Andrei Zinkevich is a well-known digital marketing expert with over 15 years of experience in the field. He worked at big international corporations, and in 2013 he started working independently and is the co-founder of Fullfunnel.io and ROIplan. While he is known globally for his expertise, some of you probably know him as a member of our tech community.

He moved to Split from Krakow in search of a healthier place to live for himself and his family. While they initially came here for three months to see if it works, soon they were charmed enough to stay and settle in nearby Solin. Many things contributed to that decision, but what sealed the deal the most were the warmth of the people they encountered and the overall quality of life they enjoy here.

We sat down to chat with Andrei about his work and life here on one warm and sunny morning in February, near Bačvice beach overlooking the view towards the islands of Brač and Šolta. Over a cup of coffee, we discussed several things: what exactly he does for a living, how he manages working worldwide while living locally, the work-life balance achieved after moving here, how he got involved with Split Tech City, and his view of our local tech community and its future.

He told us of his initial arrival to Croatia, the warm welcome he and his family received from the locals here: from impromptu celebrations of his son’s birthday to being invited to “have a drink” during neighbor’s wedding celebrations and staying almost the entire festivities, and everything in-between.

Another great aspect of life here was the healthy environment and the vicinity of everything they needed, so long commutes and wasting time in a car are no longer part of his daily life. Andrei’s initial drive behind moving his family from one place to another was health. Due to high levels of smog in Krakow, he and his wife began having health issues despite being young and healthy individuals. So, what he and his family got upon their move here was priceless: healthy air, nice weather, and more time for each other.

With improved work-life balance, it was not hard for Andrei to manage living here in Croatia while working globally with clients across the world. He also connected with Split Tech City and was pleasantly surprised by how lively Split’s tech community actually is and what great job the Association is doing in bringing that community together. However, Andrei does have a point that we need to work on improving our visibility because it was difficult for him to find any information in English about working in Croatia and the community here in Split.

We took his advice to heart and are working on presenting Split Tech City and Split’s tech community to the world. This podcast with Andrei is just the first step in that direction!