Over the last 8 years, I’ve worked with fintech startups at various stages – from early teams still shaping their go-to-market strategy, to later-stage scaleups managing multi-million dollar budgets. For instance, at Zilch, a UK-based unicorn, I helped build the paid acquisition department from the...
If you told me a few years ago that I’d go from scaling venture-backed startups across continents to helping people book safaris in Africa, I might have raised an eyebrow, and then probably asked for the pitch deck.
My career hasn’t followed a clean, thematic path. It’...
Landing a major client certainly requires a bit of luck. But in our case – when a big-tech customer came knocking on our door – my company had done the homework, made the right investments, and was ready to go from the first call.
I co-founded TestDevLab back in 2011...
You are a resourceful, tireless leader. You’ve read enough research, incorporated several frameworks into your business, and are aware of your own blind spots and weaknesses. Yet, the team doesn’t hear. Even worse, some of the processes are falling apart, clients go, and employees leave, too. What’s...
When a German funding agency told us that “AI alone is not innovative enough,” I knew something was deeply broken. Over the past 25 years, I’ve built a career – and several companies – by delivering software quality and automation at the highest standards. From serving top-tier clients like Deutsche...
For fintech companies, expansion is just part of the job. You grow, or you get left behind. However, entering new markets (especially in Europe) is rarely smooth sailing. Most fintechs start out in friendly ecosystems — places like France or Germany — where there is access to capital, infrastructure, and the kind...
In 2020, classrooms worldwide fell silent almost overnight. Teachers scrambled to adapt, parents became unofficial tutors, and students struggled to keep up. In Romania, the challenge was especially stark—finding a reliable tutor had always been tough, but the pandemic turned it into an urgent problem.
We didn’t set...
The real estate industry has long been regarded as male-dominated, and historically it has been male-led. Recently, however, and specifically in Bulgaria, many women are realizing their careers as real estate professionals, steadily influencing the field.
Despite the progress, we can observe gender pay disparities. As data from...
In the past two decades, the business community saw a surge of unicorns, with over 2800 companies achieving a valuation of $1 billion or more. Clearly, something big is happening in the startup world. And yet, around 70% of startups fail at the scaling stage. Why?
There were three of...
Over the past five years, I’ve worked on designing MVPs, consulted and observed many people on their MVP journeys. What I see again and again is founders not thinking through their idea enough before jumping straight into implementation. This hands-on, action-driven approach can be great — it helps...
I have been working with startups for a long time, including 3 years as a program manager at Challenger AI, an international acceleration program for AI startups, and as an advisor to other accelerators. Over this time, I’ve noticed that startup teams often make the same mistakes during acceleration...
Last year, we started developing an MVP for our fintech product, Toolza. The initial idea was based on observations my business partner, and I made from our first three companies over the past 12 years. Many of our clients struggled with disconnected processes, scattered teams, and an endless cycle of...
“If you have to succeed, you have to learn the games men play. Crucial decisions are not made in official meetings that are blocked on the calendar. They are made in beer parties, saunas, and golf courses – where men hang out with other men”. Lenka Michalska, a good friend and...
Golin’s CEO Impact Index shows that top leaders aren’t just growing their companies – they’re accelerating them. CEOs with strong personal brands saw their companies’ share prices increase 80% faster than others in the Fortune 250.
For startup founders and business leaders, reputation is more than a buzzword—...
An average VC receives around 1,000 funding applications a year. Only 30-40 startups make it to a meeting, and even fewer secure funding. The current bear market has made fundraising even more challenging, and many founders feel discouraged. Also, the Web3 space is not the most manageable environment...
