SDA

29/05/2026

If you think businesses don't communicate with each other, you're mistaken.

In reality, they do. All the time.
It's just not always public, and it doesn't happen where you'd expect.

Communities.
Private chat groups.
Meetings.
Conferences.
Sports.
Networking in all its forms.

I, for example, often chat in agency owner groups. These are chats about a real-time exchange of reality:
• how business is going
• how client acquisition is going
• where there are staffing issues
• what challenging situations with clients are arising
• who not to hire or which clients to steer clear of

Very candid. And very useful.

We also had a telling case.
My friend and I were sitting at a conference, drinking coffee, discussing the results of a lead generation campaign.
And at some point, the topic of hiring came up, and we realized that I had hired my friend's employee, who was still working for him full-time. Of course, his company wasn't listed on her resume.

We figured it out because of a very specific country and name.
At first, we didn't even believe such a coincidence was possible, but the IT world is a small village where everyone knows everyone.

But it's moments like these that paint a real picture of the market.
Not from courses. Not from public posts.
But from a live exchange of experiences between business owners, personal meetings, and conferences.

27/05/2026

Heading to Vilnius next week for EBAN Congress on June 1-2

Looking forward to conversations that go beyond the usual AI hype decks and fundraising buzzwords.

What I'm personally interested in right now:
- how startups approach product validation in 2026
- what investors actually expect from technical teams at early stages
- where AI adoption creates operational value vs. just “feature noise”
- and why ex*****on quality became a bigger differentiator than stack choice

Always good to exchange perspectives with founders, investors, and operators building real products under real constraints.

If you'll also be at EBAN, let's connect.

20/05/2026

CRM and marketing systems are no longer just “support tools” for businesses.

Today, they directly impact customer retention, sales efficiency, personalization. and overall business growth.

That's why we're proud that SDA has been recognized by 50Pros as a Top Firm in CRM & Marketing Technology.

In real projects, we often see the same challenge:
companies use multiple disconnected tools that create more complexity instead of improving workflows.

Building effective CRM and marketing solutions is not just about integrations.
It's about creating systems that help businesses better understand customers, automate processes, and make faster decisions.

Because good technology should simplify growth, not slow it down.

Big thanks to our team and partners for making this recognition possible.

18/05/2026

Today I'm in Vienna City at the ViennaUP.

Started the day at Impact Days and later headed to another startup-focused event as part of the festival. So far, I've had around 6 meetings, several interesting conversations at the expo area, and one especially unexpected connection. Meeting a Ukrainian marketing manager working at IKEA Austria. We'll continue discussions about potentially becoming a vendor for them.

But the most interesting part for me was noticing the same trend I've now heard across multiple conferences in Europe:

More and more companies are actively looking for alternatives to Big Tech infrastructure.

Topics like sovereign internet, data ownership, and reducing dependency on Amazon or Google come up constantly in conversations.

What surprised me is how often people directly say: “We use Hetzner because we don't want AWS having access to our data or products.”

You can really feel that trust in hyperscalers is shifting in parts of the European market.

Another reminder from this trip: B2B networking is a very long game.

Nobody says “take my money” after one conversation. Relationships take time, trust, and consistency. Some of our leads take 1.5-2 years before becoming actual clients.

And honestly, conferences like this are less about instant sales and more about understanding where the market is moving next.

For me, that alone already makes the trip valuable.

15/05/2026

Podim 2025 — Wrapping Up. Here Are My Honest Takeaways.

3 days. 30+ meetings. A lot of conversations that made me think.

This year's Podim felt a bit lighter than last year, fewer startups with booths, less overall buzz on the floor. But the quality of individual conversations more than made up for it.

Here are some of the most interesting things I picked out for myself:

Slovenia's startup ecosystem is quietly strong. The government support here is real grants for early-stage startups are actively helping founders get off the ground. Not without strings attached, but still a meaningful signal.

European infrastructure is having a moment. I kept hearing the same theme I noticed at TechArena, Europe is actively moving away from dependency on AWS, Google, and the big US cloud players. Met a great team from Serbia running their own servers out of Frankfurt. They said demand is through the roof right now. This trend is only accelerating.

VCs are still investing — and AI is no longer the differentiator. I asked investors directly: does it matter if your product is fully AI-generated? The answer was clear: it doesn't matter anymore. What matters is users. Traction. Real retention. The bar has shifted.

Most interesting startup I saw: An AI token-sharing platform that lets companies pool their API subscriptions across teams, one account, shared access, shared cost. Smart positioning for SMBs. Still has questions around security and context management, but the problem they're solving is real.

One industry shift worth noting: Advisors are now telling startups to stop calling themselves "SaaS." The word apparently lowers your perceived valuation. Call it a "subscription business" instead. Honestly not sure how much that changes, but the sentiment is interesting.

