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This week on the podcast we are chatting with Uwe Allgäuer about switching careers to become a nomad and his journey to Bulgaria.
After falling in love with travel when he was young, Uwe found himself in a career as an electrical engineer. It was a fine way to make a living, but the adventurous part of his soul was never satisfied. So when Uwe learned about people working and traveling online, he knew it was something he had to try for himself.
We chat with Uwe about his journey onto a more entrepreneurial path, the businesses he’s created, and why he lives in Bulgaria now.
Please note that this interview was recorded prior to the pandemic, so anything that sounds a bit out of place is due to the passing of time.
If you would to get access to the past and future episodes of our nomad series as a World Wanderers Insider, head on over to Patreon.com/theworldwanderers. Thank you so much for your continued support!
In this episode:
- How did Uwe get into travel and decide to make it a key part of his life
- How traveling to Kenya as a teenager changed how Uwe thought about travel
- How Uwe went from a career in electrical engineering to pursue a more entrepreneurial route
- How a sailing trip changed the course of Uwe’s career
- Starting businesses that focus on supporting digital nomads
- Why Uwe was interested in starting a coworking space in Bulgaria
- The process of starting a coworking space and working to attract digital nomads to a new area (Bansko, Bulgaria)
- Balancing a life that is full of adventure, but also full of work and projects
- Learn more about coworking Bansko at coworkingbansko.com
- Find inforamation about Uwe’s safari and sailing retreats at https://wildnomadsafari.com/ and https://medium.com/@uwethesailor/come-sailing-in-greece-with-nomad-sailing-retreat-fe16d441f9e9
If you would to get access to the past and future episodes of our nomad series as a World Wanderers Insider, head on over to Patreon.com/theworldwanderers. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Becoming a Nomad and Building a Business with Uwe Allgäuer
Welcome to The World Wanderers podcast, your source for travel stories, travel destinations, and travel philosophy. We are your hosts Ryan and Amanda, and we will be taking you on today’s adventure as we speak with this week’s guest.
In this week’s episode, we are chatting with Uwe Allgäuer, who is joining us from his coworking office in Bansko, Bulgaria!
In this episode of the podcast, we talk a little bit about travel stories, what inspired him to travel, how he ended up in Bulgaria, and we talk a little bit about the digital nomad scene in Bulgaria, how Uwe got into entrepreneurship and got inspired by the world of digital nomadism.
We also talk about what it’s like to start a co-working space in a foreign country, as well as so many other things.
This was a really inspiring episode of the show for us as digital nomads.
So if you have been missing travel, as much as we have been, which I’m assuming you have, then hopefully you are going to enjoy this episode.
How did Uwe get into travel and decide to make it a key part of his life?
Uwe explained how he had a lust for travel because his parents weren’t really into travel, and how that lust made him choose to travel to be a key part of his life.
“I always had the urge to travel. I cannot explain it. But my parents were not really into traveling or something. I mean, they took me out. I learned skiing and whatnot, but I always had the urge to go somewhere. It’s hard to explain, something like an inner feeling. Maybe like an explorer. So I always had the feeling, I need to explore the world. I need to travel the world. “ – Uwe
How traveling to Kenya as a teenager changed how Uwe thought about travel
He told us one of his amazing experiences which he encountered in Kenya, and how he attended one of the most awkward and best parties in his life.
“My first travels was when I was 16 years old and I traveled with friends to Africa, to Kenya actually. In Kenya, I had one of these amazing moments there. We were invited to a party and there were only black people. So we were the only white people showing up. It was so awkward. And when we entered, the whole crowd went silent, but then we were recognized by one of our friends and then he came over and he greeted and welcomed us. Then, suddenly the entire energy changed and they were so welcoming and so open. We had one of the most amazing parties. “ – Uwe
Traveling and meeting new friendly people with a big heart really inspired him to travel more.
“If you travel and if you meet new people and they are so genuinely friendly and they have such a big heart, so this kind of inspired me and I wanted to travel and to meet more people.” – Uwe
How Uwe went from a career in electrical engineering to pursue a more entrepreneurial route
Uwe explained to us how he started his studies as an electrical engineer around 29 years old, but he didn’t really have time for traveling. So, he decided to see more of the world, and that he sees traveling as a life lecture and a guiding light.
