I am a Bosnian/Croatian entrepreneur based in California, USA.
Inspired by my refugee parents' efforts to immigrate our family to the USA and all the hard work to provide for the family, I learned everything is possible in life.
During my professional career, I worked in various odd jobs in multiple industries before starting my entrepreneurial career as a freelancer project manager in 2013 and starting my first business in 2016.
I built Sparetoolz, Thymeline and a 7-figure full-service Shopify agency, Tako Agency. I consider myself an endless idea machine, always thinking of a new idea or solution for a bigger or smaller project.
In 2022 Z is focusing on new ventures as a founder of a problem-solving product agency 920Four and a giving his voice to the "What is My Brain?" podcast featuring innovative business minds.
Born in Bosnia. I was a refugee for most of my childhood, moving from country to country with my family as we fled from war.
Eventually, with family help, we secured paperwork for the US and started a new life here.
My parents worked tirelessly for several years to support us and provide a better life for us here and I ended up going to great schools. Understanding where my parents came from and what they have been able to do when they came to the United States is humbling, as it shows me that with hard work and perseverance I can achieve anything that I set my mind to.
I always have been an entrepreneur at heart, at age of 15 I started to sell CDs in high school to my classmates. At the same age I also started my own IT business, fixing computers in my neighborhood.
Before starting my first business, I worked a variety of odd jobs. I worked in a hotel when I was a high school student, sold iPhones at an AT&T retail store, and worked as a security guard.
My entrepreneurial journey started in 2013 as a project manager helping build websites and run an eCommerce business. I found myself really loving and enjoying the multitude of projects I was handling at any given time.
The first business I founded, was a sock subscription business in 2015 (soxinabox.club, no longer in business). The biggest lesson learnt was that I can't do everything on my own. You need a good team to execute and run a successful business.
The next business idea came to me one year later in 2016, when I was working on a home improvement project with my dad and I realised we needed a wet-saw. That inspired me to start Sparetoolz, an app to share and rent tools.
A few years later, Tako Agency was born in 2018. We scaled up very quickly from 3 people in the company to a 7-figure agency.
Tako Agency also inspired me to build Thymeline, a centralized hub where we can keep a “timeline” format for all the important events that happened and avoid miscommunication with our clients.
This brings us to 920Four. Ever since I started Tako and started working with bigger clients, I was always looking for ways to build products and execute my ideas that would help thousands of people. Having a service agency allows us to see what people need and want and then be able to build it at 920four without disrupting the client work at Tako.