Nikolay Bakalov

Nikolay Bakalov is one of the doyens of the e-commerce industry in Bulgaria. With over 20 years of practical e-commerce experience, he has participated in or consulted most of the major online businesses.

Mr. Bakalov is the ideological “father” of the Bulgarian E-commerce Association (BEA) and one of its founders in 2017 leading Business Development and TrustMark of BEA.

He is also the founder of one of the first foundations supporting the online industry – Ecommerce Success Foundation, which was legally established in 2019. The foundation is the main driver of the strategic partnership between the Faculty of Economics of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and the Bulgarian E-Commerce Association, which launched the qualification program “E-commerce Success” of the Center for Educational Services at Sofia University in 2019.

Nikolay Bakalov is a frequent guest lecturer at various universities, recognizable for his informal style of speech and unconventional, but memorable examples and metaphors. He is often criticized for being too direct and uncompromising in his speech, but at the same time respected for this.

Mr. Bakalov avoids publicity because he believes that things should not always have a public evaluation, but added business value for the industry.

Since 2023, he has focused on being selective in the projects he works on, primarily supporting those that offer a challenge and something new or that need an unceremonious audit and evaluation.