula is Mletačka ulica 12 which certainly qualifies as downtown.
When it comes to the office itself almost two thirds prefer an open area workspace instead of private office. The best way is probably to give each person a choice. If you prefer an open area you also sometimes need a private workspace, and vice versa. An exciting development in Pula is the planned co-working building. Co-working can give the advantages of working for small company while also providing the social context of a bigger company.
The salary is obviously an important so we made our salary formula public (or should we call it a public beta).
When it comes to surprises in the survey results there isn’t much to talk about. Rather unsurprisingly, the students want flexible work hours, ability to work from home, the opportunity to learn and improve, decision-making power, and respect from colleagues.
A shocking disappointment is that students do not want free pie. I’ll eat it myself then. Here is the chart of the progress I’ve made so far.
The sprend.com server is powered exclusively by lemon pie. Illustration by Vikki Claflin.
The foundation of everything
This is what Tanja believes we should think about before arguing about which methodology is the best one.
The picture was taken in Brijuni National Park. Here we can talk about foundations…
We can talk about project management methodologies and development processes, but we must not forget that those are made for people and used by people.
Any methodology's success depends on its clarity, but it depends on people using it even more. I believe that a group of people who respect each other and commit to the same goal can succeed with any methodology.
So before discussing the optimal ways of working, let us talk about values.
Many years ago, I worked for a Swedish retailer where I was in charge of the IT software department. For almost two years, we didn't lose any single employee. I got curious why, so we gathered for a workshop, where I asked everybody a few questions: Why do you like to work here? What are we doing right?
Usually, you get invited to this kind of workshop where things are going wrong, but I like to do things differently.
The meeting resulted in something we called "department framework" - a very concrete set of values that we recognised in our organisation. We were not just talking; we were living according to those things. They are still my big inspiration, and I often return to them.
So, now when we were about to start a company in Croatia, these ideas were a big inspiration for us when we compiled our foundation of values, which we call The Sprend Manifesto.
Here is what we at Sprend believe is needed for people to achieve miracles:
Tolerance - Treat each other with respect and tolerance. People are different, and nobody is perfect.
Responsibility - Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions, choices, and commitments.
Fearlessness - Dare to discuss problems instead of pretending that problems don't exist.
Proudness - Believe that your colleagues go to work every day with the intention to produce great stuff that they can be proud of.
Leadership - Realise that it is not possible to require great results from people, but it is possible to motivate them to achieve miracles.
Respect - Respect yours colleague's private life and family life. They choose how much and what they want to share.
And to all of you guys that worked with me for a big Swedish retailer, thank you for helping me to become a better leader and a better human being. You know who you are.
What we all deserve
The photo was taken by analog photography lover Petra Gardijan & her comrade Zorki 4K.
Since our kindergarten, we are listening and waiting for someone to explain the rules. So we can behave. And stay polite, together with the other qualities we should have. In the very next moment, the world is expecting our reaction and therefore the action. Without warning. It's at least confusing. But we manage since we learn. Starting to realise that we're a part of an organized society and we feel much more closer to the adult world.
Then we became one. Of course, it's not easier. While before, we were part of groups, now we are individuals, flying into the first, second, third, a randomly formed group of people. Again, we learn the rules, we respect boundaries and the rest we all know. It's not easy to tell anymore what is our decision or someone else's. Should we even tell our opinion since we've tried so many times without results? Maybe we could save time.
But what if one day, someone listens to you? At the moment you have an important task, a person has confidence in you. Without checking or controlling it in a crucial moment. It happens if you're lucky to meet the ones who know how to lead but also how to inspire. So you get surprised, still waiting for someone to control you. But that's not coming. Instead, great results are. So you're thinking, what shall I do next? I'll find even a bigger task. We all deserved it.
Space Oddity
Tihana and Tanja get creative with office furnishing and decoration.
Space designing can be an interesting, fun, or sometimes even dangerous thing for human relations. One can never know what to expect.
