She Built a Near-Unicorn Without Any Venture Capital

Lilia Stoyanov did something almost unheard of in the tech world. When investors lined up to fund her startup, she said no.

It wasn't because she didn't understand venture capital. Stoyanov had already spent years in senior fintech leadership, including as GM and CFO at Skrill during its meteoric rise. She knew exactly how VC-backed companies scaled and what strings came attached to that money.

She wanted something different. Rather than letting investment cycles dictate her strategy, Stoyanov wanted customers to shape her company's direction. She believed profitability would bring resilience and independence would create space for long-term thinking.

In 2015, she founded TFY with that philosophy. The company helps organizations build global teams by connecting them with independent professionals across borders. Through a single platform, businesses can manage talent acquisition, contractor payments, compliance, and recruitment without juggling multiple providers.

The timing proved prescient. Remote work exploded, cross-border hiring became mainstream, and companies desperately needed tools to manage distributed teams. TFY was already there, built on sustainable economics rather than growth-at-all-costs funding rounds.

Today, TFY operates in more than 180 countries. The Financial Times ranked it among Europe's fastest-growing companies in 2026, and it's recognized as one of the UK's soon-to-be unicorns. All without taking a dollar of venture capital.

The Ripple Effect

Stoyanov's approach extends beyond finances into how technology should treat people. Her team developed what they call "ethical AI" for recruitment, technology that looks beyond rigid job requirements to identify transferable skills and hidden potential.

Traditional hiring software asks whether someone fits a job description. TFY's AI asks where someone's potential could create the greatest value. The technology identifies adjacent experience and capabilities that suggest success, even when a resume doesn't perfectly match keywords.

The system keeps humans firmly in control. AI becomes a decision-support tool, not the decision-maker, balancing innovation with fairness and transparency.

Stoyanov prefers calling workers "independent professionals" rather than freelancers, and the distinction matters. These aren't temporary workers but specialists bringing entrepreneurial thinking and expertise to organizations that need flexibility without sacrificing quality.

Her success challenges a core assumption in tech: that venture capital is the only path to building something extraordinary. TFY proves that independence, profitability, and customer focus can compete with the traditional playbook. Sometimes the road less funded makes all the difference.