On December 9, for the third year in a row, Demo Day was held – the final event of Endeavor Bulgaria’s growth program – Dare to Scale. The program is aimed at companies that have passed the early stages of their growth and its goal is to help entrepreneurs build the knowledge and skills needed to expand their business.
In this year’s edition, 20 entrepreneurs from 10 companies were selected, with nearly 40% of the participants being women, while three of the companies are entirely run by women.
From sales to fundraising – advised by top mentors
The program took place from September to December 2021 and during that period entrepreneurs went through workshops and individual mentoring sessions led by successful business leaders from the Endeavor network. Among the speakers were the founders of Telerik – Vassil Terziev and Svetozar Georgiev, the co-founder of the recently sold Remix Global – Lyubomir Klenov, the founder of Telelink – Lyubomir Minchev, serial entrepreneur Deyan Vitanov, and others.
The training covered topics in the main areas in which companies most often have challenges – sales, business planning, fundraising, and organization management. The program took place in Sofia, with a total of over 30 mentors and board members from the local Endeavor network sharing their experiences in over 50 individual mentoring sessions and 7 workshops.
Demo Day was held entirely online. During the event, participants were given the opportunity to present their businesses within 4 minutes to a 5-member jury composed of established names, including Petya Dimitrova, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of Postbank; Kalin Radev, founder and CEO of Software Group; Boyko Takov, Executive Director of BSMEPA; Levon Hampartzoumian, Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum and former Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit Bulbank, and Sabina Gyosheva – co-founder and CEO of fashion company BY FAR.
The Winners
The presentation of the 10 companies was also attended by business leaders, mentors, and investors from the Endeavor network. Each company was evaluated by the jury on the basis of growth potential, development strategy, and presentation skills, which awarded three companies with the highest marks:
- 1st place: Paramidonna, a Bulgarian brand specializing in the design and production of premium swimwear and beachwear; founder: Donika Ancheva
- 2nd place: Racebox, a precise solution to make the measurement of performance stats of racing vehicles much easier; founders: Rosen Kolarov, Vassil Kolarov
- 3rd place: Two companies with equal results: StorPool, a provider of distributed storage solutions with founders Boyan Ivanov and Boyan Krosnov; and Reverse, a dermatological clinic operating in the field of aesthetic and therapeutic dermatology, with founder Dr. Rositsa Dencheva
All the winners will receive full access to The Recursive Growth Club to help them on their scaling journey with various PR and communication tools.
“With its third edition, Endeavor’s Dare to Scale program has established itself as a platform that gives entrepreneurs who have already found their way to the market that initial boost that can put them in the high orbit of success. This year’s participants showed a lot of enthusiasm to develop a great commitment to the lecturers and mentors in the program. We owe them special gratitude and appreciation for the energy and time they put into it. We are proud of the growing community of Dare to Scale in Bulgaria, which from next year would start to expand in the entire region, shared Momchil Vassilev, Executive Director of Endeavor for Bulgaria.
