Small entrepreneurs before investors: the WeBelong app for the integration of foreign workers won at the Uplift Academy
The final presentation of team projects marked the end of the fifth season of the Uplift Academy, an educational program implemented by Mastercard in cooperation with Algebra Bernays University, aimed at micro, small, and medium-sized entrepreneurs, tradespeople, and family farm owners connected to tourism, hospitality, and service activities. This year's generation brought together 32 participants divided into eight teams, and the program's finale showed how quickly the entrepreneurial scene in Croatia changes when it receives structured support, mentoring guidance, and an opportunity to present its ideas to people who make investment decisions. The focus was not only on the competitive dimension, but also on what such programs create in the long term: a network of cooperation, more concrete business models, and projects that arise from real market needs.
Victory went to the WeBelong team, which also won a cash prize of 5,000 euros for its idea. It is a mobile application designed to speed up and facilitate the integration of foreign workers into everyday life and the work environment in Croatia. According to the winning team's presentation, the application is conceived as a practical tool that helps users learn the language, understand social norms, culture, and everyday life situations, from administrative and work obligations to finding their way in the local community. At a time when the Croatian labor market increasingly depends on the arrival of foreign workers, such a solution was presented not merely as a technological novelty, but as a response to a problem that becomes more visible year after year to both employers and institutions.
Why exactly WeBelong hit one of the key questions of the Croatian labor market
The winning team consists of Jurica Protić, Vedrana Milivojević-Šaš, Maja Gašparić, and Marko Vukojević, and in their presentation they emphasized that the central idea of the project is to turn the process of arrival and adaptation of foreign workers into an experience that is faster, clearer, and less stressful. Their approach did not remain at a general message of inclusivity, but was developed as a concrete product with a clear problem, a target audience, and a business model. According to the impression from the final presentation, this is precisely what gave the team an advantage over the other projects: they showed that they understand both the market need and the way in which it can be turned into a sustainable service.
The importance of this topic is additionally confirmed by official data. According to the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, 170,723 residence and work permits were issued in Croatia during 2025, with the largest number of permits issued precisely in tourism and hospitality as well as construction. These figures clearly show that foreign workers are no longer a marginal phenomenon or a temporary patch for seasonal labor shortages, but an important part of the functioning of numerous sectors. At the same time, the question of their integration is not reduced only to the employment relationship. It includes language, understanding of rules, everyday communication, coping in a new environment, and a sense of belonging, and all of this directly affects both productivity and worker retention.
Additional context is provided by current public policies. At the beginning of February 2026, the Government sent amendments to the Foreigners Act to parliamentary procedure, which, among other things, introduce for foreign workers the obligation to learn and pass an exam in the Croatian language as a condition for extending the permit. This moves the integration of foreign workers even more strongly from the sphere of the goodwill of an individual employer into the area of a systemic need. In such circumstances, it is not surprising that a project combining linguistic, social, and cultural adaptation was recognized precisely as the idea with the most pronounced market potential. WeBelong can therefore be viewed not only as the winner of one competition, but also as an example of an entrepreneurial response to changes that have already affected the Croatian economy.
A competition of ideas, but also a mirror of the state of small entrepreneurship
The fifth season of the Uplift Academy ended with presentations by eight teams, and the format itself showed how much the profile of entrepreneurial education in Croatia has changed. It is not only about theoretical improvement, but about a process in which participants from different sectors go through mentoring work, jointly develop a product or service, test the sustainability of the idea, and finally present it before people from business and professional practice. Such a model is especially important for micro and small entrepreneurs, who often do not have access to internal development teams, investment advisers, or specialized consultants, but precisely because of that must learn quickly, define the problem precisely, and use limited resources rationally.
This year as well, the education was carried out by Algebra Bernays University, which has been leading the Uplift Academy since its launch in 2021. According to the program's own data, each season includes ten modules covering business topics from finance and marketing to digital transformation and artificial intelligence, and the fifth generation went through content such as leadership, digital transformation tools, design thinking in tourism, sustainable destination management, basics of financial management, the experience economy, AI in marketing communications, disruptive technologies, growth, and the customer journey. Such breadth is not accidental: today, a small entrepreneur must simultaneously understand the customer, cost, promotion, technology, and changes in market behavior, and without that combination it is difficult to remain competitive.
That is precisely why the final presentations are not only a moment for announcing the winner, but also a kind of overview of the problems that small entrepreneurs recognize in the field. When teams in such a program propose solutions, they actually indirectly describe gaps in the market: labor shortages, the need for digitalization, the search for more sustainable business models, adaptation to new expectations of guests and customers, and the need for better management of the user experience. The fact that in this year's finale an application dedicated to the integration of foreign workers won speaks to the fact that entrepreneurs feel very precisely where costs, organization, and service quality are breaking today.
Mentoring, pitch, and refinement of the idea into a market-sustainable product
Members of the winning team openly admitted that they did not expect victory, precisely because the competing projects, in their words, were of very high quality. Still, it is evident from their statements that the key to success was not only in the initial idea, but in the development process. Maja Gašparić especially highlighted the role of mentor Dijana Novak Krešić, stating that through mentoring the team developed the entire pitch, from defining the problem and the financial structure to the business model and the solution itself. This is an important message for the broader entrepreneurial sector as well: a good concept rarely wins on its own, and much more often it is the idea that is shaped with sufficient discipline to convince the market, a partner, or an investor that wins.
