About Us
Start in BG is the business gateway to Bulgaria for international founders and companies: structured information, decision support, formation support and a local network — from the first question to an operating business.
Behind it are two entrepreneurs who know Germany and Bulgaria from their own experience. The combination is the actual point: German commercial perspective, Bulgarian entrepreneurial experience.
Dr. Dennis Kwiatkowski
Analysis, strategy, business development
Dennis combines an analytical scientific background with experience in strategy consulting, business development and entrepreneurship. After completing his doctorate in biochemistry he worked in boutique consulting and in commercial roles with international companies, before increasingly building and advising entrepreneurial projects of his own — among them a consultancy and a brewery.
At Start in BG he applies that where it counts: thinking a situation through in structure, weighing options against each other, and turning an intention into work packages somebody can actually complete. Born in Berlin, now moving between Germany and Bulgaria.
The doctorate is evidence of analytical work, not of legal or tax expertise. Binding advice in those areas comes from appropriately qualified professionals.
Svilen Petkov
Bulgarian entrepreneur and investor
Svilen is a Bulgarian entrepreneur and angel investor. After a business degree at Royal Holloway University in London he built several startups in Bulgaria — including building and exiting one of the country's leading SaaS companies.
Today he invests in and advises the Bulgarian founder scene. For Start in BG that is the part you cannot research from Germany: how business here actually runs, which partners deliver, what works in practice and what only works on paper.
Why this combination
Founders setting up in Bulgaria from abroad usually meet two kinds of provider: the ones who understand the home-country context but cannot move anything locally, and the ones who can do everything locally but cannot explain why a German tax adviser gets nervous about a particular plan.
Start in BG exists because those two belong together. We don't just translate laws, we translate realities: what is possible in Bulgaria, what it costs, who actually does it — and the cases where the honest answer is that the plan is not worth it as designed.
What we do — and what we do not
Start in BG orients, coordinates and accompanies. We are not a law firm, not a tax practice and not an authority, and we do not act as though we were:
- Start in BG: orientation, decision support, the formation process and its coordination, practical guidance, information resources, business-entry support, introductions to appropriate partners.
- Accounting and financial partner: bookkeeping, tax filings, VAT, payroll where applicable — under a separate agreement between you and the partner.
- External specialists: depending on the case, lawyers, notaries, immigration specialists, banks, insurers, real-estate and recruitment providers.
- Authorities: the Registry Agency, the National Revenue Agency, municipalities, the Migration Directorate. Registrations, entries and permits are their decision, not ours.
Naming those boundaries does not make us smaller, it makes us checkable. Where a statement on this site comes from, and when it was last checked, is set out on How we verify.
And the book
Before any of this became a website with services, we wrote down what we knew: "Start in Bulgaria", over 140 pages on formation, taxes, locations, the labour market and everyday life — with interviews from founders who have done it. If you are not ready to talk to us, that is the place to start.
StartinBG.com was created to be your reliable compass in the Bulgarian start-up jungle – independent, practical, and on your level.