She’s Next Talks with Dr Ivana Kostić

Holding a PhD in bioengineering through the joint MIT-Portugal programme, Dr Ivana Kostić spent years between Lisbon and Boston working on cardiac regeneration and cutting-edge health innovation. While she could have pursued a comfortable academic trajectory abroad, she chose to return home to Serbia to build the local biotech ecosystem—co-founding Health Tech Lab to support regional health tech pioneers. Recently, Kostić’s focus has expanded toward a pressing societal challenge: youth mental health. In a region shaped by historical conflicts and systemic disruptions, she observes that younger generations often carry inherited burdens. “We have years of family and ecosystem challenges that were transferred from one generation to another,” she explains. To break that cycle, Health Tech Lab is developing a holistic mental health hub in Serbia, bridging traditional medicine with preventive education, mindfulness, and digital health innovations. Navigating complex multi-continental research, stolen lab data, and delayed timelines taught Kostić to view setbacks through a constructive lens. “Some of the things probably were considered failures, but for me were redirections,” she reflects. That adaptability underpins her approach to startup resilience, where she stresses that technical expertise must be paired with emotional grounding. “It's very important for entrepreneurs... to work on themselves and to have this vertical that is stable,” she advises, warning that unresolved internal stress “creates a lot of dissonance in the world around you and in your business”. For Kostić, female leadership brings a vital edge: honoring intuition alongside hard logic. As she expands Health Tech Lab's footprint across the Western Balkans and prepares her upcoming book, her definition of accomplishment remains rooted in purpose. “When I feel inspired and in peace within myself, that's a success today for me”.