10 reasons why you should start technology business in Bulgaria. Start locally, think globally

1. START LOCALLY, THINK
GLOBALLY
10 reasons you should START NOW

2. ABOUT CHRIS
Growth engineer @ Imagga
board member @ StartUP
Foundation
blogger,Apple fan
chris@startup.bg
www.chrisgeorgiev.com

3. 33
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4. Startup Weekend Sofia
No talk, all action!
May 15 - 18, 2015

5. 5

7. WHY BULGARIA?
#startupbg

8. #1
thriving startup community
StartUP Conference with over
1000 of attendance
over 200 startups funded by 6
localVCs
betahaus | sofia - full to the brim
Silicon Drinkabouts every week
Emerging Startup Ecosystem

9. #2
LAUNCHub & 11 - EUR 20M
for acceleration & seed
Sofia is 3rd by # of
accelerated companies (not
seed and later stage)
attracting tech talent from
neighboring countries -
Romania, Serbia, Macedonia,
Croatia
Access to Financing

10. #3
#3rd worldwide in number of
certified IT professionals per
capita
#1 in EU in number of certified
IT professionals
#2 in EU and #5 worldwide
among the most attractive
outsourcing destinations
60% of Startup Weekend
participants are developers
Abundance of TechTalent

11. #4
7th in the world on number of
gold medals (22) won at
International Informatics
Olympiad (Germany - 14)
3rd in the World in
well experienced software
engineers and project managers,
working in multinationals
vibrant dev community with
lots of events and support groups
Geeks Love it Here

12. #5
24.6% of the population hold
university degree
35 000 students with IT related
degree a year
50% of the universities in BG
offer computer related programs
Telerik Academy & Soft
University - tailored dev
education
Education First

13. #6
HP GDS - 4100 employees
IBM - 530
SAP - 650
Skrill (MoneyBookers) - 400
VMware - 500
Telerik - 700
Amazon, Nemetschek, Johnson
Controls, Software AG, Experian
Big Names are Here,Too

14. #7
Product Hunt - partly developed
in Sofia
SoundCloud - did have dev
office in Sofia, now in Berlin
Uber - over 40 developers so far
BG examples - Telerik, Chaos
Group (V-ray), Flipps, Imperia
Online, SX Software, Imagga
Trendy Startups,YEAH

15. #8
Legal Framework harmonized
with EU legislation
Lowest corporate rates in EU:
- 10% flat rate on taxable profit
- lowest social security
payments in EU
- accountants can do miracles!!!
Legal Framework &Taxes

16. #9
2 hours flight to Berlin, Prague,
Vienna
Fast and cheep Internet
-broadband download speed -
~34Mbit/s
Lowest office rent in EU
Low cost of living - Restaurant
and taxi prices the lowest in EU
Well Connected and Affordable

17. #10
Culture close to the principals
and values of Western Europe
Almost the same time zone - 1
hour difference Germany, 2 -
London
Willingness to work overtime -
most companies rarely pay
overtime
Work from home/freelancing
is widely accepted
Cultural &Time Adjustments

18. #11
45.5% of the population speaks at
least one foreign language
English, German - most popular
Over 25 different languages
spoken
Unique specialized language
schools
We speak languages

19. THINK GLOBALLY
EU is not big enough!

20. Bulgaria is not big enough for most of the startup ideas
There’s bigger world with much more opportunities
Need to know the world to serve it - travel, learn languages
Different work skills are required - sales, presentation skills, etc.
Think BIG, your big is not big enough, trust me
Do it NOW!
Concur the World

21. @chrisgeorgiev
www.imagga.com
chris@startup.bg
Questions?