Valentine Boyev

Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner

Halo Lab is a full-stack design & development team.

We created digital projects almost every day since 2013.

We work with a diverse range of innovative startups and established companies. We've launched over 350 projects, helping our clients secure a total of $370M in funding. 

Some of our standout projects include:

- Kinetik: A healthcare platform with over 3,500 integrated providers.
- Bookclub24: A German online library for book collectors.
- Raven.gg: A leading brand in custom esports clothing design.
- Mighty Buildings: Pioneers in sustainable 3D-printed houses.

Co-Founder & CEO

OPUS

OPUS is a membership community for entrepreneurs, founders and business builders. We unite our members to create opportunities together by addressing isolation, knowledge and skill gaps through our digital platform, events & experiences, and partnerships, helping our members achieve their missions.

Member

Dribbble

Since 2013, I have partnered with Dribbble to enhance brand awareness and create new project opportunities for Halo Lab. Throughout this collaboration, I have played a key role in driving growth and expanding our presence in the industry.

Partner

CEO at Halo Lab ✦ Helped 500+ companies to raise 💲revenue and investments through digital design and marketing → $500M+ in client total funding

Results my company has delivered to my clients:

🔥 TutorChase — 1,000+ satisfied students.
🔥 DevelopHealth —  $2.3M raised in funding.
🔥 Felyx —  7.5% CR increase with our services.
🔥 LinkByCar — 18 car brands in their partnership.
🔥 Bookclub24 — #1 German online library for book collectors.

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With a passion for creating unique and scalable digital products, I help brands achieve their goals and elevate their presence in the digital world.

Key Achivements:

✅ $370M in client total funding

✅ 500+ happy clients

✅ 99+ international awards

✅ 80+ glowing reviews


I specialize in:

⤷  Web Design Services: Creating eye-catching and user-friendly websites that grab attention and drive results.

⤷  Website Development: Building strong, reliable websites that fit your business perfectly.

⤷  User Experience Design: Making sure your users have a smooth and enjoyable experience.

⤷  Brand Design: Crafting unique brand identities that really pop.

⤷  Conversion Optimization: Helping turn your visitors into loyal customers.

⤷  Digital Web Solutions: Providing all the web solutions you need in one place.

⤷  Website Redesign for Results: Giving your old website a makeover to boost performance and engagement.

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My Journey

My career began 15 years ago as a UI/UX designer, driven by a passion for creativity and beauty. For me, design is more than a job—it’s a way of life, an ever-exciting, fantastic world.

I believe in thinking outside the box and continuously renewing my knowledge. This mindset has guided me in helping people fall in love with brands and assisting agencies in winning new business.

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Halo Lab

Another passion I discovered is mentoring young designers at Halo Lab, where I help them become true professionals. Sharing my knowledge not only helps others but also fuels my own learning journey.

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Have BIG idea in mind?

Contact me directly: inquiry@halo-lab.com

“So… how much does it cost to build an MVP?”

That’s the question I get from almost every founder we talk to.

There’s no one-size-fits-all number, but there is a clear pattern in how MVP costs break down.

And understanding it early can save you from burning six figures in the wrong phase.

Typical MVP cost.

1. SaaS MVP: $30,000–$100,000 (more with complex backend or AI features).
2. Mobile App: $60,000–$150,000 (iOS + Android doubles cost unless cross-platform).
3. Marketplace: $30,000–$150,000 (multi-role logic and payments drive cost).
4. Internal Tool: $15,000–$100,000 (simpler UI but requires solid integrations).

How founders blow the budget:

1. Too many “nice-to-haves.”
You don’t need every feature. 
You need one that solves a real pain.
Amazon’s MVP sold only books, that’s it.

2. Reinventing what already exists.
Use Stripe, Auth0, Firebase, Twilio, not custom clones.
Integrating proven services can cut MVP costs by up to 60%.

3. Building all at once.
Launch the essentials (Phase 1), test, iterate, then scale.

4. Ignoring “hidden” costs.
Hosting, compliance, and early marketing add up fast.
Always keep a 20% buffer, it’ll save your runway when surprises hit.

5. Skipping validation.
A small discovery phase costs 5% of the budget but prevents 50% of rework later.

The best MVPs aren’t just cheap.
They’re intentional, focused, and fast to learn from.

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CEO @ Halo Lab ✦ Leading a 130+ design-driven B2B software company → 500+ products shipped & scaled

7 rules I wish I knew earlier.

(to make the UI work for the product growth).

1. Focus on fixing real user problems, not curious design. Function over form.

2. Stop guessing what works. Test all UI elements - buttons, CTAs, days of the week, color schemes - before you make a decision. Let the data choose.

