Business Career
As an entrepreneur, Dr. Russev has started over 20 companies in the areas of media, marketing, business services, software development, health, education and venture capital. He is founder and Executive Member of the Board of the publicly listed investment company Webit Investment Network (BSE: WIN) - the first of its kind investment company, created to co-fund the Founders Games global impact innovation award of $6M.
Plamen began his career in 1993 as a radio producer and quickly became top radio show producer and host with over a million in revenue at the age of 18. Afterwards, he decided to pursue a career in TV production and became a licensee of Columbia Tristar/Sony Pictures. Unfortunately, this endeavor resulted in his first significant failure, which led to him losing all of his money at the young age of 21. However, this experience taught him a valuable lesson in mindfulness.
In 1998, he entered the IT industry. He successfully grew businesses in London, followed by operations in Zurich. After multiple exits, he found his spiritual calling and dedicated his time and resources to supporting entrepreneurs in their pursuit of impact, growth and potential.
This is the story of how Webit came about in 2007 - as a tool and platform to attract talent, investments, and opportunities to the host locations where Webit takes place.
Plamen's aim was to give back to the community, which played a significant role in shaping him into the individual he became and in his business success.
Over the years, Webit has been hosted by various governments across the world, at locations including Sofia, Istanbul, Dubai, Singapore, New Delhi, Miami, and other cities.
Today, Webit is an international platform and 1M people community with a mission of generating return on humanity globally through fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Russev also established a highly competitive program for early-growth stage impact companies (post-seed, A/B) and an innovation platform known as The Founders Games in 2009. This program is now recognized as one of the world's premier impact innovation programs and scaleup competitions. The Founders Games offers one of the largest funding awards of $6M, which is awarded annually in January in Davos. The semi-finals take place at the UN's COP. Every year, Founders Games receives over 4500 applications from scale-ups from 150+ countries.
More than 300 growth stage venture capital investors assess these applications as part of one of the most competitive processes in the world, consisting of 5 rounds and 8 months of selection. Only the top 10 high-growth, impact entrepreneurs make it to the Grand Finals in Davos and usually secure funding of $5M to $50M within 4 months of being announced.
