Stancho Stanchev (‘16): Dynamo Software provides ‘a nourishing and enabling work environment’

What has been your experience studying at AUBG and then continuing your education at Babson College? 

I like to believe that I began my professional development when I started preparing for the SAT in order to apply for college. I was in 11th grade, studying at the English Language High School in my hometown, Plovdiv, which is among the prestigious high schools in the area. With hard work and luck, I got accepted with a full merit-based scholarship in the American University in Blagoevgrad (AUBG), the same university that a number of my colleagues have graduated from, including Dynamo’s co-founder Krassen Draganov. I was quite active during my academic years at AUBG – I helped organize the job fair for two consecutive years, became a Resident Assistant in Skaptopara 2 in my Junior year, as well as a finance tutor for corporate finance, and joined the university’s finance club, ultimately becoming the President of that club during my Senior year. I graduated AUBG with Summa Cum Laude (top 3%, with a single A-) and got awarded the departmental awards for the two bigger majors in the university – Business Administration and Economics. The above activeness helped me get another full scholarship for a Masters degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership & Management in Babson College, Wellesley, USA. At Babson I was the sponsorship manager for the first TEDxBabson event, which was a big success! I also graduated from Babson as a Summa Cum Laude, but by the time of my graduation ceremony I had already wrapped up my internship in Dynamo Software and had accepted an offer for a Client Relations Associate in our Watertown, MA office. So my Dynamo journey began… 

How did you begin your career journey? 

I was initially working under Kevin White’s supervision since the team was quite small 5-6 years ago (we had only about six-seven U.S. members in the U.S. office). Mark Eadie eventually took over mentoring me and brought me up-to-speed on making configurations, addressing client requests, collecting requirements, and coordinating with Sales and our support team. He was an amazing mentor. Looking back at my initial couple of months in Dynamo, his effort alongside the eagerness of the rest of the team to always help answer any of my questions (there are no stupid questions, I often heard) helped swiftly bring me into the FinTech space and proved a huge stepping stone in building my expertise and confidence. It was a very rewarding experience and first start.

Why did you choose Dynamo? 

I had not really interviewed at many places before I decided to start with Dynamo. As a matter of fact, Dynamo was the third company I’d spoken with during my master’s degree, but I made a relatively quick decision based on two things – the FinTech space and the company’s culture. FinTech to me seemed very interesting and dynamic (no pun intended). It seemed like a great blend between technology, which I see as a necessary piece of almost any job of the future, and finance, in particular alternative investments. While I had studied traditional finance before, I was more interested in understanding the sophistication and relationships within the investors in the alternative investment space, and that got me very excited. In addition, Dynamo’s team was very welcoming and outgoing, thus creating a unique culture that nourishes growth, attracts top talent, and creates a family-like feel. I had been looking for a friendly and collaborative culture to join into, and Dynamo was the place to be. 

Can you share the high-level responsibilities of your current position as Business Analyst Manager, EMEA at Dynamo? 

I recently entered into my current role as a Business Analyst Manager for the EMEA region after having worked as a Client Relations Associate for about two years in the U.S., and then for another three years as a Project Manager, and then a Senior Project Manager. As such, I had built up some expertise in Dynamo which I am now applying in a variety of ways. First, I serve as an implementation oversight for some of our largest, key implementations in EMEA, as well as provide support and guidance to some of our smaller and medium-sized projects, as needed. Therefore, I work closely with project managers and business analysts to ensure the success of the implementations, some of which can span more than a year. Second, I am tasked with recruiting and bringing up-to-speed a team of business analysts that would be expected to take ownership and handle the more complex and finance-related tasks within incoming implementation projects in the EMEA and APAC regions. While we’ve already had the business analyst role, the overall growth of the business analyst team in EMEA has been very rapid in the last months of 2022, and is only expected to increase exponentially with Blackstone’s investment at the end of 2022. This naturally calls for large-scale recruiting efforts, closely followed by a fast-paced onboarding process for a number of new team members with varying seniority. Part of my role will be to ensure a smooth recruiting and onboarding process, as well as overall development and definition of the Business Analyst role in the context of Dynamo Software’s rapid growth and shifting corporate structure. Third, I frequently find myself in a coordinating position between different internal stakeholders of the Client Services team – project managers, business analysts, and support. Given my experience in all three roles, I am able to put myself in the shoes of anyone in these roles and understand the responsibilities and needs of each one, thus working to promote collaboration and teamwork, while also helping define internal processes and workflows that facilitate an efficient working dynamic. 

What has attributed to your success thus far and has helped propel you to the position you have now and what makes you want to stay with us year after year?

If I need to point out a single thing that has contributed most to my success over the years, it’s the people I work with. Obviously, factors such as hard work, dedication, and striving for excellence are important, but all of these factors contribute most to success when considered within the context of a nourishing and enabling work environment. To my mind, the quality of talent that Dynamo consistently attracts and retains is perhaps the key factor for success. Ultimately, it is the people I work with and the management that I learn from that make me want to stay with Dynamo for the longer-term.