For everyone who's been used, silenced, and still choose to build.
I'm Klemen, an engineer by education and someone who has never learned to be quiet by heart. I started my career as a public transport planner, directly after presenting my master’s thesis.
My 9,67 / 10 grade might have set the expectations a bit too high. I wanted to create a system that would serve the majority while not leaving behind the minority using limited resources available. There was a meeting when my sweaty wrinkle-shirted self represented the faculty before the municipality staff and pitched “let’s push out a survey so we can democratically check if our analysis holds water” – alone, five days after turning 25.
The words “elections are near, you know how the survey needs to be adapted” aimed at the secretary eventually made me see how systems like transportation are framed as creating prosperity (maximum mobility with minimum resources) but are often used to extract political capital instead.
I knew my systems thinking wasn’t the problem, but I thought I lacked skill to present my plans clearly enough, so I dedicated about four months to studying data analytics. In the mornings I took a city bus to the technical library to study Udemy classes about different analytics tools – and after lunch with friends came the evening dark and a train ride back home.
While I planned to land a job in IT, my self-education helped me land a job at another faculty as an informatics assistant. I wanted to be the best possible teacher a student can have – to help develop their creative potential, not to just reproduce knowledge. I even took some intercity busses across half our not-so-large country to attend workshops to learn how to teach better. I think it worked – I got to witness those sparkling eyes people get when they have their “aha” moment. But I might have taken all that a bit too close to heart.
There was another meeting I left with a lump in my throat. A meeting where a professor, soon to retire, ordered me to not encourage creativity in students, because “no one cares”, and to be obedient instead. As it turns out school system only pretends to help young people develop their potential. It actually serves the ego of those with status and power and is there to extract human capital.
When I quit being an assistant, I got an opportunity to work as a tourist product “developer”. If development means chasing trends, copying the competition, and slapping on a made-up price. To me, that’s just extraction of other people’s work, dressed up for profit.
Have you ever met someone who can warm your heart just by the way their face radiates sheer kindness and presence? What if that same face carried the weight of a deep existential burnout as well? How would witnessing that make you feel?
I saw how the boss of a supposedly world-class climbing centre plays the martyr, the mentor, the father figure – while running a business that abuses trust to extract loyalty, enthusiasm, dreams, and the raw kindness of young hearts. The business process is staged so they actually feel lucky to be part of it, even as their very soul is being used to inflate his carefully curated image, his social status, and his climb to comfort. And when they’re no longer useful, he casts them aside or quietly threatens them – all while acting like they’re the problem.
I completely understand how foolish I might sound. For someone with such a technical background, I’m probably far too idealistic. I’m painfully aware that you can’t build anything without being pragmatic and knowing the limits of your resources. But if there’s no vision or dream behind what we build, then what’s the point? I don’t think I’ll ever learn to be quiet and normal and just accept things as they are. To be fair, I don’t even want that.
I want a world where those who are sensitive and honest – the ones who create and contribute real value – live lives they are proud of. A world where the ones who twist the truth are forgotten. But today, we are losing brilliant minds and beautiful souls to bottomless pits of despicable egos. People who could have built incredible things but had to put survival before potential just because they were born to the wrong parents.
I don’t want to pretend I created this service just for others. I made it for myself, too. I’m not trying to claim some kind of moral high ground. I’m just being honest and I’m fully aware how risky, unconventional and uncomfortable that can be. But I believe the risk is worth it – because that’s where trust starts. And trust is the foundation of all long-term relationships, even the business ones.
I want to support companies that create real value – to help them do it more clearly and efficiently. To give them a fighting chance against the big fish. But I also want it to help move the world just a little closer to what I believe is right.
The world we currently live in – where extractors thrive while most builders barely survive – couldn’t be further from that vision. But if no one believes something better is possible, well… that’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn’t it?
So let’s build something better. Or at least try.
Klemen Košič, who built this service from scratch with inspiration from a bunch of sensitive, honest fighters