3. Waiting for the perfect design means you're going to miss the needs of your users. Get feedback early and iterate fast.

4. Do not make the user think. Use simple, clear language that anyone can understand. The simpler the better.

5. The best way to reduce friction is to eliminate a choice. Focus on what matters.

6. Your UI is never "finished." It will evolve with user feedback and as your product changes.

7. If your product isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re losing users. Make sure mobile works perfectly before scaling to the desktop.

Ultimately, outstanding UI is about making your product simple, clear, and effective for the people using it.
Design for your users, not for your ego.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in designing for usability?

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You can hire a designer.

Or you can hire a design brain.

One gives you beautiful screens.
The other gives you a product that thinks.

When you hire a single designer, you get skills.
When you hire a team that works as one brain, you get experience that compounds.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, our teams don’t work in silos.
The UX researcher sees what frustrates users.
The product designer connects it to business goals.
The UI designer turns it into clarity and trust.
The developer translates it into something fast and functional.

Each person covers a blind spot the others can’t.
And together, they don’t just design, they solve.

That’s the difference between design as a task and design as a system.
Between a pretty interface and a product that scales, converts, and feels effortless to use.

When founders realize this, everything changes:

1. They stop hiring portfolios.
2. They start hiring thinking systems - teams that anticipate problems before they appear, align design with ROI, and build products that last.

If you’re scaling your product, don’t just hire a designer.
Hire a brain that’s trained to think like your users and build like your business depends on it.

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The hardest thing about building an AI product is getting people to trust what it does.

You can create a great model all you want, but as soon as users feel the slightest bit of uncertainty, they are going to ponder, hesitate, and leave.

When founders build trust into the product experience, three things happen fast.

1. Users stop second-guessing and start exploring. First session activation goes up because they understand the what and whys.

2. Every click of trust compounds itself into usage, retention, and upsell. Without trust, the best AI feature will remain unused.

3. You do not have to wait for product market fit to learn how users actually feel. Trust patterns can save you weeks of guessing, and reduce the launch chaos.

4. Transparent UX with design-based trust cuts confusion before it even reaches support. No more "I am left wondering why it said that?" tickets or bad reviews for hallucinations.

Most AI products are built for power. 
The real winners are built for confidence.

✦

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we help founders design AI products users trust enough to actually use and pay for.
If that’s the stage you’re at, let’s chat.

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UI Patterns for AI products

Working with revolutionary teams is always exciting.

But being involved with a team that could potentially transform the way millions of people see and feel about themselves is an honour.

OmniBuds is creating the world’s first ear-worn AI/ML platform for real-time physiological monitoring.

That vision deserved an experience that felt just as innovative.

The first step was to design a digital ecosystem (app and website) that would convert complex data signals into a visual representation that users can understand and relate to quickly and easily.

We focused on three key pillars.

1. Clarity.

We designed intuitive, soothing visual representations of the complex multi-signal outputs of the AI.

2. Confidence.

The design of our user interface allows users to feel secure and informed about their health and wellness without feeling overwhelmed.

3. Scalability.

The design of our digital ecosystem supports the addition of new biosensors or biometric data and accommodates future generations of devices.

In conclusion, we have built a companion app that is capable of pairing devices, calibrating sensors, and tracking five vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, body temperature, and blood pressure).

Huge thanks to the OmniBuds team - your clarity, vision, and relentless drive made this collaboration special.

Thank you for trusting Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner to help bring such an important mission to life.

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OmniBuds Case Study

How can we make our busy lives a bit calmer and more growth-oriented? 

Routine Hero is the app for that. 
It's a habit-tracking app designed by Artgrafii.
And we are excited to share the background on one of our most significant collaborations.

The mission to bring mindfulness and structure to everyday life resonated with us at Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner.

We added a soft, warm look to draw attention to meaningful actions. When you combine that with thoughtful, user-centered UX design, the tracker becomes a creative canvas with clear, intuitive visualization.

The result?

✦ Higher engagement.
✦ Stronger emotional connection.
✦ A growing base of users who trust Routine Hero to help them stay grounded.

Since launch, Routine Hero has supported thousands of users to build sustainable routines, and reduce anxiety around routine-building practices.

Huge thanks to the team for trusting Halo Lab to bring your mission to life. 
It’s a privilege to design for products that make people’s days lighter.

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Routine Hero Case Study

A few years ago, I worked with a product team that doubled its user base in six months.

Great milestone, until everything started breaking at once.

Buttons no longer fit real workflows.
Dashboards collapsed under new data volumes.
Features designed by different teams looked like they came from different companies.

That’s when it became obvious: you don’t scale by adding features, you scale by designing for growth.

Here’s what changed (today I call it the 5 pillars of scalable design):

1️⃣ We stopped designing screens.
We designed systems.
Modular components, reusable everywhere, so new features didn’t require redesigning the whole product.

2️⃣ We built a real design system.
Tokens, rules, documentation, ownership.
A structure any new designer or developer could plug into instantly.

3️⃣ We switched to adaptive layouts.
More roles, more data, more devices.
The UI had to flex without breaking clarity.

4️⃣ We future-proofed content.
No hardcoded text.
No rigid page structures.
Everything had to scale with localization, new markets, and dynamic data.

5️⃣ We optimized for speed.
Because nothing kills scalability like lag.
If a key screen doesn’t load in under 2 seconds, the experience collapses under growth.

Looking back, the real shift was in mindset.
Scalability isn’t a phase. It’s a discipline.

What’s been the biggest scalability bottleneck in your product so far?
Tech, design, or people?

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“We saved money choosing the cheaper option…

but paid for it three times over.”

And I’ve seen this story play out again and again.
The “cheap” choice looks good on paper.

But here’s what it usually costs you:
→ Extra months fixing broken systems.
→ Support teams buried in avoidable tickets.
→ Lost trust from customers who won’t come back.
→ Higher churn that eats away at revenue.

That “cheap” website, tool, or app?
It ends up being the most expensive decision you make.

What’s worth paying for:

1. Better UX = lower support costs.
2. Clearer onboarding = fewer drop-offs.
3. Scalable infrastructure = fewer rebuilds later.
4. Stronger design = higher conversion and trust.

Cheap is never just cheap.
It’s delayed launches, frustrated users, and lost growth.
The real ROI comes from durability, clarity, and trust.
Not the lowest upfront price.

What’s the most expensive “cheap” decision you’ve ever made?

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A redesign driven by aesthetics rarely fixes business problems.

A redesign driven by user almost always does.

You just have to do it when you are certain of what’s broken and why.

1. When not to redesign.
If your brand feels stale but your product is functional, do not rebuild.
You likely need optimization, not rebuilding.

- Simplifying user workflows.
- Updating visual aspects to current design standards.
- Clarifying your value proposition through copy.


2. When a redesign is actually warranted
You can redesign when: 
- Users have outgrown your original logic of production.
- Your technology or architecture is restricting/making it difficult for you to grow.
- The perception of your brand is much more than what you deliver.
- All metrics indicate friction, and specifically not just aesthetic boredom.
That point is when design becomes a strategy tool versus a decoration exercise.

3. How to redesign without breaking everything.
We approach redesigns as a controlled evolution, not a revolution.

It starts with:

✅ Data: Identify and evaluate where users are actually struggling.
✅ Alignment: Balance your business goals with the the user needs.
✅ Phased rollout: Test, measure, iterate changes before scaling.

Good redesigns feel familiar yet new.
They keep the user oriented and provide a sense of progress.
Redesign is not for something new.
Redesign is for something to work.

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Most leaders will agree that "good UX matters."

But few can prove it in financial terms.

That’s where growth is slowly leaking.

When design is measurable, it is also scalable.
When it is scaleable, it is a competitive advantage.

This is what the math shows:

✦ Each $1 spent on UX returns between $2 and $100. (Forrester)

✦ A load time faster by 0.1 seconds can boost conversion up to 10%. (Deloitte)

✦ 18% of customers abandon the website because the site is hard to use. Baymard Institute)

✦ Companies with design maturity outperform similar companies by 2x in revenue and shareholder returns. (McKinsey Design Index)

So why measure your UX ROI?
Because if you do not measure it, design becomes "subjective."

When you measure it, you have a lever to influence:

1. Conversion rates and average order value.
2. Operational efficiency and support costs.
3. Customer lifetime value and churn.

Here’s how leading companies do it:

1. Benchmark experience metrics – funnel conversion, time-to-task, support volume.
2. Make UX optimizations – simplify flows, reduce friction, increase clarity.
3. Measure the delta – either revenue, savings or time.
4. Quantify into dollars.

UX isn't about how good your product looks.
It's about how much it earns.
When organizations measure that, UX is no longer subjective.

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How to Measure the ROI of UX

"Hiring own designers will be cheaper and faster.”

But look at the numbers.
They tell a different story.

✦ Time-to-hire is slow.
The average time to hire a UX/UI designer in the U.S. is 41 days (LinkedIn Hiring Report).
Senior designers? Often 55–60 days.
Add onboarding and culture fit, and you’re looking at 3–4 months before they’re fully effective.

Dedicated design teams?
Kickoff happens in 1–2 weeks with established workflows already in place.

