Built @42: How Tomislav is Redefining Medical Tools
Sometimes, the greatest innovations are born from the moments we feel most defeated. What started as a journey back home to regroup after a setback, turned into a mission to disrupt medical tech. Through a chance meeting and a shared vision, a new kind of surgical precision began to take shape. This is a story about finding opportunity in the unexpected and the power of starting over.
Find out the background and the current status of the project through the eyes of our former student:
The Origin: A Journey Back Home
The idea was born out of desperation, one might say. Over long months of not being able to land a position in numerous countries, and a heartbreak from a certain opportunity in Germany that fell through, I came back home to Croatia defeated. I needed some form of mental break from all the negativity and I found it in interacting with my friends and family, and during that time, about three months after I returned back home, an old friend contacted me about an idea he had. Since we were both involved in a previous business venture that unfortunately met its end, I was interested in what he had in mind, and the result of that coffee can be seen right now, working together on a new medical tool that fits a certain niche on the market.”
The Creation Process: The journey from concept to product
While the product stage is still quite far away, the fortunate thing is that thanks to a lot of already existing technology being readily available for us, the concept journey wasn’t as thorny as one might imagine. The greatest problem we found was the usage of materials that were compliant with the ability to be resistant to the sterilization process, while keeping its properties intact. Right now this specific step is the hurdle we need to overcome, but we already have few possible candidates that we will consider. The prototype we created to secure funding from the “Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds” is still far away from the final vision we have, but in time we’re confident that many of those ideas will be accomplished.
The Innovation: Precision Meets Sustainability
“The core of our project lies in a simple but powerful integration: we’ve combined two proven mechanical principles into one high-precision surgical drill.
What truly sets this apart in a medical context is its lifecycle. Unlike many single-use instruments, our drill is designed for full sterilization and re-packaging. This means it can return to the operating room multiple times without any loss in reliability, offering a sustainable, cost-effective solution for modern surgery.”
The 42 Connection: How the peer-to-peer mindset helped to succeed
The way 42 specifically helped me in this case was brushing my rough edges in communication, understanding limits of what and when should be said, focusing on important things while planning for the future steps, always prepared, but never 100% sure that it will end up the way we envisioned.
The best parallel I could compare would be my “Transcendence” project, where I worked alongside incredible peers. How we envisioned the project at the start was almost unrecognizable from the end result, but the primary goal was achieved, and that was to pass the project. Road to that goal was difficult, filled with fails, stress, fumbles and miscommunication, but in the end we have achieved what we set out to do.
Business in this case is quite similar, the original idea might change over many iterations, losing and gaining features left and right, but there is always that once constant going from start to finish: Achieving the goal of creating a product. Smaller goals are of course steps towards the final one, and this skill is also something I learned through peers at 42 whom most of now I call friends, and I’m incredibly fortunate to being able to do so!
Follow Tomislav’s journey on his LinkedIn Page.
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