“Things need time, so I studied later in my life. When I was 28 or 30 years old, I started to study, and then I started my career as an electrical engineer. So, I started a completely different career. I was always traveling when I had a vacation, but I always wanted to go and see more of the world. Australia was on my list. Then the farfetched places, somehow I was drawn to the distance. I cannot explain it, but I think traveling is like a teacher. It’s like university in itself. You learn how to open yourself. You learn how to connect to other people. And I think this is so important, and this is one of the things which was always a guiding light for me. So to say, now I traveled around 80 countries and I learned that the more you travel, the more you learn, the more you get to know, the more you’ve actually seen bits and pieces of this planet, which pushes me to see more stuff.” – Uwe
He told us that most of his life he worked for companies and he aspired to have a company career because of his parents, but at some point, he began questioning why he did that and if he truly wanted it.
“I think this is a lifelong story; I could not keep a job longer than two years. Somehow I was like, as soon as I know bits and pieces for a certain job or for a certain kind of topic, it gets boring to me. I need to occupy myself with something new. But my parents haven’t been entrepreneurs at all. So most of my life, I worked for companies. And I somehow aspired to a company career, which then, at some point, I asked myself the question, “who are you doing this for?” Like what drives you to do this? And I didn’t really have an answer to that.“ – Uwe
He talked us through how he worked as a development aid worker in Africa and how that experience really grounded him.
“I worked as a development aid worker in Zimbabwe. This was a Zimbabwe southern region of Africa. And, working there I wanted to work overseas to learn a language better and to just get some international experience working overseas. At that time, around 2006, 2005, when I was looking for jobs overseas, there was no job search online. The internet was barely used as it is used today. So I had to make it happen somehow. And, the only job I found, which was enough to get me going was this development aid worker position in Zimbabwe and leading an IP project in a very rural space, in a very rural part of Zimbabwe. That place was called Pinga, close to Lake Kariba and somehow it unrooted me. So to say, it opened my eyes and also really grounded me in a way.“ – Uwe
Uwe also felt that everything that is happening was in a symbolic way and how people in Africa keep their inner happiness, whom he learned a lot from and saw as personal development as well.
“So I saw all these things happening in a symbolic way. Like people suffering a lot then, and still, they have this happiness inside them. So although they face very difficult times, they still preserve inner happiness. And this somehow kept me whole, it opened a very new chapter in my life. And so I strive to do things differently and to think about how I do things and what I think and why I think the way I think. So it has a lot to do with personal development as well.“ – Uwe
Further, in 2008 he got a new corporate job in which he was paid very well, but four years later he had the feeling that he was getting internally and emotionally poorer so he felt the urge to change that feeling.
“In 2008, I got a new job, a new corporate job, which was really amazing. I got paid very well. I flew the entire world. I was in charge of the service of a product, so I traveled a lot. Somehow it was an amazing job. I had this job for four years, which was kind of exceptional. But also it made me sad because I had the feeling that I’m working for somebody else. That he or this group gets richer, but I had the feeling I got poorer. I mean, although I earned a lot, obviously I had a great job. It was amazing, but, internally, emotionally, I had the feeling that I got poorer and I needed to change something.“ – Uwe
How a sailing trip changed the course of Uwe’s career
With his lust for sailing, Uwe got more into sailing and he got the opportunity to cross the Indian Ocean with a project by the name of CoBoat initiated by a group of digital nomads, which, at that time, Uwe had never encountered digital nomads before and he didn’t really know much about them and what they do.
“I got more into sailing. And so I saw a sailing opportunity to cross the Indian ocean from the Maldives. This was initiated by a project by the name of CoBoat and I think they never really took off. But, this was the first time I got to know digital nomads. They’re on the sailboat, there were nine crew members, and most of them were digital nomads. And I didn’t know, digital nomads or digital nomad life beforehand.
