Roasting ideas to revolutionizing fintech: Hristo Borisov's unconventional path to building a unicorn

I first met Hristo in 2019 as an early investor, and I'll never forget one of the initial meetings we had in Sofia. Despite having worked in fintech for less than a year, Hristo mapped out the entire market infrastructure with such precision and depth that I was immediately impressed. His organic, comprehensive understanding of the industry landscape and how their offering today and tomorrow would fit was a clear indicator that he not only knew his stuff inside and out, but processed information and grasped ideas quickly. That was the moment we knew we should invest.

Beyond Payhawk's remarkable success, Hristo has become a catalyst for growth in the regional startup ecosystem, wearing multiple hats as a founder, mentor, and investor. Recently, we caught up to reflect on how he has defied the odds to build a unicorn in a region often overlooked by the global tech community.

Looking back now, it's easy to see why Payhawk's streamlined product has been so successful - but it met with a lot of initial skepticism from VC investors.

"In a lot of the initial conversations, investors were saying, 'This isn't one company, it's four or five,'" Hristo recalls. "Customers clearly wanted the convenience of having payroll, expenses, and invoice payments in one place - but investors were saying 'How are you going to compete with five companies simultaneously?'"

Was it hard to keep up the faith in the face of this rejection?

From Hristo's perspective, it was easy to stay upbeat because he was certain his approach to validating ideas was rigorous. He and his team spent half of their initial €15,000 capital on Amazon gift cards, using the incentive to secure meetings with CFOs for invaluable customer feedback.

Hristo emphasizes how crucial it is that potential customers are not just excited, but genuinely enthused. "It's not just what someone says," he elaborates. "It's their body language, their posture, the way they engage in the conversation. When you see this kind of switch, you can tell you've nailed it."

This method drives home a crucial point for entrepreneurs: excitement alone is insufficient. The key is to observe tangible signs of authentic enthusiasm and active engagement from potential customers. Without these indicators, Hristo advises, "you know you still have work to do". This meticulous attention to customer reactions has been a cornerstone of Payhawk's approach, enabling them to refine their product and strategy based on genuine market needs rather than superficial interest.

This commitment to understanding customer needs before building has been crucial to Payhawk's success. While feedback from investors is valuable, understanding potential customers is key. As Hristo puts it, "You need to understand whether what they're saying is validating what you're seeing in your wider research. If it is validating, 100% you should listen - but when it's not, you need to understand why." 

As the founder of Bulgaria’s first unicorn, Hristo Borisov and Payhawk have paved the way for startups in the European ecosystem. However, this success didn’t come without its challenges. "I knew we had the benefits—the huge engineering talent, significant economies," Hristo reflects, "but it was still easy to feel like an underdog. We didn’t have a significant domestic customer base in Bulgaria, and for many investors, that meant we didn’t have a chance against our peers in Western Europe."

Yet, what initially seemed like a disadvantage became Payhawk’s greatest strength. Having witnessed firsthand how many European startups struggle to scale beyond their home markets, Payhawk's approach immediately stood out. While startups in larger domestic markets, like the UK, France or Germany, often struggle to grow beyond their home markets (even though they claim pan-European winner status), Payhawk’s approach - being multinational from day one - means you see a genuinely distributed and balanced client base. They have built a truly pan-European company.

This necessity spurred innovation. From the outset, Payhawk’s products and operations were designed with international scalability in mind, giving them a distinct advantage in today’s globalized market. Hristo’s previous experience also played a key role: "It’s important to understand that I had already built products for the US and globally before starting Payhawk," he says, underscoring how his background helped lay the foundation for Payhawk's global reach.

Today, Payhawk has not only transcended its Bulgarian origins but also achieved what few startups have—genuine, large-scale success across Europe. Its journey from a regional underdog to a pan-European powerhouse is a rare accomplishment in the startup world. While many companies are slow to scale meaningfully beyond their domestic markets, Payhawk has built a truly robust and scalable business model that positions it for continued global growth.