✦ Total cost is higher than salary.
Average U.S. UX/UI designer salary: $85,000–$110,000/year (Glassdoor).
Add benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, software licenses, office overhead = 30–40% more.
That’s $120,000–$150,000 per designer, per year.
Now consider that most in-house teams need:
 - Product designer.
 - Brand specialist.
 - UX researcher.
 - UI designer.

That can quickly run $500K–$600K+ annually.
Dedicated teams?
You pay for deliverables, not overhead. 
With flexible scaling as needs change.

✦ Hidden risks of in-house.
Design turnover is high: UX/UI attrition sits around 20% in tech (UXPA survey).
Losing one designer mid-project stalls progress: recruiting + onboarding adds months.
Dedicated teams spread expertise across roles, reducing single points of failure.

In-house design isn’t “bad.”
But it’s slower, riskier, and more expensive to get outcomes at speed.

Dedicated teams let you:
1. Scale up or down instantly.
2. Access specialists without hiring 4+ roles.
3. Get results faster without HR bottlenecks.
4. The real cost of in-house isn’t salary.

It’s the delay, the overhead, and the risk of burnout or attrition.

Where do you see design bottlenecks most - hiring, retention, or delivery speed?

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A few months ago, one of our partners came up with a challenge.

“We’ve raised our Series A, we have product-market fit, but we’re stuck in endless design-dev loops. Can we ship an MVP that investors can demo this quarter, not next?”

We delivered it in 42 days.
Here’s what actually made it possible.

1. 10-day strategy sprint.
We used a pre-built discovery framework with templates for personas, flows, and decisions on technology stacks.
We only focused on the unknowns and skipped documenting the things that the team has already validated.
The result was a 70% faster alignment phase while maintaining context.

2. Parallel design & development.
In traditional teams, design "hands off" to devs, and that is where weeks go to die. 
We run parallel pipelines: The dev team starts building the architecture and reusable components in parallel. 
We do design QA in a sprint and not at the end.
The result: Reduced the cycle from design → dev delay from 3 weeks to 10 days.

3. Reusable design systems.

4. Senior leads keep hands-on.
Every project has a lead designer, tech lead, and PM who stay involved daily, not just at kickoff.
You speed delivery up by removing the invisible friction between discovery, design, and dev.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we build like product teams.
That’s how we move from “idea” to “investor demo” faster without cutting corners.

If you’re a founder racing toward your next funding milestone, DM me.

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“We have an amazing product”.

“But users keep leaving before they even see the value.”

It’s not the product.
 It’s the experience.

And it happens because of:

1. A free trial signup that feels like applying for a loan.
Users quit before they even start.

2. Weak onboarding.
No quick win. No guidance. Churn in days.

3. Cluttered screens.
The features users need most get buried.

4. Hidden pricing.
 Confusion erodes trust before renewal.

5. No in-app guidance after the trial.
Users convert, but never adopt advanced features.

When you fix the UX, you fix the revenue.
 – Quick signup.
 – Clear onboarding.
 – Transparent pricing.
 – Continuous education.

That’s what turns users into loyal customers.

Founders: Which of these mistakes do you see most often in SaaS products?

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Incredible ideas stall due to weak partnerships.

It usually takes place in stealth.

Updates slow to a crawl.
The "senior devs" you met disappear from your calls.
Modifications to the budget shift from a "must" to "small" and you are suddenly bleeding money.

By Sprint 2, you realize that you didn't just hire a team, you hired a risk.

Here are ways to identify risk before you spend months working on a project:

1. Always ask about the team that will be running your project and who will stay after kickoff.

2. Too good to be true.
A low price always gets expensive. Low bid quotes hide re-work, missed deadlines and never ending "extras" that only come to light after the process has started.

3. A good team should manipulate the project to meet your goals, your stack, your workflow, not force their workflow on you.

4. Silence between sprints.
Try to schedule meetings during, not after, the process, establish weekly meetings, and leverage transparency.

5. Be sure to clarify IP ownership up front, make sure it's in writing.

6. Wrong domain skills. Ask for proven case studies.

7. No plan after launch. Make sure to ask about supporting you in scaling, not just shipping.

That’s how you find a dev partner who builds fast and right, not cheap (and now).

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Most SaaS teams think churn is a “product problem.”

Often, it’s a UX problem.

Specifically, these 3 patterns that silently destroy retention right when you’re trying to scale.

✦ Onboarding overload.

Your onboarding experience is doing too much → users never experience the “aha”.

Signs:

Your users see 30–60% drop off between signup → first key action.
Your users either defer their actions to “do this later”.
Your users either skip or quit onboarding tours.

