Nathan Latka

Persistence and Personal Touch Turn Missed Chance Into Thriving Partnership

Last September, I visited Croatia for the first time. It almost didn't happen. A year earlier, Leonard Eldić and I met at B2B Rocks and he invited me to speak at his conference. I said no. The travel was too much, the budget didn't work, and I wasn't sure the trip made sense for Founderpath. Leo didn't take it personally. He just said "we can revisit for the 26 edition" and kept building. Then a few months later, he hit me up again. "Visiting Dublin this year? If you're up for it, we can spin up an event in Zagreb featuring you." Super short notice. He pulled it together in 12 days. When I landed, Leo picked me up from the airport himself. He took me to lunch. We walked around Zagreb shooting content together. He organized a founder dinner the night before the event and introduced me to people from the local startup scene. I told him I wanted to stay for 3 days so I could explore the city and connect with attendees. He said "I can spend more time with you, show you the city." That's exactly what he did. The founders I met at that meetup were incredible. We talked for hours — about bootstrapping, about building in smaller markets, about the hustle of growing SaaS companies outside of Silicon Valley. The energy was fantastic (and so was his team Igor !) I left Zagreb knowing I had to come back. So when Leo invited me to keynote SaaStanak 2026 in Šibenik, it wasn't even a question. I'm heading to the Croatian coast May 25–27 to talk about "9 Founders Who Used AI and Media to Add $5M Revenue Fast." If you're a SaaS founder who wants to be in a room with people who actually build — not just talk about building — come to Šibenik. See you there. 🇭🇷