Svetlin Nakov has had several entrepreneurial attempts in software education, each providing valuable lessons. His first attempt was the National Academy for Software Development (NASD) from 2005-2008, which taught him the importance of partners and that technical skills alone are not sufficient to start a business. His second attempt was the Consulting and Information Technology Agency (CITA) in 2008, where he learned a business idea must meet real customer needs and wants. In 2010, part of his NASD team was acquired by Telerik, allowing him to start the successful Telerik Academy from 2009-2013. This taught him how to build a quality product, team, marketing, and teach on a large scale, but also highlighted gaps

1. Svetlin Nakov: The Path of
the Entrepreneur towards
the Software Education
Svetlin Nakov
Manager Training
and Inspiration
Software University
http://softuni.bg

2. Who is Svetlin Nakov?
http://nakov.com

3. From Veliko Tarnovo
(1980 – 1999)

4. Graduated the Local Math
High School (1994-1999)

5. Passionate Programmer
Stared in 1991 with Pravets-82

6. Champion in 20+
Programming Contests
(1992 – 1999)

7. Issuer of InfoMan Magazine (1998)
http://infoman.musala.com

8. Trained Colleagues at School
(1997 – 1999)

9. Graduated at Sofia University (FMI)
BSc + MSc + PhD (2000 – 2010)

10. Worked in Software Companies
ComSoft, TechnoLogica, Musala Soft (1995 – 2005)

11. Author of 7 Technical Books (2003 – 2013)

12. Awarded by the President
The "John Atanassoff" Award (2004)

13. Part-Time University Professor
Sofia University, TU-Sofia, NBU (2000 – 2011)

14. First Entrepreneurship Attempt
National Academy for Software
Development (2005-2008)

15. NASD: Lessons Learned
Partners are
important!
Technical skills are
not a good reason
to start a business!
Learned how
NOT to do It!

16. Second Entrepreneurship Attempt
Consulting and Information Technology Agency
(2008)

17. CITA: Lessons Learned
Good business idea ==
customers really need it
and really want to pay for it
You should be
really inspired by
your business idea

18. My First Startup Exit
Telerik Acquired Me + Part of My Team
from NASD (2010) to start Telerik Academy

19. Telerik Academy (2009 – 2013)
Next Attempt: Learn How to Do It!

20. Trained Thousands Software Engineers
(2010 – 2013)

21. Many, Many Awards

22. Telerik Academy: Lessons Learned
Learned how a
successful
business works
Learned how
to teach in a
big scale
How to build a
high-quality
product

23. Telerik Academy: Lessons Learned
How to build
and manage a
team
Learned
marketing &
branding
Learned to
innovate
every day

24. Telerik Academy: Lessons NOT Learned
Financials: incomes,
expenses, planning,
estimations, risks, etc.
Lean startup
methodology

25. Software University (SoftUni)
Third Entrepreneurship Attempt (2013)
http://softuni.bg

26. SoftUni – http://softuni.bg
High-Quality Software Training +
Profession + Job + Bachelor Diploma

27. SoftUni: Lessons Learned
Find the right
co-founders!
Financial stability
is crucial!

28. SoftUni: Lessons Learned
Growth is impossible
without a strong team
Lean startup: test
hypothesis early

29. ?
Svetlin Nakov: The Path of the Entrepreneur
towards the Software Education
http://softuni.bg

30. License
 These slides are licensed under the "Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International"
license
30

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