Nikola Balićnibzard
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Curriculum vitae

Nikola Balić

Developer tools and growth. Research, teaching, and technology transfer.

Split, Croatia · Founding Growth Lead, Steel

[email protected]GitHubLinkedInX
About me Updated

Professional experience

February 2026–present

Founding Growth Lead

Steel

  • Lead growth for browser infrastructure used by AI agents and automation developers.
  • Work on product positioning, developer adoption, and the ecosystem around browser automation.
  • Joined full-time after an advisory engagement focused on growth and positioning.
Joining Steel

2023–2025

Head of Growth

Daytona

  • Led go-to-market strategy and product-led growth for developer infrastructure.
  • Worked on the shift in positioning from cloud development environments to runtimes for AI agents.
  • Produced technical articles, documentation, and video tutorials. Organized product launches and launch weeks.
  • Established an open-source bounty program and used product analytics to guide adoption work.
  • Built developer experiments, including a Python interpreter for Daytona sandboxes and a directory of AI development tools.

2022–2023

Growth Lead

Codeanywhere

  • Worked on user reactivation and retention for a cloud development environment.
  • Ran email campaigns and a developer newsletter, using engagement data to guide growth experiments.

November 2018–May 2023

Head of Department for Science and Innovation

University of Split

  • Led the department responsible for research support and innovation activities.
  • Worked on university collaboration, research commercialization, and projects funded by the European Union.
  • Contributed to the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU) alliance and its research program, reSEArch-EU.
  • Co-authored reports on digital transformation, research infrastructure, and university entrepreneurship.

Earlier career

Technology transfer and project management

University of Split · Technology Transfer Office

  • Managed TTAdria, a project connecting research organizations and businesses in the Croatian Adriatic region.
  • Worked with researchers and companies on commercialization and innovation projects. Public project records document this work in 2013–2015.
  • Supported entrepreneurship education and cooperation between universities and businesses.
TTAdria project publication

Advisory and service

Established 2018

Founder

Pulent / Disequi

  • Independent advisory practice focused on innovation strategy and bringing technical products to market.

Early-stage engagement

Management advisor

Numarics

  • Advised the management team during the early development of the Swiss fintech company.
Interview on advisory work

2023

Mentor

Labena Ventures

  • Supported startup founders with business models, team development, and routes to market.

Appointed 2013

National ambassador

European IPR Helpdesk

  • Helped researchers and businesses access guidance on intellectual property rights (IPR) and technology transfer.
University appointment report

Teaching

Since 2023

Visiting Lecturer

University of Split · Faculty of Science

  • Teach data science courses, including NoSQL databases and complex network analysis.
  • Teaching also includes introductory software engineering and scientific programming.

Education and research

Started September 2020

Doctoral research in computer science

University of Split

  • Research on digital transformation at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.
  • Published work examines digital readiness, technology adoption, and university collaboration.

Master of Science in Computing

Qualification

  • Professional qualification recorded as mag. ing. comp. in University of Split project publications.

Research and innovation programs

University projects and responsibilities, alongside the TTAdria work listed above.

reSEArch-EUFrom 2021
Research collaboration, digital transformation, and shared research infrastructure. Co-authored the reports listed below.
SEA-EUFrom 2019
Member of the research, development, and innovation subcommittee.
Science and innovation center, University of SplitFrom 2020
Project management for university research and innovation infrastructure.
University of Split research infrastructure integrationFrom 2018
Project management for the integration of university science and research infrastructure.

Publications and reports

Journal articles, preprints, and institutional reports. Each title links to the publication.

  1. 2026 · Preprint

    Pre-AI Baseline: Developer IDE Satisfaction and Tool Autonomy in 2022

    Balić, N.

    arXiv:2603.06050

  2. 2025 · Journal article

    The Role of Multi-Stakeholder Collaborations in Integrating University Missions: Experience of Six Universities in Europe

    Pace, L. A.; Vranješ Markić, L.; Sammut, F.; Miles, I. D.; Balić, N.

    European Journal of Education

  3. 2025 · Preprint

    Will Agents Replace Us? Perceptions of Autonomous Multi-Agent AI

    Balić, N.

    arXiv:2506.02055

  4. 2024 · Journal article

    Navigating through ocean literacy gaps: an analysis of elementary school textbooks in Croatian education

    Ezgeta-Balić, D.; Balić, N.

    Mediterranean Marine Science, 25(1), 1–13

  5. 2024 · Journal article

    Perceptions of Digital Learning and Teaching: The Case of a Croatian University Transition to an Emergency Digital Environment

    Balić, N.; Grubišić, A.; Granić, A.

    Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 29, 453–481 · Online publication: 2023

  6. 2022 · Report

    Digital transformation of research and innovation roadmap

    Alfirević, N.; Balić, N.

    reSEArch-EU · Deliverable D2.2

  7. 2022 · Report

    Summary report on the Innovative and Entrepreneurial potential of the SEA-EU

    Balić, N.; Vranješ Markić, L.; Vuka, I.

    reSEArch-EU · Deliverable D3.1

  8. 2022 · Report

    Remote work and remotization of infrastructure case study

    Ćukušić, M.; Ljubica, J.; Šćulac, T.; Vranješ Markić, L.; Balić, N.; Vučković, M.

    reSEArch-EU · Deliverable D2.3

  9. 2022 · Report

    SEA-EU Academy Guiding principles

    Vranješ Markić, L.; Balić, N.; Vučković, M.

    reSEArch-EU · Deliverable D2.4

Google ScholarORCIDResearchGate

Selected open-source software

AgentProbe
Tests how AI agents interact with command-line tools.
Agentic AI patterns
An open catalogue of patterns for building systems with AI agents.
Daytona MCP Interpreter
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for running Python in temporary Daytona sandboxes.
Claude Threads
A web viewer for Claude Code conversations.
LLMDB
An experimental memory store for autonomous agents.
AI Enablement Stack
A community directory of tools for AI development.

Browse the project directory

Speaking

May 2025 · O’Reilly AI Codecon

Designing Intelligent AI for Autonomous Action

Languages

English and Croatian.