How often do women in tech get a room that asks them not to prove they belong there, but to build?
That was the premise behind Build Sprint she.vibes, held in Sofia on 21 March – a one-day AI build sprint created to help more women turn ideas into working product concepts. Build Sprint is an idea accelerator that turns participants into startup teams building investor-ready products with AI-powered development. For Ocean Investments, this was the second time partnering with Build Sprint this year, after the January edition of the event.
This time around, though, the backdrop is bigger than a single event. Across the EU, women account for around 73% of “missing” entrepreneurs – a gap estimated at roughly 5.5 million additional women who could be starting and running businesses if participation were more equal. In 2024, women made up 19.5% of ICT specialists across the EU. Bulgaria stood well above that average at 27%, one of the highest shares in the Union.
The contradiction is hard to ignore: women are already present in technology, but far fewer get the same practical entry points into entrepreneurship – the chance to test ideas, build first products, and gain momentum early. That is exactly the kind of gap Build Sprint she.vibes was designed to address: by helping democratize tech entrepreneurship for women through something concrete, fast, and hands-on.
Build Sprint she.vibes: From Idea to Product in One Day
The format of she.vibes was built for pace: a Lovable masterclass, team matching, a six-hour build sprint, mentoring from business and tech experts, then demos in front of the room and jury.
That was the whole shape of the day. No padded schedule. No long runway. Just enough time to stop circling an idea and start making choices.
By the end of it, 30 women, organized into 10 teams, had built and presented AI-powered product concepts. Some looked polished; some were still rough at the edges. That was beside the point. What mattered was that they existed. The ideas had moved, and they had form now.
Ocean Investments at Build Sprint she.vibes
We joined she.vibes as an official partner. Denitsa Kostova, our CMO, took part as a mentor. And three women from across our wider group ecosystem entered the sprint as builders themselves: Mihaela Nencheva, People & Culture Manager at Ocean Investments; Kamelia Tsvetanska, Applications & Process Quality Specialist at group level; and Teodora Boteva, Administrative Director at Longevia.
Their team finished in fourth place and received the award for Best Execution.
They built InFlow AI – a concept for an AI platform designed to help companies organize internal initiatives with far less friction, from health campaigns and preventive programs to employee events, CSR activities, and wider engagement efforts. The starting point was simple and very real: too many good internal initiatives still depend on scattered emails, manual sign-ups, spreadsheets, and time-heavy coordination.
What makes the idea especially exciting for us is that it does not feel like a hackathon concept that should stay inside the room where it was pitched. It already points to something concrete. We cannot wait to bring in the reinforced strength of our group ecosystem, join forces with other internal teams, and keep working on it until it becomes real. We believe InFlow AI could be a genuinely practical and valuable internal tool.
Afterwards, Mihaela put the day in one line that says it all:
“Some experiences energize you and some quietly shift the way you see yourself. This was one of them.”
Women in Tech Entrepreneurship in Bulgaria
Zooming out to the bigger picture again, when it comes to women in tech entrepreneurship, Bulgaria already has more ground to stand on here than many people assume.
A country where women make up 27.0% of ICT specialists is not starting from zero. There is skill in the system, and participation. There is also visible proximity to technology, products, operations, and digital problem-solving.
But being present in the field and being able to enter entrepreneurship are not the same thing.
That is why formats like she.vibes matter. Not because they solve the whole problem in a day but because they lower the threshold. They replace abstraction with a room, a tool, a team, and a deadline. Suddenly the question is no longer whether someone could ever build something. It becomes what they can build by the end of the day.
For women in Bulgaria who are already close to technology – and for many others who may be closer than they think – that shift matters. It makes entrepreneurship feel less distant, less performative, less reserved for a narrow type of founder.
Building the Ecosystem Together in Bulgaria
Like we said, this was our second partnership with Build Sprint, and we believe that continuity matters on its own.
Because one event does not change an ecosystem. It does, however, make the missing pieces easier to see: wider space for women to create, stronger entry points into entrepreneurship, and collaboration between people and organizations that produces real movement.
Bulgaria already has the talent. The next step is to keep widening the path.
That is the work Ocean wants to be part of.