In Q3 2022, I took a sabbatical following a full rupture of my Achilles tendon — a devastating injury that demanded extensive rehabilitation, intense daily sports activities, and significant mental tenacity. This challenging period came after nearly two decades of relentless work in the IT sector, leading to burnout and necessitating a well-deserved break.It took me the best part of a year to get back to nearly 100%.I set a target of finishing in the Top 100 at the annual speed ascent of https://kopitoto.bg/ to mark a full year after my surgery: it's a speed hiking event of 700m elevation gain over 3km, towards the Kopitoto TV Tower: it's pretty steep, technical and intense, and I'd never done such races before.I finished in 48mins, 85th in the men's (25th percentile), setting a new personal record on the track.This journey was transformative, significantly enhancing my physical and mental wellbeing, and honing my skills in goal setting. Moreover, it provided the necessary headspace to contemplate and initiate a career transition towards the AI industry. I engaged in extensive technical training, including courses in machine learning and AI applications, worked on several AI-focused pet projects, and expanded my network within the AI community. These activities have equipped me with valuable new skills and insights, positioning me to contribute in AI projects in both technical and business terms.

As I transitioned into a more strategic role, my focus shifted towards bridging the gap between business requirements and our engineering capabilities via targeted vertical products.I led the creation of our Bulgarian office, hired our Head Of Engineering, participated in finding, interviewing and hiring software engineers and delegated my engineering management and lead software development activities.As I became a full board member, I was instrumental in guiding the company through significant transitions focussing on improving the our product/market fit while further improving technical excellence.Key Responsibilities and Achievements:• Jointly led the segmentation of our monolithic API product into targeted vertical managed services alongside our Chief Data Officer, significantly improving our product/market fit and reducing customer concentration while transforming one-off project revenues into recurring product subscription revenues.• Jointly led customer development campaigns and customer workshops in order to better understand the market and improve our products.• Oversaw a comprehensive company website redesign migrating to a modern outlook with a clean split into vertical products and clearer messaging, improving user engagement and increasing lead generation.• Participated in technical account management and pre-sales with major clients, enhancing customer intimacy and satisfaction while forging lasting partnerships.• Conducted technical scoping and assessed the technical feasibility of new business opportunities.• Participated in our swat team for completing RFPs and tender documentation, helping win more bids and increase revenues.• Translated business imperatives into actionable engineering plans, ensuring that project deliverables were aligned with client expectations, company goals and available resources.• Core member of the management team addressing active company challenges and crafting action plans for the upcoming weeks.

I joined TransportAPI as employee #6 and CTO.During my initial tenure, I spearheaded the creation of our technical roadmap, aligning platform development with strategic business objectives to expedite feature delivery and enhance system reliability.My leadership role was pivotal in transforming our engineering team's approach to software development via leveraging industry best practices. We elevated software quality and bolstered the performance and availability of our APIs.Key Responsibilities and Achievements:• Directed the software architecture's evolution and improved software component design, ensuring scalability, 99.9% availability, performance and future-proofing our platform.• Co-led a dynamic team of engineers, fostering a culture of excellence and collaboration, culminating in a robust software development lifecycle.• Instituted writing clean peer reviewed code, high code quality standards, operating a CI pipeline and code quality benchmarks, led the migration from a monolith Subversion repo to a collection of well defined single purpose Github component repos• Jointly managed technical talent acquisition, onboarding processes, and facilitated continuous professional development through personalised mentorship and targeted engineering workshops.

I build high quality web apps using Ruby on Rails and Javascript.

Cofounded and managed GNERGY: a startup building software products for measuring and optimizing the energy efficiency of buildings.Acted as an early CEO guiding a University project to become a startup in Shoreditch, London, funded by Bethnal Green Ventures (http://bethnalgreenventures.com).While I was CEO, the team grew to two software developers, an energy engineer, a business developer, two advisors and our investors.Our achievements during my tenure:• we built a comprehensive energy analysis software platform for buildings compatible with the mandatory EU/UK energy standards for buildings,• we became an investee of Bethnal Green Ventures which included a £15,000 investment and participation in a 3 month accelerator programme in London,• we won €200,000 in grant funding from the EU,• we helped the The Anglo-American School of Sofia (https://www.aas-sofia.org) achieve a LEED Gold certification,• our software was endorsed by the largest ESCO company in Bulgaria, Enemona (http://enemona.bg) as well as the Energy Efficiency And Renewable Sources Fund (http://www.bgeef.com/),• we participated in many startup competitions and won several awards: we did two MiniSeedcamps (London and Berlin), two BizBarcelonas, two Intel Challenges (Tel Aviv and Budapest), see Awards below for details,• we had lots of fun!My activities included:• I developed half of the software as part of our tech team,• I led the bizdev efforts in London and Sofia and communicated with our users and partners,• I helped in shaping our vision, strategy and product propositions,• I helped grow the team,• I was presenting at events, writing lean canvases and business plans,• as any startup CEO, I was initially involved in everything and later delegated whatever was possible.Some of the technologies I used as part of our tech team:• Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Linux, AWS, EnergyPlus, Autodesk Revit, MySQL, etc.As of Jan 2013, I have stepped down from active participation in GNERGY.

Designing and implementing an Android magazine reader.METHODOLOGIES & TECHNOLOGIES:• JavaSE 6.0, Eclipse, Android SDK, Subversion, Trac, Wiki• Scrum

Development and design of Sophie 2.0 (http://sophie2.org). Sophie 2.0 is a very innovative project aiming to redefine the concept of a book. It is sponsored by the Berkeley University of Southern California and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.ACTIVITIES:• Designing and implementing innovative features and concepts,• Tutoring and mentoring junior team members,• Team leading,• Participating in recruitment and interviews, executing Astea’s HR strategy.METHODOLOGIES & TECHNOLOGIES:• JavaSE 6.0, Eclipse, Maven, Felix, Subversion, Swing, Trac, Wiki, JOGL• Scrum, Extreme Programming

Working on the OpenGL ES 2.0 NVIDIA driver for the g86 GPU.• Implementing a few features in the embedded OpenGL driver• Writing benchmark tests and SDK demosSKILLS & TECHNOLOGIES:• OpenGL ES 2.0• gcc, gdb, make, perforce• g86 gpu, orca platform• shaders, pixel buffers, texturing, lighting• linux, custom linux kernels• working in a corporate environment

Development and design of Sophie-JR, an innovative open-source project which creates and manages robust, elegant rich-media, networked documents. Sophie-JR is the Java version of Sophie (http://sophieproject.org/). Currently evolved in Sophie 2.0.TECHNOLOGIES:JavaSE 5.0, Eclipse, Subversion, UML, Bugzilla, Mediawiki, MySQL and others. Later evolved in Sophie 2.0.

Designed and implemented a raytracer for physics research in the area of daylight and its application to civil engineering. Worked with German and Bulgarian scientists.Collaborated with Koester Lightplanung (http://www.koester-lichtplanung.de).The software has been used for demonstration and research purposes in European universities and at scientific conferences.RESPONSIBILITIES:• Implementing an extensive raytracing engine in C++ for simulation and evaluation of various physical parameters of building facades.• Generating various diagrams showing the light/heat distribution properties of the simulation.• Implementing a flexible GUI, using Borland C++ Builder with the Borland VCL library and the Win32 API.