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Avdo Halilović

A curious inventor, builder and researcher.

I work at the intersection of technology, human behavior and institutional change - and I am increasingly interested in one question: what happens when systems designed for a slower world meet technologies moving exponentially faster?

For the last fifteen years I’ve worked across entrepreneurship, innovation, investment, technology and digital transformation, from California, through Europe, to South Korea.

I’m interested in how we can design better systems for a more human, open and capable future - and I’m more interested in good questions than simple answers.

Explore my writing
Avdo Halilović

What drives my work

As technology accelerates, many of the systems around people are struggling to keep up - how we work, learn, establish trust, prove capability, protect information, make decisions and interact with institutions. My work sits somewhere inside that problem.

I keep coming back to human potential, labour markets, AI, trust, security, digital infrastructure and human agency. The common thread is simple: technology should increase human capability and agency, not quietly take them away.

Things I've built and worked on

I’ve developed products from zero across SaaS, grant-making, finance, donation and community platforms, and worked across industries from manufacturing, mining and food to IT, trade, finance and the nonprofit sector.

Today I build companies, products and ideas around some of the questions I believe will matter most over the next decade - among them SkillsArk, Orileno and the Timing Intelligence framework.

Some of the platforms I’ve built along the way:

  • Rolify

    A community for developing the skills, jobs and leaders of the future in the Western Balkans.

  • ReUseChain

    Bosnia and Herzegovina's first B2B marketplace for secondary raw materials and industrial waste - circular economy, from waste to value.

  • NikoGladan.ba

    A digital registry that connects food donors with public kitchens and organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  • Mozaik Youth Bank

    A platform for young people's professional development and grant applications.

In practice

  • Avdo Halilović speaking on stage at Startup Challenge
    Speaking at Startup Challenge, Youth Employment Project, Faculty of Economics, SarajevoPhoto: Startup Challenge
  • Avdo Halilović presenting the NikoGladan.ba food donation registry on stage
    Presenting NikoGladan.ba at its launch, Mozaik Startup Studio, SarajevoPhoto: Mozaik Foundation
  • Avdo Halilović leading an outdoor workshop with young people in front of a flip chart
    Leading a workshop at the Youth Activism Festival, KljučPhoto: Festival omladinskog aktivizma
  • Avdo Halilović at the IFIA General Assembly, seated behind the Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation sign
    Representing Bosnia and Herzegovina (AIBIH) at the 38th IFIA General Assembly, ZagrebPhoto: IFIA
  • Avdo Halilović wearing a medal with the Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation and flag on stage at an invention fair in Kuwait
    With the Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation at the 7th International Invention Fair in the Middle East, Kuwait
  • Avdo Halilović standing at the Bosnia and Herzegovina exhibition booth at an invention fair
    Exhibiting at the Bosnia and Herzegovina booth, Seoul International Invention Fair (SIIF), Korea

How I think

I tend to look past the visible symptom and ask what system underneath it is producing the outcome.

I care about logic, simplicity and truth. I have little interest in vanity metrics, fashionable narratives or solutions that work beautifully on slides but fall apart in the real world. I’ve failed in business twice and rebuilt again - which is a good teacher in holding ideas loosely, testing them against reality and revising them when the evidence says so.

That is also why much of what I publish here is unfinished. It is thinking in progress.

Outside work

Not everything worth doing fits on a CV.

  • Avdo Halilović playing drums
    Behind the drums
  • Avdo Halilović performing in a theatre scene
    On stage, acting
  • A group of Hansen Leadership Institute fellows posing outdoors
    With fellow Hansen Leadership Institute participants, University of San Diego
  • Avdo Halilović laughing while holding a cable during preparations
    Getting Startup Studio Bihać ready for opening
  • Avdo Halilović on a boat looking at the Istanbul skyline at dusk
    On the Bosphorus, Istanbul

Selected experience

years across entrepreneurship, innovation and technology
15+years across entrepreneurship, innovation and technology
businesses built or supported
100+businesses built or supported
people worked with on business models and innovation
1,000+people worked with on business models and innovation
people in digital communities I helped build
100,000+people in digital communities I helped build

Press, talks and roles

Elsewhere

Read the writingSee the projects