Name: Mark Drake
Nationality: American
Place of birth: San Diego, California
Occupation: Owner of an IT firm
Date of Arrival: August 2006

Even though Mark Drake is obviously young, with a boyish look on his face, he has already founded his own company, Edynamo, together with a Bulgarian partner. That was back in 2003 in San Diego, where he comes from. Now the business is expanding and Mark moved to Bulgaria in summer 2006.

So how do you end up in Sofia at the head of a company that provides professional web design and site maintenance, after having majored in biology at University of California, San Diego? Mark laughs. Well, after majoring in biology, he did a masters in computer information systems. At that time, in 2000, the internet bubble burst, but that did not deter him. "I could see the mistakes that had been made and still believed that internet had a great future." In fact, he had already been working a few years for an internet service provider in sales, so he knew the business from inside.

So why Bulgaria? Well, he met his Bulgarian partner through a business acquaintance. In a field where competition is rough in the US, Bulgaria had a decisive edge: highly-talented young professionals, graduates in IT, and fluent in English - quite a tribute to the Bulgarian university system - and of course at a lower cost than their American counterparts. Does this make outsourcing the keyword? Yes, it does, even though many of those young people have emigrated in the last few years. Edynamo now employs more people in Bulgaria (21) than in the US, where its clients are. The market remains small in Bulgaria for the time being. However, Mark is optimistic about the economic prospects of the country: entering the EU is of course a decisive factor, and "just look at the real estate boom, this is an engine to so many activities".

Mark is happy in Bulgaria. His partners have helped him settle down, and he's learned a few words of Bulgarian (drinking rakiya proved more of a challenge to him). He lives right in the centre of Sofia with his wife Kristy - and their dog, a basset hound, who has rapidly become a star in their neighbourhood - and enjoys the atmosphere. It is more laid back than in the US, people are more emotional, more expressive and enjoy each other's company. The perception of time is also different - "It's not the same go-go-go approach", which also affects the pace of doing business. Things take more time. "The consistency of services," adds Mark somewhat diplomatically, "is sometimes a challenge". His company encountered problems with the service providers at times, and has suffered a couple of electricity cuts. Otherwise, the way of doing business does not differ significantly from that in the US.

Still, Mark did not expect Sofia to be like San Diego. He had travelled in some European countries previously and perceives the same European flair in Bulgaria, "the way people sit at cafe terraces and talk, the way they walk in the streets".

His first experience of the country wasn't overly pleasant though: that was in 2002, when Colin Powell was visiting; Mark was briefly detained by the police for having taken pictures in front of the ambassador's residence. But the Bulgarian friend who was with him talked him out of trouble. He and his wife have visited Koprivshtitsa and go to the mountains over the weekends. No time or reason for feeling homesick: they often go back to San Diego on account of Mark's business, and basically like it here.