The Serendipity Effect: Turning the Uncertainty into Innovation

NECXT (00:05)
Welcome everyone to a new episode of NECXT that’s about to turn your approach to business and creativity on its head. What do the discovery of America, penicillin and invention of Velcro all have in common? They were all born from serendipity. those happy accidents that spark game-changing ideas. And what if I told you that this very concept could be the secret ingredient to unlock a flood of creative innovation in your business?

Today we’re not diving into the latest tech trends or tools, but rather into a mindset. One that’s about seeing the world in a way that turns unexpected moments into opportunities. A few months ago, I found myself in the Silicon Valley surrounded by tech visionaries who casually dropped the term serendipity over and over again. Something I had never encountered in my 15 plus years in the corporate world. So I dug deeper into the concept and what I discovered was fascinating.

serendipity is a true catalyst for creativity, a force that drives those eureka moments we are all looking for. It’s about making discoveries not by searching for them, but by being

unexpected. And in today’s volatile and uncertain world, companies that embrace this mindset have a serious edge in adapting and striving. So how can we harness serendipity to foster a culture of creativity and innovation in our own business?

That’s exactly what we’re going to explore today. And I’m very happy to welcome Armando Matijevic, founder of the Frontier Technology Community SplitX, a visionary who’s made serendipity and the art of Fjaka central to his approach in both Silicon Valley and beyond. So get ready. This episode is about to shake up the way you think about creativity and business success. Armando, welcome to this podcast. And let’s start maybe by introducing yourself.

Armando Matijevich (01:56)
Thank you so much.

NECXT (01:58)
and share the mission of SplitX.

Armando Matijevich (02:01)
Thank you so much, David. It’s such a pleasure to be here. My name is, as you said, Armando Matijevic one more time. I come from a beautiful city of Split on the coast of Croatia.

small Mediterranean Peninsula and right now I’m in San Mateo, Silicon , Bay Area where I spend four to five months out a year for the past eight years. I’m a founder of SplitX which is a global community of leaders in front of your technology where we serve as a platform for as a catalyst for connections, partnerships and investments and the well-being is a kind of

a big center of everything that we do and in the long run the vision of SplitX is to redefine what success and leadership means, where we put the well-being at the center of it. And yeah, that’s in short.

NECXT (02:51)
All right, thank you very much. And being part of this community, I can tell how valuable and insightful it is to be surrounded by those great visionaries and founders and creators. So let’s deep dive into serendipity. serendipity is about finding unexpected delights or discoveries when looking for something else. You personally, you’ve turned this into an art of living.

Armando Matijevich (03:02)
Thank you so much.

NECXT (03:20)
So why focus on serendipity rather than just luck?

Armando Matijevich (03:25)
Well, know, serendipity has played, I gotta say this first, serendipity has played, I could say a pivotal role in everything that I do because from the very beginning I was always curious, you know, and I think that’s also a big correlates to serendipity. You have to be curious, right? Because luck, eventually, you you might get a stroke of luck, but if you’re not open to it,

right might not never happen right so that’s where the serendipity comes in the openness of you know this idea that anything is possible you know and in that case if you truly believe that then anything might as well

happen right and i think i can give you

One of the first examples that comes to my mind and it’s connected to me being here in the States. Back in the day I was a founder back home in Croatia, in small community, small sort of environment and I was always trying to get to the States, right? And it’s the whole story but to cut it shorter, I first ended up in Montreal.

because I applied to this founder institute accelerator back then and they had this cohorts around the world and they were supposed to run one in split but we didn’t have enough people to apply and eventually I was open to this idea of applying somewhere else and you know they said you know you can go

you know, apply to any city and I picked Montreal because back then it was really hard to get a visa for the States. So eventually I went to Canada, came back and then I’ve joined my cousin’s startup back then and we were looking ways to get to the States and as I was trying to find all these channels to and people to talk to, I left a comment on a TechCrunch article.

And that comment was seen by the investor from Palo Alto.