We started planning the design of our office in Pula. Chairs, tables, colours, preferences, styles and measures. It would be good to start with measures. So we did. The rest was pretty much fun. When you realise that you work with a person who easily finds entertainment in a lot of things, it becomes magic. Till this moment, I always thought that I'm inclined to exaggerate with styles and wishes, so I tried to bring that back in balance. But completely unnecessary. Tanja not only supported me in each unusual suggestion, but she had it even more. At that moment I realised that her sentence: "Only a sky is a limit" is a vivid thing.
We're waiting for our furniture to come. One last thing is how to approach the entrance with an eight tons truck in a center of Pula. A small thing for us.
The beauty of IT change and those who remember it
The photo was taken by analog photography lover Petra Gardijan & her comrade Zorki 4K.
Today we're used to being fast, to be effective, and multitasking. Sometimes I wonder, what would my grandfather think of me? That I have superpowers or that I’m tormenting myself?
Recently I've heard a story about the journey of an engineer and IT professor in the seventies. Flying to Paris for a technological fair. While hearing quite a noise, you could see your arm veins spreading due to the pressure. So many things happened after this flight. People often say that everything was different back then. But not him. What he sees are the difference and progress. In the eighties, he was a part of replacing analog with digital technology. He notices: "It was hard to see those valuable parts, throwing away. But when things are not using the purpose anymore, they need to be replaced with something else, with progress."
Another person we talked to about this topic is our translator and retired English teacher. She has very vivid memories of typing machines. Deleting and copy-pasting was impossible back then. Loud sounds, no typing during the night because of the neighbors' peace. Indigo paper was something you needed to have in your house, blue fingers a part of the process.
But what is in common with those people? Their understanding of the world changes. Still having knowledge, strength, and will for progress. It seems that the ones who participated in this journey will never say how they don't understand today's world. They'll try. They'll ask and they'll respect it. That's why they get even more interesting to us. If they can time machine, shouldn't we too? I'm sure my grandfather would also understand.
That should be the power of IT.
The power of common sense
Tanja shares the secret of The One and Only Project Management method. Or does she?
During my years in the world of software project management, I've been thinking a lot about how come that we so often believe that different methodologies and processes will save us and provide us with a path to eternal happiness and success. History is repeating itself, again and again. You probably remember all these (expensive) RUP, PRINCE2, PROPS, Agile, SAFE evangelists from the numerous (expensive) training sessions telling you just that.
The answer is probably that we are humans, and we like simple solutions. A methodology, described in books and diagrams might look complex, but compared to life, it is simple. It is humans who do software development; it is supposed to model life, which makes it far more complex. When I present a project plan, the only prediction that I would dare to put my life on is that things will not be like I've just explained. My audience usually laughs when I say that, but I'm deadly serious.
You will always meet surprises and challenges, and you need to deal with those. How? I propose "common sense" project management.
The term "common sense" was first defined by Aristotle. He said that humans were the only animals on the planet equipped with a sense of logic and that everyone is born with the potential to think logically, ie, the logical sense is common sense.
When I think about common sense, I think of three things:
Facts first
A refusal of a single and only truth
Always practical and workable
Get the facts. Respect the complexity
Common sense is about dealing with the world as it really is, not how you feel it should be. Don't try to squeeze the reality into the methodology diagrams; try to adjust the diagrams to fit your world.
Get facts, check your sources, and think with your own head. The point is to solve the problem, not to become a methodology slave.
Refuse a single and only truth
I can't stop thinking that the creators of many software development methodologies are often called evangelists. I guess that is because they often want us to believe in their truth, the one and only.
I remember the SCRUM training that I attended many years ago. The teacher, one of the founders of SCRUM, spent quite a lot of time during the course to neglect and make fun of RUP and waterfall project methods that were popular some time ago. The thing was that one of the participants on the course was the son of one of the RUP founders. The poor guy didn't dare to say his name loudly; he just whispered it when he was asked to present himself, hoping that nobody will hear it properly. He was ashamed because of his father's heritage and work.
