Meet Venelin Gornishki

Welcome to “Life at AMPECO”, where we will share more about the people behind our award-winning product, their everyday life in and out of the company, their professional insights and experiences, their motivation, and everything that makes them part of the AMPECO dream team.

It was only fitting to kickstart this initiative with one of our co-founders, Venelin Gornishki (a.k.a. Venski), a senior software engineer who champions one of our technical development teams. He has over 15 years of experience developing NodeJS, TypeScript, PHP, Java, and Objective-C applications. We’re happy to share his story and journey with AMPECO in the interview below.

Besides electromobility, he can also tell you a lot about board games and escape rooms 🙂

Venski, tell us more about your role in AMPECO

I am one of the co-founders, and I’m a full-stack developer. I work on our backend and the mobile app…. Really, I have my hands on everything!

What do you like about working at AMPECO?

One of the things that has made me quit companies before is repetitiveness. While building the AMPECO platform, each problem we face is a new problem that we haven’t solved yet. The challenge is in the newness of the work. 

We are very different from other IT companies in Bulgaria. We are the only IT company centered on an IT solution to an everyday problem concerned with mobility. We must invent the solutions as we cannot rely on what others have done before us, as only a few have designed solutions to this problem.

Why did you join AMPECO?

When three of the co-founders approached me, they had a general idea for AMPECO in mind. E-mobility sounded to me like the next step in transportation. I was inspired by the idea for the product and was excited to work with this team because I knew Alex and Marto. Whatever idea they had, I was sure it would be good. Joining them was a no-brainer. I believed in them and knew that I wouldn’t be let down or disappointed. With their help, I also did some market research and saw how the e-mobility market was developing. I realized there was a real need for what we were planning.

What was AMPECO like at the very beginning?

We were just six guys sitting in a room. Everyone knew what everyone else was working on, and any problems that occurred were shared and discussed very easily. Now, there are parts of our product that I haven’t seen or heard of! The control freak in me needs to adjust. 

What is your favorite thing about AMPECO?

The people. Not only the people I work with but everyone at AMPECO. The likemindedness and openness. I love the fact that I can run into anyone and talk about anything. The people are the best part.

Some companies try to get you with benefits such as working from home, etc., but for me, it’s the people. It doesn’t matter how you do it and where you do it, it’s who you do it with. That’s important to me.

What skills distinguish the people at AMPECO?

Our product is very broad, and it encompasses a lot of different domains. Someone who wants to join the team should not be afraid to learn. There is a lot of learning to do. But we know this going in. We don’t expect people to know everything in advance, but we certainly look for a willingness to learn. Mostly we are looking for people who can put their feet into new waters in emobility, roaming, payment processing, API definitions, etc …

What do you do in your spare hours when you’re not busy building the AMPECO platform?

In my spare time, I like to do indoor climbing, but my passion for the longest time has been board games. Mostly strategy board games that demand planning in advance in order to reap the benefits in the end. Recently I’ve also been fascinated by escape rooms that are kind of real-life quests that you have to overcome.

What’s one thing you’re reading or learning about or focused on that is important to you?

This is the first company where I’m not just part of a team, but one of its leaders and people depend on me. That said, currently, I’m focused on improving my leadership and managerial skills so that I can be more useful to all newer colleagues in the company.

How would you describe AMPECO in one sentence?

A solid structure that is hard to break apart – like a cube.