I’ve always believed that conferences aren’t just about growth hacks and KPIs. They’re about reflection, about human stories, and about creating space for truth—even when it’s uncomfortable.
At SaaStanak 2025, I had the privilege of sitting down with Nenad Milanović, founder of CAKE.com, for a fireside chat that stepped far outside typical SaaS territory. Our session, titled “Tech, Truth & Resistance,” was political, personal, and necessary.
Late last year, a tragic event in Novi Sad sparked a wave of student-led protests across Serbia, calling for accountability and reform. Nenad—a Serbian expat and tech entrepreneur living in San Francisco—publicly supported the movement donating $20,000 to the student organization leading the protests.
And within days, CAKE.com became the target of what Nenad believes was a politically motivated cyberattack.
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The Risk of Telling This Story
Before we began the conversation, I was hesitant. SaaStanak is a commercial conference. We bring together founders from across the region—and we try to keep politics off the stage. Nenad and I don’t live in Serbia and this conversation was happening, very publicly, in Croatia.
But Nenad wasn’t there to campaign. He wasn’t preaching or positioning. He was simply explaining what happened when he used his voice—and why it matters. People in Serbia are going through something that deserves more international attention, and this story was one way to offer it.
“One of the people that died… was actually a guy I knew.”
Nenad opened the conversation with the personal side of the story. He spent 16 years in Novi Sad, and one of the victims of the November 1st tragedy was someone he had known from university. That loss moved him to act.
“So that is kind of a personal trigger, I would say.” Nenad added.
He decided to support the student-led protests with a donation. That’s when the consequences began.
The Cyberattack: Sequence of Events
The DDoS attack started just hours after his public statement of support. As Nenad recalled, he made the post around 2 a.m. on a Sunday, while in California. By 7 a.m. that same day, CAKE.com’s infrastructure was under assault.
“We have three SaaS products, and they were all under denial of service attack of the scale that we haven’t seen before.”
The attacks didn’t stop for days. According to Nenad, CAKE.com’s years of operational logs showed nothing similar in scale or timing.
“The timing was very indicative,” he said. “All of a sudden, the timing of my statement and the attack—it just made sense.”
At one point, he speculated that the attackers may not have realized they were targeting a U.S.-based company.
“That dramatically kind of changed the dynamics” he added.
Even though the company held up technically, the attack raised serious concerns—not just about digital security, but about physical safety for people on the ground.
“These guys have many creative ways of getting to people.”
Government Surveillance & the Tech Sector
Nenad didn’t speak abstractly about state surveillance. He revealed that CAKE.com had identified at least one person inside the company as a government informant.
“We discovered—like for one guy—we have material evidence that he was a government spy.”
This wasn’t a short-term infiltration. Nenad said the Serbian government had paid someone to embed in the company for over two years. That realization shifted how he saw the situation—and the system behind it.
“At that moment, I kind of realized how deep Serbia went into problems.”
He explained that the tech sector in Serbia is especially targeted—not just for its economic value, but because it’s harder to control. Tech companies are legally, financially, and digitally more independent than traditional industries.
“Why is the government so scared of this IT sector?” he asked during the session.
His implication was clear: software companies don’t depend on state-owned infrastructure, and many of them—like CAKE.com—operate across borders. That makes intimidation harder, and surveillance more necessary for those trying to maintain control.
Looking Ahead: Hope, Change, and Responsibility
As the conversation closed, Nenad focused on what could come next. He argued that Serbia doesn’t need handouts or foreign influence to prosper—it just needs to end internal corruption.
He expressed cautious optimism about a new wave of civic energy, especially among the students behind the protests. In his view, even inexperienced leaders can bring change if they act in good faith. That’s why, he said, many are now ready to support new, student-led political options.
When asked how long he believed the current government would remain in power, his answer was blunt:
“I think months tops.”
Closing Thoughts
This wasn’t a typical SaaStanak session. It wasn’t about scaling strategies or MRR milestones. But it was one of the most important conversations we’ve ever hosted.
Nenad reminded us that founders don’t stop being citizens when they launch companies. And tech doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists in places—real places, with history, trauma, and people who still care deeply about where they come from.
As one audience member from Bulgaria noted afterward, the experience he described isn’t uniquely Serbian. Across the region, many of us recognize what it means to speak up—and the cost of doing so.
This talk wasn’t about sides. It was about truth. And sometimes, telling the truth is the most radical thing a founder can do.
