May 9; holiday week recap 💐
May holiday season, more EV adventures, and some fund numbers... this was my week
Happy Sunday,
Today is May 9, Europe Day, on which we celebrate that we live in free and united Europe. Like my very first boss, the senior EU civil aviation official Monsieur Claude Probst liked to say, to us young ones working under his wings: “If anyone ever asks you what the EU is, you can always answer that we are the biggest community of healthy, wealthy, and happy people on this planet”. Cheers to that, always 🇪🇺❤️
Saint George’s Day 🐉
This year it so turned out that Orthodox Easter, Labor May Day, and Saint George’s Day, all of which public holidays in Bulgaria, all happened in one single week, so it basically felt like Christmas a bit. And with the weather being California-like, sunny and not hot, this wasn’t bad at all.
May 6th is the day of Saint George the Conqueror in the Orthodox Christian calendar, and in Bulgaria it’s a big deal, as half of the country has a name day celebration on this day, while it is also the national army holiday, the “Day of Bravery” or “Day of the Bulgarian Armed Forces”.
I spent the morning on the office rooftop, right under the flight path of the military air parade, which consisted of C-27 Spartan military cargo aircraft, as well as a number of Mi-24 helicopters, Su-25, and MiG-29 fighter jets, all flying in formation. The MiG-29s did a spectacular breakup right over Sofia downtown, with the noise echoing back from the mountains for over a minute afterwards. The kickoff of the parade was the always most grammable part, a Eurocopter Cougar helicopter carrying a Bulgarian flag, low over the rooftops and dome of the Alexander Nevsky cathedral.
Plovdiv and more by EV 🚙⚡️
Ellie took over our e-Golf EV for the month, touring the Black Sea coast with her sister, so I decided the holiday week is a great time to take up an offer from my friends at the Bulgarian EV Association, and pick up a brand-new electric Peugeot e208 for a few days of e-cruising.
One pretty unique place I visited was on my bucket list for a long time now: the Mother Bulgaria Pantheon in Gurgulyat. It’s a 20 meter-high truncated pyramid, with a statue of “Mother Bulgaria” in the middle, and plaques commemorating the fallen soldiers of the 14-day war between Bulgaria and Serbia in November 1885. The war itself was insignificant, lasted for only two weeks and left the boundary between the countries unchanged, but it’s important in Bulgarian history as it forced the great European powers to recognize the Unification of Bulgaria, which had been proclaimed two months earlier, leading to more or less the Bulgarian territory on the map today.
The monument itself is quite monstrous and in a terrible state. It was erected at the centennial of the Gurgulyat battle, in 1985, so only 36 years ago, but like most communist-era monuments in Bulgaria, it’s falling apart badly, with most of the marble and granite parts stripped, and steel armature sticking out of the concrete wall panels in many places. The 10km road to the village from the town of Slivnitsa is also one of the most potholed ones I’ve seen in recent years in this country, and so overall unfortunately I can’t really recommend going there.
On Friday I took the Peugeot to Plovdiv, for a day of coffees, lunches, and dinners with friends there. Plovdiv and Varna are my favorite (bigger) cities in Bulgaria, with a very specific local character, vibe, and atmosphere.
Plovdiv is known for its hills, and every time I visit I try to experience either sunrise or sunset on one of them, until I’ve seen them all. This time I made it atop Danov Hill (or Sahat Tepe under its old Turkish name), at 6am on Saturday, and the view was more than worth the early rise.
The car itself was a bit of a disappointment. I’ve never been much in love with French cars, and the Peugeot e208 is no exception. It looks sexy and definitely is an eye-catcher on the streets in this vertigo blue livery. The engine is pretty much the same as in my e-Golf, with 100kW power (equivalent to 136hp), sitting atop the front axis, powering the front wheels. You’d think it would be much more dynamic than the Golf, being a smaller car. But on the opposite, this car feels less powerful, and more sluggish. Also, its design is way less aerodynamic, which you feel on the highway, especially with a lot of wind, like this week. It feels very cramped on the inside, and has this typical French dashboard and controls design that looks nice on a photo, but leaves you wondering what the buttons do and how to find what you need.
The car’s biggest perk is the 50kWh liquid-cooled battery, that is compatible with CCS DC charging at up to 100kW power. This means a comfortable 250km of range, maybe even more if you drive range-optimally and in summer.
Vitosha update 💶
With all the holidays, and e-driving, you might think that work isn’t happening much on my end, but you’d be very wrong. I spent a few days this week taking advantage of an empty office reorganizing all of our paper docs, and preparing for a very busy May with lots of investment announcements we’ll be making.
My colleague Kamen in the meantime did a fantastic job putting together an analysis of our Q1 2021 dealflow, showing what kind of companies we see in the ecosystem, what the founders’ backgrounds are, and what problems they’re tackling. These are some really good insights that we’ll be sharing each quarter with our community and beyond.
Road trip! 🚗☀️
And so speaking of startup ecosystems, today finally the day has come that I’m back on the Balkan roads, on my way to see fellow techies and investors in the neighboring countries. Very fitting to be doing this on Europe Day, after 14 months of never leaving Bulgaria. What’s more, this entire upcoming week we’ll be touring Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia in my old Volvo, with a stellar group representing the best of Sofia’s venture scene: my Vitosha colleague Kamen, the wonderful Mirela from Launchub Ventures, and The Recursive founder Irina Obushtarova.
Full report of our adventures next week here on Sunday Max!
Thanks for checking in today and talk to you next Sunday! 😇
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