But for Hristo, success at Payhawk has not just been personal. He's acutely aware of the broader impact his company's achievements can have. "There is a lot of responsibility that came with being Bulgaria's first unicorn," he acknowledges. "There is a lot of expectation from the community and from the local start-up ecosystem on how we can help bring repeated success - and I have always tried to share investors, share tips, share learning as much as possible."

While knowledge sharing and events can be valuable, Hristo believes the most impactful way he can uplift the Bulgarian tech ecosystem is by leading through success. Beyond Payhawk's remarkable growth, Hristo has made significant contributions by participating in or hosting events and workshops in Sofia, fostering valuable connections between founders and investors, and stepping into the role of an angel investor. But it is Payhawk's success which has proven to be a driving force, igniting growth and innovation across the local tech scene.

This reflects what we’ve observed with other great companies we’ve worked with, including Peak Games and UiPath. These companies demonstrate that success on the global stage can inspire and uplift the entire ecosystem, nurturing future talent and proving that companies born in the CEE can compete—and win—internationally.

One of the most fascinating aspects of working with founders is observing how their personal experiences shape their leadership styles. Hristo's journey is a prime example of this interplay between life and leadership. 

As Payhawk has grown, Hristo's leadership of the business has naturally evolved. "Initially, you're a leader and manager of everybody, then you're a manager of managers, then of functional leaders, and finally of executives," he explains. This progression is one I've seen many times, but rarely with such self-awareness.

This shift has necessitated a change in approach: "Now I can't try to go and fix everything myself. I have learned to ask a lot more questions before I am able to really express an opinion." It's a humbling process that many founders struggle with, but Hristo seems to have embraced it.

What's striking is how Hristo's background influences his leadership philosophy. "I grew up without a father so I had to make decisions for myself very early on," he shares. This early self-reliance has translated into a leadership style that emphasises empowering others: "The sooner somebody is given a chance to learn the consequences of decision making, to be in a decision-making capacity, this builds responsibility."

In my experience, the ability to nurture leadership in others is crucial for scaling a company. Hristo articulates this well: "The real litmus test of great leadership is whether you can develop and elevate people, creating space for them to step up and lead, rather than having everything depend on you." Watching Hristo navigate this transition from hands-on problem solver to leader of leaders has been impressive. It's not just a testament to his adaptability, but a key factor in Payhawk's continued success and innovation.

One of the most intriguing practices Hristo has ingrained in Payhawk's culture is what he calls "product roasting." This approach embodies the company's emphasis on taking responsibility and fostering radical honesty.

"People bring their wireframes and get roasted," Hristo explains. "The idea is that it's better to be roasted with your wireframe than to implement it and then suffer supporting a flawed product." This practice extends beyond product teams to the entire leadership. 

What impresses me most is the inclusivity of this approach. As Hristo puts it, "Everybody needs to be given a chance to speak and you need to set the expectation very early that we are not roasting you, we are roasting your idea." This aligns perfectly with our philosophy at Bek -  we try to create environments where the best ideas can come from anywhere, regardless of seniority or position.

Seeing Payhawk implement this practice so effectively, not just within product teams but across the entire organization, reinforces our belief in the power of transparent, feedback-driven cultures. It's a testament to Hristo's leadership and a validation of the values we seek to instill in all our portfolio companies.

As Payhawk has grown, Hristo has also refined his approach to decision-making. What’s been the biggest learning in this process? 

"The bigger the company, the longer it takes to see the impact of your decisions - sometimes 3 to 9 months," he notes. This insight has led him to a somewhat contrarian approach: spending significant time on decisions that might seem obvious at first glance.

"I allocate time based on the size of the decision," Hristo explains. "The bigger it is, the more time I spend on it." This approach might appear unproductive or overly cautious to outside observers. However, this deliberation is crucial, especially for decisions that are not easily reversible. It resonates deeply with our practices at Bek, Not only is it how we make decisions - but this deliberative approach is something we work to encourage and instil in the founders we work with. 

When it comes to decision making, it is not the only thing we have in common with Hristo. There is also, naturally, the importance of an unwavering focus on data. As Hristo puts it, "In God we trust, but everybody else brings data."