“Now Is the Time to Start Your Own Startup!”
Do you know what it takes to build a startup from nothing and sell it a few years later for more than $37 million? Mihail Stoychev does, and his experience is as inspiring as his drive to persuade more people to launch their own projects in the world of information technology. Why is today the best moment to start, how did NitroPack become a Google partner serving more than 200,000 websites, and why does speed matter so much online, both for websites and for making important decisions?
22“It’s Not Loanwords That Erode the Foundations of a Language”
Kak se pishe? (How Do You Spell It?) is a website that has become hugely important to life online, where its creator, Pavlina Varbanova, gives volunteer advice on spelling, grammar and punctuation in all their nuances. Our first conversation is still the most-read story on Digital Stories, so on the eve of May 24, the day Bulgaria celebrates its alphabet and culture, we meet again to continue it. We talk about the words that shape us and how we treat them, about the holiday and its sometimes false pomp, about words turned into weapons and the technologies that give them enormous power to destroy.
23“Money Is a Poor Master. It Has to Serve Higher Purposes”
“Happiness is a state, but not a goal. It is a conscious choice.” Atanas Simeonov is a proven entrepreneur in many unexpected directions, who has gradually added the digital world to his traditional offline ventures. Digital Stories has hosted engineers, writers, even a priest and a conductor, but this is the first time the guest is someone who has made entrepreneurship itself his calling, and, through the Endeavor platform, a means of changing the world around him. Where would he start if he were starting today? Can entrepreneurship be learned, or is it a matter of luck or talent? Is artificial intelligence a good direction for investment, and is it the field that will let Bulgaria achieve real success? Where is happiness, and why are billionaires so often missing it? When will we learn to value our health and take care of it?
24LatticeFlow: Making Artificial Intelligence Reliable and Safe
LatticeFlow is impressive not only because it solves fundamental problems in artificial intelligence systems, but because it makes them more secure and safe, issues that grow more urgent with every big headline on the subject. It is also the first high-tech company to position itself next to the INSAIT institute and work closely with it. Even without an official funding round, the startup raised $12 million, part of which will go toward hiring specialists in Sofia. We meet AI expert Dr. Petar Tsankov to talk about building a startup in a field that is only just taking shape, how the team's algorithms help create a new generation of reliable AI across many applications, and the vast prospects opening up for the team that is already working in Sofia.
25“Our Children Often Turn Out Well Not Because of Us, but in Spite of Us”
How has the online world changed parenting? Should we protect children from technology? Why is it still important to be careful and picky about the advice we get online? And… what should a person never, ever say to their children? Who hasn't heard of Mama Ninja? Maria Peeva is a blogger and irrefutable proof that meaningful influencers exist. Influencers who know how to entertain their followers and also help them with knowledge and experience. A mother of four sons spread across two decades, she is also a grandmother and the keeper of a colorful list of pets. A translator by training, Mama Ninja slipped almost unnoticed into the role of blogger, and then of writer.
26“Within 10 Years, We’ll Be Transplanting Printed Hearts and Kidneys”
How far off is the 3D printing of more complex human organs? Will we one day manage to replicate the structure and functions of the brain? What comes after that? Is technology changing us as a species, and what do the next steps in evolution look like? Dr. Vanyo Vezirov’s story is as colorful as the man himself. Driven by curiosity since childhood, he graduated from a mathematics high school and, for unusual reasons, turned to medicine. Before he had even finished his second year, he and a friend founded a startup focused on bioprinting—the three-dimensional printing of living structures. A young entrepreneur, a doctor, a science communicator, a man with a broad worldview and an unexpected take on the world: we meet Dr. Vezirov to talk about the big questions of medicine and the big answers each of us is looking for today. About fear, and about the decisions we should make not with our brains, but with our hearts…
27Podkrepi.bg: Can We Work Miracles Together?
What happens when 1,000 volunteers, most of them from the world of information technology, roll up their sleeves to build something that could change our society? I’ll let you in on it: the result of this experiment is positive, and it lays the foundations of a platform that can literally save lives. This digital story is meaningful, and it shows that when different people join forces, backed by a dose of typical Bulgarian stubbornness, they can work real miracles.
28“Now It Is Crucial for the State and Society to Back INSAIT”
INSAIT is the best news in decades for the Bulgarian IT world, and for the entire education sector. As if out of nowhere, a modern institute unique in the region appeared in Sofia at the start of 2022. It was born thanks to the stubborn efforts of Prof. Martin Vechev, whose idea dates back to 2003: applying for a PhD at Cambridge, he had to write on yet another form what he dreamed of achieving over the next 20 years. How did this quiet scientific revolution happen, what are its biggest risks, what will Bulgaria look like if it succeeds, and how did Prof. Vechev bring some of the world's scientists who are building tomorrow to Sofia this week?
29“Dreams Have to Be Ambitious!”
The story of two brothers and a black swan is a fairy tale, only from the digital age. It begins with a conversation about how to send a tin of cheese abroad… and today Dronamics may be the most promising and original Bulgarian startup, with the potential to change the entire transport industry. The two brothers are years ahead of rivals like Amazon and DHL: before the end of 2022 their prototype drone, the Black Swan, will take off on its first commercial flight, carrying 350 kilograms over 2,500 kilometers at almost 200 km/h on less than 7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers—a “flying banicharka,” as Svilen Rangelov calls it. We meet him to hear the colorful story so far: how a project started in Bulgaria leads Amazon by several years, what the transport industry’s incredible future might look like if the Black Swan completes the last steps of its long road to success, and why the two brothers haven’t shaved for eight years—and why we should all keep our fingers crossed to finally see them without beards.
