Irina Scarlat, is no longer Chief Growth Officer for Bitpanda. „I discover that the crypto industry is a no-go for me”

Irina Scarlat joined last summer Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda as Chief Growth Officer, with a straightforward mission: to build a high-performing growth organisation. Previously, she was Global Head of Growth at Revolut.

„A lot has changed during this time, and so has the scope of my role. After multiple conversations and careful consideration, I realised that I simply don’t belong to the crypto world, so I decided to step down from my role and move on.” – says Scarlat in a blog post.

During her time at Bitpanda, the company grew from 2.5 to 4M customers amidst challenging market conditions.

However, „there are things you simply can’t control”. Such as market sentiment, which dramatically changed for the worse over the past months. As a result, Bitpanda made fundamental changes in how it operates and scaled back the company. I had the mischievous task of managing the communications of the restructuring process. It was a weird and emotionally draining summer.”

Faced with the ongoing negative sentiment and the imminence of a recession, Bitpanda’s strategy also needed to change.

„The company shifted back its focus towards the community, optimising the user experience and broadening the product offering for a different target audience. I believe wholeheartedly that this is the best way forward for the company. Unfortunately, it’s not the right one for me. The shift back towards the innovators’ community requires a different go-to-market approach, one for which I lack both the skill set required, and the passion to acquire it.„

Scarlat concludes: As Steve Jobs put it in his Stanford commencement speech, „life’s too short to do something you’re not really passionate about”.