He strongly believed that digital nomads are just hype and he thought that they live in a dream which will end at some point. But as time passed on the sailboat he began to get to know the people more, find out more about their stories, and he really got hooked to all of that.
“So when this happened, I was looking, I was Googling, what is it that. And then somehow I thought this is just hype. It’s not real. These people aren’t living in reality and they will at some point start working again. And in a way, I couldn’t imagine, but then I got to know these amazing people on the same boat and we sailed for 18 days to cross the Bengal Sea”
“And within this 18 days, when you stay 24 hours in an open ocean where you cannot see land, you get to know people very well. So you get very close to each other, and on a sailboat, it can be very difficult, although it was a very big sailboat, 25 meters long, the space is very tight. So, if you stay longer than one week, it’s actually quite difficult to get on with people. For one week you can hide. But you know, if you stay 10 days or more, sometimes people don’t get along well with each other anymore. Maybe the situation turns sour, but in our case these amazing people made it happen. For 18 days we had a blast, and every day was amazing.”
Uwe explained how his corporate job often felt like a hamster wheel in which you could never reach the carrot that is right in front of your face. And he really liked the idea that digital nomads have about life and how they live their life where they emphasize the idea of the lifestyle rather than the monetary part of a job.
“And, when I got to know the people better, I understood the way they think and how they live. Working in a corporate job often is like being in a hamster wheel. You keep the wheels turning and you’re running, the carrot is always in front of your face, but you can never reach it. But then the digital nomads told me, they taught me that they live a lifestyle. And to have a lifestyle they like rather than living in this hamster wheel and aiming for the next better job or the next better salary, or for the next better car or a bigger house. They emphasize the idea of the lifestyle rather than the monetary or financial part of a job. And this made me think about how I can apply this way of thinking, how can I apply this concept to my life situation?” – Uwe
Being a real estate manager for 20 years he searched for a way on how to run his business remotely and this idea really made him believe that this was possible.
“And one of the things I have done for 20 years is real estate management. And so I searched for a way on how to apply the concept to my business. How can I run my business remotely? What can I do to make this happen? And in the beginning, I thought this was not possible. I thought people would think I’m crazy or something, but then I found a way to apply the concept to my situation and to make it happen for me. This made it possible for me to run the business remotely. And I’m really glad that that happened.” – Uwe
Starting businesses that focus on supporting digital nomads
Being a real estate manager and inheriting the business from his parents he really wanted to turn it into a real business and spread it and work remotely so it could support him well. By meeting a lot of new people who are digital nomads he learned a certain structure that could help him do that.
“So, I’m a real estate manager, I’m renting out flights and this was the first thing, but I never saw it as a business in a way because I inherited this from my parents and they never thought of it as a business. I had to turn this into a real business so that it could really support me. And then I learned how to apply a certain structure so I can do it remotely. Then I got to know more digital nomads that do it too. I got to know entrepreneurs that do it too. I got to know this group of people I found.“
Uwe told us that the biggest motivation in life was the people around him that motivated him on all of his ideas rather than his friends in his youth that didn’t really have the imagination and really saw him as a crazy guy with crazy ideas.
“And, you know, there is the saying that you’re the average of the five closest people you’re surrounded with. I totally agree with that. It’s totally true for me. Maybe not for everybody, but for me, it’s totally true. When I came up with an idea and I shared it with friends from my youth, they would say, “you are crazy”. This is a strange idea or something. It turned me onto finding like-minded people. Sharing the same or similar ideas with the crowd I’m now surrounded with is so different. They say that’s a great idea like most of the time.”
Uwe explained that he really loves travel but he didn’t like the part where he travels without landing or living out of a suitcase, so during the sailing trip, he heard that people were talking about creating a co-working space. That being said, he came up with the idea that he can actually make that happen, so he and his co-founder, Mathias, opened a coworking space for digital nomads in Bansko, Bulgaria which is a mountainous skiing area.
“I like to travel, but traveling without landing or living out of a suitcase all the time, this is not me. I cannot do this. I got bored with that. So then I thought how can I actually make this happen so that I’m part of this tribe, but traveling less.”
