Jaka Bavdek
Co-Founder and CEO, 8x Social — we source, train, and manage creator accounts at scale so consumer brands can launch creator-driven campaigns without building internal ops. 100+ creators across 10+ countries. Scaled to over 500k ARR in under 4 months.
Previously co-founded Epistemy (AI voice simulations for corporate training) and e-Matura (exam prep, 100k+ students/year across 4 European markets).
My story:
Small town in Slovenia. No startup ecosystem, no connections, no playbook. So I built my way out.
At 15, selling love padlocks to tourists in Ljubljana. At 18, organizing exam prep lectures for 300+ students. At 19, running a digital agency from my first office. Those ventures funded my Bachelor's at University of Ljubljana and got me to London Business School for a Masters in Management.
At LBS, I landed a strategy consulting offer in Dubai. Then I quit before my start date to build companies full-time.
From there, I went wherever the building was happening:
- Singapore — started my first AI venture, lost my co-founder, came back to Europe with nothing
- London — LBS, learned what world-class ambition looks like up close
- Bangalore — highest-density startup energy I've experienced. Every coffee shop is a pitch meeting
- Berlin — serious technical talent, but people leave at 6pm
Along the way, two companies bootstrapped from scratch:
- e-Matura — side project turned into Slovenia's #1 exam prep platform, now serving 100k+ students annually. Scaled to Poland, Romania, and Hungary in under a year. Bootstrapped, 1,400+ video lectures in 2.5 months, 14M+ TikTok views. Then soft-launched 8 more markets.
- Epistemy — AI voice simulations for corporate training — negotiation practice, case interview coaching, adaptive assessments. Scaled to 28k MRR with clients across 6 countries. 14-person team.
Now in San Francisco, all-in on 8x Social. We don't connect brands with existing creators — we create the supply. Recruit, train, manage, run campaigns end-to-end. Multi-country creator ops is genuinely hard to replicate. That's the moat.
Things I believe:
- Every CEO should be shipping code. If you're not building internal tooling, you're falling behind. The productivity bar is getting 10x higher and the status quo is shifting fast.
- Global arbitrage is the real unlock. We have 20-year-olds from Pakistan managing six-figure contracts. High potential, hungry, just waiting for the opportunity. Stop gatekeeping talent by geography.
- The biggest opportunity is outside the US. Everyone overindexes on America — that's 30% of world GDP. AI makes product localisation seamless. The underserved 70% is wide open.
- Speed and systems aren't opposites. People confuse building fast with being distracted. It's not about doing less — it's about building systems that support more.
- Your biggest limitation is your own imagination. Stop asking "Can we?" and start asking "What would need to change in order to?"
- The safe path is the riskiest path. The "stable career" is just a slower way to find out you never tried.
- Vertical integration beats platform plays. Companies that create supply — not just intermediate it — build moats that are nearly impossible to replicate.
Outside of work: 9 years of MMA, BJJ & kickboxing. Kitesurfing when I can find wind. Goal: build a unicorn.
Writing: