Today we’re announcing our 24’ Summer release at
@BrexHQ
! ☀️ AI-powered accounting with continuous close (first software ever to do so), two completely redesigned products, and a blazing-fast new UI with 100+ improvements that make Brex the most powerful *and* simple it’s ever
Switching to founder mode is the best thing I’ve done at Brex in many years. What it means for us in practice:
1) Having a single roadmap for the entire company, where I’m the editor of what ships in each release.
2) Eliminate people manager roles. Leaders must operate at all
🧵 Three Myths of Headcount
Headcount is a topic of huge debate in any startup. It's your largest expense, and many people see it as a silver bullet. It isn’t.
👇 Here’s three myths of headcount.
🧵 Yesterday we made the difficult decision to stop serving traditional small businesses at
@brexHQ
.
Brex remains deeply committed to serving startups, so let me explain how we got to this (painful) decision, and why it allows us to serve startups even better.
Today Brex is launching a new, supercharged banking experience for startups with
@Stripe
and
@Column
🏦
The banking process can be difficult for new founders — especially non-U.S. residents. They often have to wait 5+ weeks for an EIN from the IRS before they can even apply for
The single biggest predictor of leadership success at
@brexHQ
can be summarized in 6 words: ability to operate at all levels.
Sent this note to our managers last week.
It's a hard day at
@brexHQ
today. We made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce our team by 11%.
Today is about treating those leaving with the compassion and respect they deserve. More here:
Something that never stops to surprise me: as the company scales, good intentions don't matter. The only thing that matters is having systems that enforce the right behavior by default.
Don't ask your team to do X. Create a system that makes it impossible not to do X.
I frequently write to our team about how Brex is doing, and my learnings over the past 7 years. This time, I decided to share them externally.
What's happening at
@brexHQ
7 weeks after our layoff, me moving back to the Bay Area, and the beginning of Brex 3.0.
ChatGPT is coming to
@brexHQ
, and this is just the beginning. We're rethinking our entire roadmap around AI, and how we can bring superpowers to Finance teams.
The future of software is here! 🚀
🚨 Huge Empower News!
We are working with
@OpenAI
to bring advanced AI-powered tools for CFOs and their teams.
The new features will provide relevant insights on corporate spend and answer critical business questions all in real-time.
Learn more:
1/13 We’re thrilled to announce Brex Premium today! With Premium,
@BrexHQ
now replaces your bank account, credit card, Expensify and , all in a single, integrated product experience. More details in 🧵
1/ Mental health is still something people shy away from discussing, especially in hyper-growth companies. It shouldn’t be this way, so I shared my own journey with the Brex team recently. Here’s my story. 🧵
I wrote this essay to the team at
@brexHQ
about the importance that a Growth Mindset had my life. I thought a lot before sharing it externally, but the team really encouraged me to - thank you. :)
I’m so excited to announce Brex Empower, a new software platform to increase the speed of businesses and create a culture of trust and financial discipline. More in 🧵below.
Founders, pro tip: when you ask your VCs to post wrong data trying to cause FUD on your competitors, make sure they have their info right otherwise your company looks bad!
When validating the idea for
@brexHQ
, whether or not people wanted cards wasn’t a question.
How we could properly execute issuance was. There was no Marqeta or Stripe Issuing. Anyone who wanted to issue cards had to build the technology from the ground up.
So, early on, we
If a team can’t hit a goal 3-6 months away because of headcount, they’ve already lost it. It takes 3+ months to hire and onboard a great person. New hires won't contribute to your goal, and time invested in hiring will make you slower.
We’re excited to introduce a brand-new product, Brex Venture Debt, that allows venture-backed technology companies in the Brex ecosystem to take their businesses to the next level with less dilution.
When building Brex 3.0, we set a clear bar for what we ship: to build things we’re insanely proud of. Here’s what I learned about how great work actually happens.
