How can extreme sports change your view on life & business? In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, Cosmin Curticapean takes us through his entrepreneurial journey that began in 1995, spanning industries from telecommunications to fintech. In 2016, he founded LENDOX, a tech startup focused on alternative financing solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. Since then, LENDOX has secured around €3.5M in investment, fueling its growth in this innovative sector. Beyond building compani...
Nov 05, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast What was it like to study AI back in 2003, and how does it pay off today? In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, Bogdan Iordache shares his journey from becoming a CTO at just 21 years old to his evolution as a successful investor. Bogdan is a prominent person not only in Romania’s startup ecosystem, but in CEE. Over the years, he has worn many hats—founder, advisor, event organizer—and today, he plays a leading role as an investor. Just a year ago, he announced the first close of Underline V...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Oct 03, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast What makes a “perfect marriage” between founders and investors? In this episode of The Recursive podcast we explore investor’s dilemma and founder’s mindset with Pedja Predin. He is General Partner at Fifth Quarter Ventures, a new early-stage venture capital fund creating global success stories from Southeast Europe. Pedja has over 12 years of experience in venture capital, corporate strategy, business development, and global expansion. Before establishing his own fund, he was a venture capital ...
Sep 20, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Irina Obushtarova talks with Martina Silov, President of CroAI, the Croatian Artificial Intelligence Association, and Head of Partnerships at Mindsmits. Martina is an advocate for tech optimism, focusing on integrating technology into education and fostering a strong AI community. In this episodes, she shares about: Connecting with the AI community in Croatia and beyond The responsibilities of the mentors and their role The role of AI in decision-making Timestamps 0:00 Trailer 1...
Sep 05, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast For today’s episode, we talked with Karol Szubstarski, a venture investor at OTB Ventures. With over a decade of experience in the realm of venture capital, Karol brings a blend of traditional and corporate VC expertise to the table. He spent five years as an Associate and Investment Analyst at Intel Capital, identifying opportunities across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, to name a few. In his current role at OTB Ventures, Karol spearheads investments in Series A opport...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Bartosz Lipnicki, an entrepreneur, investor, and Managing Director at Endeavor Poland. With a background in industrial engineering, Bartosz's career trajectory has evolved to encompass sales, business development, and entrepreneurship. Bartosz is the Founder and Managing Partner at Alfabeat, a seed fund specializing in enterprise software companies from Central and Eastern Europe. Beyond his professional endeavors, Bartosz is an avid marathon and tower runner. In this epis...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Krzysztof (Chris) Wrobel, the founder and CEO of Virbe AI, a startup incorporating a one-stop-shop solution to extend your team with AI-powered digital employees. With passion and experience for the future of digital interaction, Chris founded Virbe AI, a Virtual Being creation suite, designed to transform Conversational AI and chatbots into interactive human-like avatars. Chris is also involved in mentoring and guiding other companies in embracing emerging technologies. In th...
Jun 12, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest is an engineer turned entrepreneur turned investor. Borys Musielak is a founding partner at Polish SMOK Ventures, having a particular focus on software development tools, game development, and artificial intelligence. In 2007, he founded OSnews.pl, a pioneering news site covering tech, marketing, and business. He also co-founded Filmaster, a platform providing personalized analytics solutions, acquired by Silicon Valley-based Samba TV in 2015. His contributions to the ecosystem ex...
May 28, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest for this episode has a big, bold ambition to make digital identity services the cornerstone of all economic and social activities of people around the world. Konstantin Bezuhanov is co-founder and CEO of Evrotrust Technologies, the company that aims to solve the challenges associated with secure digital identification. Evrotrust's products are adopted by over 1.3 million users across 58 countries. The company has attracted partnerships with industry giants like Mastercard and leadi...