He reached out to me and it was like it was surreal so I met in the one of the islands back home in flip-flops and we jumped on the impromptu Skype call. It was a Skype video call back then and I’m like talking to him and he says, you know, I like what you’re doing You know, you should be here and I say I said, you know, we’re trying to get there, you know and then he says well, you’re lucky because my buddy Adam Draper runs an accelerator. You should apply

NECXT (05:40)
you

Armando Matijevich (05:44)
So basically, mean long story short, we ended up going to the States and all of that, so that was like a jump forward. But this was something that I wasn’t expecting, this particular connection, right? But it happened because I was open to the idea and I was…

I put all my energy into figuring out the way to get there and that’s how serendipity came in. So it’s all about setting up the framework and channeling the energy towards this goal that you want to achieve. Let’s put it that way.

NECXT (06:20)
That’s a very, very good example and clearly shows that it’s not about luck, it’s provoking luck and setting up, as you said, the right framework. And we’ll come to that later, I guess, because when we relate to, you know, serendipity to corporate world, one thing that comes into my mind listening to you is the need for a vision for, you know, an end destination.

Armando Matijevich (06:28)
Exactly.

NECXT (06:46)
that’s where we want to go because if you don’t have that vision, if you wouldn’t have that vision to go to the States, I don’t think things would have come that way. you have made serendipity or embraced serendipity in your daily life. How has that impacted you beyond this example?

Armando Matijevich (07:03)
Yeah, so the first thing that kind of comes to my mind is the range of network that I’ve fostered. Because everywhere that I go, I’m open to these new connections in a way that I don’t take anyone for granted. And of course, we have to be careful with our time. We can’t just go out there and talk to every single person, right?

Yeah, so regardless of where I am, being back home in Croatia or here in Silicon Valley, one thing that I do, I always try to create my own bubble.

So what that means, and I’ll give you a concrete example. Right next door, we have this little Italian joint where we come in every single morning to drink coffee. And over time, we created this local community of people who come in every single morning. And that’s our bubble. And then we have certain core values, which are really informal. And then we welcome people in.

And every single day someone new comes in because the place is located on really one of the frequent streets out here in Silicon Valley. So a lot of people go past left and right.

People come in every single day and they see us in the corner. There’s like 10, 15 of us, guys coming in every single morning. And you know, it’s an inviting energy. You know, they come in, we’re like, you know, come join us. Right, so it’s about setting up the framework. And this is what I do. As you said, I kind of turned it into art of living. I do the same thing regardless of where I’m located. And it helped me so much because…

You know, when you take no one for granted, you know, it opens up to all these new connections that you probably didn’t expect it, but in the long run, and this is the key, if you connect with someone, and potentially, you know, or right now there’s nothing to it, right, let’s put it that way, but in the long run, you you don’t expect anything out of it, right, but in the long run, you never know, you know, something might come out of it.

So I would say it’s about setting

the framework for it.

NECXT (09:14)
that leads me to the next point that you already kind of illustrated with this example. When I read about serendipity, I came on this French author Sylvie Catalan, who says that indeed you cannot plan for serendipity,

but you can create the conditions that favor serendipity. So in your daily life and in the business and in the events that you’re hosting, how do you

create this context. I understand you have those bubbles that you just mentioned, what else? And for instance, about SplitX, how do you create that spirit for people who may not have it and are coming from across the world?

Armando Matijevich (09:42)
Yeah.

Great.

Yeah, well, this is a great point and I love talking about this. I take immense pride into the whole design of our approach and the way how we developed over the years. What I did basically, I kind of took my mindset and kind of embedded it within the whole SplitX system throughout the whole system. So when it comes to events, for example, what we do is we invite all the members and we send out the open

Open call application for.

whomever, right? If you are a Frontier Tech leader, if you’re if you’re someone building something, you know, extraordinary, come join us, right? So, it’s an inviting atmosphere for sure. And then people apply. And then what we do, we have a couple of filtering systems. So the first filtering system is we check people’s credentials, right? The easy one, right? Google, LinkedIn, stuff like that. And then if we don’t know this person, we ask, it’s a mandatory video call.

