Kostadin Gramatikov in front of FACT: Fear of communism evolved into fear of documentation

Returning to Bulgaria after decades in Silicon Valley is often a culture shock. But when a person has built companies in one of the fastest and most competitive business environments in the world, the clash with the native bureaucracy sounds almost like satire. Without diplomatic detours, without courtesy… Kostadin Gramatikov, who was an emigrant in the USA for nearly 30 years, spoke to FACT.

- Mr. Gramatikov. You returned to Bulgaria after nearly 30 years in the USA, in California. Where are there more rules for everything? In Bulgaria or in California…
- In Bulgaria, we break the rules quickly, and then think about how to write them down retroactively. A typical example is the tragedy that happened in the “Elenite“ resort. Flood, victims, and now we are looking for “rules“ with a retroactive date to get out of the situation. The reality is that Bulgaria writes the rules slowly, and then spends decades arguing whether to implement them at all.

- In Bulgaria, each permit takes months. How do you build a company like Tesla in California?
- In California, the “permit“ is a proposal. In Bulgaria, the “permit“ is a test of life achievement.

- Bureaucracy… In Bulgaria, employees seem busy, but what about Silicon Valley?
- There is bureaucracy — we just call it “compliance“ and we hire a whole team to make it invisible. In Bulgaria, bureaucracy is the main event.

- In Bulgaria, the topic of raising taxes was raised again, and this caused general indignation. How is it in California?
- High taxes, heavy regulations and insane rents - and yet companies are being built there. In the US, they view restrictions as a game, not a life sentence.

- In Bulgaria, the clerk at the counter says she follows procedures, but how is it across the ocean? Are the procedures overestimated?
- Only when they replace thinking. In Bulgaria, procedure is thinking. In California, thinking comes first - the procedure comes only when the lawyers start to get nervous.

- What is failure in Bulgaria and what in Silicon Valley?
- In Bulgaria, failure proves incompetence. In California, failure proves initiative. It's all a matter of packaging.

- Startups and businesses in the US need speed, and in Bulgaria, approvals. How do the two combine?
- We don't combine them. We leave, and then we wait for the bureaucrats to catch up with us. Bulgarians coordinate for a year and finally someone retires without a decision. In Bulgaria, a “new office“ requires a permit, a notarized translation, municipal approval and a ritual sacrifice of 7 pens. California grows while drinking oat milk.

- In order to have a successful business, risk-taking is encouraged. Bulgaria teaches risk avoidance. Why is that?
- Fear of communism evolved into fear of documentation. Natural selection in favor of caution, into which fear enters. The fear that you might fail, lose, become an outsider.

- Why are Bulgarians so good at ideas but weak at execution?
- Ideas are free, execution is taxed. California taxes you only emotionally - through presentations to investors. Bulgaria taxes you both administratively and emotionally.

- Innovation requires flexibility. How exactly is Bulgaria... flexible?
- It is flexible like a bureaucracy that does the same thing, but faster - and only if the examiner is in a good mood.

- In Bulgaria we say that “we have freedom“. While you lived in California, were you, did you feel freer?
- Of course. Freedom is relative. In California, I can fail spectacularly, fire my team, and invent a new problem. In Bulgaria, freedom is filling out forms in triplicate.

- Can Bulgaria ever have its own Silicon Valley?
- Only if we transplant the fearlessness, the culture of funding, and the ability to ignore the rules - and leave the 37-step municipal approvals and the decade-long wait for signatures in the past. Bureaucracy is the opposite of fun. And innovation is fun taken seriously. In Bulgaria, bureaucracy is fun taken forever. Silicon Valley breaks things, Bulgaria preserves them. One builds the future, the other catalogs yesterday's permits.