When Croatian Media Called MyBusinessCard “Facebook for Businesses”
Long before blockchain, RWAs, and sovereign digital infrastructure became part of my journey, I was already focused on building systems.
The idea behind MyBusinessCard was initiated during 2011, at a time when Croatia was still heavily recovering from the consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis. While managing a brokerage branch and working daily within financial markets, I started recognizing deeper structural changes happening around business, technology, and communication.
The Croatian stock market had already begun losing momentum after the massive collapse that followed the 2007 peak. Many companies that once represented the core of the local equity boom would eventually lose more than 90% of their value, with some disappearing entirely through delistings. It became increasingly clear to me that traditional brokerage models and local market structures would struggle to recover for years to come.
At the same time, I saw another reality emerging:
The future would belong to digital ecosystems, networking platforms, search systems, and user-driven infrastructure.
That realization led to the creation of MyBusinessCard — a business-oriented digital networking platform designed to connect companies, professionals, and services through searchable profiles and interactive participation.
At the time, the idea was unusually ambitious for the regional market.
The platform was publicly introduced in January 2012 and quickly attracted attention from major Croatian business media outlets including Business.hr, Lider, and DuList, which described the project as a “Facebook for businesses.”
But behind the media headlines, the deeper vision was much larger.
The goal was not simply to build another directory website. I wanted to create a system where businesses could:
- build digital identities,
- connect directly with partners and clients,
- improve visibility,
- and participate actively inside an evolving online business ecosystem.
Even in its early form, the platform already contained many ideas that would later define much larger technological systems:
- digital profiles,
- categorization,
- search infrastructure,
- regional scalability,
- user interaction,
- and ecosystem-based thinking.
Around the same period, I also applied to Seedcamp, one of Europe’s leading startup accelerators. Out of more than 200 applicants, the project reached the Top 3 stage — an important confirmation that the concept carried international potential beyond the local market.
During 2013, the vision expanded further into a mobile-focused concept called Quickseek, designed to accelerate business discovery and digital interaction even more. Although the project was never fully completed, it represented another important step in my understanding of platform architecture and user-focused systems.
Eventually, I shifted my primary focus back toward global financial markets and foreign exchange trading, where I spent the following years deepening my understanding of liquidity, volatility, macro cycles, and market psychology.
Looking back today, MyBusinessCard was far more than an early startup project.
It was the first real signal of how I naturally approached the world:
through systems, infrastructure, scalability, and long-term vision.
Years later, those same principles would evolve into Cuprum Coin, Materra, and the broader concept of sovereign-grade digital and scientific ecosystems.
Historical Media Reference
DuList (January 27, 2012) — “Dubrovčanin pokrenuo Facebook za poslovnjake”
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Related Links
- Materra → materra.io
- Cuprum Coin → cuprumcoin.com
- Cuprum Coin Historical Updates → historical.cuprumcoin.com
Mario Urlić 