And then what I do, I talk to each and every person coming in. It’s a short video call, 15, 20 minutes, just to connect, to have that connection. And then what I do, I set up the framework right there. I tell each and every person, we are gonna connect, we’re gonna express our true selves, and we’re just gonna come out to potentially create genuine connections, real partnerships, things like that.

So I set up the framework from the get-go and I tell each person, you might end up on a panel. So we don’t reveal the topics nor the panelists upfront. So the agenda is pretty simple. You know what to expect roughly, but you don’t know the details. So as the event approaches, we send out the three simple questions to everyone.

to crowdsource the ideas for the topics. And then, together with the advisory board, we pick the topics and we figure out who would be best for the panel. But we don’t communicate that to anyone, right? And then, as you saw it, as you experienced it right there at the event, we literally call you up, you’re next, come up on stage, right? So this is that type of intentional serendipity, right? And the reason why this works,

is because there are steps that you take and you communicate it directly to each and every person. in a sense, they know what to expect to a certain extent. They don’t know what to expect in details, but they have the sense of it. So I think this idea of setting up a framework where you can express your true self and allow your voice to be heard.

because especially the idea of I might end up on a panel. So you’re kind of thinking, I should be ready. What should I talk about? And you don’t know the topic even. So I think it’s a design. So that’s one of the examples.

NECXT (12:54)
Yeah, and I can tell indeed it’s bit scary the first time, but even if you’re prepared and you know that you’re gonna

the unknown, but it’s still a step to go. But I think that you’re right. You set up the rules of the game upfront very clearly. You prepare people and then the magic happens or not, but it’s a risk. And we’ll come back to this notion of risk in a few minutes.

I like what you said because it reminds me, you know, me, you know, being a participant in one of your events. And there’s this notion of, will I be, called, will I go on stage or whatsoever? And I’d like to turn that into the notion of uncertainty. So again, some people who research on serendipity suggest that embracing uncertainty is key to

serendipity.

So do you think that this spirit of embracing the unknown, is what the founders and the creators have all in common?

Armando Matijevich (13:57)
I think so, definitely. One thing that founders and creative people have in common is the skill of resilience. So you know, got to be resilient, right? And you got to embrace the unknown because, you know, especially the last couple of years, the technology, the rate of exponential development is crazy, right? And you don’t know what to expect, right? You can plan for it.

We all do plans, right? We do business plans, we do personal plans and stuff like

it’s the…

don’t know what’s gonna happen, right? None of us do, right? So what we we need is a game plan focused on our health. And this is my take, right? At the end of the day, this is a one man’s opinion. But, you know, that’s what I do. I focus everything around…

my well-being. And I think I’ve told you, I’ll give a short example, I apply the same principle when creating serendipitous environment, it’s an intention. So what I do with the well-being part, I schedule it. So for example, when I’m back home, since it’s a…

It’s a peninsula, we have a lot of beaches and there’s this whole Mediterranean lifestyle. I have it scheduled in my calendar between 12 and 2 p.m. every single day. No excuses, it’s non-negotiable. I turn off my phone, I go to the beach, I drink a coffee for half an hour. I play this game, this really unique game that we play at home in shallow waters and I just disconnect, right?

And then, you know, coming 2 p.m., I go back to work, right? So this is something that I invest my time heavily in because, and it relates to your question, because I play the long game. And this is what I advise founders and, you know, SplitX members, and it’s, you know, a big part of our core values. Let’s play the long game, right? SplitX is being built as a legacy business.

And that’s how I want it to be. And in order to do so, I got to survive. We all have to. And in order to survive and in order to thrive, we have to focus on our health.