May 13, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Radoslav Gaydarski, co-founder of CleverPine, a company that has made significant strides in the tech industry since its inception during the pandemic. Prior to this position, he was the co-founder and CEO of Upnetix, offering client-tailored software solutions, which was acquired by Scalefocus. With a deep background in software development and a passion for entrepreneurship, Gaydarski shares his journey from tinkering with computers in his youth to leading a company that has...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Milen Manev, the co-founder and CTO of PlanDelta, a next-generation planning tool bridging the gap between strategic and financial planning. With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Milen has a wealth of knowledge in software product development and has held various leadership positions, including Vice President at the American software company SyncHR. He holds a Master Degree in Management of Information Systems from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. In this ...
Apr 16, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest today is Diana Aladzhova, an experienced investment manager and partner at the first Bulgarian mezzanine fund Silverline Capital. Shе is also the founder of the cloud-based provider of CFO services CFO Insights. Diana has a background in banking and the private sector, with a focus on investment structuring, due diligence, financial analysis, and company valuation. She holds a Master's degree in Finance and Private Equity from the London School of Economics and is a Chartered Finan...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest has come a long way in his professional and personal development - from investment banking, through digital media and marketing, and e-commerce to rethinking humanity’s relationship with food. Victor Penev is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of the food database and nutrition data provider Edamam. He is also a mentor and investor in food tech startups and an advisor to early-stage entrepreneurs. Before that, Victor co-founded and sold Bulgaria’s largest Internet Compa...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest is an entrepreneur in the promising field of circular economy, advocating for the continuous use and reuse of materials. Mihail Dimitrov is the co-founder and CЕO of Swipe.bg, a Bulgarian marketplace for buying and selling used smartphones. The company recently raised an investment to expand regionally and grow its market share. Mihail Dimitrov comes with vast experience in e-commerce and business development. He previously worked for the world's largest classifieds platform O...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest is on a quest to redefine the way businesses collaborate and work with data in the cloud. With more than 20 years of experience in building successful enterprise software products, George Dochev is the co-founder and CTO of US-Bulgarian scale-up LucidLink. The company’s solution is used by the biggest names in the media, health, and finance industries, namely Adobe, Spotify, and WebMD. At the end of 2023, LucidLink closed the largest round for the Bulgarian ecosystem - a 75M dollars Se...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest is only 27 years old but he already has several successful ventures in the e-commerce industry. Ruslan Leteyski founded his first company while still in high school. He’s the founder of CheckOutX and Vanga AI, e-commerce solutions for Shopify & WooCommerce that help merchants increase their revenue. His current project TimeCraft is a platform for providing session-based digital services. Ruslan Leteyski is also an active angel investor. Some of the businesses he supported include C...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast In today's special episode, we're breaking away from the norm to revisit some of our most memorable conversations and catch up with our guests to see where life has taken them since. Our guest for today is none other than Ivaylo Slavov, a veteran in Bulgaria's IT industry. Last time we spoke, his company BULPROS had recently merged with the German giant ec4u, forming DIGITALL and setting ambitious goals to lead the digital cloud services market in the US. Fast forward almost two year...
Jan 25, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest is on a quest to unlock the code of longevity. Milena Georgieva is a molecular biology, genetics, and epigenetics professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She is also a Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at the startup company EPIX.AI. In her role, Prof. Georgieva is in charge of R&D activities and manages a group of experts working to understand aging processes and create instruments to measure biological age and extend the human lifespan. The conversation spans f...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest is a dedicated engineer looking for solutions to reduce harmful emissions and popularize hydrogen technologies. Dragomir Ivanov is a leading expert in the field of hydrogen with over 16 years of experience. He is the founder of Hydrogenera - a company developing technologies for the production, storage, and consumption of hydrogen. He is also the author of two patents in the field. Dragomir’s vision is to demonstrate that hydrogen can be the main energy source because it is univer...
Dec 12, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hello, The Recursive Community! We are back from our summer break and today we are taking you on a journey to Bucharest and inside the mind of a seasoned investor. Marius Istrate is currently the Chairman of the Board of TechAngels Romania, an investors' community planning accelerated growth after a decade on the market. He is also a Venture Partner at 3VC and Crew Capital. Among the companies he invested in are FlowX.AI, parol, Carsup, Snackable AI, Transition-One, Romania-Insider.com, Youn...
Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast Join us in our latest podcast episode as we delve deep into the realms of leadership, mental health, and authenticity together with Velina Getova, founder of NotYourTherapy, which provides psychological support in the workplace. With more than ten years in human development, Velina has worked with multinational corporations, tech start-ups, universities, and nonprofit organizations in Bulgaria, the US, and the UK. Long years of experience led her to the realization that the most needed skill in ...
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Join us in our latest podcast episode as we explore the journey of Svilen Rangelov , the co-founder and CEO of Dronamics , the world's first cargo drone airline. Svilen's passion for fast, affordable, and green freight is transforming the way goods are moved across the globe. Dronamics is the company he co-founded with his brother Konstantin in 2014 and in this episode, Svilen shares the story of how they built Dronamics from the ground up, overcoming nearly 700 rejections, plenty of ske...
Aug 02, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest is a well-known entrepreneur and investor in the Romanian IT industry. Andrei Pitis has 30 years of experience in tech. He was one of the first official Linux contributors in Romania and co-founder of RoEduNet, a network that offered free internet to students. Later, Andrei founded Vector Watch, a Romanian start-up that produced the first Romanian smartwatch. The company was later acquired by Fitbit, where Andrei held various positions including VP of Engineering and VP of Product...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on The Recursive Podcast we get to find out more about revolutionizing in-store advertising with robots. Ionut Vlad is the co-founder of Tokinomo, a technology company that uses sensors, motion, light, and sound, to bring shelf products to life and increase shopping engagement. No wonder the startup which produces in-store marketing robots has received various awards, like “Impact Star” by Deloitte, and “Most Inventive Startup” by La French Tech Romania. With a background in graphic design...
Jul 12, 2023•54 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Next stop for The Recursive Podcast - Bucharest, where we meet with Lavinia Mehedintu . She has dipped her toes in different educational programs as a student before embarking on an entrepreneurial journey of her own, in the learning and developing pool with the social learning platform Offbeat . With a diverse background in HR and communications, Lavinia aims to provide a fresh, actionable twist to the learning industry's ongoing transformation. In her conversation with Elena Vrabie, Lavini...
Jul 05, 2023•52 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest comes from London but has a special interest in Central and Eastern Europe. Bakhrom Ibragimov is a partner at Molten Ventures, which invests in Europe’s tech leaders from Series A to the growth stage. Bakhrom joined Molten in 2022 from EBRD Venture Capital. There he founded and managed commitments of €500m over three VC funds. Previously Bakhrom was leading investments with Virgin Green Fund and TLcom Capital. He was also an Internet Finance Director at Virgin Media and a tech inv...
Jun 28, 2023•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today The Recursive podcast is live from Bucharest, meeting one of the most prominent founders and investors on the Romanian tech scene. Radu Georgescu is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the tech industry. He has successfully exited several companies, including the acquisition of RAV antivirus technology by Microsoft, the ePayment business by Naspers, Avantgate by Francisco Partners, and VectorWatch by Fitbit. Radu is currently the founder of Gecad Ventures, a family of...
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest - Sasha Bezuhanova - has left an impact in manifold ways on the Bulgarian tech ecosystem and society. She’s one of the first internationally recognized managers. One of the first Bulgarian female leaders in tech. She’s an active angel investor. A philanthropis t. A social mover and shaker. Sasha Bezuhanova is the founder and chairman of the board of MOVE.BG . Ten years ago she left her business career at HP to dedicate herself to positive social change and sustainable development ...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast Our next guest has close to 20 years of experience in management consulting and digital transformation. Orlin Dochev is a managing partner at Next Consult , an international business, and digital transformation consultancy, blending both strong management consulting expertise with deep IT knowledge. The company has offices in the USA, UK, Switzerland, Romania, and Bulgaria and is partnering with global technology vendors like Salesforce, Tableau, and SAP ERP. Orlin co-founded Next Consult 13 yea...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast 
