CDots starts its development from a napkin in a restaurant.
Two friends having dinner at a restaurant – Philip Detchev – IT expert with experience in large companies and business products of Microsoft and IBM, with managerial experience in the management of large teams, together with Petar Petkanov – financial specialist with excellent education and experience in USA and Europe, decided to register a company. The company stated that it would be a company that would use modern IT technologies to provide services and financial consultancy to larger companies. The napkin read “NABACO Bulgaria” – an abbreviation of the National Agency for Business Analyses, Consultations and Audit. It was briefly outlined how it would begin and where it would start from – until the next morning when the financial specialist withdrew from the company that had not yet been established.
However, Philip Detchev embraced the idea and decided to leave his management position at IBM’s largest partner in the region – IBS Bulgaria (www.ibs.bg), which, besides being one of the highest-paying companies in the country, promises a brilliant career in the short-term as well.
“Then my youngest son was born. We were in the beginning of a heavy mortgage of the apartment that we lived in; we even had a car on a lease and a lot of expenses for the new home and the newborn baby. Everyone thought it was an absolute madness – creating a company without any money, without a mentor or a business angel, or any kind of financing, a technical collateral or capital. This was an additional incentive for me to break the limits of comfort. This was the engine of my future development. I received my last salary, I took 100 euros from it and went to register NABACO Bulgaria Ltd.” Philip Detchev, founder and manager of the company, talks about the first steps.
The newly-created company began by developing a website of a large Japanese geodetic equipment company (link). Unfortunately, this first project was a complete disaster. The hired programmer did not fulfill the assignment and the project failed.
Nevertheless, cDots (then NABACO Bulgaria) received a second project – the exact project which it was aiming for – a late payment management system. Such were the times that the financial crisis was in full swing and companies in the country were in dire need of effective tools to manage their finances, in particular their receivables from counterparties.
The developed solution got incredible results. The system sends, per a specific period of time, a statement of payables of counterparties by mail, as well as access to the system where their invoices and related documents have been issued. The counterparties enter and see – from a purely managerial point of view – their payables to the supplier and they can easily determine which invoice they can pay or plan to pay. A 5% improvement in receivables is set under system’s mandate. After launching the solution, receivables initially improved by 29% and after a few months they settled at 17%, which is a great success for the company that ordered the software.
This project enabled the development of the company – a brand new computer was purchased and an office on a top floor in downtown Sofia was rented.
“The office was empty, there was nothing – yes, I took the liberty to purchase the first brand new computer, but there was no money for anything else. I did not even have a printer. But that did not discourage me or with the first company administrator; I still remember the time when we completed a small project and bought desks, cabinets and stationery – it was a magical.” Philip Detchev, founder.
At the end of this year was the right time for the largest investment – own top-ranked servers located in the largest data center in the country. This allows the company to be independent in terms of infrastructure and to provide customers with all the consulting, development and deployment of the solution of a hosting/hired server from a single supplier.
For the next few years, the company has undergone a rapid development, establishing itself on the market with customer consulting services, software development, IT infrastructure support, and many more.
In the third year the company won his first client abroad – receiving orders for three Internet stores in Estonia, Greece and Bulgaria. The stores, in addition to ergonomic design, also offer total connectivity to one another – so that they can be managed from a single location. Centralized deliveries, issue of invoices in the relevant currency and tracking of deliveries, protocols, warranty equipment.
After that project, more employees were hired and the first more representative office was rented.
The company won one of the largest projects until then – a credit management system commissioned by a large non-banking institution in the country.
“After that project, we were receiving frequent inquiries from abroad – then I realized that we should change the company name because in Bulgaria “NABACO” was melodious and memorable, but for our foreign clients it referred to naboco, nabuco, Tabaco – the decision came after a phone call in which the other party said: Which Tabaco products do you represent on the market? :)” Philip Detchev
The company rented a larger office, even more representative that the previous one, and continued to develop.
“Unfortunately there is a moment in a company’s development when someone has to support you; there is no way to overcome on your own all the challenges of the world if you want to conquer it – you must have support, so 2017 is the year when we will look for an investor through which we will conquer the world and become one of the largest companies.”
Philip Detchev, May 2017