Instinct, Speed & Scale: Can Gurhan Kiziloz’s Formula Deliver $1.45 Billion for Nexus International?

With a $1.45 Billion Revenue Forecast, Nexus Is Expanding Beyond Brazil. But Its Founder’s Fast-Paced Methods Raise Questions About Sustainability in a Highly Regulated Industry.

By the time most teams start drafting strategy decks, Gurhan Kiziloz has often already acted. That’s how he describes his decision-making style, frequent, fast, and largely instinctive. As founder of Nexus International, he’s built the company into a major player in Brazil’s digital entertainment space, with its flagship platform, Megaposta, reportedly generating over $400 million in revenue in 2024. Projections for 2025 are even more ambitious: $1.45 billion.

This growth hasn’t come through traditional scaling models. Nexus isn’t rolling out new products or restructuring departments. Instead, it’s focusing on entering similar markets using its battle-tested formula, aggressive marketing, early compliance engagement, and a quick execution model. According to Kiziloz, expansion across Latin America is already underway, with other regions in the radar.

A Pattern of Fast Decisions

The company’s pace reflects the founder’s own. “That happens twice a week,” Kiziloz said in an interview, when asked about career-defining decisions. He’s candid about operating without long deliberation or reflection. “I don’t reflect. I just keep moving.”

While this approach has driven Nexus’s expansion, it also raises questions. Kiziloz’s leadership is closely tied to improvisation. His past ventures, including Lanistar, faced regulatory and legal setbacks, most notably, a compliance warning from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority in 2020. Though the warning was later lifted and the firm restructured under Nexus, critics at the time questioned the firm’s governance and internal processes. Kiziloz maintains that failures are part of the process. “In a way, going broke has offered deep lessons,” he remarked.

That same philosophy shaped the company’s Brazil strategy. Rather than cautiously piloting entry, Nexus went in early, investing in offline media and building out compliance infrastructure. It worked. Megaposta gained user traction and now competes with longer-established players in the region. But the company hasn’t yet tested this model in markets with significantly different regulatory frameworks or consumer behaviors.

Structure vs. Speed

Internally, Nexus remains lean. Staffing has expanded to meet regulatory needs, particularly in high-compliance markets.

His leadership style, described by himself as a mix of “military and love,” leans heavily on speed and trust in execution rather than prolonged planning. That model can be effective in the short term, but industry analysts often flag the risks of over-dependence on founder instinct. But Kiziloz is open about his own limits when it comes to detailed oversight. “I still don’t dwell on the details,” he said. “My team does this for me.”

Scale, Impact, and Open Questions

Kiziloz has stated publicly that his long-term goal is to be among the ten wealthiest people in the world. At the same time, he funds personal philanthropic work outside Nexus, supporting food initiatives and building water wells in Gambia. He says this work will scale once his business goals are met. “Once I make the wealth, I’ll make the impact,” he told interviewers.

There’s no doubt that Nexus International has grown rapidly under his direction. But with expansion now moving into unfamiliar markets, and regulatory scrutiny tightening globally, the next phase may require more than fast decisions.

Whether Kiziloz’s approach can evolve, or whether it needs to, remains to be seen.