Professor of the practice in entrepreneurship, curriculum designer, workshop facilitator
Matija Goljar wanted to be an astronaut when he was a child, but things turned out a little differently. His first job was a ski instructor and he seriously considered becoming a hippie ski bum, but then an opportunity appeared to start a tech company when he was a freshman and he did that. He dropped out of college in any case - a decision his parents did not like much.
After a reasonably successful exit, he was invited to lead an entrepreneurship club at his former high school which expanded into Ustvarjalnik, one of the largest entrepreneurship education programs in Eastern Europe. More than 10.000 students in 6 countries took part and the teaching methodologies he created have become the gold standard of business education, receiving worldwide acclaim and multiple awards.
He is perhaps most known in his native Slovenia for a reality TV show he created and hosted that followed young founders starting companies and selling their products in the largest supermarket chain in the country. Start it up Slovenia showed how new products come to be and has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to try launching new products themselves.
Matija is a sought-after consultant, mentor and speaker that works for a local venture capital fund (Silicon Gardens), is a visiting professor at a number of universities and business incubators, and recently he made his parents proud by getting a degree at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, where he was awarded the title of Master of Arts in Applied Imagination.
One proud geeky moment for Matija was winning the national championship in general knowledge when he was 12 years old. He is seriously considering joining a university in the UK just to take part in University Challenge.
His time is split between consulting work and lecturing at universities and business incubators in Europe and traveling around the world in a tiny camper van.
*statement on teaching philosophy and research portfolio with references
Contact
Matija Goljar
Gosposka 10
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
hello@matijagoljar.com
+386 (31) 698-410
Areas of Practice
Entrepreneurship education and lecturing
Matija is a visiting professor of the practice at several universities around the world as well as numerous business incubators in Europe. He is specialising in early-stage entrepreneurship, imagination and ideation courses and iterative development - design thinking, rapid prototyping and the lean methodology. Have a look at his CV for a list of institutions he has been affiliated with, and read through the list of programs and courses he currently teaches.
Curriculum and learning experience design
Bored with traditional educational practices, Matija has spent the majority of his career designing training simulations. These ranged from a 30-player board game taking a month to complete that teaches economic concepts by simulating life on a fictional island to a week-long hackathon on a train taking entrepreneurs on a 1.500-mile journey across Europe. Matija is credited as a producer of a prime-time educational TV show about entrepreneurship that was based on a learning simulation he created. He will be happy to work with institutions that want to offer innovative ways of teaching and would love to hear from you.
Mentorship and consulting
Unfortunately, at present Matija is not accepting consulting work with founders or companies launching new products. However, he will be thrilled to offer his expertise to schools, universities, development agencies, business incubators or other actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem that wish to encourage people to start companies. In the past, Matija created one of the largest business mentorship networks in the world, a pipeline for deal flow for a venture capital fund, a corporate business accelerator and a textbook for entrepreneurship that is now in use in his former high school.