I started coding when I was 9. I don’t know why I started, but I continued doing it because of a very specific
Thrilled that
@brexHQ
is
#4
on CNBC disruptors list this year! 🚀Since we started Brex, our customers:
1. Automated 11 million hours of busywork
2. Kept $50b+ of spend on budget, automatically
3. Earned $350m/year in financial income
4. Got $650m in rewards to accelerate growth
Instead of adding headcount, here’s two things that actually increase output: having exceptionally talented leaders, and reducing the number of things that compete for their attention.
I met Victor 10 years ago, and it's impossible to overstate the impact he's had in my life and Brex. He's one of the smartest founders I know, and soon-to-be one of the best investors of this generation. Benchmark is lucky to have him.
Thrilled to join
@benchmark
as a General Partner.
I am inspired by the founders that partnered with the firm to build so many iconic companies and determined to see where uncompromising commitment to entrepreneurs can take us.
We're launching Brex Payables today! Finance teams now have full control over procurement spend, effortlessly managing invoices and purchase cards alongside T&E in a single global platform.
Check it out at
Brex Travel launches today, after one year in the making. One of the most polished experiences we've ever built, with the entire travel experience inside Empower. It's so good I miss it every time I have a personal trip. Thanks to the team at
@brexHQ
and all our beta customers!
Today is the official launch of Brex travel! ✈️
We are now the most unified global spend platform, providing travel booking and management — along with corporate cards, expense management, reimbursements, travel, business accounts, and bill pay — all on
Lessons learned:
1. We should have been more transparent with the startup community about what this means to them.
2. Customers expect a partner that scales with them. Multi-year plans should take it into account.
3. Focus is painful, but it’s what gives meaning to our choices.
Big news here at
@brexHQ
! Today we launched Brex AI and Brex Assistant to reduce expense busywork by 10x to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of employees and finance teams. Learn more at !
The last two days in the startup banking industry have been extraordinary, and we are saddened to see the impact to an industry peer that served so many in the startup community.
Our customer have asked about risk to their
@BrexHQ
accounts. You can read
In the spirit of onward and upward, today I wanted to share the details of
@brexHQ
's Winter 2024 Release, which includes a new smarter Brex bill pay with marquee features we think you’ll love.
Today
@brexHQ
is launching crypto rewards - the first (and easiest!) way for businesses to get into crypto. We're excited to lower the friction for companies to adopt crypto, and rewards is just the beginning. Onwards!
We believe cryptocurrency will play an important role in the future of finance. That’s why starting today,
@brexHQ
customers can redeem their Brex rewards points for
#BTC
and
#ETH
.
Learn more here:
Our Summer Release wasn’t the only thing Brex shipped last week... 👀
I'm excited to share our latest brand campaign! 🔥
We built it using the same principle as the release: helping customers make every dollar count.
No great company was ever built on savings alone. Our goal
The constraint is not headcount. It's leadership. And if there’s something that a focused environment provides, it is a unique opportunity for new leaders to emerge and play a critical role. Use it. 😊
We held our company-wide off-site at
@brexHQ
last week in Denver, with over 1,000 folks. Incredible energy, one of our most memorable moments as a company.
By far the best part of my job is working with so many amazing people. :)
PS: we're hiring!
After a year-long journey of self-discovery, I'm so excited to announce the rebrand of
@BrexHQ
, and how we plan on helping every growing company realize their full potential!
Column is amazing — never thought a banking partner could be this good. Very glad to be customers at
@brexHQ
. Congrats on the launch,
@williamhockey
and Annie!
Estou super feliz de anunciar que o Brex está contratando engenheiros no Brasil! O trabalho será 100% remoto, todos os funcionários recebem ações da empresa e pagamento em dolar. Se estiver interessado - pode aplicar aqui:
Spotted: Brex in SF, repping the
#smartestcard
on the road. 💳 🔥
Want to see your company's name in lights in Times Square? Snap a photo of the Brex truck in the wild, post it to your social media, and tag
@brexhq
to be entered to win a NYC billboard!
