THE SECRET IS IN PERSISTENCE AND TRUST – Start Up Yourself 2.0

Last night, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, 12 entrepreneurs along with Državni posao discussed their experiences, obstacles they had had to cross in order to achieve success and create successful companies from something that used to be a silly idea.

“I would like to thank the hosts who enabled us to organise this Start Up Yourself 2.0 in these beautiful premises and the entrepreneurs who responded to the invitation and who want to share their stories with us. The goal in this 2019 is to put young people in the focus and everything we do is for that purpose”, Vukašin Grozdanović, OPENS Coordinator says.

The premises of the museum were divided in three parts, so the lectures of half an hour were simultaneously held, and the lecturers who were given the chance to tell young people about their roads to success were changing. The idea was to organise everything through a form of informal discussion, which the lecturers would hold with the help of moderators, but also the audience. The moderatos were, as it had been the case last year, the guys from Državni posao.

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina recognised the idea and decided to be the host and welcome OPENS. The director of the museum, Radovan Jokić says that contemporary art needs to deal with current social topics.

“Young people are our visitors and I would like to thank OPENS for that chance. I hope that they will visit this museum in the future”, Jokić added.

This year, the following famous brands presented themselves: Strawberry energy, Eipix, Wacky sheep, 9evet, Eko kurir, Marinush i Šii, Eko hostel Užice, Fruškać, Toster, LvLUP, Ivica i Majica…

“The idea came spontaneously back in 2011. The secret of success is in the persistence and trust in people with whom we work. I would advise young people to be persistent, but to investigate the situation slowly and go further and further”, Vladimir Niciforović in front of the “Ivica i Majica” brand says.
We had the change to directly hear how a high-school company can become the company with the headquarters in London, how to find the vendors who can print on all of fabric and not just a part of it or how to create a barber’s shop in a pub.

“I am very much inspired by the lecturers, so much that I can start thinking about how to launch my own business tomorrow. All of them had inspirational stories and inspired me to implement my idea. They tried to tell their stories from the beginning of their careers until today, which is very significant to me”, one of the visitors said.

The mission of OPENS is to empower, support and provide useful advice to young people necessary for the implementation of their ideas, while the idea of OPENS Day is to bring all possibilities offered in the city which is the European Youth Capital to the people who live in it, free of charge.