I was born and raised in beautiful Bourgas, Bulgaria, a city located just by the seaside. From very early on, I was fascinated with technology. I started programming in third grade and soon became proficient in a number of languages including C/C++, Pascal, and Assembler among others. I particularly enjoyed reverse engineering and complex algorithms. I practiced the latter in numerous national programming competitions, even winning a few during my high school years. During the same period, I was very fortunate to meet Iliya Yordanov, a very skilled programmer, and in 2001 the two of us cofounded an Internet company that helped C++ programmers. In the next 2 years, I learned a lot from Iliya and helping manage the business as we grew the website significantly.
At the same time, I was heavily involved in my local community, cofounding the first Interact club in my district (part of the Rotary International family). After a short stint at a local campaign for mayor, where I headed first-time voter relations, I was inspired to pursue a more rounded education and in 2004 started my Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Social Sciences (political science, sociology, mass communication, and economics) at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. During my undergrad, I continued being active in the local community, serving as the President of the student body and cofounding and leading a Rotaract club (again part of the Rotary International family) until my graduation in 2007.
As a next step, I knew I wanted to build even stronger and better new ventures and so I applied to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where I pursued an MBA as part of the Class of 2009. While pursuing my grad degree at the heart of Silicon Valley, I learned a lot about leadership, entrepreneurship, and management from faculty, classmates, and alumni. I was also fortunate to meet my classmates Howard Bornstein, Erik Bengtsson, and Chris Herndon with whom I cofounded my current startup, Philanthropedia.
Philanthropedia is a social venture disrupting the $250B philanthropy sector by tackling one of its most fundamental questions: how to evaluate nonprofits. Philanthropedia is a perfect example of the type of venture I want to build: tackling a core problem in a big industry while still having meaningful impact. What makes this startup experience even better is the fact that I am working with terrific teammates and have a great funder, the Hewlett Foundation.
When I am not working on Philanthropedia, I write about startup management and structured innovation in the Startup Lore. I am also very interested in leadership, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, technology, science, political science, and society. I tweet regularly and write some thoughts occasionally on these topics.
Thank you for visiting my website. I hope you enjoy your stay and look forward to hearing any feedback at deyan@deyanvitanov.com.
