With a strong talent community and a business environment that entrepreneurs find favorable, Sofia, Bulgaria, is home to a number of growing tech businesses, including Kanbanize, a startup company that provides small to medium-size business and Fortune 500 firms with workflow management software.

Kanbanize helps clients become more efficient using relatively new operations engineering principles. Professionals often talk about “lean manufacturing principles” -- goals for reducing waste and promoting excellent and results. The company uses Kanban, which is a specific type of just-in-time inventory method pioneered by Toyota guru Taiichi Ohno.

In Kanban, a technical process controls inventory levels for a type of "on-demand" system where businesses only stock what they expect to sell in a given time.

Balkan Business Wire spoke with Kanbanize marketing expert Alex Novkov, who explained how the business works and how the company supports results for clients.

“Visualizing and limiting the queues in the system on Kanban boards, automating processes with the business automation engine, and being able to measure each step of the process brings a significant boost to the efficiency and, as the result, productivity of a company,” Novkov said. “The idea for Kanbanize was born out of a necessity for higher productivity and efficiency in software development teams.”

Novkov said the principles of lean manufacturing composed of what he called a “repeatable five-step cycle” that can help companies become more productive.

“At the core (of lean principles) is the belief that providing value is the most important aspect of any activity,” Novkov said. “Lean aims to create a constant stream of value-generating steps in every process and remove as many of those that are considered wasteful. The goal is to create a smooth flow of delivering value to the client and continuously seek ways to improve the quality of the work process.”

For funding, Novkov said the company's co-founders brought their own cash to sustain the business for the first year. After that, Kanbanize secured $125,000 in funding from Eleven, one of two startup accelerators giving money to young companies in Bulgaria and other nations under the European JEREMIE initiative.

While growing organically, Novkov said, Kanbanize acquired more funding over the next four years but now the majority of funding comes from company revenue.

Why is the company headquartered in Sofia?

Novkov said one of the big draws is the available community of tech workers.

"Being located in Sofia gives us access to a huge pool of talent,” Novkov said. “The local tech community is strong, and that allows us to find qualified and motivated professionals relatively easily.”

That strong tech community, plus a relatively low cost of living when compared to capitals like Paris and London, is attracting many businesses to Bulgaria and to Sofia in particular. More and more of these types of innovative startups are considering this hub of tech activity a place to call home.