Jaka Bavdek
Co-Founder and CEO, 8x Social. We're building the orchestration layer for human work: we acquire, train, and evaluate people at scale, then plug them into the parts of AI workflows that still need a human. Creator networks are the wedge; the same engine now reaches into sales, engineering, and data. 120,000+ humans on the platform across 30+ countries, at a $3M run rate in 5 months.
Previously co-founded Epistemy (AI voice simulations for corporate training) and e-Matura (exam prep, 100k+ students/year across 10+ 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 on the bridge in Ljubljana. At 18, renting lecture halls and recruiting professors to run live exam prep lectures for 300+ students — while taking the exam myself. In between: a schoolbook resale platform, a beauty salon, and a digital agency from my first office at 19.
Those ventures helped me finance my Masters at London Business School. From there, I went wherever the building was happening:
- London — saw the levels. People with access to everything — networks, capital, mentorship — but almost everyone funnelling into consulting and IB. Landed a strategy consulting offer in Dubai. But something didn't feel right.
- Singapore — the turning point. Quit a six-figure Dubai offer before ever starting, went all-in on a GenAI company. Lost my co-founder. Came back to Europe with nothing except e-Matura keeping the lights on — but I'd stopped being apologetic about what I actually wanted: to build something huge at scale.
- Bangalore — the closest thing to SF energy I've found. People grinding in coworking spaces until midnight. Every coffee shop is a pitch meeting. Built from here for months.
- Berlin — serious technical talent and an incredible deep-tech ecosystem. But the urgency wasn't there. Most people leave at 6pm.
Along the way, two companies bootstrapped from scratch:
- e-Matura — started during COVID in 2020 as a digital exam prep platform. Turned into Slovenia's #1, now serving 100k+ students annually. Scaled to Poland, Romania, and Hungary in under a year. 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. Found a new co-founder, 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, then upskill, evaluate, and allocate it. The moat isn't any single campaign; it's owning the cheapest engine in the world for acquiring humans at scale, and the performance data we build on every one of them.
Things I believe:
- AI doesn't reduce the need for humans, it multiplies it. The scarce skill of the next decade is orchestrating people and agents together to deliver real outcomes in the real world.
- 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.
- Vertical integration beats platform plays. Companies that create supply — not just intermediate it — build moats that are nearly impossible to replicate.
Outside of work:
- Yu-Gi-Oh national champion and European vice champion at 12 (Milan, Italy)
- Competitive table tennis for 8 years starting at 10 — competed in professional leagues against grown men at 13
- 9 years of MMA, BJJ & kickboxing
- Kitesurfing when I can find wind
Writing: