A pair of slippers for everyone

What does it take to start up and create a successful company? A brilliant idea? A great team? Money? Yes, all of those things. But more than anything, it takes belief. And a pair of slippers for everyone, of course.

"Everyone is super excited about the slippers. Whenever someone starts working, they always talk about how they've always wanted to work in slippers," shares the company’s CEO, Kaloyan, with laughter. Feeling at home at work is part of the friendly policies that Transglobe has embraced over the years.

"We have always been different in our approach towards the people we work with. From the very beginning, it was important for us to work with young people, to give them a chance, not only to train them but also to offer them a nice place to work," continues Kaloyan.

The company was founded in 2005 by two young enthusiasts – Peter and Georgy. Initially, TGI was a small company working with just a few clients and no real office. The company wasn't working with any in-house translators, but one day Peter decided to recruit a friend – his name was Kaloyan. And a dream team was formed!

As the company began to grow, there was a natural increase in the workload and, subsequently, in stress. "One night, Peter called me and simply said - 'Do you want me to give you the company?'" Kaloyan recounts with laughter, sharing that he quickly talked him out of this extravagant idea and instead proposed to help him build a team that could handle some of the workload. Initially, Peter reluctantly accepted the proposal to create a team, firmly convinced that the work was too specific to be taught to a team.

"At the very beginning, the work of a translator, editor, project manager, and account manager had to be done by one person. Can you imagine?" Kaloyan continues his story, stating that creating the team was the biggest challenge the company has faced in its early years. Fortunately, luck smiled on TGI again, and a true Renaissance figure joined the team - the mythical translator-editor-project manager-account manager, Georgе, a.k.a. Gosheto. He came on board after some hesitation and persistent persuasion from his childhood friend Nikolay, who was already part of the team. As he started working, he said, 'I'll give it a try for a bit!' – and, luckily for everyone, the giving-it-a-try is continuing now, almost 15 years later. Another key member of the team, who played a huge role in the company's development, was Katya - a linguist and the first lady on the team, completely transforming the perception of what the company's attitude towards its employees should be. "Before Katya appeared, we were four men in the office, it was completely different, the entire atmosphere," Kaloyan shares. As a true woman, Katya radically transformed the company office culture, and that turned out to be the catalyst that initiated a series of good practices. "When they came to certify us for the ISO standard, we were extremely proud and satisfied with ourselves, that so far we have been on the right path throughout all these years," Kaloyan recalls with laughter, remembering that before Katya arrived, there used to be smoking everywhere inside the office.

But the TGI team couldn’t be complete without the company manager – Vadim. It took Kaloyan some time to convince Peter they needed a company manager who wasn't himself. At this point, Kaloyan was at the same place Peter was a few years back, at a point of complete burnout.

Kaloyan feverishly began searching for a manager for the company, even using the oldest-known tactics to inquire among his friends. So, word by word, a friend of his suggested hiring Vadim. Initially, Kaloyan refused because Vadim didn't meet the astronomical requirements for the position set by TGI, requirements that hardly anyone could fulfill. However, luck was again on TGI's side because, after some persuasion, Kaloyan agreed to hire Vadim, and the rest is history, as they say. With Vadim's arrival, the company's core was formed, marking the beginning of the next stage in TGI's development.

A few years after its founding, the company was developing at an incredible pace, the team was in place, everything was going smoothly, and Peter decided that the time had come for him to step back and seek other challenges. It seemed like he already felt confident enough about the future of his company. "We still remain very close, to this day; we just see each other very rarely because he simply doesn't stay in one place for long," says Kaloyan.

In the following years, TGI formed a team of translators, editors, project managers, and account managers.

“Our team is like family. Most of the people on the team have been with the company for more than 10 years – Bobby, Stoyan, Tanya, and of course Galya – who started working with us while she was still at the university. Nadya played a crucial part in developing the working process. Every person who ever worked with us was very important to the company. Everyone contributed something to the company," he adds.

The greatest challenge in recent years, as defined by Kaloyan, is the COVID-19 epidemic, which has had a global impact on businesses. However, as a positive outcome from the entire situation, Kaloyan identifies the affirmation of the home office policy, which allows the company to hire employees from other cities. 'They are simply perfect candidates, and I'm glad we can now afford to work with them,' Kaloyan remarks. Despite the challenges and changes, what stands as the heart of TGI is not just the accomplishments or the milestones, but the spirit of unity, dedication, and resilience that defines us. Like slipping into our coziest work slippers, our TGI team has found comfort in sharing that vision of togetherness.

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