This article examines the impact of corruption on entrepreneurship in transition economies. Utilising in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Bucharest, Romania, the article finds that despite economic reforms, corruption occupies a pervasive space which impacts entrepreneurial strategy. In both countries, entrepreneurs operate within a ‘devil’s circle’, in which they are unable to operate entirely independent of corruption. This is caused by a combination of weak formal institutions and a weak entrepreneurial culture leading to entrepreneurs either seeking to avoid the attention of government officials by hiding some or all of their activities with little prospect of sanction, limiting their growth aspirations, or engaging in corruption as a way of furthering their activities. The research contributes to understandings of corruption and its impact on entrepreneur strategies to avoid, minimise or benefit from it.