So I’m like, you know, a lot of people over the years, you know, when we’re talking and they hear, you know, about my lifestyle, they’re like, oh, you know, those two hours that you invest in the middle of the day, you could, you could do this, you could do that. You could be much more efficient, whatever, you know, I call it, I call bullshit. It’s bullshit, you know, because if I’m healthy enough and if I survive, right, then I can easily embrace the unknown, right?

I can be resilient and I can accept that anything can happen on the both sides of the spectrum, know, being bad or good, right? So that’s, you know, some of the techniques that apply. It’s pretty simple. It’s, you know, there’s no magic behind it, no complicated science. It’s pretty simple. You prioritize your health and everything else comes next.

NECXT (17:00)
Well, easier said than done, actually. But what I hear in between the lines, and it’s very interesting, is again this notion of bubble. You you mentioned earlier during the discussion that bubble you have in the cafe to create that framework, that context where people are welcome. This is a little bit the same. So you have your bubble when you’re in Croatia, where you disconnect, you do sports, you focus on yourself, on your wellbeing, on your health, and that bubble is the moment where you

Armando Matijevich (17:03)
Yeah, that’s

NECXT (17:30)
and re-energize and then get out in the world and embrace uncertainty and embrace the unknown and nurture that feeling of resilience that you mentioned all the founders do have together with curiosity.

I’d like to come back now to the corporate world. You know, we all know today’s volatile economy is setting up a context full of unknown. Things are not certain anymore. And it is sometimes driving some companies back.

to the basics, they’re going back to their roots. We’ve done that for 20 years. you know so we’re secure, in the safe space and we’re gonna focus on that. Not saying it’s bad, but could embracing serendipity help those traditional companies to foster a bit more of creativity?

and maybe go beyond that extra mile and how could they start? Because we cannot tell every employee to go out two hours and do sports or whatsoever. But how could we foster that spirit in traditional corporate world?

Armando Matijevich (18:30)
Fortunately,

Yeah, that’s a tricky one because it also largely depends on the size of the company, right? The bigger the company, the harder it is to implement those type of techniques. But it has to be intentional, as we heard, and it has to be communicated in a way so it kind of breaks the silos that usually corporates have.

Obviously, like you said, you know, we cannot have people, you know, taking two hours break and going to the beach doesn’t work like that but maybe you know we need corporates needs We all need something like Fjaka you did mention it at the beginning as something that we do and I’d love to explain it to the listeners to the viewers a little bit about Fjaka and I’m gonna I’m gonna Yeah, thank you

NECXT (19:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, please do, because it’s very interesting one. And I know

it’s really part of your life, so please.

Armando Matijevich (19:26)
Yeah,

it is. It’s a big one. So in short, Fjiaka is a term in Dalmatia, the ground from the ancient part of Croatia, which refers to this sense, this feeling of being content with what you have and, you know, being so chilled and present in the moment that you don’t care about anything else, right? And for us back home, it’s a lifestyle, you know, it comes easier to us, right?

in a way, it’s also a digital detox. It’s digital disconnection, right? Something that we all need these days, right? And I keep hearing more more people talking about

So basically this

that we have at home, and as you’ve seen it, it’s a big part of our core values. And I’ve been promoting Fjaka and placing it as the kind of…

kind of the underlying emotion for SplitX where I inspire and invite people in our network to take more Fjaka time, right? To be more present in the moment. So I think it’s a really powerful way because there’s a good background story when you look at how Fjaka came to be. And by the way, there’s other Mediterranean countries have similar terms.

for example like Dolce Farniente in Italy. And when people read up on it, when they understand the whole notion of being present, being happy with what you have and not caring about the outside world, we need more of that. And the story of Fjaka the origin story of how it came to be, our ancestors working up.

early in the morning and then the sun would get up, they would find a shade, get some food and just rest and just do nothing. So we need more of that. So basically going back to the corporate, maybe this would be a wild thing to do, but I can totally see corporates having a wellness program, implementing Fjaka or something similar. But we need to have team leaders

you know vouching for this and implementing it someway so it’s it’s a tricky one like I said for the corporates but we need we need an intentional bonus program let’s put it that way but from what i’ve seen you know a lot of these well these programs are you know really basic and they don’t they don’t stick you know because obviously without someone continuously lobbying for it you know it kinda you know people lose motivation

