“No Stopping” – Gergely Bihary’s Journey from Hackathons to Prezi, Google, and ElevenLabs

by | Apr 30, 2026 | Kubik Story (en) | 0 comments

Ihász Nóra

Interview: Nóra Ihász

Born into a family of lawyers, Gergely Bihary has been passionate about technology since childhood. As a software engineer, he has continuously reached new heights: winning hackathons during university, then going on to work at Prezi and Google. Today, he is part of one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, ElevenLabs, where he leads an eight-person growth engineering team. His story shows that almost anything is possible when you pursue your work with passion.

Photos: Balázs Levente Berki

Bihari Gergely

Photos: Balázs Levente Berki

01

From a Family of Lawyers to an Engineering Career

The Budapest-born software engineer comes from a family where parents and siblings alike chose the legal profession. This, however, did not stop him from following his own interests: “I was always drawn to technology, and when I had to decide which direction to take, I realized that programming and the world of small devices interested me the most,” says Gergely, who began his studies in Computer Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
“Later, thanks to a European Union scholarship program, EIT Digital, I had the opportunity to study abroad. I completed my master’s degree in Berlin and Helsinki, where I focused on cloud computing as well as innovation and entrepreneurship.”

02

The Beginning: Hackathons and the First Startup

“During university, my friends and I loved going to hackathons. We traveled the world with them: New York, San Francisco, Helsinki, Berlin, and many more,” Gergely recalls.

His first startup was born out of a legal hackathon in 2017, together with his friends and his twin brother.

“This software initially aimed to help individuals easily and smoothly request their personal data from large companies with just a few clicks. It was very successful at the beginning, so we took it to the next level and tried to build a business around it.”

“It later became more about how we could sell a solution to companies that would allow them to handle these requests efficiently,” he explains. Although the project eventually ended up “in a drawer,” it provided invaluable experience and opened many doors. This is how Gergely joined Prezi after university and officially began building his career.

Bihari Gergely

03

The Dream of Software Engineers: Google

After a very positive three-year period, Gergely decided to try himself at Google: “I saw an opportunity and thought, ‘every software engineer dreams of working at Google, so I’ll give it a try.’ I spent two and a half years at the company’s Budapest office, working on an AI solution within Google Cloud.”

Thanks to his consistent and high-quality work, he earned the Transformative Impact rating—the highest level in Google’s evaluation system, awarded to less than 0.5% of employees.

“I think one of the highlights of my time at Google was when I was added to a chat where one of the messages was answered by Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder. At that moment, I felt like it couldn’t get any higher.”

Still, after two and a half years, he decided to move on.

“At Google, everyone is extremely intelligent and deeply knowledgeable, but the company culture lacks the kind of startup mindset that is more present at places like Prezi or other startups. That felt unusual to me, and I realized it wasn’t the right fit—I couldn’t fully use all my skills,” he explains.

04

Where Business, Marketing, and Engineering Meet

Gergely’s next step was ElevenLabs, one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI companies, which has grown from 80 to over 400 employees in just a year.

The company develops AI models capable of generating human-like voices—moving far beyond the robotic sounds of the past to voices that are often indistinguishable from real human speech.

“We lead the growth engineering team, which focuses on what kind of software and solutions we need to build to gain more users and revenue. I really enjoy it because it sits at the intersection of business, marketing, and engineering. You get to build and think across multiple dimensions at once. It’s highly motivating to be a bigger cog in a smaller machine.”

Bihari Gergely

05

Conquering Lake Balaton and Discovering KUBIK

Alongside his work, Gergely stays active, builds his own projects, and spends as much time as possible outdoors.

One of his side projects is an application called Planning Poker, developed during COVID to help software teams plan their work—even remotely.

“It’s a passion project that more and more people are using every month. We’re now at 15,000 users, but there’s still a lot more potential in it.”

In his free time, he enjoys being at Lake Balaton with his twin brother, where they sail and surf—often competing in races during the summer.

“After spending hours in front of a laptop, being out on the water feels completely different—it really clears your mind.”

In Budapest, he particularly likes the area around Jászai Mari Square, where he discovered KUBIK while cycling.

“I thought I’d check it out, and I liked it from the very beginning.”

What stood out to him was both the atmosphere and the way the space functions: “It’s great that you can start your morning chatting over coffee, then focus on work, and even have lunch together later. Everyone is very open and friendly—and the location is excellent.”