Most founders transition out of day-to-day operations once a company reaches significant scale. But Gurhan Kiziloz appears to be charting a different path. Despite overseeing a business that posted $546 million in revenue across Q1 and Q2, Kiziloz remains embedded in key decisions across hiring, product development, and budget allocation, acting more like an operator than a figurehead.
This approach has its upsides. Close founder involvement can preserve alignment between strategy and execution. According to team members, Kiziloz still reviews product roadmaps, takes part in design discussions, and gives final signoff on feature launches. He’s also known to engage directly in hiring processes for leadership roles, especially in the São Paulo office, his most recent base of operations.
Critics might argue that founder centrality at this scale can limit delegation or strain bandwidth. But so far, Nexus International seems to be managing both growth and agility. Operational intensity has not led to decision bottlenecks or cultural rigidity. Instead, the company maintains a high execution tempo, with teams reporting short iteration cycles and prompt resource approvals.
Much of this is rooted in Kiziloz’s background. Before building Nexus into a dominant force in online gaming, he spent over a decade in execution-heavy roles, where rapid iteration and lean decision-making were essential. That mindset appears intact even as the business scales toward its projected $1.45 billion full-year target.
Still, staying this close to the ground comes with trade-offs. For one, it places a heavier reliance on the founder’s availability. And for external partners, it creates a sense that certain decisions can’t move forward without his input. While that tight linkage can signal commitment, it can also raise questions about long-term delegation and succession planning.
Yet the broader context may justify the approach. Nexus is still in its growth phase, expanding into new geographies, onboarding talent, and launching new product verticals. In this kind of environment, founder-led operating rhythms can often outpace more layered management models. It may not be a permanent structure, but it seems appropriate for the current stage.
Other firms in the Top 100 iGaming category have taken different paths. Some founders now serve mostly in board or advisory roles, focusing on investor relations or M&A. Kiziloz’s path is less polished, more embedded. For now, that appears to be by design. The company is executing aggressively, and Kiziloz remains central to that effort, not for optics, but for impact.
Whether he’ll eventually step back is unknown. But for now, Nexus’s founder is very much in the trenches. And as long as performance metrics like revenue, hiring pace, and product release cadence remain strong, that operating posture seems to be working.
