Organization Presentation

PROBLEM

SOLVING A GLOBAL MASS PROBLEM WHILE ADDRESSING THE LOCAL PROBLEM

Local Global & National

Vratsa is the poorest region in all of Europe, and

in the last 15 years, the population of

the region has decreased by 32% and youth

unemployment is at its peak, amounting to 40%

In the early 2000s one of the biggest factories in

Vratsa, which provided thousands of jobs to the

residents, closed down.

Without a sustainable industry, the people of the

Vratsa region are forced to move to the capital or

abroad to find a reasonably paid job, since most

jobs are in the local government or in the

services - shop staff and resellers.

It’s not just Facebook, Google, and Uber that

need developers. Almost every single industry is

becoming dependent on people who know how

to write code

The world’s growing reliance on technology to

get things done is making developers more

important than ever

Companies worry more about access to software

developers than capital

MISSION

OUR MISSION AND THE RECOGNITION WE’VE RECEIVED SO FAR FOR OUR EFFORTS

To build a digital community which provides quality education to people in Vratsa,

one of the poorest regions in Europe, so they can access well-paid, meaningful

jobs in the digital industry without leaving their hometown.

Vratsa Software acts as a unifier, a gathering point for the ambitious people who strive to

learn and grow

By creating a network of digital minds, we attract the digital businesses to our town and

develop an industry which could contribute hugely to the town's economic development.

Awards

ACHIEVEMENTS

OUR KEY ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE AND MAIN ATTRACTIONS

STUDENTS STARTED OUR

COURSES

317

PARTICIPANTS IN OUR

EVENTS

1570

NEW DIGITAL COMPANY

OFFICES IN VRATSA

4

STUDENTS NOW WORKING

IN THE DIGITAL FIELD IN

VRATSA

40

Talent hub

▪ 40 of our students work in the digital field in Vratsa. A trend that is here to stay given that the students who

continued to university are now starting their first job

▪ Our students, both successful graduates and non-graduates, are top students in the Sofia University Faculty of

Mathematics and Informatics and in the Sofia Technical University

IT Community ▪ More than 1570 people have participated in our yearly events, which bring together kids, students, potential

employees in the IT sector and professions, as well as attract sponsors and lecturers from Amazon and Komptel

▪ Vratsa Software serves as a unifier, a gathering point for the ambitious people who strive to learn and grow.

Digital Industry

in Vratsa ▪ 4 digital companies has opened offices in Vratsa (3 software companies and 1 digital agency)

▪ With the launch of The Nest, a Co-working Space in Vratsa where IT professionals can access support and

inspiration from peers, we want to further promote entrepreneurship within the area

SOLID TEAM

LED BY ENTREPRENEURS WHO ARE ACTIVE WITHIN THE IT & EDUCATION SECTOR

VISION

From 2022, 40 people will start a career in the digital

industry in Vratsa every year

Co-founder

Emiliyan Kadiyski

▪ First cohort of “Teach for Bulgaria”s

teachers

▪ Founder of Inveitix

▪ Programmer at Outsource Consult

Co-founder

Teodor Kostadinov

▪ Senior Programmer at Mentormate

▪ Included in Forbes Bulgarians 30 under 30

▪ Founder of Inveitix

Co-founder

Iliyan Dimov

▪ Programmer at Experian

▪ Founder of Inveitix

OUR HOLISTIC APPROACH

OUR FUNNEL OF TALENTS HAS BEEN BUILD OVER THE COURSE OF 4 YEARS

Our Holistic Approach

Talent Platform for tracking the students

The core of Vratsa software is our yearly

digital courses .While starting with the

fundamentals, our graduates are ready to start

working at an internship level

Our efforts don’t stop when the education

program finishes. We try to provide our newly

born programmers with the so-needed first

experience through a Mentorship program- a 3

months practical case

While developers is a scarce resource,

developers with leadership skills are even

more rare. From 2019 we are offering the

leadership course “IT+”

The new platform will allow us to track and

stay in touch with both old and currents

students, while allowing companies to reach out

to our talents

NEW

NEW

NEW

DEEP DIVE IN OUR CORE PROGRAMS (I/II)

PROGRAMMING, DIGITAL MARKETING & DESIGN COURSES

2015 2018 Going Forward

Applicants 130 171 250

Starters 60 97 145

Graduates ~10 23 35

Programs Programming Programming

Digital Marketing

Programming

Digital Marketing

Design

22 new students working

in the IT sector, amounting

to a total of 40 students

Our vision is that from 2022

onwards, 40 people will start a

career in the IT sector on a

yearly basis

4 or 9 months program

2 times/week

10h homework/week

Application process

includes individual tests,

tasks and interviews

Every level ends with a

test and a project

Certificates if successful

and mentorship

▪ 9 month programming course for adults and high school students

▪ Organized for the 5th year in a row with ~120 applicants/year

▪ Students are divided into groups based on their choice between JAVA or

PHP

9 Months

▪ 4 months digital marketing course for adults and high school students

▪ Organizated for the first time 2018, with over 50 applicants

▪ Covers the marketing basics, creating online content and social network

advertising

4 Months

▪ New course with the start 2019 that will prepare participants

:

