Pickid is building a safe, smart ridesharing platform for kids, tackling one of the biggest headaches for parents: getting children to and from after-school activities. Founded by four friends, Amer Nakić, Karlo Premužak, Matej Vukić, and Lovre Mitrović turned their idea into reality during BIRD Incubator’s 6-month incubation program (open now), taking home first place at Demo Day. We sat down with them to talk about solving mobility challenges for families, building trust in a new market, and what’s next for Pickid.
Let’s start with a little intro: Who are you, what’s the name and age of your startup, and what problem are you solving?
We’re the team behind Pickid, a ride-hailing platform that’s been in development for exactly one year now. The idea was born out of a common yet often overlooked challenge, transport of kids to and from extracurricular activities is incredibly time-consuming and exhausting for both parents and kids. We wanted to explore this pain point and see how we could make life easier for young families through a smart, safe and reliable platform.
As four recent graduates, we’re stepping into the world of entrepreneurship with passion and curiosity. We are exploring world of enterprenuership with high will to deploy solution that will help young families all across Europe.
How did you first connect with BIRD Incubator, and what made you decide to join the program?
We first connected with Vid from BIRD during our pre-MVP phase, while we were refining our product-market fit. Having already conducted broad market research, we were looking for guidance regarding next steps on this journey. Taking BIRD’s network, hands-on approach and focus on early-stage startups in made it an obvious choice.
Every startup faces challenges—what’s been your toughest obstacle so far, and how did you overcome it?
Our biggest challenge was developing a business model that balanced our operational capacity with the needs of our users, delivering best possible user journey to both parents and their children. We went through several iterations, carefully analyzing feedback and usage scenarios, until we landed on a model that delivers a seamless and trustworthy user experience.
What’s one resource, connection, or experience at BIRD Incubator that truly made a difference in your startup’s growth?
Without a doubt, it’s the network. Biggest advantage that we’ve got from BIRD is definetely network that consists of brilliant mentors, ex-founders and highly motivated emerging startups. Every connection, every talk and every advice from every single one of them was crucial in forming our final product and service. We’ve got brilliant feedbacks, great ideas for features and special partnerships with both sportsclubs and schools. It all came from connecting with the network of people that BIRD made possible.
Investors and partners are often curious—what makes your business model stand out, and who are your target customers?
Our target users are parents of children aged 7–14 who participate in multiple afterschool or extracurricular activities. Kids today want to train, learn, and explore. Their parents are supportive but often overwhelmed by tight schedules which leads to problems of transportation. Pickid offers a tailored mobility solution, which is specific for EU market. We’re purpose-built for this niche, with a focus on safety, reliability and community.
Let’s talk about the future—where do you see your startup in five years, and what goals are you most excited to achieve?
We’re most excited about launching our app in the upcoming school year and finally bringing Pickid to families all across Croatia. Our goal is to expand from urban centers to smaller towns and rural areas where mobility is even more limited. In five years, we see Pickid as a leading platform in the family mobility space, trusted by parents and loved by kids.
To wrap up, what’s one piece of advice or wisdom from your journey that you believe every founder should know?
Work, work and more work. Keep on working even when things are not running smoothly. Eventually they will. Prepare for ride before it even starts, Where every ride feels like family!
