{"id":1818,"date":"2025-06-25T08:38:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T07:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2025-06-25T08:38:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T07:38:50","slug":"hillstrike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/zgodbe-akrobatov\/hillstrike\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillstrike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

They say that most business ideas come from a problem or a hobby that takes hold of you. Hillstrike was born that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys loved downhill and suffered a bit in winter when the bikes were sitting in garages. Matic Hribar<\/strong>, a passionate mountain biker and all-round extreme sports enthusiast, wanted to bring mountain biking to the snow. He had seen a tricycle at a trade fair in Germany, but wanted something that felt more like a bicycle. Perhaps he would try to do it himself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He locked himself in the workshop and worked on - how to make a three-piston bike with a ride as similar as possible to a downhill bike? The first prototype was born. So the sports enthusiast found something unique for the snow, in addition to motocross, downhill and snowboarding. He was going downhill, on the slopes... and getting looks from adrenaline junkies just like him. \"Hey, what have you got there?\" And they tried. First one, then two, three, ten... Until a colleague with an entrepreneurial streak seriously suggested: \"Hey, this would sell. Let's make a company out of this.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on. If you don't try, you don't know what might come of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time, Katapult was still in its infancy, but Jure believed in their team and saw the opportunity in the prototype he saw, so he supported them. Together they founded the start-up Hillstrike, started developing unique three-piece blades and started selling them. Mati\u010d's friend Jan Cestnik, a multiple national downhill champion, was an important source of advice on how to further improve the driving experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matic, what does Hillstrike even mean? \"Hills<\/em> are hills. Trike<\/em> is a tricycle. Strike<\/em> is an attack. It could also be Hribar's tricycle<\/em>. Multiple meanings in one word.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They didn't just want to make a product and a company. They wanted to build a community. That was what brought them together the most.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many entrepreneurs tell us that they have encountered problems they never thought of at the beginning. The 180 parts of a three-pack are 180 challenges. They have developed special frames, the likes of which have never been produced by any manufacturer before. They realised that this was a very complex product for the time and their knowledge. So they were forced to study the development and manufacture themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To secure investment for development and to make the crucial transition from prototype to mass production, they signed up to the Kikstarter campaign. The campaign was not successful in collecting pre-orders, but it did find them a distributor in Austria. The first major success was the sale of 30 three-packers to the Austrian market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys worked for free, just with enthusiasm and the belief that one day something would work. \"All the best to the whole team,\"<\/strong> \"The guys were very involved in the project, very enthusiastic. They put a lot of hours and a lot of nerves into it. Really, a tribute.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the margin was still unacceptable to customers. The cost of production has not yet broken through to the point where it provides enough added value for further development. Producing a few units is significantly more expensive than producing 1 000 units at a time. A quantity that they have not been able to guarantee through procurement. All in all, they have sold just over 100 Hillstrike tricorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One obstacle was the very short sales window - only a few months of winter, as nobody thinks of buying snow props during the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second major obstacle came unexpectedly in 2017, when the law on ski resorts changed. In Slovenia, it banned skiing with modified ski bikes. So also their three-mule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition that has emerged on the market is also a challenge, but Matic saw this as more of an advantage - the more companies that produce the trocars, the more the device will be recognised. This will also help Hillstrike to be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The really big challenge was the corona. Team members mentioned to Matic that with regular expenses and families, they needed something more stable. Of course, understandable. The general atmosphere during the corona also instilled additional fears or reminded of the seriousness of the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Because it is fine<\/em> to dream. But sometimes you have to pour some wine,\" says Matic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team was disbanded, the project was closed at Katapult, and Matic kept Hillstrike. The knowledge and experience gained from the tricorder project has probably also helped the company to operate a successful occupational health and safety service today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(When we need protection at work at Katapult, we always contact Matica.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"I have learned that there is always a solution. You can always do something differently. When others express pessimism and convince you how it won't work and how it doesn't make sense, you have to find it in yourself to keep going. Such comments should not stop you. But they often do stop you.\" And how does he deal with such periods? \"I go up the hill and I'm flushing my brains<\/em>. Or I go to the snow furat<\/em>. Or at bicycle<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever it does, it wants to create added value, something useful for people and society.<\/strong> A sports enthusiast has started reviewing the safety ratings of sports parks and children's play areas. When he looked at mountain bike trails, he noticed that they are not even regulated yet. This is where he found a new opportunity... Matic is currently the only one doing a safety assessment of mountain bike trails. He is also a founding member of Bike Club Slovenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That's it - if you have an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire for continuous improvement, you'll find opportunities everywhere. You find ways to create something new everywhere. Acrobat.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What many people don't know is that he is still developing and making trocars in his workshop today. \"There are always things being worked on - at the moment we are developing a carbon casing. Every now and then one is sold. Just last year I sold some to America...\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you suggest to others from your experience? \"Many of my colleagues have endless ideas of what to do. But you have to, to put it in the vernacular, put the eggs on the floor and get into it<\/em>. To say. To go all or nothing, even if you don't know if anything will come of it. We are all used to our comfort zone. There is a lot of advice out there, and it is all true. But in the end there is nothing to do but - just try, do something and learn as you go along. Winning is not guaranteed. Or it is, you just don't know what that victory really is yet.<\/strong>\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are quietly hoping that the project of the three-musketeers will be revived in a stronger way. \"Maybe there will be another good opportunity when I'm in the right place at the right time. For example, if I get a partner who feels the prop and has a sales network, that would be enough to get me ready to give it another go.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whether it happens or not: \"I have a vision, a goal and I do what makes me happy.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillstrike can be viewed and still ordered on the website: Hillstrike.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"hillstrike\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You must have seen an interesting device in the premises of the Catapult and Dewesoft, like combining a bicycle and a pair of skis, on which it says Hillstrike.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[67,14,9],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zgodbe-akrobatov","tag-hillstrike","tag-mesto-akrobatov","tag-zgodbe-akrobatov"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/hillstrike-zgodbe-akrobatov-3.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Petra \u0160karja","author_link":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/author\/petras\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1821,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions\/1821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}