“Compared to other industries, the tech sector is still relatively young and doesn’t carry the burden of legacy traditions. In my experience, it is not gender-biased, but instead, it’s merit-driven, focused on one’s own capabilities,” Alexandra Mechkova, CEO of Telerik Academy, says. Mechkova comes from a liberal arts education and marketing background and has no formal education in technology, yet she has been working in the IT sector for close to 15 years and now leads the private tech talent academy.
There are many numbers regarding women in tech, engineering, and startup sector one could quote depending on their hypothesis. We chose one that has representativeness – women accounted for 26.5 % of ICT specialists in Bulgaria in 2017. This is the highest score across the EU. We found another interesting piece of data as well: only 2% of the companies are founded entirely by women, and 20% have a female co-founder, stats the latest report by EDIT. Our observation, however not backed by any data, is that women are rather the business development engines in tech companies, regardless of the fact that some of them come from engineering backgrounds and others did not have any technology experience in previous careers.
“I think that the tech industry needs to diversify the ways software is being developed. Nowadays we are so dependent on technology that it’s truly important to involve as many different points of view as possible”, Sophia Lyateva, Women Techmakers Lead, says. She comes from a PR and communications background but got excited by the tech sphere some five years ago.
Yes, there’s no data on how many women are indeed working in the tech and startup sphere, but we collected as many stories as possible. Below you can find 42 stories of female founders, investors, community builders, and leaders.
“Very often, not always, of course, ventures started by women have a social impact element”, says Maya Zlatanova, founder of FindMeCure, an online platform allowing everyone struggling with a medical condition to access treatments in development. Alongside with her two mail cofounders, one of them – her husband, Zlatanova trying to attract $420K funding, get accepted in Techstars Accelerator in London, and helped over 2K patients to find treatments. “I indeed think it all about the skills, experience, and patience, and has nothing to do with gender nowadays. Generally, I don’t like speaking of female founders and male founders – the more we diversify by gender, the more one looks like an exception”, Zlatanova says.
“For me, it all started as a cause and the tech and business model came later”, Iva Gumnishka, founder of Human in the Loop, shares. Her company provides training and testing data for machine learning solutions. The special thing about it is the fact that it actually trains refugees to process the data. “Even though I am a woman, young and had nothing to do with technologies before I started my company, I’ve never experienced disrespect and I’ve already worked with most of the IT companies in Bulgaria”, says Gumnishka. According to her, there are enough female founders and role models in Bulgaria to look up to.
After a cancer diagnosis, Boryana Gerasimova changed her career path – from IT specialist to co-found her first healthcare startup NutriGen. She is now running her second venture – Re: Gena, another personalized medicine company, targeting early prevention of lifestyle-related diseases. Gergana Stancheva and Angela Ivanova have developed a biodegradable laminating film to make the printing industry more eco-friendly. Their company Lam’on is already testing the product and has its pilot clients. Lubomila Jordanova started Plan A, a data-driven platform that contributes to the fight against climate change. Six years ago, together with four other male enthusiasts, Rositsa Mitova started Farmhopping, an online market for farm products that already works with over a hundred Bulgarian farms.
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