We'll be on the road for
Super excited that
@_karandeep
is joining us at
@brexHQ
to lead product. He's beyond impressive and we're so lucky to have him. Welcome, Karan!
And yes, we raised our Series D-2 :)
Brex is now a remote-first company, and I couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities ahead of us! Our guiding principle for Remote is to clone the internet, and not the office. Here’s our thoughts on how:
🌎Big news!
Brex now offers even more global capabilities, enabling companies to spend globally and operate locally.
With Brex, you can:
✅ Operate in more countries and currencies than any other provider by issuing cards and locally funding reimbursements in over 20
Brex now supports global teams in 100+ countries with cards and spend management! 🌎
As an immigrant, I'm really passionate about leveling the playing field and providing the same tools US employees love to teams in any country.
Onwards to a more distributed world! 🚀
We’re going global. 🌎 Get ready for card acceptance in 100+ countries, global reimbursements in local currency, 24/7 support, enhanced security, and more. Learn about it here:
Thrilled to announce Brex Cash! I couldn't be more proud of the team at
@brexHQ
for making it possible! And incredibly optimistic for the future of this product - Brex is just getting started :)
Get the details:
When a project isn’t going according to plan, we flirt with the idea of adding more headcount to make it go faster. There’s been zero times where headcount saved a project on a bad trajectory.
1/ Brex raised new funding at a $7.4B valuation.
Interestingly, the corporate card startup launched in 2018 with a very successful $300k out-of-home (OOH) ad campaign.
Here's a breakdown of Brex's OOH strategy 🧵
🤖 Brex Engineering has been integrating GPT-4 into our product over the last few months. We wrote an internal guide covering everything our teams needed to know to quickly start building on LLMs in a reliable way. This week we open-sourced that guide. ⬇️
A few weeks ago we launched Instant Payouts, which allowed customers to access payouts within minutes. Today, we're excited to share we've expanded the capabilities of Instant Payouts to include
@paypal
,
@square
, and
@Stripe
!
Having money is also not an excuse to hire more. Because it’s so easy to throw money at problems, you should be even more cautious. Hiring more salespeople outside of CAC constraints doesn’t help. Growth at all costs makes things worse.
The difference between great and bad projects is not headcount – it’s leadership. It’s easy to mix the two, because great projects tend to have more headcount. But that's only true because these projects were going well, and the company decided to double down on them.
Brex has been named to
@Forbes
Cloud 100 List for 2024! 🎉 We're honored to be listed among so many phenomenal companies that are shaping the future of the cloud space, and are proud to see so many Brex customers & partners named alongside us—including
@airtable
,
@wiz_io
,
Congrats to
@Reddit
on their IPO—big news for the tech industry! 🙂 Here at Brex, we serve companies from startup to IPO and beyond, including over 100 public companies like DoorDash, Robinhood, Warby Parker, and Hims. And those impressive public companies make up our Brex Index,
It’s such a great feeling when you finally complete your product vision and you can approach your marketing with boldness and authenticity (still can’t get myself to pay for marketing tho, so thank you brex)
🚀 Today, we've open-sourced Rivet, a game-changer for
#AI
agents!
We just launched our first AI agent at
@ironclad_inc
. But I almost gave up on it, until Andy build v0 of Rivet and showed me what was possible.
Let us know what you think!
Thrilled to launch the
@brexHQ
API today! One of our largest customer asks, and one of the best things we've shipped this year.
We couldn't have done it without a cultural and technical shift to deliver a great developer-first experience. More here:
The Brex API is ready for you to build on.
You’ll now see a new developer section in your Brex dashboard’s settings page. Create API tokens in seconds and follow our example guides to start building and benefiting fast.
Learn more at
This was a fun one! We go deep into how
@brexHQ
is building the only vertically integrated spend platform on the planet, and what our deep investment to own the financial infrastructure means to our customers. Check it out.
