bulgarian startup ecosystem
TRANSCRIPT
STARTUP IN BULGARIAthe founder’s perspective
growth engineer Imagga
board member StartUP Foundation
3
Objects & Concepts
strawberry
food
fresh
fruit
healthy
closeup
dessert
organic
nutrition
CHALLENGES#bulgaria #startupbg
corrupted & unsupportive government
irrelevant university programs
lack of heroes and big exits
far from major startup hubs
lack of business and sales skills
not enough money for startups
SOME ADVANTAGES#bulgaria #startupbg
Pravetz computers
tech savvy young people
hacker culture
low cost of living
small market
* http://alphadesigner.com/mapping-stereotypes/
friendly to foreign people
THE STARTUP ECOSYSTEM#bulgaria #startupbg
risk tolerance
techskills
capitalavailability
startup culture
rolemodels
govsupport
visible success
RISK TOLERANCE
risk tolerance
fail once, fail for life
risk tolerance
idea sharing
risk tolerance
53% of young peple over 25 live with parents
TECH SKILLS
3rd worldwide & 1st in EU in number of certified IT professionals per capita
#2 in EU and #5 worldwide among the most attractive outsourcing destinations
60% of Startup Weekend participants are developers
tech skills
tech skills
Telerik Academy
tech skills
programming for kids in partnership with CoderDojo
entirely sponsored and developed by Telerik
9 000+ developers trained on site since 2009
30 000+ via online resources
tech skills
Software University
tech skills
close cooperation with software industry
matching students with companies
30 000 taken a course since 2014
1000 developers graduate a year
1- 3 years programs
all courses under CC
tech skills
IT Talents Training Camp
tech skills
85% of the graduates find work right after they graduate
matching students with companies
250 graduate started working as programers since 2013
partnership with 60 software companies
tech skills
Big Multinational Companies
tech skills
Unicorns are here too
CAPITAL AVAILABILITY
capital avaliability
EUR 11M fund
invested in 116 startups everage size of investment EUR 95 000
EUR 4,5M additional investment
capital avaliability
EUR 8M fund
invested in 63 startups
EUR 12M total funding attracted
capital avaliability
EUR 46M under management
NEVEQ I & II
invested in 22 startups
42% in enterprise software
32% in fintech
26% in Internet related
3 successful exits
capital avaliability
Business Angels
STARTUP CULTURE
startup culture
Support Organizations
startup culture
startup culture
Women in Tech
startup culture
Startup Weekend Bulgaria
startup culture
DigitalK Conference
startup culture
CowOrKing Space
ROLE MODELS
role models
Diaspora at SV
role models
Attracting tallent from abroad
role models
Local Heros
role models
Local Heros
GOV SUPPORT
gov support
Lowest corporate rates in EU:
- 10% flat rate on taxable profit
- lowest social security payments in EU
- cap of the monthly social security base for 2016 - EUR1300
VISIBLE SUCCESS
visible success
biggest exit
visible success
bootstrapped
visible success
world leader - artificial climbing walls
visible success
visible success
visible success
@chrisgeorgiev