BIH is dedicated to building a bridge between the Bulgarian and USA tech ecosystems. Endeavor Bulgaria is the local chapter of the global organization for high-impact entrepreneurs. Learn how the two cooperate to help startups from our region grow on the international level.
Read MoreJivko Koltchev and Jivko Moutafov are Bulgarian diaspora entrepreneurs, BIH mentors, and the co-founders of Monetryx, a platform that connects early-stage founders with investors and mentors. The startup helps young companies to structure their financing processes and handle several organizational tasks such as building their equity structure, organizing their management process, facilitating interactions with investors, and securing funding.
Read MoreIn May we welcomed two Bulgarian female founders into the USA - Maya Zlatanova and Iva Gumnishka. They had the opportunity to meet up with potential clients, investors, and partners in the US. Their trip was organized by two of our mentors Lidiya Dervisheva and Austin Arensberg with the support of The German Marshall Fund. Previously we shared with you the experiences of Iva and Austin during the initiative. To discover more about the program and its benefits, now we sit down with Lidiya and Maya.
Read MoreBulgaria Innovation Hub (BIH) is looking to hire a Community Expansion Manager to boost the organization’s efforts to create a two-way bridge between the Bulgarian startup ecosystem and Silicon Valley.
Learn more and apply by July 30, 2022.
Read MoreIn May we welcomed two Bulgarian female founders Maya Zlatanova and Iva Gumnishka into the USA. They were introduced to key stakeholders and investors in the local ecosystem by two of our mentors Austin Arensman and Lidiya Dervisheva. Maya and Iva’s US trip was organized by the German Marshall Fund with the support of BIH. During their stay both female entrepreneurs had the freedom to create their own schedule based on their strategic priorities and interests. The connections established by Iva and Maya will allow them to expand their businesses globally and have access to potential funding.
Read MoreOur next guest in the “Success means giving back” series is Georgi Kostadinov, Co-founder and CTO of Kelvin Health. During our interview he shares how important it is to have a great team in order to build a successful company. Georgi also shines a light on the impact that sharing knowledge has on the whole community. Kelvin Health’s CTO shares why he decided to support BIH’s mission and how our organization supports companies in the local ecosystem.
Read MoreOur second guest in the “Success means giving back” series is Maya Zlatanova, CEO of FindMeCure. She founded the company to bring research closer to patients by developing tools and providing analytics to the healthcare industry. Maya’s mission is to help people and create something meaningful for the world. In our discussion, she points out the importance of giving the first mentality. Check out the whole conversation here:
Read MoreWe introduce you to our new series of publications called “Success means giving back”. It is dedicated to supporting BIH’s cause of spreading the word about the great ecosystem of organizations with lots of potential in Bulgaria. With the publications, we try to highlight the importance of giving back to the community with some of the IT leaders in Bulgaria and companies that help building a sustainable future and drive economic growth.
Read MoreThe story of this month’s BIH mentor is one that starts at the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, goes through Stanford, and ends up in nearby Silicon Valley. Stoyan Kenderov is a product and technology leader who is passionate about building product solutions and inspiring engineering teams to solve customer problems. Throughout his career, he has scaled technology startups and Fortune 500 companies by helping them create a better product roadmap, achieve product-market fit, and grow their revenues.
Read More2021 was quite the dynamic year for the Bulgarian innovation ecosystem characterized by record-high fundraising rounds, startup success stories, new VC funds, and a couple of IPOs on the BEAM market for small and medium enterprises. To recognize the developments at the end of the year, Bulgaria Innovation Hub outlines the most significant local ecosystem events and milestones that happened this year.
Read MoreThe fourth cohort of Bulgaria Innovation Hub startups recently completed their acceleration journey toward scaling and international expansion. What motivated the founders to apply for the program? Who were the mentors the founders found most inspiring and what piece of advice they would use in their market expansion strategies? To find out, we asked the main stars of the show.
Read MoreThe July graduation party for the third BIH cohort of companies marked the first official in person gathering since the program ended in February 2021. The event celebrated the successful completion of the BIH winter accelerator program, where attendees met with other alumni, local partners, sponsors and friends whose help has been instrumental in getting the program off the ground.
While networking, our guests had the opportunity to talk about their intake on the BIH program, share their progress and lessons learned, and send a call-to-action message to the rest of the entrepreneurial community.
Read MoreIn order to highlight the efforts, impact, and activities of its fellow European “innovation facilitators” the Emilia-Romagna in Silicon Valley initiative prepared the “European innovation hubs in Silicon Valley” report. Bulgaria Innovation Hub is one of the 23 featured European public and private organizations, alongside the EIT Digital Hub in Silicon Valley, Nordic Innovation Hub, the German Accelerator, SwissNext, Open Austria, and others located in San Francisco Bay Area.
Read More“There is a lot that comes with BIH in terms of innovation, exposure, and experience. It is really important for founders to understand what they're looking to get out of the program. For a startup team, there usually are a couple of major priorities, spheres in which it wants to develop. Be intentional about those priorities prior to the start of the program and prioritize them once you enter the program. Otherwise, you might get overwhelmed and miss some of the things that you really want to dive into and the people you want to interact with at that moment.”
Read MoreBulgaria Innovation Hub opened the applications for the fourth edition of its accelerator program, which will take place in San Francisco from September 27-October 15, 2021. The Silicon Valley-based organization is established by Bulgarian entrepreneurs to accelerate growth and US market entry for high potential Bulgarian start-ups. Prospective candidates can apply for the equity-free program until August 31.
Read MoreSimeon Simeonov has had vast startup experience, successfully exiting six of seven companies he's launched. He's operated at all stages: from "two people with an idea" to unicorn private and public companies. “One of the things I am teaching the cohorts at BIH is that you need to be aiming not for a minimum viable product (MVP) but minimum viable excellence (MVE). You need to stand out, bе a far outlier in the distribution of an investor's deal flow.” Simeonov shares.
Read MoreIn the past 18 months, Bulgaria Innovation Hub has been working hard on creating a two-way bridge between Bulgaria and Silicon Valley. In this time, we helped 28 Bulgarian startups gain critical knowledge of the US market, access to investor and customer networks, as well as expertise for scaling overseas. It all started as a bootstrapped idea but in order to scale our impact, we raised a total of $725K in funding to expand our operations.
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