He met Gotse Delchev, who at that time organized the first revolutionary bands of the IMARO, which had the goal of entering Macedonia.

Gotse Delchev decided to attract Bulgarian army officers to the IMARO in order to raise the authority and prestige of the revolutionary organization before the population and to improve the military skills of the freedom fighters.

Mihail Apostolov – Popeto, Marko Lerinski and Hristo Chernopeev were among the first Bulgarian army officers in the IMARO.

During his 7 years of activities, a number of IMARO freedom fighters joined his revolutionary band as his trainees, such as: Mihail Gerdzhikov, Nikola Dechev, Petar Yurukov, Delcho Kotsev, Petar Samardzhiev, Nikola Zhekov, Atanas Babata, Andon Kyoseto (who was an assistant-leader of the band), Krastyo Balgariyata, Gone Beginin, Trayko Gyotov, Ivan Varnaliyata, Ivan Alyabaka and others.

All of them were born in the liberated parts of Bulgaria and had military training: Vasil Ivanov Chochov – senior sergeant from the First Infantry Regiment, Aleksandar Marinov from Plovdiv – a student from the Non-commissioned Office School, Filip Grigorov - a student from the same school, Nikolay Petrov – non-commissioned officer and others.