Revolutionizing the Startup Back Office

Ksenia Golubeva

CBDO and co-founder of AutiHD, Luxembourg-based neurodiversity platform delivering AI-driven support for ADHD/autism in daily life and work.

Editor note

Some founders aren’t satisfied with fixing a problem—they want to erase it. Daniil Kirikov is one of those rare entrepreneurs who transforms personal frustration into streamlined solutions for entire industries. What pulled me to interview Daniil? Beyond his résumé, it's his infectious energy for founder-first innovation and his drive to take on problems most people flee—like bureaucratic labyrinths. We dig into how he’s untangling regulatory snarls for Luxembourg’s startups, how a five-minute demo closed a major client, and the mindset shifts that keep Daniil building, learning, and winning when others give in. At the heart of our conversation is his guiding belief: bureaucracy shouldn’t stifle ambition. Daniil’s mission? To free founders so they can get back to what matters—building.

Turning Frustration into Innovation

As EasyBiz scales across Europe, what motivates you most about your work right now, and can you share a recent meaningful milestone or anecdote that captures your company's spirit?

Currently, I'm driven by our mission to liberate founders from administrative pitfalls and expand EasyBiz further into the EU market. Hitting our 150th SME client—a pharmacy chain throttled by compliance—felt like a validation of everything we’re building. Their turnaround story is what fuels us: we slashed their manual back-office work by 70%, and the energy shift was palpable. One standout moment: during a demo, our team managed to automate a client’s onboarding in under five minutes. Watching their skepticism turn to excitement reminded me exactly why we exist—to make speed, simplicity, and trust the new standard, even in the most regulated spaces.

Over your 12+ years shaping products and launching ventures, what were the biggest pain points or gaps you personally experienced that inspired EasyBiz’s creation?

A recurring frustration in my entrepreneurial life has been how silent bureaucracy quietly throttles progress. I’d find myself buried in endless paperwork—KYC forms, VAT filings, reconciliations—draining hours from actual value creation. Nowhere was this pain more acute than in Luxembourg, where options boiled down to either hiring costly fiduciaries or navigating miles of red tape. Those first-hand struggles revealed a glaring market need: entrepreneurs demand founder-focused, automation-driven support. EasyBiz grew out of those nights and weekends spent drowning in compliance, with the goal of giving time—and momentum—back to founders.

"Bureaucracy is not just inefficient—it actively destroys entrepreneurial momentum."

Luxembourg is infamous for its bureaucratic hurdles in company formation. Can you walk us through some specific obstacles you encountered when starting your first business there, and how they helped crystallize the vision for EasyBiz?

Setting up my first company in Luxembourg was a six-month slog of paperwork, inconsistent demands, and constant back-and-forth with various government agencies. Beyond the lost time, the real toll was psychological—the feeling of treading water, waiting for signatures or approvals while your ideas stagnate. Experiencing the mental exhaustion, not just the inefficiency, deeply impressed upon me how damaging bureaucracy truly is. These early challenges solidified EasyBiz’s core vision: automate at least 80% of repetitive administrative tasks, protect founders from the bureaucratic minefield, and let them focus on their real work. We’re building what I wish had existed years ago.

The real cost wasn’t in paperwork—it was in lost entrepreneurial momentum.

An exhausted entrepreneur sits at a cluttered desk at midnight, surrounded by piles of government documents and forms, a single desk lamp casting long shadows. The scene radiates fatigue and frustration in a cramped office, capturing the suffocating effect of bureaucratic overload.

Drowning in Compliance

How did your experience at 3F Venture Studio shape your approach to designing EasyBiz as a genuinely founder-first platform, not just an accountant’s tool?

3F Venture Studio taught me that most back-office software speaks the language of accountants, not entrepreneurs. These platforms are often daunting, dense with compliance jargon, and built around accountant workflows—not founder priorities. With EasyBiz, we started from the opposite direction: our dashboards cut through the noise, centering business impact and actionable insights. Entrepreneurs see savings, risks, and next steps, not balance sheets. Our goal is for the platform to 'think' ahead for the founder, flagging opportunities or risks proactively, and eliminating the need for them to decipher technical accounting language. It's customer obsession turned into design.

A founder sits in a quiet, dimly lit workspace, eyes fixed on their laptop as the city outside sleeps. Coffee cups and scattered notes signal relentless effort. Through the window, the distant glow of city lights contrasts the solitary drive fueling those who build solutions from scratch.

Building Solutions After Hours

Bridging Digital Speed with Regulatory Trust

Obtaining legal standing as a digital fiduciary wasn’t simple. Can you walk us through the licenses EasyBiz holds in Luxembourg, how long the approval process took, and a key regulatory hurdle you overcame along the way?

EasyBiz operates under the Fiduciaire Administrative & Comptable license in Luxembourg, regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Securing this license took us around nine months, with regulators scrutinizing our blend of automation and fiduciary responsibilities. One core challenge was convincing auditors that our AI-driven reconciliation and reporting could be fully validated. To address this, we introduced a dual-control system: every automated action is logged and traceable, with human experts able to verify or override any output. This hybrid approach won over even the most skeptical officials, setting a new bar for digital compliance.

EasyBiz has earned a reputation for rapid onboarding—can you share a detailed story about a client’s unique problem, how you navigated their regulatory pain points using your platform, and what tangible results you helped them achieve?

