You are reading an interview from HackernoonFounder Conflict Corporation Series! Do you want to have a stab in answering some of these questions? The template link here.
1. What is your company with 2-5 words?
Modern spending platform.
2. Why is it time for your company?
We originally started our start when we haven’t seen anyone in our YC group could get a company card. We realized that the payment industry needed vibration – so we controlled our original idea and launched Brex to help the founders expand in 2017.
From there, we realized the amount of opportunities that existed when it came to how to manage companies spend. The current tools for planning and spending and tracking the company’s dollars were old and separate, leading to boring operations for the founders and financing teams.
A basic shift was needed. This has inspired our efforts to overcome the mere company card and build a full platform from A to Z, which unifying services and financial programs, allowing the movement of money and spending controls for coexistence.
This need to improve spending is more important in the macroeconomic environment today, as founders and financing teams are required to increase the return on investment in every dollar. We are helping to ensure that it is equipped to make a smarter and thus grow faster.
3. What do you like in your team, and why are you the person who solves this problem?
We have a team of builders who want to work in the utmost distress to build the generations company that exceeds our customers’ expectations. We often talk about Brex about sudden differentials between speed and quality. We need to move quickly to bring the future that we imagine forward, but we have never cut the corners on that trip. I am crazyly proud of how the team deals with this every day, with a big picture monitoring but I am always obsessed with detail.
The other thing that deserves to be referred to is that Brex is at the intersection of services and financial programs, and we have an incredible team from experts from both fields (capital markets <>) draw our way forward. The result is that we have the most advanced global capabilities and payment bars in the market, and we are constantly raising the tape in each product version to make our offer easy to use for smaller and widely customized companies for our customers in institutions.
4. If you don’t build your startup, what will you do?
I can’t really imagine not building Brex – it’s very essential.
5. At the present time, how to measure success? What are your standards?
We consider the growth of revenues that are driven by both the new customers’ acquisition and retaining net revenue. We have also set goals about the burning rate, sales efficiency, and CAC’s decline with the 1st of last year that burns Brex Money.
Besides difficult standards, it is very important for us that our platform can expand. Brex is the only player who can serve reliable companies at each stage of growth, from the YC founders who start to public companies trillion dollars. We will continue to give priority to this as a basic efficiency – success is to offer this wide range of customers for years to come.
6. In a few sentences, what did you offer?
Brex offers a wide range of products to help companies with more intelligent spending and make each number of dollars including the smartest companies in the world with intuitive expenses management, banking services, payment of bills, accounting automation, travel, and more.
7. What is the most exciting in your jar yet?
We have been able to enable companies to make more intelligent spending decisions at each stage of growth-from startups, to medium-sized companies, up to leading companies, international institutions such as anthropor, arm, spirit, service, WIZ, and more. We have seen companies that started with only two people growing to more than more than the employee institution, and Brex was with them every step on the road. It is incredibly feasible to see how Brex supported them in the efficiency and effectiveness. With Brex, our customers provide 169,000 hours per month on expenses, documents and accounting, and they have 94 % compliance rate, compared to the 70 % industry standards.
But it is not only about providing tools; It comes to being a real strategic partner and helping them to fuel their Si growth. This is the part that really excites us.
8. Where do you think your growth will be next year?
2024 was a year of sharp improvement in Brex. Revenue growth accelerated approximately 3x this year, the net revenue retaining increased by more than 15 points, while the burning rate decreased by almost 70 %. In 2025, we will continue to collect the momentum that was built this year, growing faster than 2024, and being last year in which we burn money – a milestone to subscribe to the future. We will also continue to raise the tape on the quality of the product and innovation, with the increased frequency of customer acquisition with the economy of health unit on a large scale.
9. Tell us about the first client’s expectations and revenues paid over the next year.
Scale AI was the first Brex agent. I clearly remember Henrik, the co -founder, I walk to their office and financially hand their BREX card. It is a moment that I will never forget.
10. What is the biggest threat to you?
to focus. The central tension to build a company is obsessed with results, but at the same time, it is not interested in it at all. Ironically, the greater the results and focus on a great work mode, the more results. It is the old proverb: the result takes care of itself. All we need to do is a great work situation in front of customers, and the result will take care of itself.
This start -up founder’s interview template is based on Hackernoon Nuster & CEO of David Smoke for startup founders.