The Recursive Podcast

Our next guest is a business development professional who got fascinated with the world of crypto. Jordan Stoev is the Head of Crypto & Trading, Skrill & NETELLER at Paysafe Group, one of the biggest IT employers in Bulgaria. In the last five years, he gained extensive experience in investing, valuations, analysis, advisory, and solutioning in crypto. With a background in business analysis and finance, Jordan is constantly trying to improve, learn and grow. In the episode he also talks about: ₿ The “boom and bust” cycles in the crypto market and how are they going to evolve; 💸 The role of Paysafe Group as a payment company bridging the gap between the crypto world and the regular financial services; ⛓️  The ethos of Web 3 and its network effects; (“The idea of Web 3 is that it’s open, permisionless, fully transparent. We can participate in the growth of the pie. We are not just users of a centralized entity that monetizes our data.”)

Hello from Athens, The Recursive community! Our next guest describes herself as a Civil Engineer by degree and an innovation enthusiast by nature. Niki Karali is the co-founder of Mantis Business Innovation. A company that provides growth strategies, innovation programs, and startup scouting. Together with an innovation management software to digitize the whole process. Niki is also an active startup ecosystem builder. She has helped in the organization of the StartupNow Forum, the largest startup event in Greece. In her conversation with Irina Obushtarova, Niki reflects how she found her calling in entrepreneurship, while still in the National Technical University of Athens. It is where she met her co-founder Christos Nikoloudis and discovered her passion for supporting startups grow. In the episode, she also shares: 🇬🇷 Her views on the growth and the strenghts of the Greek startup ecosystem; 🤝 Her work as a facilitator connecting the world of research and academia, and the business world; 🤸 What did her experience in competitive gymnastics teach her about running a business;

The Recursive podcast is filming from sunny Athens this week. Our first guest has a rich entrepreneurial journey despite her young age. Stefi Vasilopoulou started her first business when she was just 21 years old. Since then she has juggled many roles. Entrepreneur. Consultant. Angel investor. Mentor. Community builder. Most recently Stefi co-founded Hellenides, a career network that supports women in Greece. Hellenides provides female professionals with tools and trainings to thrive. She’s also consulting international companies on strategy, innovation, marketing, and brand-building. Stefi is an avid podcaster. She’s hosting the inspirational SomaPnevma Show. In this episode, Stefi Vasilopoulou talks about: 🔄 How a severe burnout prompted her to reconsider her priorities and the importance of achieving a healthy life-work balance; ❓What is her favorite question to ask founders as an angel investor; 🌱 Why the world needs more female entrepreneurs and how to support them;

Our next guest is a computer engineer who dropped his PHD to create an online platform to ignite kids in Bulgaria to learn. Darin Madzharov created Ucha.se a decade ago. His edtech platform offers video lessons and tests for all grades in the public school system in Bulgaria. Over time Ucha.se turned into a tool for the teachers to inspire kids to study. Now, more than 60% of the schools in the country have a subscription to the platform. In 2020 Madhzarov created an international version of the platform, called eduboom. It is available in Romania, Spain, and Italy. In his conversation with Georgi Nenov, Darin Madzharov says the entrepreneurial mindset was a part of him from a very young age. He was always trying to change the things he didn’t like. In this episode, Darin Madzharov talks about: 🆙 How he upgraded ucha.se from a free service to a subscription-based sustainable business model, changing the cultural mindset in the process; (“The answer is to always focus on giving value to the user.”) 🌍 His approach to expanding the edtech platform internationally; (“We see this as a marathon. We might need to take it slower, but with a very good quality of the content.”) 🔄 Why carefully selecting the circle of people you trust and learn from is a must; ( “When you’re in the boat with the right people, the wind is helping you almost all the time”) 🌱 His evolution from a founder to a leader growing the next generation of leaders in his organization;

Our next guest created his first company when he was just 28 years old. Radoslav Georgiev is the co-founder and CTO of the Bulgarian-born OKR management software Gtmhub. OKR stands for objective and key results methodology for goal setting in business. Together with his co-founders, Rado is part of the so-called Telerik mafia. A term coined for the entrepreneurs who came out of one of the most successful Bulgarian IT companies ever. Rado started his journey there as a programmer and grew up to run 10 teams of software engineers. A few months ago Gtmhub raised a record $120M Series C funding round. The largest one in the whole OKR software space. Many see Gtmhub as a unicorn company in the near future. In his conversation with Irina, Radoslav Georgiev shares how he came across the concept of OKRs, how it can actually help managers validate their intuitions, and how we should really measure success in business.

