What I am working on right now

Zeer. Revolutionizing personal safety. Head of Operations.

Data Science Conference. One of the fastest-growing data science & AI communities in Europe. Trying to be helpful. 

CO:IMAGINE. Founder. Still sketching alternative launch scenario. Covid-19 🙁 The ride should’ve started in Portland in April 2020. On hold, but revisiting once in a while.

Project F. Consulting, when they ask for it. 

Kickstarting EA in Serbia.

Besides, I am working on two book projects. 

What I am learning right now

I am currently self-studying finance and continuing to sharpen my coding skills.  

Something like a short byline

Highly entrepreneurial and curious, Filip is inspired by working on projects and causes with high levels of impact, especially where he can contribute the most.

Highly skilled in leadership ((co)founded, formed, and developed 8 organizations and 2 businesses from scratch), community organizing (organized events in 5 countries, reaching thousands of people in total, including 8 hackathons), project management (conceived and managed countless projects over the last 10+ years), writing (ran a content writing studio and writes every day), communication (led several campaigns), strategizing, problem-solving and advice (6 years of independent consultancy experience). Technical skills include SQL, Tableau, R, and Python programming (intermediate level; ongoing learning process since 2021).

As a generalist, operator, and self-starter, he’s interested in both dirty sleeves hands-on stuff as well as in philosophical, bigger-picture questions, like speculating about AI ethics, next-generation Internet, and the future of the venture capital industry.

Filip’s work in the field of open data was recognized by the European Commission and the Government of Serbia. Besides, he was invited to speak at more than 20 public events in 5 countries and his work was featured in many media outlets, including CNN (Brazil).

Fond of effective altruism and donating a percentage of income to important causes, primarily equality and education.

Believer in open knowledge/data and often lost in the future.  

What I’ve started (and why)

A friend, kidding: “Man, is there anything around that you haven’t started?!”
Many (especially new) friends get lost when I start talking about the things that I was working on and about the things I plan to do.

Seriously, I do love to start things and poke what’s around me, sometimes as a founder, but mostly as a co-founder. 

Here is the (incomplete) list of what I’ve started with a few contextual sentences.

Evoke Writing. Co-founder, Strategy & (Business) Development, Writer.

Started as “Brave Content Writing”. The first company in the US. Mia is 100% in charge now. 
Wanted to experiment with writing for money.

Corona Love Stories (2020) / online publishing project & startup

Corona Love Stories is a publishing project that supports international long-distance relationship couples during the Coronavirus pandemic. It was heavy for us LDR people when airplane traffic was down. Almost ended up as a full-time niche startup.

CO:IMAGINE (2020) / experimental collaboration platform

CO:IMAGINE is a science fiction collaboration platform founded to explore the future with artistic visions and storytelling grounded in science and technology. 

Focal Point Digital (2017) / web development business

I’ve assembled a team of designers and developers, forming a company and onboarding first clients. Managed several dev projects from 0 to 1.

Exited.

Hacking Politics (2016) / hacktivism 

I was inspired by what was happening in London, and I was really into hacktivism then.

I did two hacks. One in Belgrade and one in Sarajevo.
Realized it’s not safe (we had an unexpected police visit in Belgrade) and that there’s no cash to support the ecosystem development, hence not sustainable in the long run. Maybe I’ll come back to it in the future.

Connecting (2014) / non-profit organization

Let’s do something great for our city, let’s focus on the youth. We should definitely start with startups.

Connecting is a non-profit from Pancevo, Serbia, promoting entrepreneurship, startups, lifelong learning, and education for the 4.0 revolution.

Exited. 

GAJP (2013) / public policy think-tank organization

Co-founded a policy NGO with colleagues from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. We did a lot of cool things first, like investigating drug policies in Portugal or the digital state in Estonia, or opening the theme of AI and politics.

Exited in 2018.

Zagadjeni Nacisto (2014) / grassroots political movement

My hometown is the most polluted city in Serbia, if not the whole Balkans region. The sky was yellow for days one summer so we initiated a movement. We did a lot of creative cause campaigning. I was in charge of all online operations.

VOXER (2016) / media platform 

An attempt to bring deliberative and participatory democracy to a local level by generating public discussions on relevant local topics. 

I invested some of my cash in the project.
We couldn’t make it sustainable so we stopped.