I don't want to go there. We need to show respect for our predecessors. Of course, they did many things right. There is no only one truth. Actually, having only one truth is a dangerous thing. The secret is in cherrypicking the best parts, based on facts, logic, and experience, do it the scientific way.
Make it practical and workable
Common sense is factual and practical. It is scientific and pragmatic. Project management, based on common sense, is about creating and using practical and workable ways of work. Don't overdo it just because the method is telling you to do so.
It doesn't seem so hard, does it? But sometimes, the simplest things are the hardest. Let me try to explain my "common sense" way in some future posts.
When you find a story in a cup of coffee
Where is the best coffee in town? Let’s find out.
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” T.S. Eliot
Some days are passing highly inspired, in some of them, we're in search of it. Brilliant ideas, practical solutions, something effective to be satisfied with ourselves and our work. Small things can always help in that process. Coffee could be one of the solutions. If the intention is to go out of the office, to take a walk and get one of the best cups in town, who knows on which corner the inspiration could find you. That's the main concept of our brilliant idea maker, Arne. So, exactly from Stockholm, he discovered Calm Wins Coffee & Cocktails in the center of Pula.
If you ask me, and I live there, I wouldn't know that the place exists. High quality, great tasting coffee. And here's the story about it: "Coopedota was founded in 1960. in Costa Rica. Currently has 900 farmers with families and it's an integral part of the development of a community of more than 8000 people".
Sometimes the magic is in Arne's code, sometimes in Tanja's remarkable skills of leading or Karin's brightness and humor. And some days it can be just in a cup of coffee. Wish you the best of luck with finding yours.
And Sprend d.o.o was born
Sprend has officialy come to Pula. Here is the short report from the day when it all happened.
A wise man once said: Even the longest journey starts with the first step.
After weeks of preparations and a journey trough todays’s Europe with changing flight schedules, empty airports and heavy rain, but also with a great taste of adventure and excitement, Tihana and me finally gathered in Pula to do this first step - register Sprend d.o.o, a subsidary of our swedish company, that will help us to build an even greater service for our customers.
Starting a company is like constructing a building. If the building is a one story building it will require certain footings to be dug. However, if you are going to build a 50 story building, it will require a completely different type of foundation. We want to build a skyscraper. What is the better place to find the inspiration for that than Pula, a town full of 2 000 years old ancient remains, still standing there and reminding us of past times.
Everything was perfectly planned and organised by Tihana, so the only thing left for me was to sign lots of papers. In fact, my only worry was if my signature would look similar on all these papers :-) People we met were kind, friendly and well prepared. It felt that Pula was welcoming Sprend with open arms.
After the formal part was done, we also had time to check a coffee shop that we would like to cooperate with, and our new office space at Mletačka 12. The office is still empty and the next important step will be to transform it to the greatest work space ever. So stay tuned!
We ended this exciting day with dinner at Farabuto, together with Johanna, our great friend and a source of positive energy, and Tarita, a girl that will help us with financial matters here in Croatia.
So from now, there is only one way - forward. We start where we are, with what we have, and we are confident that this will lead us into something great.
The developers I want to work with
I want to work with developers who care about what they make, product developers.
The amazing Shinkansen train at Shin-Osaka station in June 2015.
I want to work with developers who care about what they make. Developers make software, and software is a tool. A tool needs to be sharp, not break, easy to use, and bring a smile to the face of the user. A new feature is not finished before the user gives a thumbs-up.
The user perspective is equally valid within the system itself. Developers write code to be read by fellow developers; they are the users of that code. Usability for the fellow coder is just as important as usability for the end-user. And that fellow coder is probably yourself in the future when you return to make changes.
I want to work with developers that solve a problem for good, not with people who solve it once for themselves and then forget about the solution. Make the problem go away for ever, or if that is not possible share the way to solve it the next time. Developers must continuously improve the process of development and their own tools. And with tool I am also referring to their brains. Be curious, be interested, and keep learning more.
Making a product
To return to the topic of the end product and the end users, I want to maximize the value that my software brings into the world. If it is used by more people it is more useful than having just a few users. This thinking naturally takes me into product development. I want to work with developers that share that drive, and understand that even the slightest improvement becomes a huge deal just because many people experience that improvement.
