Rules Are Meant to be Broken




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  • 2013-01-21 14:27:37
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Pavel Ezekiev, Managing Partner at NEVEQ and a member of AUBG Board of Trustees, and Steve Keil, CEO and co-founder of MammothDB visited AUBG for a lecture on Global, Regional and Bulgarian Context for Successful Business Creation on January 18. The event was held at the Andrey Delchev Auditorium and it was part of the Entrepreneurship StartUp program. [caption id="attachment_10269" align="alignleft" width="325" caption="Pavel Ezekiev, karieri.bg"][/caption] According to Ezekiev in today’s economic environment Bulgaria is facing the same prospects as the other EU countries with regards to raising capital, starting companies or receiving funding. Although, in the past years the country had low Investment to GDP ratio, in the eve of the economic collapse the amount of investments raised drastically. Later on, those numbers return to their normal rates, while recently they show a small growth. The lecturer also added that there is still a “little gap" in the level of attracting investments between Bulgaria and the western countries. On the other hand, the goal of NEVEQ is to help the development of start-up technology companies.  “So the first thing that we look is an entrepreneur who has an identified passion and has found a partner. The other two things are as relevant, but we can manage them and improve them or change them if needed; these are ideas which has to become a product or a service and a market,” said Ezekiev. [caption id="attachment_10268" align="alignright" width="241" caption="Steve Keil, Archive 2012"][/caption] An entrepreneur that satisfied these requirements is Steve Keil. The cornerstone around Keil’s idea for successful business consists of six items that an entrepreneur should keep in mind. First funding will stay lean, meaning that finding money from outside sources is very difficult. Therefore, an entrepreneur “should treat cash as a king” and try to make most of it. For Keil passion is required, while he repudiates coping as means for creating a business. ”Copying is stupid .You’re much better off doing topic that you’re loving, feel passionate about, other than making bucks by copying “X”. Maybe you can, if you’re lucky. But most likely, you’ll fail and you will be miserable,” said Keil. Another thing is that managing an enterprise is hard. It is better to start small and act regionally. One challenge when coming up with a new idea is questioning our own belief systems. We have an amazing way to defend our belief systems even when they go wrong and we inherit them. "We’re stuck," said Keil. "If you want to shine, to go behind original, you want to prove a point, you want to say “I’m going to do it” stop being a sheep,” he also added. In his opinion it is important to elevate the culture. “For me culture is king. The reason why large companies start off cool like Google and become big and boring like Google did is because they loose their focus on culture,” said Keil. HR should be also banned. Instead hire your friends. No secrets should exist in the company. Entrepreneurs should embrace the uncertainty and accept the fact the market is risky and fickle. Releasing the control and putting the people over the process are some of Keil’s values. He also believes that encouraging people to create, live and share their stories is vital in a business environment. “Lastly, there is no box. It is idiotic to think within the box or outside of the box. You get rid of the box.” Steve Keil worked as a CEO of Sciant, which is Bulgaria’s largest software application development company. The Australian also teaches at the Sofia University, while prior to that he was a professor at AUBG. He was the opening lecturer in the StartUp Conference that took place in Blagoevgrad during March, 2012.