“It’s Enough” (Pancevo) (2014) / political movement

A startup executive (dot-com boom) started a political movement in Serbia promoting things like the VC industry (non-existent at that time), tax reforms, and a fully transparent government. Was responsible for building the organization in the city of Pancevo, managing 20 people, and leading the election campaign.  

I soon realized that I am not meant to be a politician. 

Techfugees (Beglrade) (2016) / humanitarian tech & hacktivism 

The world and Europe were hit by the biggest humanitarian catastrophe after World War 2. Startup folks decided to try to help refugees with the smart use of technology.

Belgrade was the fourth city in the world to join the global movement. I founded the Belgrade chapter and did two hackathons, a lot of match-makings, and a few public events. 

Smart and Simple Communications (Pancevo) (2014) / marketing & pr

A few friends started a very unsuccessful business.  We had a great office though. Copy(writer). Directed one promotional video. 

Selected clients and talks

Clients

Radio Free Europe (Prague) — Data Journalism in Western Balkans (2020), Data Journalism in Georgia and Prague (2021)

Techfugees (Paris & London) — Techfugees Global Summit, Station F, Paris (2018)

Logikka (Belgrade) — Data Science for Entrepreneurs (2019) 

VoterSpace / Voterblockchain (US) — Blockchain for voting and elections (2018 & 2019)

NewGov Foundation (US) — Civic tech platform (2016)

TechSoup (Poland) — Open Data in the Balkans region (Serbia)  (2018)

Data Science Conference (Serbia) — (2018 & 2019)

Neowings (2020) — Fundraising strategy (2020)

Talks

“Open Data: Why, What, How & Wow” (Lecture) / Code Fest, Macedonia (April 2017)

“Development of open data in Serbia” (Lecture) / Kehl, Germany –  conference organized by European Commision (September 2017)

“Why open data”? (Lecture) / Vršac, Serbia (March 2018)

“What is open data and why should we care?”  (Lecture) / Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (December 2017)

Belgrade Venture Forum: Open Data (Panel) / Belgrade, Serbia (October 2017)

“The role of technology in a humanitarian crisis” (Panel) / Point Conference, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo (May 2016)

“AI for Good” (Panel), Data Science Conference, Belgrade (November 2019)

“AI in Government” (Panel), Data Science Conference, Belgrade (November 2020)

“Fundraising 101” (Lecture), online/word (March 2021)

“AI in Public Services” (Panel), ICEDA project, online/ Western Balkans (June 2021)

“What does ethical AI actually mean?” (Panel), Data Science Conference, online/word (November 2021)

Other interesting stuff

Startup Supermarket. We’ve organized the first summer startup school in Serbia in 2014. 

Policy Days. I’ve conceptualized the public policy conference that gathers 150 people annually for the last 6 years.

Campaigning. Earned a few front-page media covers. 

Impact numbers. Reached thousands through NGO activism and more than 20 different, mostly educational programs I’ve implemented.

“Bridging Serbia”. 10 writers from Portland, Oregon, and Serbia writing about Serbia. Published. 

Published poet. I sent a poem once to an open call. They thought it was cool and published it.

Basketball. Almost professional. I was staying up all night to catch a piece of NBA action. My playing style? Allen Iverson!

Astronomy. Organized two astronomy camps and several events. 

Web developer. I’ve created several websites.

Journalism. Published articles on electronic music festivals, internet business models and culture, tech, politics, and many other unrelated themes.

Parties. Organized several, some were medium size (200 people). Adore electronic music. Love to dance.

Hackathons. Always a pleasure.

Press // because people will trust me more 🙂

Netokracija / Nova Ekonomija / Olbios Network / National Television Serbia (12:32) / Al Jazeera Balkans / CNN Brasil / Startit / N1 / Studentski Zivot

Why “never stops”?

Someone cool once told me that it’s one of the best domain names for a personal website. It’s true. It was a gift from one of the dearest souls who was – and still is – frustrated with my intensity and inability to stop.

I never stop because my mind never stops, and because if we’re doing/imagining/discussing something – I would prefer to go off-limits and all-in. Unfortunately, people who are ready to dance this way are rare 🙁

I also don’t ever plan to stop starting new, necessary things. 
And I’ll probably be working on something on the day I die.

What’s next?

I want to build products in areas of deep interest and care.

In the future: author / (serial) startup founder / investor