Expert to know: Plamen Valchev (Q&A Interview)

Plamen Valchev is the Chief Growth Officer at Devision (with offices in Amsterdam and London), listed on 50Pros as a top 50 firm in Software Development and Cloud Consulting.

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In this Q&A, Plamen shares his in-depth perspective, unique background, robust experiences, and insightful tips.

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How did you get into the industry of software development?

I am in the Sales & Business Development domain for the past 10 years. Around 5 years ago, I joined the IT-services field, combining the majority of my skills, interests, and strong points.

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What do you like and dislike most about the industry?

What I like most about it is that this is the industry of today, which impacts directly the future!

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What I dislike most about it is it's changing so rapidly and fast that sometimes it's a bit scary where this journey might get you.

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What kind of changes do you wish you could make in the area of growing a software development agency?

I wouldn't name them changes, but more like enhancements. Nowadays, especially in the IT-services field, not the quantity, but the quality is what matters. Therefore I'd suggest tailor-made messages during the outbound sales process. Even though the product is digital, the person that you sell it to is a human. So I'd always support the human-to-human kind of approach in sales.

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What do you wish more people agency owners and leadership teams knew about getting clients for a software development agency?

It's not a one-time connection attempt/pitch. It's building a sustainable business relation from scratch and it takes time and dedication for it to grow.

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When we first got started, we got clients with the same flame that I have right now, but I had less experience and therefore, it took much more effort in the early days. Nowadays, I'm not "getting clients", but more like partners and even friends. I'm trying to find the mutually beneficial areas and adding a common value spot. Thus I see it as building long-term relations.

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If someone wanted to start their own software development firm, what should they know?

The best sales approach is on-the-spot and native approach. It's always the in-person communication and solving real people's problems the key to building long-term relations.

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What do you think is the biggest issue that software development firms face?

It's a lot of hard work to be distinguishable amongst other software development houses, so you always have to walk the extra mile and give the added value of a software development company, not just a talent provider.

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What changes have you seen occur since you first got started?

That is a vast topic, but sales-wise, there are this market-shifts every now and then pivoting from more Dedicated Resources/Team Augmentation business models to T&M and Project Based. But overall the market is stable, demanding and luring.

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...and what changes do you foresee occurring in the future?

ChatGPT, no-code development, and AI/ML.

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Who do you see having a competitive advantage in the future?

The companies that are specialized in particular business niches and have the proven track record in that. We-can-dev-it-all Software Development Houses will be less preferable, at least for a bigger, enterprise-grade level projects.

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If a company was looking to hire a software dev company, what should they know?

Three questions they should ask themselves:

1. What is the experience/expertise of the Software Development Provider with the particular tech-stack and business domain?
2. What are the references from past and current clients?
3. What is the quality-price initial estimation?

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If a company were interesting in hiring you firm, what should they know?

They should be very transparent with their expectations and roadmap, so we can provide the best tailor-made solution for them. We were founded in 2007; we are currently 60+ people and growing; we have completed 150+ project over the years; the medium length of a project is 3.5 years.