After building the world’s first Reddit outreach tool and closing the largest seed round in North Macedonia, Nick Velkovski faced a failure that usually marks the end of a story. Instead, he started a new one. Without external investment, he founded HeyReach, which surpassed $10 million in annual revenue in just over two years, placing it among Europe’s fastest-growing startups. In an interview originally published in NIN, Nick shares insights every startup founder needs to hear — and will expand on them at the unlockit conference organized by the Digital Serbia Initiative on February 19–20 in Belgrade.
Your startup is one of the most successful European stories coming out of the Western Balkans — without external investment. How did your journey begin, and what were the key moments in the early growth phase?
It all started with a pivot from Howitzer to HeyReach. In the LinkedIn outreach tools market, there were already many startups, but we noticed a clear, unresolved problem. All existing LinkedIn tools were built for individual users and mostly relied on exploiting LinkedIn limits. We decided to do the opposite — to fully respect LinkedIn rules and build a tool that would enable agencies and sales teams to run LinkedIn outreach at scale in a safe, collaborative, and legitimate way.
Some of the key early decisions included focusing exclusively on lead generation agencies in the first phase, before expanding to sales teams, and choosing to integrate with tools from the GTM (go-to-market) ecosystem instead of trying to build everything in-house.
Startup failure is often described as a learning experience. What did shutting down your first startup actually look like at the time, and what was the hardest part to accept?
Shutting down Howitzer was incredibly hard for me at the time, but a part of me believed that, in a strange way, it was actually a positive thing. Howitzer was my identity. It was the identity of my co-founder and the entire team. We were known as the “Reddit kids.” The hardest thing to accept was that this identity was gone and that I had to start from scratch. From today’s perspective, shutting down Howitzer and building HeyReach was the best thing that ever happened to me.
How did you manage to build a product and grow without big budgets and without a mature ecosystem around you? What enabled you to be an exception?
When you’re literally backed against a wall, walking the edge of failure, you gain certain special powers. You become extremely rational with money you don’t have, and focus becomes everything. You start paying attention to every dollar, every decision, every direction you consider, because survival is the main goal. It’s incredible how much someone can achieve with so little if they truly want it.
What role does artificial intelligence play today in your product, growth strategy, or internal processes? Has AI accelerated your development or changed your roadmap?
Honestly, not as much as people might expect. We mostly use AI as a sparring partner, not as a replacement for the team. At HeyReach, AI is currently most useful in customer support, where it handles around 50% of requests, and in product development, mainly through prototyping. That said, our plan for 2026 includes some pretty interesting and so-far unseen AI initiatives — so stay tuned.
What is your core growth strategy going forward? What principles guide you as you scale the product and the organization?
The core principle is caring about people — both users and team members. You can always tell when a product is built by people who genuinely care, and when a team functions as a group where everyone has each other’s backs. In terms of growth strategies, inbound and customer referrals remain our strongest channels, bringing in over $1 million in new revenue every month. People love the product and want to talk about it. Most influencers and big names in the GTM world are HeyReach users and are happy to share the tools they use and get results with.
To what extent was your Western Balkans background a challenge, and did it give you any advantages?
Building a global product from the Balkans is almost an impossible mission. But with the right team, it becomes a mission to conquer the industry. Being one of the few fast-growing startups in the region actually makes us an attractive place to work, allowing us to hire and collaborate with some of the smartest people from the Balkans. It’s no secret that 90% of our team is from the Balkans — and maybe it’s true that people who know how to make ajvar also know how to build great tech products.
You’ll be speaking on the Inspiration Track at the unlockit conference. Which part of your journey do you consider most valuable or inspiring for the audience, especially early-stage founders?
I decided to talk about every “NO” I received throughout my career and all the failures that brought me to this point. I couldn’t have imagined that every “NO” that was breaking me from the inside at the time would later turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. People need to know that founders make mistakes — and probably more than anyone else. Success is overhyped, and founders rarely talk about the moments when they hit rock bottom. I want to change that and show that someone can fail countless times, but if they keep pushing forward no matter what, they can succeed.
In your view, what is the key difference between your team and many other startups in the regional ecosystem — the difference that enabled your success?
I see several key differences: focusing on global rather than local markets, working at a world-class level instead of an average one, and — most importantly — actually doing the work. I’ve seen many founders and teams try to postpone real work, real grind and hustle, drifting into a dreamlike state of planning and strategy, believing the next hire or someone else will solve things for them. I hate to disappoint, but in business there is no white knight. Either you do the work and find solutions yourself, or it won’t happen. I’m glad these values are clearly set at HeyReach and that the entire team lives them every day. I like to think that this is what truly sets us apart — we actually do the work.
Based on your experience, what should other founders in the region learn from your journey, especially those trying to grow without external funding?
One thing: no one knows what will succeed and what won’t — don’t let anyone discourage you. We had countless reasons to quit. We received very little support from people around us, and early on I was constantly told that things like this don’t happen in my country and that I shouldn’t dream too big. Well — they do happen. In my country. And they happen in yours too. If I could push this through, I’m 100% sure you can too — but only if you’re ready to give it everything you’ve got and invest 110% in what you’re building.
