Holiday season is at its peak but there are always some who have not been able to take time off yet, or who are still wondering where to spend their holiday. Don’t despair because your holiday may be within arm’s reach, thanks to a new app called Adventif. More about it from the man who created it Nikolay Nikolov:

“Adventif aims to popularize Bulgarian mountains among holidaymakers from abroad, specifically targeting companies which are looking out for a different kind of teambuilding trip at affordable prices and foreigners who want to try out something new. The idea came to me when I was in Great Britain. I worked there for six years and every summer I came back to Bulgaria to go hiking in the mountains with friends. And every time I went back to Britain my coworkers would ask me whether I couldn’t organize something. They wanted to see these beautiful mountains, pictures of which I posted in the social media.”

The platform is a kind of social media in itself, where people create a profile with a photograph and provide some information about themselves. Then the adventures “come pouring down” one after the other in the form of events, just as in Facebook. And if you decide you want to take a seven-day hike in Rila but only have five days, you can draw up an individual plan when to go and for how long. The next step is to enter your preferences and the software comes up with the best pan for you.

Besides Adventif, Nikolay is working on one more project which aims to create a network of well-equipped centres across the country for the pursuit of science, which also serve as offices for Bulgarian startups. The first of these centres will be in the town where he was born – Varna.

It is interesting to find out what Nikolay did before taking up entrepreneurship in Bulgaria.

In 2011 he went to Great Britain to study and lived there for six years. He was admitted to all five universities he applied for, but chose the university in Birmingham because of the friends he found there and because of the high standard of education it offers in his chosen field of studies.

While he was studying he worked as a driver, waiter, bartender, cashier, but he is thankful for the opportunities he has been given because they have helped him establish many contacts which he finds useful to this day.

“I 2014 I got a BA in media and communications and I decided to stay on and see if I could find a job. And I did – at a leading bank in Great Britain, and, interestingly, it was my experience from the school of mathematics that helped me more than the interview did. I worked there for two years but after the first six months I was appointed deputy head of a department. I worked at the mortgage loans department. And one day I made up my mind to go back to Bulgaria and to start something of my own here. I think there are many young and capable Bulgarians and many things that need to be done here so we can move forward.”

And when he set out for Bulgaria in May, Nikolay was asking himself whether he had made the right choice in quitting his job, a job well paid and offering ample opportunity for development. He will be considered on the bank’s staff for another six months and will get his job back if he decides to return. But Nikolay says his decision is final and adds that the projects he has taken up, here in Bulgaria, are his way of doing something for his country, which is what he wants to do.

English version: Milena Daynova