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Comment by aerodog | Hacker News Reader

A Croatian company founded by a guy who's..35...

Don't be fooled by these headlines. His father is known for close ties with the ruling party and was/is under investigation for all sorts of laundering and land schemes. I would not be surprised if some of that money ended up as a seed for the company and car development.

Gordon Murray built his first car in his early twenties.

Koenigsegg founded his company when he was in his early twenties.

Who’s also now the CEO of Bugatti Rimac, a new JV between Porsche, Bugatti, and Rimac.

Who started his company at 23 which is even more impressive. The founders of Tesla for, example, were well established in consumer electronics before starting the car company. And cars are the most complex consumer electronics on the market. So starting this endeavor in your early 20s is really impressive.

I will just put this here: https://youtu.be/WAf1_zWThyE?t=526

What does the age or nationality of the founder have to do with it? Do cars go less fast in Croatia?

The obvious, I think: Croatia is small and doesn't have much of a car industry, nor of a history of tech development.

>doesn't have much of a car industry

Rimac is focused on electric car part development like electro-hydraulic brake system. You don't have to have assembly lines for that.

>no history of tech development

Croatia has Rimac and Infobip, which puts them above average unicorn per capita in EU. Companies are succeeding in spite of leftover corruption from commie times.

> nor of a history of tech development

Oh, it has a very long history of tech development, including that one guy whose name was stolen for that other overvalued EV company.

I haven't seen much of that history, and Tesla might have been born in current Croatia, but was ethnically a Serb, but most importantly, he did most of his work in the US. I think that's what makes that car company more remarkable: talented tech/entrepeneur doesn't go to the States.

> most importantly, he did most of his work in the US

That is correct, and I agree that it's most important -- his ethnicity is completely irrelevant (no more than Steve Jobs's Syrian one) and his place of birth just slightly more, as it defined where he went for education (Graz and Prague) and early work (Budapest and Paris, which led directly to his move to the US).

> I haven't seen much of that history

Which is fair, especially considering the fact that it wasn't a separate country for most of its history. But things like electric speedometer, military torpedo, rubber hot water bottle and a few others came from there.

I'd argue the company would be less remarkable if it was founded by an 50 year old ex-BMW manager in Bavaria.

Mate Rimac is an impressive man, have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_Rimac

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