Solutions:

- Prefill + auto setup wherever possible.- 
- Cut straight to the core metric (1 simple path).
- Eliminate features that your retained users aren’t using.
- Hide advanced options/features until user is successful once.

Measure: TTV, D1/D7/D30 retention, activation rate to first action, cohort comparison.

✦ Spammy + Manipulative UX.

Over-notifying, misleading, or hiding data practices will kill trust quickly.

Signs:

"Spammy” complaints.
Push for opt-outs + unsubscribes increases.
Session starts decrease after notifications are initiated.

Solutions:

- Quality vs. quantity: notify only when it helps now.
- Preference center for channel, topic, and frequency.
- Clear, human-centric language about privacy (no mention of legal slime).
- Remove dark patterns (don't do pre-checked boxes or hidden exits).

Measure: Notification CTR vs disable rate, complaint rate, NPS after comms change, retention deltas.

✦ Big-Bang redesign that breaks user habits.

A complete UI redesign with no guidance = instant churn.

Signs:

Returning users can’t find basic features.
Spike in support tickets (“where did x go?”).
Power-user activity drops immediately after launch.

Solutions:

- Roll out in phases + A/B test in advance of full launch.
- Quick in-product tours that respect muscle memory.
- Temporary “Classic mode” or quick old→new map.
- Collect feedback + iterate on a weekly basis.

Measure: Task success pre/post, ticket volume, usage recapture curve, old-vs-new retention.

Before you build more features, fix these UX leaks.
They’re cheaper to solve and improve retention faster than any new roadmap item.

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Many SaaS products confuse complexity for credibility. 

It's what leads to the breakdown of a good idea.

1. One dashboard that attempts to do ten jobs.
2. Seven CTAs competing for the same click.
3. Users paralyzed by decision fatigue.

This is an insecurity dressed as "more value."
The truth is: A product's strength lies not in showing more, but in hiding whatever does matter confidently.

I unpack 8 actionable strategies to simplify your interface, without dumbing it down.

Here’s a brief taste: 

1. Identify the 3 actions users really care about and bury the rest.
2. Deliver dedicated, focused views for each role. 
3. Make your primary CTA sticks out like a sore thumb. 
4. Rip out any/ all features nobody ever uses, they are silent churning.

Because clarity will always sell faster than complexity.

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8 Quick Fixes to stop feature-chaos

At 5 features, everything feels simple.

At 50 users start opening "Help" just to find stuff.
That’s a scalability problem.

Most products grow feature by feature, not structure by structure.
And that’s where chaos begins.

Here’s how we design navigation that stays clear.

1. Start with an audit: list every feature, who uses it, and how often.

2. Pick the right pattern for your stage.
5–10 features → simple tabs or top nav.
15–30 → sidebar/drawer.
50+ → vertical nav + mega-menu with logical groupings (Nielsen Norman Group backs this up).

3. Use clear, boring labels.
“Dashboard” beats “Ignite.”
“Reports” beats “Insights Hub.”

4. Grow gradually.
Don’t cram everything in.
Use “More” or “Advanced” to reveal depth only when needed.
As your app grows, search becomes navigation.

5. Measure navigation health.
Scaling navigation isn’t about adding more links.
It’s about designing a structure that grows without growing messy.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we design scalable navigation systems that evolve with your roadmap - from MVP to enterprise.

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Every founder knows this pain.

You’ve got funding. You’ve got a roadmap. You’re ready to build.

But then hiring drags.
One role takes 2 months.
Another takes 3.

Meanwhile, competitors launch features while your product is stuck in limbo.
It’s not just a delay. It’s lost momentum.
Lost customers. Lost edge.

Here’s the truth I’ve learned working with product teams: Speed matters more than perfection.

And the fastest way to move?
Bring in ready-to-go experts who:

1. Adapt to your stack instantly.
2. Plug into your workflows quickly.
3. Push delivery forward instead of slowing it down.

They don’t just save time.
They save opportunities.

Because every extra month of hiring costs more than salaries.
It costs you market share.
It costs you trust.
It costs you growth.

If you’re a founder staring at another empty role on your team, ask yourself:
Do you want the “perfect hire”?
Or do you want your product in the hands of users?

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You’ve raised your Series A.

Now you’re proving you can deliver at scale.

And every week of delay costs runway, users, and momentum.
The big question?
Who’s actually going to build this thing?
You have three choices and each comes with a hidden price.

1. The dedicated team.
(Agency/product squad model)
Fastest to launch.
Move as one unit.
Cross-functional by default.
→ Best for: founders who need traction now and can’t afford to spend 3 months hiring.

2. Freelancers.
They’re flexible, affordable, and perfect for low-risk experiments.
But you become the PM, the QA, and the glue holding everything together.
When people churn, rework kills speed.
→ Best for: quick feature spikes or marketing tests, not your core product.

