Haakon Brekke is co-founder and COO of Papaya, an ordering and payments platform for hospitality operators.

Papaya goes far beyond the table stakes of efficiency with unprecedented insights for merchants, and best of all—since Papaya makes money on payments instead of subscriptions — it’s free!

Haakon grew up in Southeast Asia (mostly Thailand) from early childhood, and before Papaya he worked with Boston Consulting Group and Zalora across the region.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

We are bringing the convenience and sophistication of e-commerce to the hospitality industry — both in the ordering and paying experience, but also in the analytics and personalization parts of the business.

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

In high school, I worked as a waiter at a Vietnamese restaurant in Bangkok (definitely got some looks and questions), and seeing how the sausage is made through that experience has been very helpful in understanding the merchants we are now working with.

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Each milestone with Papaya has felt like a career highlight, whether it was our first funding, first hire, first signed customer, or first dollar of revenue. It’s an absolute blast and I consider us lucky to get to go through it.

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

It seems the free-money-era chickens have come home to roost, and it is extremely interesting to see how companies and investors are adapting to this new environment where profitability is back in style.

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

I’m not a seasoned enough entrepreneur to be giving much advice on how to be one just yet, but one thing I’m glad I’ve done is to surround myself with smarter and more experienced people (whether in the form of investors, advisors, mentors, or friends) who have done much of what I want to do, and then try to always be humble and curious because usually, I learn something.

It’s a good way to avoid staying on the infamous Dunning-Kruger effect’s Mt. Stupid for too long!

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

Training and recovery

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Step Brothers and most other Will Ferrell classics

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Jeni’s Gooey Butter Cake, no contest.

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FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.