NECXT (21:45)
I

Yeah, you’re right. And we’re not going to solve that problem today in this discussion, but the intention today is just to spread a few ideas and thoughts to our listeners, our viewers, because this is a challenge that many corporates are facing. How can we think outside of the box? How can we be more creative in our approach to the business? Because it’s time right now to change things and not to

complacent with how we’ve done business over the past 20 years for instance and I truly believe that serendipity is a catalyst for that and this is why I thought it would be very interesting to talk about it with you. When we talk about serendipity

We mentioned that it’s being open to many things, including the risk of failure. And this is a big one. So how do you and other founders who embrace serendipity, who embrace uncertainty, how do you manage these fear or your risk of failure and failing?

Armando Matijevich (23:08)
So it’s gonna sound crazy but I love failures because I believe I strongly believe it’s the it’s the only way to truly truly learn

Because when you’re getting new information, especially something that is on the negative side of the spectrum, it’s new information, right? And then your brain creates new neural connections, right? I read up on it. I’m not an expert whatsoever. But there’s a logical explanation behind it.

So, know, when you’re, by the way, especially, you know, when you reach a certain age, your brain is a set of programs and it’s all about the habits that you formed over the course of the years, right? And then, you you can especially tell, you know, with the really old people when they do not receive new information, you know, and they often, you know, start losing memory and they, you know, it’s a high risk of dementia and stuff like that. So that’s why, people who socialize

a lot, especially when you’re older, when you get old and then you socialize with friends and you receive new information, right? And that’s keeping your brain healthy, right? So this kind of correlates, or at least it’s my take on it,

with the failures, like it’s an opportunity to learn.

right? And then the other thing that really helps me with, you know, embracing the unknown and the failures and everything associated with that is this awareness of fragility of human life and awareness of time. What I mean by that is when you look at the past, you know, everything already happened.

What you and I are experiencing, it all happened, right? There’s nothing new. I mean, human beings, we’re all the same. Two years before and now we all want the same things. So I kind of remind myself, regardless of what happens, it’s going to be good. And you’re going to…

You’re going to get up one day, you you’re going to be 80, 90, you’re going to look back on all these troubles that you’re experiencing right now. You’re going to ask yourself, do they matter? No, they don’t. Right? So what matters is, obviously your loved ones, people you care about and your health.

So that’s why I keep on going back almost in every conversation regarding these things. Put your health in the center. Prioritize your health or anything else. Because if you do that, that’s also going to help with embracing failures. Because your business might go down or whatever negative that can happen in your life.

But if you keep your health, it’s going to be easier. If you focus on your health, it’s going to be easier to embrace the unknown. So that’s, in a sense, what I do to simplify it. I zoom out, right? If it’s something, and especially as an entrepreneur, it’s constant ups and downs, right? So what I do, I just zoom out, right?

NECXT (26:19)
Yeah.

Armando Matijevich (26:21)
And I do this little technique, I go like 50 plus. So I’m 38 now, so I do, okay, 50 years from now, you know, how’s my day gonna be like, what’s gonna matter, right? You do this mental practice, you know, because we as humans, we’re visual beings, our brain functions in 3D, right? So you go into little details, you look, I’m 88, I’m looking at my wrinkle skin, and I’m like, what matters the most, right?

So prioritizing, I would say.

NECXT (26:51)
Yeah, prioritizing

when I listen to you, it’s also about being aware and open enough to see and try to identify the positive into what’s happening, a lesson, a learning or whatsoever, and turn this negativity into something positive or something that makes you

stronger. French you say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I think that’s a little bit what you’re saying. Listening to you is very interesting because we started with the notion of serendipity and we’re talking about well-being, we’re talking about breaking silos, horizontality. So openness, communication, true horizontal thinking seem to be key at the end of the day to foster serendipity.