3. In-house team.
The long-term bet.
You get culture, domain memory, and control.
But it’s slow and expensive.
Median SWE comp in the U.S. sits around $187 K/year, and that’s before benefits or churn.
→ Best for: protecting core IP and scaling once product-market fit is locked.

My take? Go hybrid by design.
1. Dedicated team: ship your core product in < 90 days.
2. In-house team: retain knowledge and own the moat.
3. Freelancers: plug niche gaps when speed matters.

Re-evaluate every quarter: velocity, cost per feature, defect rate.
Because at Series A, your biggest risk isn’t cost, it’s time.

✦ At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we help Series A founders scale with dedicated product squads - ready to ship fast, adapt faster, and grow alongside your in-house team.

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I evaluated a health app that checked all the boxes.

However, something was… off.

It had great features, was built in a compliant way, and looked fresh and modern.

What was missing?

It looked too good. 
It seemed too generic. 
It was too cold, feelings-wise.

Then the realization hit: it was all about the feelings.
In verticals like fintech, healthtech, or SaaS, trust is a feeling that your product builds through every click.

When users cannot see your team, your process, your ethics, they are reading your interface.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that design is not only about usability, its about the assurance.

1. Demonstrate safety, don’t cover it.
If your product deals with the sensitive aspects, let users see you are protecting it. Make trust visible, not hidden in a footer.

2. Clarity is more credible than cleverness.
Everyday language feels believable vs trends and hype.
Users will trust you faster when they understand right away.

3. Consistency yields confidence.
Every inconsistency in color, layout, scheme, or logic shouts “unstable.”
In high-stakes spaces, unstable products destroy trust.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we've realized this through real product work.
Every successful launch had one thing in common: the design felt human.
Users trust how technology treats them.
And that's the design that lasts - the design that builds trust, click by click.

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Nikola Yanev

I teach early-stage founders how to fundraise faster and easier.

Work With Me

Sigma Squared Society

Sigma Squared is empowering the world's most ambitious founders under 26.

Alumnus

Eleven Ventures

I’ve been spearheading the Marketing & Comm efforts of Eleven for the past 7 years.
• Securing 150+ media collaborations for our portfolio companies (including Forbes, TechCrunch, Tech.eu and Eu-Startups).
• Maintaining a consistent LinkedIn engagement rate of 475% above the median for the industry.
• Supporting a 4x increase in investment dealflow.
• Conceptualising and leading Eleven Alpha’s program, bringing 500+ CEE startup applications for one month, resulting in 4 new investments.
• Maintaining a consistent 40+% share of online voice among 15+ VC’s within our focus geography.
• Structuring and leading the Elevate university accelerator on behalf of Eleven for the past 4 years.

Other team accomplishments that I’ve been a part of:

• The fundraising of our Fund II (€6m) and Fund III (€60m).
• Taking Fund I - Eleven Capital (11C) public on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE).
• First investor in Payhawk (first Bulgarian unicorn) back in 2018 and supporting their growth to unicorn status.
• The conceptualisation, launch and marketing of the Visa Innovation Program (https://visainnovationprogram.com/).
• The investment process of 40+ closed deals (I’ve been responsible for due diligence, leading them or operational and marketing support).

Eleven Ventures is one of the leading early-stage VC's in the CEE region, investing in startups since 2012.

Marketing Director

Elevate AUBG Accelerator 

Led the initial accelerator structuring and program building back in 2019. For the past four years, on behalf of Eleven Ventures, I’ve been overseeing and supporting the work of the accelerator’s managing directors. This includes the startup selection process and curriculum evolution; streamlining processes and creating a university accelerator playbook; recruitment and onboarding of 8 new rotational managing directors throughout the years.

The Elevate Accelerator is the first university accelerator program in Bulgaria, based in the American University of Bulgaria.

Chief of Party

Start It Smart

Advisory Board Member

I led the organization in the span of two years. For the time being we managed to:
• Accelerate 30+ early-stage founders.
• Successfully introduce a new business model for our Pre-Accelerator program, increasing the  yearly revenue it brings by 60+%.
• Attract more than 1000 visitors to our offline events.
• Increase the team from 3 to 15 people.
• Sign new client contracts with Microsoft and METRO.

Start It Smart is a Bulgarian entrepreneurship organization founded in 2009. We inspire, educate and connect the new wave of Bulgarian entrepreneurs.