“And, during the sailing trip I explained to you, some of them started to think of opening a co-living space. So, this led further to opening a coworking space. And, so I opened the coworking space together with Mathias, the co-founder, in Bansko in Bulgaria which is actually a skiing area. So it’s the opposite of what you can find in Bali or Chiang Mai. And, the idea was to invite people to me rather than travel with them or follow them.” – Uwe
Why Uwe was interested in starting a coworking space in Bulgaria
He told us that the choice for the coworking space to be in Bulgaria was a coincidence because at the beginning he and Mathias were looking for some rural places around Austria because they both love nature and they were not the city slicker types.
“I’m from Austria and Mathias used to live in Salzburg so we looked for places around Austria, rural places. We were always into rural places. So I guess we are not city slickers. I think we like nature more or prefer nature more than other places. But sometimes you have an idea, but it’s just not the right time or it’s just not the right place, so we just kept going and we were sure that this project is what we wanted to do.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t find anything in Austria because of a lot of obstacles until a friend of theirs told them about Bulgaria and invited them. They quickly packed and went to check out what it was all about.
“In Austria, it just didn’t happen. Things didn’t fall in place and it just didn’t happen. There were some obstacles. We couldn’t get the contract with the landlord and so on and so forth until a friend of ours said why don’t you come to Bulgaria? He said this like it is a normal thing to do or something, and Mathias and I both had no idea about Bulgaria, to be honest with you. So neither of us have been to Bulgaria beforehand. So we quickly set up a delegation of six people. We invited friends to come with us, to check this place out. Let’s see what’s going on there. And we researched beforehand, of course, and we saw, there’s the Black Sea and a lot of other amazing things in Bulgaria.”
As they reached Bulgaria, they saw that it’s a small country but such a beautiful one with amazing mountain areas and national parks. There is a place called Bansko, a skiing area and they were introduced to a coworking space there which they immediately fell in love with.
“Bulgaria is a small country, but it offers so many different things, like places close to the sea, but also skiing areas, mountainous areas like Bansko. The mountain in Bansko is called Pirin Mountain and it’s also a national park. There we were introduced to the idea of having a coworking space in the mountains or a co-living space in the mountains because there are not many places you can actually co-work in the mountains. And so we thought, okay, let’s give it a try. So we went there, we checked it out and we immediately fell in love with it. Everybody who has been in Bansko probably can tell you that it has this special magic. It’s a place where things just fell into place. We were just going with the flow and by the end, we laughed at it, then we said immediately, yes, I think it took us a week. And then we said, okay, let’s do this. And yeah, this is the beginning.” – Uwe
The process of starting a coworking space and working to attract digital nomads to a new area (Bansko, Bulgaria)
Uwe and Mathis really loved the idea of doing that together with more people and not only the two of them, so when they saw Bansko they knew that it was going to bring all the things together at the right moment.
“We always had the idea of doing this together with more people, not only the two of us but with all our friends, because we all love traveling. We all love co-working. We all love to be at a cool place, which suits us. The thing, which was the question mark so to say, was where we do it and how we do it. And then seeing this place, seeing Bansko, it just spoke to us. It just resonated with us in a way that we said, okay, let’s be sure we want to do it. And then we found the place and the things came together at the right time, at the right moment.”
Uwe said because he and Mathias didn’t really want to focus so much on the operational part, they hired the community manager, Elena, who lived in Sofia. Her grandparents grew up in Bansko so she moved there a couple of months before. All other managers and owners of the coworking space were really wondering how this coworking space was going to work but Uwe and Mathias believed strongly that they were doing the right thing.
“Mathias and I, we wanted to focus more on the fun part and not so much on the operational part. So we wanted to have somebody who supported us. We employed a community manager, Elena. She was living in Sofia before, but her grandparents grew up in Bansko, so she was very close to Bansko and she just moved there a couple of months before, and when she saw that the coworking space was going to open the doors and she immediately got in contact with us. So, things just fell in place. And it was very easy for us to say yes, so to say, but the hard part of it is that we were talking to other managers and owners of coworking spaces in Sofia, in the capital city of Bulgaria. And they all looked at us and they thought we were nuts, and we were like, okay, but we are doing this because we think this the right way to do it.”
