My story in MY words! | Hristo Borisov, Co-founder & CEO of Payhawk
I remember my first “job in tech” well. It was my final year of high school, and a friend of my father needed his printing machine fixed. All I had to do was preinstall some drivers. Simple enough. But that small task unexpectedly landed me my first real job as a programmer at a small Bulgarian company owned by my father’s friend.
This was during the messy, somewhat shady early days of Bulgaria’s tech industry. I worked at a couple of small companies, my main goal was just to cover my tuition. I had my sights set on the American University in Bulgaria, which wasn’t cheap. Thankfully, my work paid off — literally — and I managed to enroll with a double major in Computer Science and Business Administration.
In my second year at university, a hot young Bulgarian startup called Telerik hosted a programming competition. I decided to give it a shot and finished third. Sounds impressive, right? Well, there were only three participants. Still, I must have performed well enough, because I got invited for an interview at Telerik and landed a job.
Working at Telerik was a defining chapter in my life. It’s where I truly started building my career, met my future co-founders, and even connected with our first investor — but more on that later.
After four years as an engineer, including a Team Lead, and with my Business Administration major under my belt, I decided to pivot slightly. One day, Vasil, Telerik’s CEO and co-founder, approached me and said, “Hristo, we have plenty of amazing engineers, but not enough who are also business-savvy. We need to develop professionals who understand both worlds.”
That conversation pushed me into product management. I transitioned to a Business Analyst role, then to Senior Product Manager, and eventually to Director of Product Division. I already knew how to build a product from a technical standpoint — now, I was learning the business side: identifying customer needs, aligning with broader business goals, assembling the right team, and executing successfully.
In 2014, Telerik was acquired by the US company Progress in what was then the biggest tech deal in Bulgaria’s history. As with any acquisition, things started to change, and I felt the need to build something of my own. I was 30 years old and kept thinking, “It’s now or never.” So, I quit.
One night, while lying on the couch, I went through all my paid app subscriptions and canceled most of them. Now that I was unemployed, I needed to cut unnecessary expenses. That’s when it hit me — if I had this many forgotten, unused subscriptions, imagine how bad it was for entire companies. They were likely wasting thousands, if not more, on software they didn’t even use.
I shared the idea with Boyko Karadzhov, a colleague from Telerik and the most talented engineer I knew who had already quit his well-paid job to co-found a company with me. Even before knowing what this company would be.
In just five days, we built an MVP. Next, we needed validation. To get CFOs to test our solution, we spent €8,000 — over half our budget — on Amazon gift cards as incentives. What we discovered was eye-opening: finance teams weren’t just struggling with managing subscriptions; they were dealing with a much bigger problem — overall visibility on company’s spend.
I went online and start Google-ing companies doing something similar, and found out there were a few — some located in Denmark, some in France with millions in the back and already thousands of customers. This didn’t scare me though, I saw an opportunity. I started pitching their products to CFOs to identify gaps in their value propositions. This turned out to be a game-changer. I quickly realized that CFOs weren’t just looking for corporate cards — they wanted full control over company spending, including reimbursements, supplier invoices, and more. That’s when we made a bold decision: instead of building just another solution, we would create something far bigger — an all-in-one platform that gives companies complete control over their spending.
Fortunately, we had support from Eleven Ventures, the investment fund launched by Telerik’s co-founder and ex-CEO, Vasil Terziev, who was willing to support us no matter what idea we decided to pursue.
Our first customer? A one-person company from Belgium that found us online. But before committing, he wanted to meet in person to make sure we wouldn’t scam him. We arranged a meeting at WebSummit, demoed our still-prototype product, and impressed him enough to win his business. He’s still a Payhawk customer today.
Within six months, we had customers in 16 countries. That was our proof of concept — we were solving a real problem. But we were also running out of money.
In 2019, we set our sights on expanding further into Western Europe. That meant securing a new investor, but convincing a VC to invest in a Bulgarian fintech wasn’t easy. At the time, Bulgaria’s reputation in the West wasn’t exactly helpful — it was mainly known for corruption and card skimming scams which isn’t the best branding for a financial technology startup.
We faced over 60 VC rejections. At one point, we were just 30 days away from bankruptcy. We had one last potential deal on the table, but it didn’t feel like the right fit. Then, out of the blue, one of the VCs that had previously rejected us heard we had a term sheet from another investor. We arranged a 30-minute meeting. Two and a half hours later, they were on board, investing €3 million. That VC was Earlybird, now BEK Ventures, and they remain one of our closest investors.
Fast forward to today: Payhawk has grown into a multinational company with offices in eight countries, from New York to Sofia. With nearly 400 employees, two EMI licenses, and the same relentless drive that carried us through the early years, we’re just getting started. Our next big goal? Becoming the dominant force in spend management across Europe, cracking the US market, and continuously pushing the boundaries of innovation. We’re on the right path — and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.
Originally published at https://www.siliconroundabout.org.uk.