Our next guest is an engineer by calling and an entrepreneur by accident, as he puts it himself. Kosta Jordanov is the co-founder of FITE, a global pay-per-view platform for combat sports events. With more than 5000 streamed events and over 10 million users, FITE became the top-grossing app in the world across all categories. In 2021, the streaming platform was acquired by the US-founded TrillerNet, which counts celebrities like Metallica, Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Pitbull among its investors. Together, they are now preparing for their public offering debut on NASDAQ. In his conversation with Georgi Nenov, Kosta Jordanov talks about what changed for the team after the acquisition and the process of preparing for an IPO. “FITE has relative independence. The business continues to operate on the same trajectory. What's changed significantly is the opportunity for us to be way more aggressive when it comes to competition”, he shares. In the episode, Kosta Jordanov also talks about: 🇺🇸 How to conquer the US market as a startup; (“For us to be successful, we had to go global from day one. The most important factor for us was to hire experienced people from the market that we were going after.”) 💸 How did he get Tim Draper on board as an investor; 🦾 How is AI transforming the sports industry; 💡His leadership philosophy; (“I'm not a big believer of the differentiation between a leader and a team. We are one team with one vision and we either succeed together or fail together or maybe a little bit of both.”)

The Recursive podcast is back for Season 4 and it welcomes one of the founding fathers of the Bulgarian tech ecosystem. Vassil Terziev is the biggest angel investor in Bulgaria. He’s also among the most active ones in the whole region. He’s a partner at the early-stage fund Eleven Ventures. Vassil Terziev is the co-founder of one of Bulgaria’s most successful tech companies, Telerik. The company’s sale to Progress in 2014 is still the largest for Bulgaria to this date. More than 40 companies were created by former Telerik employees. Moreover, Vassil and his co-founders have invested in the education of the next generation of tech talent through the Telerik Academy Foundation. They also created the startup incubator Campus X which hosts a plethora of innovative Bulgarian companies. Vassil has mentored and helped the growth of more than 50 businesses. He is also a founding board member of Endeavor Bulgaria and the Bulgaria Innovation Hub. In this episode, you will get an insider view of how he has formed his mindset. He shares how his understanding of success has evolved over the last 20 years and the philosophy behind spreading your knowledge to build a healthier society. In his conversation with Irina Obushtarova, he also talks about: 🎗️The importance of giving back and replicating success outside the tech ecosystem. (“The battle is how do we get more people to understand how much power they have as individuals who can create value and change the world around them every day. The key to achieve that is education.”) 😣 The hardest part about building a company; (“It’s all about working on yourself to expose your strengths and mitigate the weaknesses and doing the same in a team environment where you collectively help each other to make the most out of your talents.”) 🦄 What is the path towards ten Bulgarian unicorn companies;

To wrap up a season of awesome conversations, we invite you to take a peek at the playbooks for building great products of some of the most exciting companies from the SEE region. From the fundamentals of value creation to having the audacity to shape the world around them in a positive way, these entrepreneurs talk about how they have learned: To process negative feedback; To ask their customers the right questions; To innovate by anticipating what’s next for the market; To pair up the right talents - the atoms of every product; Featured: Hristo Hristov, CEO at HR Capital and Darik Radio Peter Mitev, CEO at Chaos Mariya Rashkovska, Head of Product Management at PubGalaxy Raycho Raychev, co-founder at EnduroSat Maya Zlatanova, co-founder at FindMeCure Ivaylo Slavov, CEO at DIGITALL Hristo Borissov, co-founder and CEO at Payhawk

Our next guest wears many hats. Hristo Hristov is a serial entrepreneur involved in the development of digital media in Bulgaria. He is an angel investor and a partner in the VC fund Eleven Ventures. He is also a mentor to startups in the entrepreneurial network Endeavor. Currently, Hristo is the CEO of the private equity company HR Capital and of Darik radio. In this episode, he reflects how his experience in journalism prepared him for the entrepreneurial journey ahead and gives us a glimpse into the future of digital audio. In his conversation with Irina Obushtarova, Hristo Hristov also shares: 🧱 The fundamentals of succession management and the legacy and values he caries from his father; (“The fundamentals for building a company, for entrepreneurship, for helping out your fellow community, for being an active part of society are the same. They don’t change.”) 📈 HR Capital IPO and why it is important to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs; 🚀 The evolution of the Bulgarian tech ecosystem and the importance of the first unicorn;

Our next guest is one of the few engineers to have walked on the red carpet in Hollywood. Peter Mitev is the co-founder of the software company Chaos. And owner of Oscar and Emmy awards for technological achievements. The company offers technology for rendering and 3D visualizations known worldwide. It has applications in design, architecture and entertainment among others. In the beginning of 2022 Chaos announced a merger with the German Enscape to begin the next chapter of their global expansion. In his conversation with Irina, Peter Mitev reflects on his entrepreneurial journey. A drop-out from university, he started his first venture out of his fascination with computer graphics. In the late 90s, Bulgaria was in a dire economic crisis, there was no capital available, and Peter had no business knowledge himself. Together with his partner Vladimir Koylazov, they managed to build a software company with a rich portfolio of products that are now used worldwide. “We have been building Chaos for 24 years. As we joke with Vlado, our CVs are very boring and very short”, Peter Mitev says. In the episode, he also talks about: 🎓 How education should reflect that kids learn best through play; 🙌 Why building a community has been such an important part of building the brand and the products of Chaos; 💸 Why fundraising came at the mature phase of developing Chaos; 👾 How Chaos is driving professional content into the Web3 space;