Ali Aliiev

Today I am an entrepreneur who has gone through two different business worlds: operationally complex gastronomy and the more structured financial sector. My path in entrepreneurship began after moving to Warsaw in 2015. There I gradually entered the gastro business and launched Icon Sushi with a partner.

Although the business was created in partnership, operational management was almost entirely on me. For 4.5 years, I was responsible for company development, the team, processes, and daily operations.

Gastronomy shaped my practical understanding of business. It taught me that survival and growth are not about inspiration or luck, but about systematic discipline, people management, and solving dozens of small daily tasks that ultimately determine the result.

In 2024, I sold that business, and this became a turning point in my professional trajectory. After leaving gastro, I fully focused on finance through Payfinex, where I have been working for about five years. Today we are scaling on the European market, and the team has about 40 people. Around 10-15 specialists report directly to me.

How did the business idea come to you?

I entered the financial business not from scratch, but through a partnership offer from people I met while developing the gastro project. Among Icon Sushi clients were entrepreneurs who saw my work style, communication, and responsibility, and offered me to join the company and take over a direction, primarily sales.

Family experience also became a base: my father had worked in a similar field for many years. At the same time, from the beginning I built processes in a more modern way, oriented toward the European market and contemporary business approaches. The core of our team consists of specialists from Ukraine.

What key skills helped you launch the business?

My foundation is a combination of strong communication and operational endurance. First is the ability to build trust, connect with people, and keep my word. For me, communication is not the ability to speak beautifully, but responsibility for one's actions. Otherwise, it is just empty words.

Second are discipline, persistence, and the ability to move systematically toward a result. These qualities formed long before business: since childhood, I took responsibility and showed leadership, and at university I led student self-government for five years.

Understanding financial logic also helped. Even in the gastro business, I constantly analyzed how to optimize costs and tax burden, so moving into finance was not a leap into the unknown.

What were the three hardest challenges in the first years?

The hardest thing at the start was moving from gastronomy into finance. It is a completely different market, a different type of client, a different level of responsibility, and different rules of the game.

The second challenge was learning to communicate with a new category of clients, understand their logic, and find a shared language.

The third challenge was adapting to the new field itself, although I already had basic skills in management, negotiation, and process building.

What crises did your business face and how did you overcome them?

In the financial business, I cannot single out vivid crises. In gastronomy, crisis is part of everyday reality.

The strongest blow was the beginning of the full-scale war. I saw in practice how strongly geopolitics and logistics chains affect business. For example, the price of salmon rose several times literally in one day because of changes in feed supply.

Another constant instability zone in Warsaw was event and seasonal fluctuation. Weather, football matches, rallies, and other large events could seriously affect traffic and sales.

Staff turnover was another challenge, directly affecting product quality, service, and reputation.

Which decisions were most effective for company growth?

In the financial business, the biggest growth came not from aggressive sales or scripts, but from a more precise understanding of the client and a personalized approach. We quickly identify who our product is truly relevant for and choose the format of interaction for that specific person. For us, the client means long-term relationships, not a one-time deal. This strengthened word of mouth and increased product value.

In gastro, the key decision was adapting the product to the Polish market. We took into account that Polish customers prefer baked rolls, tempura, and vegetable options, while keeping a wider selection of raw items for Ukrainians, Belarusians, and other clients. This balanced demand and created a stable client base.

We also focused on service and packaging. For Polish clients, visual effect and a sense of quality in details matter.

Which mistake do you now consider your most valuable experience?

The most valuable experience for me was breaking up with my girlfriend. That decision still resonates emotionally, but it became a powerful internal push for change. Many things in my life changed for the better afterward.

How did you earn your first $100?

I earned my first $100 working as a loader.

How did you earn your first $1,000?

At university, I started making websites. At first I worked independently, and later I organized the process through programmers and focused more on coordination. That allowed me to move from the first $100 to $1,000.

How did you earn your first $10,000?

I earned my first $10,000 in net profit at Icon Sushi. It took us about two years to reach that result, and at the time it felt like a real breakthrough.

How did you earn your first $100,000?

My first $100,000 in turnover also came through Icon Sushi.

How did you earn your first $1,000,000?

We reached the first million in turnover at Icon Sushi at the peak of 2023-2024. In the current financial business, Payfinex, the million figure has become a regular monthly level.

My practical experience is most useful in two directions.

The first is finance: optimizing company costs, working with tax burden, and finding solutions that allow businesses to keep more resources inside the company.

The second is gastronomy. I can help with the restaurant business from launch to anti-crisis decisions when product, service, or sales decline. I have a strong contact base across the chain: from staff and operations specialists to chefs and marketers.

At the same time, I always warn honestly: the gastro business is one of the most difficult industries. If a person wants to enter it consciously, I can help minimize typical mistakes.

Your experience: how to systematize a business?

For me, systematization begins not with spreadsheets, but with answering the question: who do I want to be in this business, the person closing all operations or the strategist scaling the company?

If the goal is scaling, basic operational blocks must be covered: accounting, management, and process control, so resources are freed for strategy.

Strategy for me is constant analysis of stagnation causes: the market, competitors, money-leak points, and weak spots in the business. When you step out of operational routine, the picture becomes much clearer.

Your experience: how to grow 2x in a year?

To double in a year, I rely on two factors.

The first is managerial: exit operational routine and move into strategic management. That is where real growth points are: market, positioning, competition, cost optimization. I saw this in practice at Icon Sushi: when we focused on strategic questions, the business reached its peak.

The second is personal. Business growth is impossible without inner clarity. It is important to understand what you want from life and business, and to minimize the influence of toxic environments or relationships that drain energy and focus. When a person starts relying more on themselves, the quality of decisions and results changes.