The thing is, not one of their friends really knew about Bansko, so Uwe and Mathis decided that they should start marketing the place itself rather than the coworking space. Luckily both of them have a big network of friends so it went really well and they had around 120 people visiting in the summer, and are happy about the place being a nomad hub.
“And Bansko was not on the map, not at all. Four years ago, nobody knew about Bansko. So we knew immediately that we had to market the place. We had to talk about Bansko, rather than about our coworking space, but, Bansko is amazing and it also has a co-working space and Mathias is very good with marketing, so both of us, we have a kind of a big network of friends, so it was easy for us to say, Hey, come on over, visit us here in Bansko. It’s a nice place. You know, hang out with us, work together with us. And we find a way to have a cool time, have a good time and enjoy ourselves. And so, now Bansko is a place we have had 120 people in summer visiting us. Currently, we have 70 people and the Nomad Fest is coming up in June. So, things are really happening and Bansko is now on the map, it’s a nomad hub actually. I think there are around 300 nomads in Bansko, so it really grew.” – Uwe
Balancing a life that is full of adventure, but also full of work and projects
Uwe explained how he didn’t like working so much and he wanted to work less and not more, but he was so occupied and busy with this coworking project so after three years he decided to give it up and sell his shares. He is still a member there and is happy to see Mathias run the place himself.
“I always said, when I ended the career in my last job, my last corporate job, I was like, I want to work less, not more. And unfortunately, the opposite happened. So I pulled off simultaneously some projects and then I found myself very occupied. And, so I think for me, especially when I’m traveling, I find it very difficult to balance this out. I’m very curious how other people do that. But for me, I had run the coworking space for three and a half years now and I decided I want to give my parts away. I sold most of my shares, so I don’t run it actively anymore. So I’m rather a member and guest now and not managing the coworking space. It was just too much work and too much hassle. So I’m very happy that I could leave that to Mathias who is really doing a great job now. And he’s happy to run it for himself.”
He really loved the idea that he had so much fun, met a lot of amazing people and opened a lot of new possibilities for himself during that time.
“And, it’s also lots of fun. So, during this time we had so much fun, opening the coworking space, getting to know all these amazing people, hearing these amazing stories. It was very inspiring. It opened up new possibilities and was very serendipitous. It just opened up a new world.”
Uwe also explained to us how managing your own coworking space is really hard and takes a lot of time thinking about everything so that’s why he decided to give it up. He said that coworking is one of the most amazing things he experienced because coworking gives you a feeling of home while meeting new people and traveling.
“But then managing your coworking space is really hard work, it takes a lot of you and it also kept my mind constantly going, thinking how can I improve this? How can I improve that? How can we do this better and so on and so forth? So I was very occupied with the coworking space. And then I decided for myself, I want to give this away. Nevertheless, I want to be part of the co-working scene. I love coworking. I think coworking is one of the most amazing things. It gives people the chance to work remotely and to get to know people, and I traveled a lot. So, I learned a lot and that was great. If you can land somewhere, if you can go somewhere and you’re connected to other people, it gives you this instant good feel. I would call it family feeling when you arrive home, you’re home and this is what Bansko feels like to me and also to many other people. So the biggest compliment I got is that people say, hey, this place is a place where I can be myself. And I think this is the place we are actually looking for. Maybe we cannot pronounce it out loud, but when we are at such a place maybe we don’t even have the awareness, but then we feel home and we say this is our place where we want to be.”
Learn more about coworking Bansko at coworkingbansko.com. Uwe helps people incorporate and relocate to Bulgaria because Bulgaria has a 10% flat income.
Also, find information about Uwe’s safari and sailing retreats at Wild Nomad Safari and Uwe Greece Nomad Sailing Retreat
Final Words
Digital nomad life can be exciting and so appealing and there are so many amazing parts about it, but it does get lonely at certain points. But, it’s really awesome that there are people out there looking to create these experiences, create these places that can help nomads find balance in their lives and meet those others in need of connection that is somewhat harder to meet.