6 Months

▪ 3-6 months long project for successful graduates from one of the courses

▪ While the ambition is to offer a mentorship to all graduates, it is dependent

on the availability of mentors

▪ The purpose is to strengthen the students CV

3-6 Months

▪ New leadership program that started Jul 2019

2 Weeks

DEEP DIVE IN OUR CORE PROGRAMS (II/II)

OVERVIEW OF OUR PROGRAMS OFFERED TO ADULTS AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

MARKETIN

G

DESIGN

IT+

MENTORSHI

P

PROGRAMING

Duration

SECTION 2

ENGAGEMENT PROPOSALS

HELP US BECOME FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE

WHAT WE NEED AND MAY OFFER

Need for Funding Vratsa Software has relied on grants, but now needs to become financially

sustainable to continue to offer quality education and access to a digital

community and needs the support from the corporate community

Need for People We try to provide our graduates with a Mentorship program - a 3 months practical

case. Currently we can’t offer this to all and need more volunteers who are

skilled within PHP/ JAVA

Access to

Talent Pool

We are developing the future talents within tech, and offer access to our talent

pool and to become top of mind/the preferred employer

Access to our skills Many programmers comes straight from school and lack leadership expertise.

We offer our sponsors a to send young employees on our trainings

Be part of

something that is

transforming society

Be part of realising our vision that from 2022, 40 people will start a career in

the digital industry in Vratsa every year

WHAT WE NEED

WHAT WE OFFER

HELP US BECOME FINANCIALLY SUSTAINABLE

OUR SUGGESTED PACKAGES

These are only suggested offers, we are more than happy to work something out on an individual basis if so wished

BECOME A

MENTOR

REACH

OUT TO

OUR

STUDENTS

SPONSOR

1

MODULE

SPONSOR

3

MODULES

We are in need of mentors to

provide the first practical

exposure for our graduates

Reach out to a selected group of

students/ex-students for job, part-

time jobs or internship openings

Sponsor one of the building

blocks in a free of choice course

(programing, marketing, design)

Sponsor three building blocks in a

free of choice course

(programing, marketing, design)

BGN 0 financial support

BGN X per sent e-mail BGN X financial support BGN 3X financial support

▪ We want to provide our successfully

graduated students with their first

practical experience to boost the CVs

▪ A PHP/JAVA mentor guide a graduate

through a real life project

▪ 3 months duration, 2h per week

▪ We help you reach our talents by

sending out emails to a selected

subgroup of our talents

▪ Select what age group, from which

course you want to reach

▪ Send us your material

▪ Logo & company description on our

Talent Platform

▪ Company presentation to our students

▪ Send 1 e-mails

▪ Logo & company description on our

Talent Platform

▪ Sponsor for one event

▪ Company presentation to our students

▪ Send 2 e-mails

▪ Register 2 employees to our 5-days

leadership course while working from

our co-working space

There are:

4 modules per course & group,

~4 groups per course and 3

coureses– Programing,

Marketing & Design

SECTION 3

APPENDIX

OTHER ENGAGEMENTS WITHIN THE SOCIETY

PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW

OUR COURSES, EVENTS AND

Our Portfolio of Trainings

Participants’ Age

5 10 15 25 70+

NEW

NEW

NEW

Activities

Overview

Thanks to former

students who are

leading the courses

and events - The

community is

thriving

EVENT OVERVIEW

1742 PEOPLE HAVE PARTICIPATED IN OUR 4 EVENTS ACROSS THE YEARS

HackVratza ▪ HackVratsa was organized for the third consecutive year,

with a total of 41 participants, divided into 13 teams

▪ The first three teams won cash prizes, and two of the teams

were invited to further develop their projects at the Space

Challenge Labs

CodeWeek ▪ Vratsa CodeWeek is a two-day event with more than 170

participants and 25 lecturers

▪ The event offers lectures from the IT field and introduces new

areas of tech through practical activities

Treasure

Hunt

▪ The treasure hunt games are logical puzzles that lead to

physical locations in town and attracted 85 participants

▪ The game is targeting a broader audience, allowing more

people to hear about Vratsa Software and is bringing some

tourists from the capital to Vratsa for a day.

Rails Girls

Vratsa

▪ RailsGirls is an international format for introducing girls

and women to the IT field by a two-day workshop and

was attended by 25 girls

Click for

more info

Click for

more info

Click for

more info

Click for

more info

OUR PRIORITIES 2019

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY, CO-WORKING AND SCALING OUR

COURSES

Financial

Sustainabili

To become financially sustainable and continue to offer quality

education and access to a digital community, we are seeking

support from the corporate community

Co-Working Space

With the launch of The Nest, a Co-working Space in Vratsa

where IT professionals can access support and inspiration

from peers, we want to further promote entrepreneurship within

the area

Leadership & Design

Courses

To offer a complete portfolio of skills, we look forward to the

first year of the leadership course “IT +” and the Design course

DEVELOPMENTS YET TO DATE

✔ CROWD FUNDED x

✔ PRE SALES LIVE

✔ X PLACES to Cover…

VISION

From 2022, 40 people will start a career in the digital

industry in Vratsa every year