30Strazha: Young People Standing Guard Over Democracy
Strazha.bg is a meaningful venture by young people unburdened by prejudice. In just a year the platform has drawn serious interest and keeps offering more and more possibilities—reminders that politics is not just the people on television, but all of us. Thanks to the project, we can see what the person we ourselves sent (or plan to send) to the National Assembly, Bulgaria's parliament, said and how they voted at any moment. We can check whether they keep their word and deserve our trust. We can search a vast database of payments made by every state institution over the past 16 years. “Democracy is not just a slogan!” reads the motto of this venture. Not only its existence, but also how effectively it works depends on all of us. And now we have a valuable weapon with which anyone can put it into practice. We meet the platform's creator, Blagoslav Mihaylov, to talk about the meaning of democracy and the way young people see it, and to look for what we need to build a meaningful and competent political class.
31“Selfishness Is the Entrepreneur’s Enemy”
1,000,000,000: that is how many visits a month the websites looked after by today’s guest and his team receive. Mario Peshev is an impressive figure for his story, for his successes and, above all, for his outlook on the world. WordPress made it possible for anyone today to have a dignified place of their own on the web, and Mario wrote “pieces” of the code used by every one of the hundreds of millions of sites built on the platform; his company DevriX is among the 20 most sought-after WordPress agencies in the world. What is it like to own your own “little piece of code” in WordPress, what changes when an enthusiast suddenly finds himself at the head of 50 people, what does the future of the digital world look like to Mario, and… will his beard still be his trademark a decade from now?
32“The Wheel Has Turned. The Future of Mobility Is Electric”
“The startup world is a roller coaster,” says our guest today. He has spent 15 years working with software startups, and his latest venture has achieved impressive success in just three years. Orlin Radev is the CEO of AMPECO, a company that has proven itself on a global scale in building the software that owners and operators of electric vehicle charging stations need. How do you build such a large venture so quickly? Will electric cars soon go mainstream? What unconventional decisions do startups make in order to succeed?
33“Today, Heroism Means Keeping Our Humanity Online”
We are supposedly celebrating heroism today, but what does it mean here and now, is there courage on social media, and is it worth honoring people who lived centuries ago? Mihail Kunchev founded Adopt a Hero to care for the graves of great Bulgarians of the past, and as he searches for their final resting places, he gathers their stories. We talk about heroism, why it matters to preserve the memory of the past, and how our future depends on it.
34One Quail Does Make a Spring
Did you know that COVID-19 may well have emerged partly because of the destruction of animal habitats? The connections in nature are fascinating and unexpected. That is exactly what ecologist Aleksandar Petrov wants to show us through his project Padpadak Daily. He also wants to help us, by popularizing the natural sciences, remember how vital the world around us is to every one of us.
35The Superhuman: “The Little Seed of Positive Doubt”
“The Superhuman” is a podcast that got ahead of the trend, offering deep, enriching conversations united by the search for inner fulfillment: long, meaningful audio and video interviews from which every guest stands to gain. Georgi Nenov’s project is an oasis free of politics, propaganda, hate and division. But how did Georgi’s seemingly accidental path to “The Superhuman” begin, what gives him the strength to keep finding new superhumans who will inspire still more people to take a different path, and what is the power of a good example and of “the little seed of positive doubt”?
36Draw Me… a T-Shirt
Narisuvai Mi (“Draw Me”) is a charming platform that can definitely help you stand out. Its founders bring together talented artists who hand-paint T-shirts, and for an affordable price you can order one made entirely to your own design, unlike anyone else's. One more thing: you still have a chance to win one of these original T-shirts with the Digital Stories logo. Here's how.
37Save Food!
Restaurants and shops are forced to throw away enormous amounts of food, while at the same time many people go hungry. foodObox, a mobile app created by two young Bulgarians, lets us drastically reduce this problem. It rescues food from the bin and lets each of us buy quality dishes and products at a serious discount. Here is how the app works and why the idea is actually so good and so important…
38“Let’s Stop Whining Already!”
Petar Neftelimov is 26, and strength, zest for life and fighting spirit pour out of him. He recently published his first book, Uspehat v balgarskia gen (Success in the Bulgarian Gene), with the stories and words of 49 successful Bulgarians. He keeps piling up degrees and fights for his ventures as an entrepreneur. He has traveled the length of the Danube on a tricycle and run several marathons. For eight years he has been writing a blog on entrepreneurship, marketing and personal growth. We sat down to talk about success in the Bulgarian gene. About the strength to keep running life’s marathon, which is hard for everyone. And about the flowers of the new age, flowers in a test tube, delicate and meaningful.
39“As Long as There Are People, Books Will Be With Us”
With Books Under the Covers is a digital venture about love. Love of books, and love in general. Temz Arabadzhieva is the PR at the publishing house Ciela, and Anton Birov is editor-in-chief of Webcafé. Together they make a vlog about good old books in the digital world.
40Six Forgotten Treasures of Bulgarian Technology
What set the old Bulgarian ancestors of the computer mouse apart? What exactly is punched tape? What did the first electronic chess set made in Bulgaria look like? And how did the world's largest floppy disks come to be… Bulgarian? Anton Orush is the living archive of Bulgarian technology, and the creator of “Sandacite” shows us six of his remarkable finds.