Armando Matijevich (27:16)
Yeah.

NECXT (27:38)
From your experience, what else has successfully driven creative thinking in your life or in your companies?

Armando Matijevich (27:46)
I think curiosity would be a big one. Even though I have to admit sometimes I go overboard. I tend to be curious way too much. So you end up trying to discover too many things. So that’s the other problem that we’re not going to go into, but the overflow of the information that we’re all experiencing right now.

NECXT (28:09)
Well, it comes back

to your prioritization that you just said as well, somehow.

Armando Matijevich (28:12)
That’s right,

that’s right, that’s right. And I’m trying my best to filter all

curiosity points, let’s call them, because with AI these days, with the ability

gather the information and to source it towards your tools, whatever else, what kind of tools you use, it’s just too much, right? And we have to prioritize what we’re going to learn about. But being curious has led me to be more open.

to creating new connections and eventually creating connections that are genuine.

that can yield friendships, partnerships, business opportunities, stuff like that. So I would say curiosity is a good starting point as well. taking no one for granted. And I already said this one, but I’ll go back to it because it connects to the whole thing.

and you got to listen. That’s the other thing that I’ve noticed these days and just the ability to listen to people to understand especially these days with so much noise around all of us. We need to have empathy to one another as we all battle our own demons. So I would say it all kind of correlates.

NECXT (29:31)
Yeah, and it makes a lot of sense.

to the end of the discussion, unfortunately. I think we could talk for hours, but if there would be one final piece of advice you’d like to leave with our listeners today, what would it be? Be curious, take nothing for granted, something else?

Armando Matijevich (29:40)
for sure.

Yeah, well, all of that combined but I would say if I could pick one thing I would repeat myself prioritize health prioritize health

Don’t get sucked into the bullshit. Look back. Look back. Here’s a good practice. Just in short, good practice that I do sometimes. Go back five years, 10 years in the past. Think about the famous entrepreneur who you admired, someone you look up to. There’s a high chance that person went down, the business went down. And

go a little bit into the past, go back emotionally. Maybe you admired someone, you were, impressed. Maybe you were a bit jealous. That’s okay, we’re humans. And then, go back to the present time. You know, it’s gone. It’s all gone. Right? What stayed? You, us, right?

NECXT (30:38)
Yeah, that’s true.

Armando Matijevich (30:45)
our health and our ability to thrive and to care about the loved ones and people around us. So that’s it, health above everything else.

NECXT (30:55)
All right, and I think that’s a great conclusion. as we wrap up today’s discussion, it’s clear that serendipity stands out as a powerful driver of creative thinking, offering companies a fresh perspective on innovation. We’ve seen it, frontier technologies companies have proven that embracing these concepts leads to tangible success. So by creating the right environment

to flourish through openness, communication, cross-functional collaboration, companies can unlock

new levels of creativity even during headwinds and times of uncertainty. But let’s not forget, well-being, key factor as well. When employees feel valued, safe, empowered, they are more likely to take risks and contribute to a culture where serendipity can thrive. After all,

they free to explore, when they free to test, free to learn, free to fail, this is, I think, the trigger to creativity.

And that’s where well-being and being ready helps

create and to nurture

culture of change, because at the end it’s a culture of

Armando Matijevich (32:01)
so well

NECXT (32:02)
the choice is all ours. Everyone has to make the choice. But as you said, the future is full of possibilities and it’s up to us to make the most out of them. So Armando, thank you very much again for your time today. It was a real pleasure to talk about serendipity well-being and better understand how you do that with SplitX and how other founders embrace this

notion in their daily life. And to all of you, thank you for listening. We really hope that today’s conversation sparked new ideas and insights to help you lead with innovation and purpose. And if you like this discussion, don’t hesitate to share it and stay tuned on NECXT for more exciting discussion about what’s next. Thank you very much. Bye bye.

Armando Matijevich (32:51)
Such a pleasure, thank you.