And that is the value of similar programs. They do not offer only a motivational framework, but force participants to translate intuition into arguments. When an entrepreneur has to explain whom he is addressing, how big the problem is, why existing solutions are not sufficient, how the product will generate revenue, and why exactly his team is capable of carrying out the project, then the idea for the first time gains a real market form. Many small entrepreneurs have a good sense of customer needs, but without such a structure that sense often remains at the level of unrealized potential. The Uplift Academy is clearly trying to reduce precisely that gap.
Along with mentoring, an important element of the program was also the composition of the jury, which included representatives of the tourism sector, entrepreneurship, education, and the business community. In this way, participants received evaluation from several perspectives, from market sustainability and innovativeness to applicability in the field. For small entrepreneurs, this is often more valuable than the prize itself, because they receive feedback that they otherwise would not easily obtain within their own business circle.
Why networking is proving to be almost as important as the education itself
In the Uplift program in recent years, networking has been increasingly highlighted as one of its greatest values, and this is confirmed by both the experiences of participants and the messages of the organizers. Members of the winning team singled out getting to know one another and connecting as one of the most important gains. This is not a passing remark, but an important indicator of how the development of small businesses functions today. Micro and small entrepreneurs most often do not grow only thanks to knowledge from one area, but through a network of contacts in which they more easily reach partners, advice, recommendations, market information, and new collaborations.
This dimension was particularly pointed out by Ema Huskić, marketing manager for Mastercard in Croatia, emphasizing that from season to season it is confirmed how important it is to create a space in which entrepreneurs can connect and jointly develop ideas. Such an assessment is important because it comes from a program that over several years has had the opportunity to follow not only individual projects, but also what happens to participants after the education ends. When concrete products and services are born from joint work, networking ceases to be a word for conference etiquette and becomes a measurable business resource.
In the Croatian context, this is particularly important for tourism, hospitality, and related services, where a large number of businesses are based on small teams, seasonality, changes in demand, and very sensitive profitability. An entrepreneur who can quickly obtain a verified recommendation, a partner for a digital solution, advice on financing, or a contact for a new distribution opportunity in practice often gains more than through a formal lecture. Therefore, it is not surprising that the organizers are already announcing that the future edition will place even more emphasis on connecting participants.
Experts' assessment: the ideas are more mature, more concrete, and closer to real needs
That the quality of projects is developing year after year was also emphasized by Dr. Maja Brkljačić, head of business development at Algebra LAB. According to her assessment, the continuity of the high quality of participants remains visible throughout all seasons, but the development of the ideas themselves stands out in particular, as they become more mature, more thoughtful, and more concretely focused on solving real market challenges. In this year's generation, as she pointed out, the level of practicality of the solutions stood out in particular, that is, the fact that the projects did not remain in the sphere of good intentions, but were shaped so as to be applicable and sustainable.
Such an assessment carries additional weight because it comes from an educational and innovation environment that is in contact with both the academic community and the business sector. When experts say that the solutions are among the highest-quality so far, this does not necessarily mean that all projects are ready for a market breakthrough tomorrow, but it does mean that participants are becoming increasingly successful in translating a problem into a product. And that is precisely the skill that most often separates an ambitious concept from a business opportunity.
At the same time, this assessment corresponds well to the broader economic moment. Croatian small entrepreneurship is facing pressures from rising costs, labor shortages, digital transition, and changed consumer expectations. In such an environment, the space for abstract projects is getting smaller, while solutions that immediately show whom they serve, what savings or benefits they bring, and how they can develop are gaining an advantage. In that sense, WeBelong fits perfectly into the trend that this year's academy evidently recognized: the market is seeking applicability.
More than one victory: what the finale of the Uplift Academy says about the direction of domestic entrepreneurship
This year's finale of the Uplift Academy brought not only one winning name, but also a rather clear message about where Croatian small entrepreneurs today see the greatest challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, the program confirms that entrepreneurs still need strong educational formats that combine knowledge, mentoring, and public presentation. On the other hand, WeBelong's victory shows that the best-performing ideas are those that arise at the intersection of a social problem and a market need. The integration of foreign workers today is no longer only a matter of social sensitivity, but also of business sustainability in sectors that cannot function without that workforce.
In that sense, the end of the fifth season of the Uplift Academy is much more than the ceremonial close of one educational cycle. It shows that on the domestic entrepreneurial scene, an ever-greater ability is developing to recognize real problems and turn those problems into feasible projects. When such a process takes place in an environment that connects education, mentoring, the business community, and potential investors, then the benefit does not remain only at the level of an individual team. It spreads to the entire network of small entrepreneurs who through such programs gain knowledge, visibility, and the feeling that business development does not have to be a solitary undertaking, but a process in which a good idea, with the right people and the right tools, can be turned into a real market breakthrough.
Sources:- Uplift – announcement on the end of the fifth season of the Uplift Academy, the winning WeBelong team, the structure of the program, and statements by participants link- Uplift – official description of the Uplift Academy, its partnerships, and module structure link- Algebra Bernays University – overview of the program's activities and the information that the Uplift Academy has been conducted since 2021 link- Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia – statistics of issued residence and work permits for 2025 link- Government of the Republic of Croatia – information on amendments to the Foreigners Act and the obligation to learn Croatian for foreign workers link
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