Revolut’s Lessons on Blitzscaling

The founder and CEO of neobank Revolut spoke about how he built the company from a 20 person outfit in a co-working space in 2015 to one of the fastest-growing fintechs globally.

I sleep well, Revolut founder and CEO Nicholas Storonsky said to Mandy Lamb, Visa group country manager for Southeast Asia on Tuesday when asked about what keeps him awake at night.

The British-Russian entrepreneur said he is comfortable with where the business is heading. Within four years, Revolut has amassed more than 8 million users and £40 billion ($49.19 billion) in transactions so far, according to its website. «Obviously, there are problems. But I believe that any problem is solvable. If you believe in your product, you will find a solution,» he said.

Storonsky spoke about maintaining strong company culture, and how Revolut has had to transition from young and hungry pirate» to admirals, which was one of the most difficult parts of scaling at such a breakneck speed.

Looking back, Storonsky said the most important thing he learned about growing a company is the importance of hiring the right people, and advised entrepreneurs to focus on building a strong leadership team.

In October, the firm launched its services in Singapore, the first market outside Europe and Australia. One of the stumbling blocks Revolut faced when building the company and expanding into overseas markets was finding partners that could scale their services as quickly as it was growing, Storonsky said.

Partnerships rarely work. It’s rare to find the perfect match, with companies that move at the same speed,» he said. «In my experience, only 5 percent of partnerships work, but when they do, it’s great.

Earlier in the day, Storonsky spoke at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2019, where he said the firm would not pursue a digital banking license in Singapore because of the high capital requirements.