President

Kairos Society

Kairos Society is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization based in the United States. We work to find and empower the young pioneers who will push the world forward through entrepreneurship and innovation - we do so with the support of the top universities, mentors, and corporations across the globe. At the Kairos Society, we view today’s global problems as opportunities for entrepreneurs to focus on the meaningful businesses and innovations that will radically change the world for the better. Not only for our generation, but for the generations to come.

My responsibilities as a Regional Director:
• Kickstarting and establishing the Kairos brand in Bulgaria;
• Scouting the most prominent Bulgarian young entrepreneurs;
• Creating and executing an onboarding plan for each new Kairos fellow (member);
• Building a bridge between Bulgaria, Western Europe and the USA.

Regional Director | Bulgaria

Entrepreneur.bg

The company was acquired by a Bulgarian media group in October 2019.
Entrepreneur.bg is a media website for entrepreneurs, which provides news, startup advice, tips and tricks, interviews and how to's to people starting a business in Bulgaria.

Founder (Acquired)

Consultant

I have worked as a consultant on the communication and marketing strategies, content and outreach planning of several companies, including:
•  IBM
•  SUBWAY
•  Sofia Tech Park
•  Obecto

Marketing Strategy Consultant

I spend the last 7 years working in Venture Capital immersed in:

1) Learning how early-stage fundraising works (from the investor POV)
2) Building 3 accelerators with 250+ graduated startups - Eleven Alpha, Elevate, Pre-Accelerator
3) Building one of the top VC brands in Central and Eastern Europe - Eleven Ventures

Today I work with founders 1:1 to help them fundraise faster and easier.
I bring the perspective, playbooks and approach used by investors.

Drop me a DM or learn more on https://nikyanev.com/

We finished 2 Fundraising Bootcamps in the last 2 weeks with 6 startups (and one of them just closed a round).

First Bootcamp was our 6-week format.
And the second one was our 4-day format.

I’m not gonna lie, it was physically exhausting for both Gergana and I. But man, the founders are so happy!

→ We dove into every possible crevice of fundraising
→ Assessed the fundability of each company
→ Worked on their pitching materials and investor lists
→ Build the foundation of their financial models 
→ Prepared them to lead investors talks 

And now they're ready for what's ahead.

A huge thank you to every founder who joined our bootcamp and trusted us!
Angel Angelov, Ivan Nakov, Velizar Kacharov, Simeon Kuninski, Tsvetan Karakanov, Dimitar Yordanov, Joachim Vanheuverzwijn, Mira Georgieva, Dimitar Bogoev, Georgi Nenov, Petar Denev.

P.S. A 10/10 NPS score so far. 🔥

I help founders find, pitch and close investors | Spent 7 years in VC | Daily posts to simplify your fundraising.

If you plan to fundraise in Q1 2026, December is a perfect month for preparation. 
Here are my top 10 preparation tips. 👇

1️⃣ Aim to raise for 18 to 24 months of runway based on specific milestones you want to reach.

2️⃣ Address all red flags in your understanding of your market, competitors, traction, team, severity of the problem/opportunity, cap table. Be ready to answer all questions.

3️⃣ Craft a good story - start it with your team, traction, vision or a huge problem you’re addressing. Why are you the right team and why the time is now? How big could this get?

4️⃣ Always prepare your materials in advance - deck and data room. The last thing you want is building a Financial Plan on the fly while it’s being requested.

5️⃣ Never sell more than 25% of your company in the pre-seed or seed stages (average dilution is 10-20%). And no more than 30% at Series A (30% is the upper limit).

6️⃣ Avoid going to investors with a specific valuation set in stone. Keep it open for discussion and follow industry’s numbers. Let the market help you.

7️⃣ Have at least 100 target investors in your outreach list. And do make sure you’re a fit for their thesis - geography, stage, industry, investment size.

8️⃣ The best way to reach an investor is through a warm intro by a reputable founder. Map your network for well-connected founders. Become good friends with them.

9️⃣ Be strategic with opening your fundraise - pick a window of several weeks uninterrupted by holidays. Aim to pack those weeks with meetings and create calendar density.

🔟 Maintain good traction. I know this is easier said than done. But when investor conversations start your numbers should be in an uptrend, this will greatly increase round momentum.

Much more could be said about the process.
But there's no need to overcomplicate it.

Good preparation will save you so much time!

P.S. Which of the 10 you're struggling with the most?

Investors seem posh and entitled.

And for some this is genuinely true.

Others are buried in work.

Saying “No” to a meeting, or not answering an email is a defence mechanism.
It’s their way of avoiding overwhelm and burn out.

Whichever of the two types you meet.
Have in mind - it’s definitely not personal.

The genuinely posh and entitled ones.
It’s who they are. Just avoid them.

The overworked ones.
Empathize with them.

