In an interview with Sifted, Flowpay CEO William Jalloul made a blunt case for aggressive risk-taking in startup lending. "If you don’t have defaults, you’re not taking enough risks," he said, framing losses as a natural byproduct of ambitious growth rather than a sign of failure.
Jalloul's logic is straightforward: a portfolio with zero defaults likely means the company is rejecting too many potential clients and missing out on market share. For Flowpay, which provides working capital to small and medium enterprises in Germany, Austria, and Central Europe, that means calibrating risk models to accept a certain level of defaults as the cost of scaling.
The remark is notable because it runs counter to the cautious tone many fintech CEOs strike after recent market downturns. Jalloul instead signals that for companies with strong underwriting, avoiding defaults entirely is a strategic error. The interview focused on Flowpay's regional expansion and its competitive position in the DACH and CEE lending landscape.