Does being vertically integrated unlock global scale for Fintech companies? Brex believes it does. Here's why 👇
🎧 Exclusive Interview:
@brexHQ
Co-CEO
@pedroh96
How Being Vertically Integrated Unlocks Global Scale
Brex a category. Life before Brex was terrible for founders
If you believe we made a mistake offboarding you, please let us know at reopen
@brex
.com
If you received any kind of funding, or are part of the startup community (crypto, angel investor, VC, etc),
@brexHQ
remains deeply committed to serving you.
A profound realization for me… If I were to write a book on how to start a company, I'd split it in two parts, each equally important: initial conditions (first 6 months) and tailwinds (the 10 years that follow).
More on my interview with
@HarryStebbings
.
There are two core stages to building a mega company.
1️⃣ Finding the right idea, and building the right team to execute.
2️⃣ The 10 year journey of leveraging that tailwind.
@pedroh96
🦄
Everyone underestimates the importance of finding the right idea.
Love your thoughts on
However, we still had tens of thousands of small businesses with very different needs from fast-growing companies. And by spreading ourselves too thin, we couldn’t serve either small businesses or startups well.
You’re one well-crafted cold email away from speaking with (literally) whomever you want. Then you'll have to jump on a plane (per yesterday's tweet).
This has helped me land huge partners for Brex.
Here are my pro tips for writing that actually gets shit done.
When people ask me why points > cashback, this is why.
Points give us the leverage to negotiate at scale, and deliver much more value for customers than any cashback program can.
Rewards that move the needle. More to come here! 🚀
This led us to the painful decision to stop serving traditional small businesses. We decided to draw the line of who’s eligible as any customer who received any investment (accelerator, angel, VC, web3 token, etc).
Headcount isn’t a lifelong resource. It belongs to the company, not to a team. If company priorities change and important goals are understaffed, the only sane thing to do is to change your resource allocation across teams.
1) Small businesses didn’t get the products they needed (e.g. working capital solutions).
2) We had to degrade the white-glove level of service we offered to startups, in order to scale to tens of thousands of customers.
It all comes down to a capacity problem: how many leaders can independently run a project towards success, and how many projects compete for their attention?
"Our hope was to be able to support FTX's customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help," Binance has reportedly said per WSJ.
Now you can create expense policies right from your dashboard! 🤓
Get automatic alerts if Brex Card transactions are missing receipts, memos, or need your review. 🧾 Makes managing spend even easier.
Let us know what you think!
Over time, we realized that our startup customers – the very customers we started with – were growing very fast, and needed Brex to scale with them.
@scale_AI
went from 5 people when we started serving them, to almost 1,000. Brex didn’t work as well for larger companies.
I have interviewed 800 founders on 20VC.
The single commonality of the best (
@eldsjal
@tobi
) they all start entrepreneurial endeavours young.
Pedro at just 15 scaled to 100 people & $1.5BN transactions.
Today, he is CEO of Brex, a fricking monster that
For founders concerned with the stability of their banking provider, we are working to fast track new
@BrexHQ
Business Account applications. Funds are fully backed by US-government securities, or kept in FDIC-insured bank accounts. Sign-up here:
Another take: If you take your best and worst projects and look at the individual contributors, they’re equivalent. Most companies hire in a centralized model, so ICs go through the same interview process. What's the difference between good and bad projects? Leadership.
Compensation is a complicated topic for nearly every company. Excited to share how we built a comp program designed for scale at
@brexHQ
, while still providing flexibility for our team.
This has been an incredibly difficult decision for the team, and a deeply personal one for me. Many of us at Brex are deeply inspired by what small businesses contribute to their communities, but we believe these customers deserve a partner that’s entirely focused on them.
Growing businesses have a lot to think about – corporate cards shouldn’t be one of them.
We’ve partnered with
@brexHQ
to make using online payments secure and convenient for you and your business. 💳 Get started:
Ask yourself: what’s the version of too much headcount for your team? How much headcount can this part of the business structurally support? You can always add, but you can't undo headcount without a layoff. Add what you truly need.