MAKERphone 2.0
A mobile phone you build and program yourself. The newest one — on Kickstarter from 10 September 2026.
Albert Gajšak
Co-founder & CEO, CircuitMess · Zagreb, Croatia
I make electronics kits that you build with your own hands — solder the board, close the case, then write the code that runs on it. Since 2017 more than 300,000 of them have shipped to builders around the world.
300,000+ devices shipped worldwide
Co-founded CircuitMess at 18
$1.2M+ raised on Kickstarter
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 CE · 2021 & 2022
TEDx Zagreb speaker
Officially licensed NASA & Warner Bros. kits
Maker of Merit · Maker Faire Rome
Toy Fair New York award winner
01 About
A kid from Karlovac who never stopped taking things apart.
I grew up in Karlovac, Croatia. My father is a mechanical engineer and he kept pushing me to build things and take them apart, so the first thing I ever made was a small car with an electromotor and a switch, out of Meccano blocks. School bored me. Most days I went straight from it to the free workshops at the Zajednica tehničke kulture in town, where the tools and the materials cost nothing and there were other kids building things too.
By the time I was at Gimnazija Karlovac I was building rescue robots with my friend Filip Jakšić under the name CRObotix — him on software, me on hardware. We spent our weekends at RoboCupJunior competitions and in 2016 took bronze in the Rescue Line Secondary category at the Austrian Open in Innsbruck. What I really wanted to make, though, was a games console you had to build yourself. I designed one around an 8-bit microcontroller, called it MAKERbuino, and took the prototype to Maker Faire Rome as Croatia's representative, where it won a Maker of Merit ribbon. The Kickstarter that followed raised $100,745 from 1,574 backers.
CircuitMess was registered in April 2017. I was 18 and still finishing secondary school, working out of my own kitchen after class — a guerilla startup, more or less — with Tomislav Car coming in as investor and co-founder. I never enrolled at university; I couldn't see doing two big things well at once. Nine years on we are a team of around thirty in Zagreb, designing our own boards, writing our own firmware and manufacturing our own hardware. We have made officially licensed kits with Warner Bros. and NASA, and a buildable Rimac Nevera with Rimac Automobili. The part I liked at fourteen hasn't changed: getting a real, working device into someone's hands and letting them work out why it works.
With CircuitMess, I am trying to make STEM education radically different.Trending Topics, 2021
02 The company
CircuitMess
Electronics you build yourself, then program.
CircuitMess designs and manufactures build-it-yourself STEM kits — game consoles, smartwatches, robot cars, synthesisers, encrypted radios. Nothing arrives finished. You assemble the device, and then you code it. One product line is for kids from age 7, the other for teens and adults.
300,000+Devices shipped worldwide
~30People on the team
2017Founded in Croatia
4.3★Trustpilot, 1,036 reviews
More at circuitmess.com — and the firmware for most of these devices is on GitHub.
03 The kits
Things we made.
Every one of these ships as parts and a manual. Ages and build times are what we print on the box.
Swipe sideways for the rest
NASA Artemis Watch 2.0
A programmable NASA-themed smartwatch with activity tracking, compass and Bluetooth.
NASA Perseverance Rover
An officially licensed, drivable Mars rover with a robotic arm. Roughly twenty hours of building.
Rimac Nevera
A working scale replica of the Nevera, made with Rimac Automobili. Assemble the chassis, motors and steering, then code it.
Chatter 2.0
Two encrypted LoRa communicators with about 2 km of range. No Wi-Fi, no SIM, no network.
Wheelson 2.0
A self-driving, AI-powered robot car with computer vision. Drives itself once you teach it how.
ByteBoi 2.0
A retro handheld console. Play what comes loaded, then write your own games — and use it to drive Wheelson.
Jay-D 2.0
A DJ mixer with two playback slots, jog wheels and a crossfader, for learning digital sound.
Synthia 2.0
A sampler, drum machine, sequencer and synth in one. Sample with the onboard mic, then filter it.
Clockstar 2.0
Build a smartwatch, pair it with your phone, then program the watch faces and step tracking.
Bit 2.0
The gateway kit — an 8-bit retro console you can build in about an hour and code in Python.
Codee 2.0
Build, code and look after a virtual pet. Thirty minutes to assemble, then six games on board.
Beep Boop
Pocket robot companions — Mochi, Kirin, Miao Miao and Tochi. The smallest, cutest thing we make.
Wacky Robots
A trading card game — 14 cards a pack, each with a video-game token that unlocks something new on Bit.
Ages and build times are what we print on the box. For current pricing and the full catalogue, circuitmess.com is the source of truth.
04 Journey
From a school robotics team to a factory floor.
2013 — 2016
CRObotix
Rescue robots built with Filip Jakšić at Gimnazija Karlovac, and years of RoboCupJunior competitions. Bronze in Rescue Line Secondary at the 2016 Austrian Open in Innsbruck. In between: game consoles, a smartwatch, a lot of AVR microcontrollers, C++ and 3D-printed parts.
