Scaling PayU into Rapyd’s platform
Nejo describes the PayU integration, unifying merchants and payment infrastructure across eight countries onto a single platform while transactions keep processing in real time, as the initiative he is proudest of. According to the interview, the integration has helped more than double the business’s growth rate while reducing its cost base, resulting in 7.9x growth in EBITDA when comparing the first six months of this year to the same period last year.
Five lessons on scaling a business
The core of the interview is Nejo’s framework for what it takes to scale a company from a functioning startup into a large organization. The five lessons he shares are: deferred structural change compounds like debt and only gets more expensive with time; leaders must protect dedicated time to work on the business rather than just in it; successful change management is roughly 80% securing genuine buy-in and only 20% process; scale acts as a multiplier that amplifies existing strengths and weaknesses rather than fixing them; and decision velocity, the ability to make fast, well-reasoned calls on reversible decisions, compounds into a real competitive advantage over time.
On the role decision speed plays in fast-moving organizations, Nejo points to Rapyd’s own leadership as an example:
“The best example I have is our own CEO, Arik Shtilman. Rapyd is a founder-led company, and Arik embodies decision velocity as a management philosophy. He is relentless. A leader who gets into the details, gets his hands dirty, and operates with a progress-at-all-costs mentality that keeps the entire organization moving forward.”
A caution on scaling headcount
Asked about common mistakes companies make when scaling, Nejo pushes back on the assumption that growth requires proportional headcount growth, arguing that in the age of AI, teams can do dramatically more with the people they already have. He also points to a company’s culture as something leaders actively shape rather than something written on a wall, noting that new hires learn what a company truly values by watching what leadership rewards and tolerates, not by reading a values deck.
Read the full interview, including Nejo’s take on preserving company culture through an acquisition and his advice on building institutional knowledge with AI, on Authority Magazine.