One memorable example involves a cross-border e-commerce client, tangled in the complexity of VAT compliance across Luxembourg, Belgium, and France. Previously, they pieced together monthly VAT filings by hand in spreadsheets, battling constant errors and bureaucratic penalties. With EasyBiz, we integrated their Shopify and banking data, enabling our platform to automate transaction labeling and generate real-time VAT filings. Within just three months, their compliance workload dropped by 80%, and they eliminated late filing fines—amounting to annual savings of about €20,000. Watching the stress lift from their team was incredible.

"Our license makes us a rare bridge between fintech agility and fiduciary trust."

For those curious about EasyBiz’s scale and business model—what does your team look like currently, can you share a revenue band, and how have you structured your pricing to serve both startups and larger SMEs?

Today, our team counts 14 employees, unified across engineering, fiduciary expertise, and operations. We're operating in the mid six-figure ARR range and have seen revenues triple year-over-year. Our model is a hybrid: we offer a base SaaS subscription, starting at €149 a month for SMEs, supplemented by usage-based fees for advanced fiduciary services such as annual accounts and audits. This allows us to serve a broad spectrum of businesses, from lean startups seeking automation to established companies needing tailored compliance expertise.

We’re growing 3x year-over-year—with just 14 people powering the engine.

Inside a modern co-working space, a diverse group of team members excitedly strategize around a whiteboard scribbled with upward trending graphs and sticky notes. The mood is upbeat and collaborative, capturing the energy of a small but mighty team determined to take on an industry.

Startup Growth in Action

Blending digital automation with localized compliance isn’t easy. How did you instill trust in regulators that AI wouldn’t erode the standards of fiduciary oversight?

We knew we couldn’t simply automate everything and expect regulators to be on board. The key was transparency and accountability. We built a dual pipeline: our AI and ML models—using both proprietary tech and leading-edge LLMs—handle the repetitive bulk, but every transaction and report is clearly marked whether AI or a human validated it. Every action is logged, immutable, and reviewable, making audits straightforward. Our approach proved that this hybrid model can enhance—not diminish—fiduciary trust. It’s human intelligence where nuance matters and machine consistency where it doesn’t.

A close-up of a professional handshake between a confident entrepreneur and a regulator across a polished office desk. Behind them, a wall of imposing legal tomes and certificates hints at rigorous standards. The scene symbolizes the meeting point of innovative ideas and steadfast regulatory frameworks.

Trust Meets Technology

Founder-First at Scale: Balancing Automation and Human Touch

Can you break down a specific end-to-end workflow at EasyBiz where your 'AI first, human where it matters' philosophy comes to life—what roles do automation and experts play, and how do you guarantee auditability and data security?

A good example is our monthly close process. Initially, our AI layer—built on custom models and fine-tuned versions of OpenAI and Anthropic LLMs—automatically reconciles all bank transactions, matches invoices, and categorizes expenses. However, when the AI detects anomalies or ambiguous VAT cases, fiduciary experts step in. They review edge cases, approve the final financial report, and ensure compliance. Every action—AI or human—is logged distinctly and immutably, so anyone can trace back decisions. We host all data on GDPR-compliant servers in Luxembourg, with end-to-end encryption for maximum security. The result is 80% automation without sacrificing reliability or transparency.

The regulatory environment—especially for fiduciary services—demands both speed and rigor. Can you share a specific crisis when you had to prioritize either delivery or compliance, what decision you made, and how it affected your team?

One notable example occurred in late 2022 with a client planning a rapid expansion into new markets. They wanted their VAT filings accelerated, but our integration wasn't fully compliant yet. We faced a choice: release a shortcut that might skip critical validation or delay delivery for two weeks to build a properly compliant solution. I chose the latter. The decision frustrated both the client and some team members initially, but, once I explained the longer-term risks and the value of regulatory trust, the team rallied around the decision. In fiduciary work, speed wins the deal, but compliance preserves your reputation—and we’re in it for the long game.

"In fiduciary work, speed wins clients, but compliance keeps them."

What are some pivotal wins—or failures—that most shaped your approach to leadership, automation, and blending innovation with day-to-day operational grit?

A pivotal failure was almost losing a company due to compliance delays that torpedoed crucial contracts—an experience that ingrained in me how hidden bureaucracy erodes startups from the inside out. That painful lesson made me hyper-vigilant about safeguarding momentum. On the flip side, a memorable win came when I spent a night personally refining our AI to adapt to a sudden VAT rule change. We turned a looming client crisis into a loyalty-building opportunity. These experiences taught me that being hands-on, pragmatic, and always prepared to convert friction into innovation is what sets enduring ventures apart.

I dove into our AI models overnight—turning a compliance crisis into client loyalty.

It's 2 a.m. in a dimly lit office. A focused founder leans over his laptop, the only illumination coming from the glowing screen and overhead city lights. Coffee cups and tech gear suggest a long night spent troubleshooting. The air is thick with resolve and innovation in action.

Turning Crisis Into Opportunity

How will EasyBiz maintain its founder-first ethos as it scales into new markets like Belgium and France, each with its own compliance culture and regulatory ecosystem?

Scaling means adapting, not diluting, our principles. We’re building modular compliance engines, tailored for each country, but maintaining one seamless experience for founders. Local partnerships—especially with fiduciary firms—help us encode region-specific rules while preserving ease-of-use. We’re prioritizing early hires of licensed managers and sales leads with deep local context. The greatest risks? Rapidly evolving e-invoicing mandates in France, Belgium’s complex labor laws, and ensuring our UX adapts without becoming bloated. But our guiding light remains: multiply impact by freeing founders from red tape, regardless of borders.