2016
MAKERbuino goes to Rome
I took the MAKERbuino prototype to Maker Faire Rome as Croatia's representative. It came back with a Maker of Merit ribbon and enough attention to justify a Kickstarter.
2017
CircuitMess is founded
The MAKERbuino Kickstarter raised $100,745 from 1,574 backers. CircuitMess was registered that April — I was 18 and still a secondary-school pupil, and Tomislav Car joined as investor and co-founder. Later that year MAKERbuino won Idea Knockout, run by Bug magazine with Hrvatski Telekom — the prize was a stand at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.
2018
MAKERphone, and a TEDx stage
MAKERphone — a mobile phone you assemble yourself — raised $324,453 from 2,154 backers. That September I gave a TEDxZagreb talk, “Mangup iz garaže koji je osvojio svijet retro DIY igračkom.”
2019 — 2020
Subscription boxes
A Pokreni nešto svoje grant backed the MAKERphone SNAP project in 2019. Then came the CircuitMess STEM Box — a new buildable device every three months — which raised over $400,000 on Kickstarter and produced Spencer, Jay-D, Wheelson, ByteBoi, Chatter and Clockstar.
2021
Warner Bros. and the Batmobile
We licensed the Batmobile from Warner Bros. Consumer Products and turned it into a buildable, drivable kit: $388,783 from 2,427 backers, about 2,600% of the goal. CircuitMess placed 24th in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Central Europe, and I spent a Sunday on HRT's Nedjeljom u 2.
2022
Wacky Robots, and 790% growth
We launched the Wacky Robots line and finished 40th in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe with 790% growth. Talks that year: Infobip Shift in Zadar, LEAP Summit Zagreb, and CARNET's CUC conference.
2023
New York, and Mars
At Toy Fair New York our stand won the Powerfully Playful Award in the Toy Association's first Reimagination Awards — “extremely proud to have received an award at such a renowned event, at which big brands from the toy world like LEGO and Pokemon participate.” With Geek Club we shipped an officially licensed NASA Perseverance rover kit, whose campaign raised $580,710 from 2,871 backers. The European Commission profiled me in its Decade of Great Stories series for Croatia's tenth year in the EU.
Artemis I launch photograph: NASA/Joel Kowsky — public domain.
2024 — 2026
Second generation, and a new phone
We rebuilt the whole catalogue as 2.0 — better boards, better firmware — added the NASA Artemis Watch and the Beep Boop robots, and made a buildable Rimac Nevera with Rimac Automobili. Most of the toys are now manufactured in China while DIY kit production stays in Croatia. And the thing I keep coming back to: MAKERphone 2.0.
05 Recognition
Awards and listings.
2016
Maker of Merit
Maker Faire Rome — as Croatia's representative, for MAKERbuino
2016
Bronze, Rescue Line Secondary
RoboCupJunior Austrian Open, Innsbruck — team CRObotix
2016
Oskar znanja & Harvard Prize Book
Awarded while at Gimnazija Karlovac
2017
Idea Knockout winner
Bug magazine with Hrvatski Telekom — prize: a stand at CES 2018
2019
Pokreni nešto svoje
Grant and business support for the MAKERphone SNAP project
2021
Technology Fast 50 Central Europe — 24th
Deloitte — 203% growth
2021
European Young Innovators finalist
World Summit Awards
2022
Technology Fast 50 Central Europe — 40th
Deloitte — 790% growth
2023
Powerfully Playful Award
Toy Fair New York, The Toy Association Reimagination Awards
2023
Recognised at the Warner Bros. consumer products summit
For the CircuitMess Batmobile
2023
Decade of Great Stories
European Commission Representation in Croatia
Ongoing
In Croatian school textbooks
Featured as an innovator role model alongside Mate Rimac and Ivan Mrvoš
06 Speaking & press
I talk about hardware, manufacturing from a small country, and why STEM education keeps missing the point.
- 2018 TEDxZagreb “Mangup iz garaže koji je osvojio svijet retro DIY igračkom”
- 2022 CUC — CARNET Users Conference Invited speaker
- 2022 LEAP Summit, Zagreb Speaker
- 2022 · 2023 Infobip Shift, Zadar Speaker, both editions
- 2023 Zagreb Connect Panel — “Kako postati globalni igrač”
- 2021 Nedjeljom u 2, HRT Guest of Aleksandar Stanković
- Also Blend Zagreb, WOLF Conference Speaker
Written up in Forbes, Forbes Hrvatska, Netokracija, Lider, tportal, Index and Red Bull Croatia. For interviews or a talk, email me.
07 Contact
Get in touch.
Partnerships, licensing, press, schools, speaking — or just to tell me what you built. Email is best.
albert@albertgajsak.com