尼古拉?斯托龙斯基(Nikolay Storonsky)为自己的直言不讳感到自豪。“95％的创业者都会糊弄你。我不会这么做，”这位Revolut的联合创始人兼首席执行官说。该公司提供基于应用程序的金融服务。这位33岁、讲实话的创业者说的是工作与生活平衡的问题。他没有时间来平衡二者。
Nikolay Storonsky prides himself on straight answers. “Ninety-five per cent of founders, they will bullshit you. I’m not going to do it,” says the co-founder and chief executive of Revolut, which offers app-based financial services. The matter-of-fact 33-year-old is talking about work-life balance. He has little time for it.
“我看不出工作与生活的平衡会如何帮助你建立一家初创企业，”他说，“你在与更强大的对手竞争，与资金更雄厚的初创企业竞争; 你正在争取顾客，你没有资源。那么，你靠什么来赢得这场竞赛？”
“I can’t see how work-life balance will help you to build a start-up,” he says. “You are competing with bigger players, with better funded start-ups; you’re competing for customers, you don’t have resources. So how are you going to win this game?”
毫无疑问，他正在打造的是英国最有前途、且增长最快的初创企业之一，其品牌知名度也非常高：韩国冬奥会英国代表团的59名运动员全部获赠Revolut Visa预付卡。
There is no doubt that he is building one of the UK’s most promising and fast-growing young businesses, with brand recognition to match: all 59 Team GB athletes at the Winter Olympics in South Korea have been given pre-paid Revolut Visa cards.
在过去三年里，在两家欧洲风险投资公司巴尔德顿资本(Balderton Capital)和指数创投(Index Ventures)的支持下，斯托龙斯基的公司获得了约6000万英镑的融资，去年的估值达到3亿英镑。
Over the past three years, and with the backing of Balderton Capital and Index Ventures, two European venture capital firms, Mr Storonsky’s company has raised about ￡60m and had a valuation of ￡300m last year.
快速增长带来了问题。Revolut正在尽力克服寻找并留住合适员工方面的困难，因为公司正在从一个规模小、业务零散的公司转变成一家拥有数百名员工的企业，用斯托龙斯基的话说：正从一个“小宝宝”长成一个“成熟的年轻人”。这需要时间。
Fast growth brings problems. Revolut is grappling with the difficulties of finding and retaining the right staff, as it transforms itself from a tiny, scrappy business into one with hundreds of employees: from a “baby” to a “mature young person”, as Mr Storonsky puts it. It is taking time.