In the world of product development the difference becomes muddled between new features and enhancements to user friendliness. Is it a new feature to be able to transfer many files at a time, or is it just a friendlier user interface? Really, it doesn’t matter, because it improves usability.
I want to work in a team where we create joy and business benefits for ourselves, our community, and our customers.
Recycled idea
Why would you frame a crumpled bill picked out of the trash can?
To have a business meeting in the morning and to be happy to see your colleagues, that the greatest luck. It's Monday and you're not sad, hating your life and waiting for the next weekend to come, that's rare. But on the top, when the ones you're working with, share your sense of humor, it's even funnier. Very small things can describe bigger ones. I'll tell you one. After a meeting with our business partner, I forgot to save a paid bill for the cost-covering. So I went back (only because I promised to Tanja and Arne to send it) and asked for the thing. It was already trashed. The next question was: Would you like to have it like this, crumpled? Yes, why not. Seems it has a story. A few days after, at our morning meeting, we mentioned that topic. I told the funny story to everyone and we started to laugh, making jokes and then someone said: You should frame it. That was it. Now, we have the first thing for our new office walls. The one that will tell us a story of how our unintentional mistakes can be brilliant, but just in case you're telling them to the ones who'll make it brilliant. Only, there is one thing about this. Fridays don't represent a day when you're feeling this huge happiness of a non-working weekend, expecting your absolute freedom. You already have it.
What is Sprend?
Six images say more than six thousand words.
Six images say more than six thousand words.
Sprend has an office in Pula
After just a month of searching, Sprend has a new office in Pula, Croatia. The homeland of the best and the worst car in history.
If you have an idea and a vision, how long will take you to make it possible? The catch is that you can never know it. The starting point is sometimes hard, but mostly exciting and challenging, keeping you to aim higher.
That’s what we tried. After just a month of searching, Sprend has a new office in Pula, Croatia. The homeland of the best and the worst car in history, Yugo 45. Not to be the worst, but expecting the best, we applied for the office in the Istrian Development Agency. Its primary role lies in the stimulation of the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship in the region of Istria.
We’re so happy to become a part of the Entrepreneurial Incubator “Challenge” Pula. Established in 2005. there are ten office rooms and more than 40 start-up entrepreneurs have been incubated with steady growth rates. Sprend is one of ten now.
Do you know what else is Yugo 45? Most adored car in the history of this region. Still, after so many years, seeing it on the streets of Pula will not leave anyone indifferent. That’s our next goal.
What is Sprend doing in Croatia?
In Corona times Sprend is sending large files and hope.
The photo was taken by analog photography lover Petra Gardijan & her comrade Zorki 4K. The acrobat is Vili Paoletić, the most skillful guy you could ever meet. If you ask him, he'll tell you that anyone can do what he does.
If we speak about the current situation in Croatia, we need to consider the past few months. The Istrian peninsula is a nice place to live, with pleasant people, beautiful nature, and rich history. When Coronavirus occurred in March, it took only a few days to change this town and to put the citizens in a state of shock. Croatia, unlike Sweden, chooses the lockdown at the beginning of a struggle. Together with a fear of the unknown, everything was stopped just in a few days. Schools, bars, restaurants, and all other things that were a part of our lives before, were closed quickly. Socializing with people out of someone's household was not recommended. Offices were replaced for homes for the ones who were lucky, and many others lost their jobs. Not knowing much about this new virus, the comfort that you could get very often was not to worry, the virus kills only older people. Due to the enormous fear, humane society became rootless not even aware of it at that moment. Luckily, very soon we learn how to live with this, to be responsible, but not the prisoners of the situation. Like the rest of the world, we're waiting for this to pass. Things seem much more normal now. But the consequences are greater than visible. With a lot of unemployed, without tourism, our number one in the region, fear grows as winter comes. So the question is, what is Sprend doing in Pula? It's sending large files and hope.