Bozhidar Georgiev, a Graduate and now Co-Director of the Sofia Founder Institute, has made quite a name for himself in the Sofia startup ecosystem. Bozhidar was recently recognized on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in Bulgaria for his contributions to the shared workspace sector with his company, Work&Share.
In addition, the Sofia chapter of the Founder Institute, which Bozhidar is helping to lead (along with Milen Ivanov, Janet Todorova, and Anastas Gogov), is currently the national winner of the top accelerator/incubator in Bulgaria by the Central European Startup Awards.
Bulgaria’s capital is quickly becoming one of the best places to start a tech company, and the Bozhidar and Sofia Founder Institute are at the forefront of that movement.
Young and Ambitious
Despite his relatively young age, that hasn’t stopped Bozhidar from making a lasting and meaningful impact on the Sofia startup scene. As the the founder and CEO of Work&Share Coworking Space, Bozhidar has made it easier for creative, talented people across all backgrounds find a place to work and collaborate by providing them with the infrastructure they need. According to Bozhidar:
Many businesses have begun to grow well because they are finding opportunities within the community that we create. When you’re not worrying about office support and overhead costs such as bills and rent, you have an opportunity to think about innovation and the company you’re launching.
So far, Work&Share has co-hosted companies ranging from one to seventy people from across all sectors, including digital, information technology, and even consulting agencies. In addition, Work&Share hosts events throughout the year, and plans to host around 100 events before the end of the year with its various partners.
With a growing interest in coworking spaces in Bulgaria, Work&Share has major plans for the future, like demonstrating to large corporations that shared spaces are the perfect environment for every profession, from technical to creative and beyond. By designing their space to promote communication between people, making them feel comfortable, and even staying after working hours, Work&Share aims to stimulate innovation and productivity at a level that typical offices can’t.
Building a Global Startup Hub
Through the great work that Bozhidar, Milen, Janet, and Anastas are doing both inside and outside of the Sofia Founder Institute, Bulgaria continues to become more and more attractive for entrepreneurs and investors.
And the world is taking notice.
In fact, not only has Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi participated for the last two years as a Keynote Speaker for DigitalK (which has grown into a truly world-class startup event in its own right), the Founder Institute selected Sofia as the first international location for our FounderX Conference earlier this year.
At this event, members of the #FIWorldwide Network from 24 countries joined us for three days of workshops, parties, dinners, and networking events (coming from as far away as Australia, Taiwan, and Brazil!). You can see the photos from this great event below.
As Bozhidar and the rest of our Sofia FI team continue to build great companies and push the Bulgaria startup ecosystem forward, we have no doubt that the accolades will keep coming.
