2021 has been a spectacular year for our next guest.

Hristo Borisov is the co-founder and CEO of the Bulgarian fintech startup Payhawk, which raised a 20M dollars Series A in the first half of the year, followed by a historic for the Bulgarian ecosystem 112M dollars Series B in November. The startup which helps SMEs manage their expenses has ambitious plans for expansion in the US, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Hristo Borissov was a software engineer and a product manager at Telerik, the Bulgarian IT company which still represents the largest exit for the Bulgarian ecosystem.

In his conversation with Irina, Hristo talks about how the culture at Telerik, which encouraged experimentation and building new things, helped him develop his product thinking.

In the episode he also shares:

📖 His playbook for building scalable products; (hints: be a firm believer in the problem you’re solving and make sure you understand the pain points of the customer)

❤️ Why passion matters for him (“I just can’t do things halfway. If I am not passionate about something, I can’t do it”)

💪🏽 How the resilience and efficiency of startup founders from Eastern Europe help them beat the odds; (“We thrive in scarce city”)

🕸️ How he went all in with Payhawk even though he didn’t have a safety net;