Doncho is VP of Engineering at Pliant.io, a small American-Bulgarian startup that does one of the best process automation, management, and integration systems. Before that, he was Director of R&D at VMware Bulgaria, Director of Development Services at SEGA, and Site and Engineering Director at Milestone Systems Bulgaria.

In these roles, he had the chance to work for more than a decade at the local software market, to hire and lead teams from 20 to 130 people, and to grow junior leads and managers in their roles. And also often push them beyond their limits, especially when they want to return to being in a non-managerial position.

He's constantly struggling to implement and sustain the best possible engineering organization while keeping the right culture and having people not afraid to experiment (and make mistakes and grow).

In his leadership roles, he sometimes did things he's not proud of (today). This session will include real-life experience. Although it won't point fingers at anyone, but it will reveal the best alternative and growth opportunity (in the speaker's opinion).