Overall, Podim still feels like a solid place to understand where the startup ecosystem in CEE is moving.

Will I be back at Podim next year? Not sure yet. But if you're curious about where the startup world is heading and want real, unfiltered conversations, it's worth the trip.

What trends are you seeing in your market right now?

12/05/2026

Day 2 at Podim, and what a time it's been.

Over the past two days, I've had more then 20 meetings with incredible people, founders building ambitious startups, investors with sharp vision, and industry leaders pushing boundaries in ways that genuinely inspire.

Every conversation left me with something new, a fresh perspective, an unexpected idea, or simply the reminder of why I love what I do.

This is exactly what conferences like this are for. Not just the stage talk, but the real exchanges that happen when passionate people get in the same room.

Grateful for every single connection made here. The energy has been unmatched.

11/05/2026

Just landed at Podim!

One of the most exciting startup & tech conferences in the region, and I'm thrilled to be here.

The agenda is packed with incredible talks, and I'm genuinely looking forward to every single session. I'm really looking forward to all the planned meetings, can't wait to talk to so many interesting people.

See you around!

08/05/2026

A founder from Silicon Valley came to us with a product that was already working.

The AI logic was solid. The backend did what it was supposed to. DataScoop could analyze metric changes, find the root causes, and explain them in plain language — which, honestly, is genuinely hard to build.

The problem was everything the user actually saw.

The interface hadn't kept up with the product. There were Figma designs ready, a completely new visual direction, but no one had translated them into a working frontend yet. The existing code wasn't built to carry them. And the data visualization layer, the part that makes analytics actually readable, needed to be rebuilt from scratch.

So the ask was clear on the surface: rebuild the frontend, implement the new design, make it fast.

In practice, it was more nuanced than that.

Complex data files needed to be parsed and turned into charts that told a story, not just displayed numbers. Performance had to hold up so that insights landed in seconds, not after a loading spinner that made you forget what you were looking at. And all of it had to feel like it belonged together: the AI output, the visualizations, the interface, the Slack and email delivery.

We rebuilt the frontend in React.js and TypeScript, applied strict code quality standards from the start, and worked through the Figma designs screen by screen, not just implementing them, but pressure-testing how they behaved with real data.

The hardest part wasn't any single technical problem. It was maintaining coherence, making sure that as the pieces came together, they felt like one product, not a patchwork.

The result is a platform where a data analyst can open it, see a metric move, and understand why, in plain language, in seconds, delivered wherever they actually work.

That's the version DataScoop's users have now.

Check the full case if you want to see what it looks like.

DataScoop is a modern AI-powered analytics platform that reveals the 'why' behind metric movements through real-time trend detection and narrative summaries. Explore the full case study.

07/05/2026

Hiring vs Outstaffing: where are you actually losing money?

Most companies think this is a simple cost comparison.

Salary vs hourly rate.
In-house vs external team.

But that's not where the real difference is.

The real costs are hidden.

Let's break it down.

Hiring (in-house team)

On paper:
You pay a salary.

In reality, you also pay for:

– recruitment (time + agency fees)
– onboarding (weeks or months of lost productivity)
– benefits, taxes, equipment
– management overhead
– risk of a bad hire

And the biggest one: time to productivity

Hiring a developer can take 2–4 months.
Getting them fully productive — even longer.

That's not just delay.
That's lost opportunity.

Outstaffing

On paper:
Higher hourly rate.

In reality:

– no hiring delays
– no onboarding from scratch
– no long-term commitments
– flexibility to scale up/down fast

You don't pay for potential.
You pay for output.

Where companies lose money

Not in rates.

But in:

– slow hiring cycles
– underloaded teams
– overengineering
– lack of clear ownership

We've seen teams that cost less on paper —
but deliver nothing for months.

And teams that cost more —
but ship value every week.

The real question isn't: “Which is cheaper?”

It's: “Which model gets you to results faster?”

Because in product development:

Speed = money
Delays = losses

At SDA, we've learned:

It's not about adding developers.
It's about building a team that actually moves the product forward.

06/05/2026

Caught an interesting analogy.

Conferences today are like medieval fairs in a modern way

Back then, people came from different corners of the county.
Now - from different countries and time zones.
The goal is the same:
• to see who survived
• to listen to gossip
• to find out "what works now"
• and, if lucky, to close a deal with another craftsman

Nothing fundamentally has changed.

The stage is the sermon.
Booths are shops.
Networking is the tavern after the event.
Hackathons are knightly tournaments.
And startups with pitch decks are the same masters shouting: "I have the best sword in the whole kingdom."

And even if people have access to the internet and AI, live contact has not replaced this yet, and people travel thousands of kilometers for other people!

See you at the Podim conference next week! Message me if you want to meet up and chat.