About me
I started my first business when I was 13 and it worked.
In the early ‘90s, my father was growing an early-stage automotive consumables business in Bulgaria (Eastern Europe). I was keen to help and learn and really enjoyed it. Then I started noticing that he was receiving a crazy amount of branded swag from suppliers. He could only give a tiny amount to customers and partners. The rest were in storage until I had an idea. I thought they were saleable. Armed with a sample kit, I went selling to local shops. In a few months, I was earning as much as a few people full-time. It was my first taste of entrepreneurship and a fire lit that is burning in me to this day.
A journey of self-discovery
In 1996, I went to the UK to study at Gresham’s School, a boarding school in Norfolk, where I excelled and graduated in the top 3 of my class. Then I went to do Computing at Imperial College, one of the world’s top universities. I dropped out after the second year because my family could no longer afford the high fees and living costs. A severe economic crisis was raging at the time in Eastern Europe and our business was suffering.
A few years later, I returned and finished a Business Economics degree at the University of Buckingham. Then I embarked on a journey of self-discovery, trying things and looking for my purpose in life. Here are some of my highlights…
- Scaled my father's business into a market leader in Eastern Europe.
- Developed a successful real estate investment portfolio in the UK.
- Founded Craft Biogas - developing UK biogas plants producing biomethane. Secured over $60m in funding.
- Built the UK foundations of a market-leading luxury packaging manufacturer based in CEE.
- Founded Envitech - cutting-edge tech enabling the most efficient processing of municipal waste (up to 99% recovery).
- NED at two Chambers of Commerce overseas.
- Founded Smart Migrator - revolutionizing the cloud journey for all through the power of AI and full automation.
- Personally appointed by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as a member of the Jobs & Skills Business Partnership - advising him on how to improve skills provision to help Londoners (especially underrepresented groups) get the skills and jobs they deserve.