Running a VC fund could be frustrating.
Similar to running a startup…

…you have clients
…you have investors
…there’s a lot of uncertainty
…there’s a plenty of competition
…you try to hone in your value prop
…you want to make clients & investors happy

We all have our own struggles going on behind the scenes.

P.S. VCs often ghost other VCs as well.
Back at Eleven, it'd often happen to get a DM back from a VC with several months of delay. 😀

What turns some VCs into a***oles?

A burning question.

A lot has to do with the nature of their work.
That's not to say that there are no real default jerks.

But most really start off with good intentions.

Here's why it happens:
(based on an article I really like)

𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘆 "𝗻𝗼" 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 "𝘆𝗲𝘀".
Repeated rejection can create a jaded mindset. Despite believing in innovation, the pressure of finding the next big thing can wear investors down, leading to pretty negative interactions with founders. 

𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴.
Investing emotionally in numerous startups and facing repeated disappointments is tough. Good VCs deal fast with downs and remain committed to supporting their founders fully, but that’s hard to do at a constant and at scale.

𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.
A reality distortion field is a thing. Once they have power and popularity, they might become blind to their behavior. They might not even realize they’re being jerks.

𝗕𝘂𝘀𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
Operating constantly on defense due to packed schedules and constant communication makes VCs distracted and dismissive. 

𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗲.
The volume of deals which VCs get weekly is insane. This creates a recency bias and a feeling of always getting excited about the shiny new thing. If you’re on top of the pile, communication is fast and easy, but with time the process slows down.

The points above shouldn't serve as an excuse.
But more as an insight into the VC world.

Founders and investors are on a journey together.

And as the author of the article concludes: 
"We owe it to one another to uphold the highest behavioral standards during the journey."

This post is based on a great piece by Omri Amirav-Drory, General Partner at NFX. Find a link below.

P.S. Does Omri miss something? Do you think there are other reasons why VCs turn into jerks?

9 Market questions which investors love to ask.

(+ my favorite one at the end)

Your market might not be huge.
You might not have experience in it.

But your understanding of it matters to investors.

Prepare for these 9 frequently asked questions.
You’ll hear them all the time when fundraising.

𝟭. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆? 
↳ what makes it lucrative?

𝟮. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿?
↳ the more specific the better

𝟯. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 (𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺-𝘂𝗽 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻)?
↳ based on your business model

𝟰. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗲?
↳ what's your core thesis here?

𝟱. 𝗔𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝗬?
↳ is it shrinking or expanding? How fast?

𝟲. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀? 
↳ what’s their offering, how do you differ?

𝟳. 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵?
↳ new tech, expectations, supply & demand, etc.?

𝟴. 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁?
↳ e.g. relying heavy on resellers or DTC, etc.

And my favorite one:

𝟵. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁?
↳ what do you see, which others don’t?

Your market is the aspect you have no control over.
Unlike your product, team, business model, marketing.

Study it inside out.
Don't do it for the investors.
Do it for a solid foundation of your company.

P.S. Am I missing something?
What are other common Market aspects which founders need to be prepared to address? ⬇️

This is the MVP of Dropbox which got them 70,000 sign ups overnight. 🤯

And their product wasn’t even ready.

For the record - they had no marketing experience.
The whole team was made up of engineers.

The founders just wanted feedback from customers. 

Their hypothesis was that file synchronization was a problem people didn't realize they had, but would find essential once they experienced the solution.

This video explainer was enough to get users hooked.

I think it's is an awesome experiment to learn from.

P.S. What did your MVP look like at first?

Your deck will 100% end up in your competitor's inbox.

There's no way around that.

One of the companies I'm working with just received a pitch deck of a competitor. A veeery detailed deck.

It was send to them by their existing investors.
Apparently the competitor pitched this investor...

Should you be worried about your pitch decks?

I don't think so.

In my view when creating your deck, by default you should expect that competitors will see it. It's just the nature of decks - they get passed around.

Remember: it's up to you what you include in them.

P.S. But honestly, I really think you shouldn't care if your deck reaches a competitor. Be prepared for that. You'll sleep better at night. 😉

Jeff Bezos struggles with Product-Market fit too.

You’ll be surprised…

Not only early-stage startups fail at finding PMF.

You can fail at PMF:
- after raising $1.3 billion
- after becoming #1 on Kickstarter 
- as a corporate launching a new product
- as an established company in a dynamic market
(check the PDF)

It doesn’t matter…

…who you are.
…where you are.
…what you are building.

Your company is not immune.

Today I’ve compiled 10 epic PMF failures.
It’s short and sweet.

I hope it’s helpful and gives you some perspective.

P.S. What other failed PMF attempts do you know?
Share them with me in the comments. ⬇️
Let’s learn together.

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