For journalists
Press kit.
Checked figures, paste-ready biographies and publication-resolution photographs — so nothing has to be guessed at or chased down.
Everything below has been checked against a primary source. If you need something that is not here, or a figure confirmed on the record, email albert@albertgajsak.com and you will get an answer the same day.
Right now
MAKERphone 2.0 — a mobile phone that arrives as parts — opened on Kickstarter on 10 September 2026 and passed its US$30,000 goal 49 minutes later. It closes on 10 October 2026. As of 13 September it had passed US$249,000 from more than 1,430 backers — over 800% of goal — and is a Kickstarter Project We Love.
The campaign page carries the live totals, the full specification and the pledge tiers. The figures above are deliberately rounded down so they stay true; use the campaign page if you need them to the dollar.
Biography, ready to paste
One line
Albert Gajšak is the co-founder and CEO of CircuitMess, a Croatian-American company based in the USA and Croatia, making build-it-yourself electronics kits.
Short — 59 words
Albert Gajšak is the co-founder and CEO of CircuitMess, a Croatian-American company based in the USA and Croatia that makes build-it-yourself STEM electronics kits. He registered the company in April 2017, aged 18 and still a secondary-school pupil, after a game console he soldered in his bedroom raised $100,745 on Kickstarter. More than 300,000 devices have since shipped worldwide.
Long — 112 words
Albert Gajšak is the co-founder and CEO of CircuitMess, a Croatian-American company based in the USA and Croatia that designs and manufactures build-it-yourself STEM kits — nothing arrives finished, and the owner solders the device together and then programs it. He took an early prototype to Maker Faire Rome in 2016 as Croatia's representative and came back with a Maker of Merit ribbon; the Kickstarter that followed raised $100,745 and the company was registered in April 2017, when he was 18 and still at school. CircuitMess has since shipped more than 300,000 devices, placed twice in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Central Europe, and made officially licensed kits with NASA and Warner Bros.
Company boilerplate
CircuitMess is a Croatian-American electronics company based in the USA and Croatia, founded in April 2017. It designs and manufactures build-it-yourself STEM kits — game consoles, smartwatches, robot cars, synthesisers and mobile phones — which arrive as components and are assembled and programmed by their owners. More than 300,000 devices have shipped worldwide. One product line is for children from age seven; the other is for teenagers and adults.
Figures you can quote
| Campaign | Year | Raised | Backers |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAKERbuino | 2017 | $100,745 | 1,574 |
| MAKERphone | 2018 | $324,453 | 2,154 |
| CircuitMess STEM Box | 2020 | over $400,000 | — |
| CircuitMess Batmobile | 2021 | $388,783 | 2,427 |
| NASA Perseverance Rover ran on Geek Club's account | 2023 | $580,710 | 2,871 |
| MAKERphone 2.0 | 2026 | live | live |
- More than 300,000 devices shipped worldwide since 2017.
- More than $1.6M raised across completed Kickstarter campaigns.
- Founded April 2017 in Zagreb. Albert was 18 and still a secondary-school pupil; Tomislav Car joined as investor and co-founder.
- Officially licensed kits made with NASA and with Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
Recognition
- Maker of Merit, Maker Faire Rome — 2016
- Bronze, Rescue Line Secondary, RoboCupJunior Austrian Open — 2016
- Idea Knockout winner, Bug magazine with Hrvatski Telekom — 2017
- Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe, 24th, 203% growth — 2021
- European Young Innovators finalist, World Summit Awards — 2021
- Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe, 40th, 790% growth — 2022
- Powerfully Playful Award, Toy Fair New York — 2023
- Decade of Great Stories, European Commission Representation in Croatia — 2023
Details worth getting right
- Albert Gajšak — with the diacritic. CircuitMess — one word, capital C and M.
- CircuitMess is a Croatian-American company based in the USA and Croatia, not a solely Croatian one. Albert himself is Croatian and based in Zagreb; the company is not only there.
- The 2018 talk was TEDxZagreb, an independently organised event. Not a TED talk.
- The NASA Perseverance rover kit was designed and manufactured by CircuitMess, but its campaign ran on Geek Club's Kickstarter account, not Albert's. It does not belong in a total described as raised on his own profile.
- He is co-founder and CEO. He founded the company while still at secondary school and never enrolled at university.
- Prices move with promotions and carry EU price-display obligations, so none are published here — take them from circuitmess.com on the day you publish.
Photographs
Twenty-six press photographs are available at publication resolution, including the current MAKERphone 2.0 set — portraits, product shots, the workshop and the production floor. They are free to use with any coverage of Albert or CircuitMess.
Two images carry attribution conditions and are marked where they appear: the Artemis I launch photograph is NASA/Joel Kowsky, public domain, and NASA's terms bar any use implying NASA endorses a commercial product. The European Commission portrait is © European Union, 2023, licensed CC BY 4.0 and cropped. Everything else is CircuitMess's own.
Contact
Interviews, speaking, licensing and fact checks: albert@albertgajsak.com. Based in Zagreb, Croatia (CEST, UTC+2).