Brex’s Post

Brex's strategic move with Brex 3.0 deserves recognition for its clever approach. The company has taken an innovative process to its GTM strategy, highlighting story-first launches, a unified roadmap, and a cohesive narrative. "We changed this model with Brex 3.0. We killed our planning process, and now have One Roadmap for the entire company. I am the ultimate editor of everything that ships. We release 4 times a year, and each release has no more than 3 big themes. This forces me to choose what truly matters, allowing us to make a large, company-affecting investment in the few things that are step-function changes to the customer experience, and drop everything else." https://lnkd.in/d-fuNDAS

It was awesome hearing Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi speak at a recent YC alumni event (moderated by Dalton Caldwell) about his journey so far at Brex and some of the difficult decisions founders have to make as they go into "founder mode" 🚀 A few lessons from Pedro that stood out: - 🛣 Single company roadmap: Pedro emphasized the significance of aligning the entire company on a single roadmap, highlighting the benefits of streamlining operations and removing layers of management. - 🤦♂️ More sales reps != More efficient sales: Surprisingly, Pedro discussed how reducing sales headcount can boost sales team efficiency (this was counter-intuitive!). - 🎨 Creative GTM: Pedro underscored the value of creativity in Go-To-Market strategies and that you need to find the alpha that lets you capture attention better than your competitors. #FounderMode

🌟 We're thrilled to announce that Brex has been recognized as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies of 2024 by Fast Company! 🏆 This honor is a true testament to our team's dedication, our amazing investors, and of course, our incredible customers. From startups to enterprises, we're proud to help companies of all sizes manage spend at scale worldwide with our AI-powered spend platform. 💪 🔥 Over the past six years, we've evolved from a corporate card to a leader in the spend management space. Our commitment to providing an exceptional experience for our customers across the startup community and global enterprises remains unwavering. 🗣️ "To be recognized on Fast Company's Innovative Companies list is a testament to our commitment to our customers," says Henrique Dubugras, co-founder and co-CEO of Brex. 💡 Discover how we're shaping the future of spend management and revolutionizing how companies handle their finances. Check out the article and learn more about our journey: [Link to article] #Brex

Want to see a masterclass CEO message? Look no further than the latest post by the CEO of Brex, Pedro Franceschi about the changes they instituted. Here's why it's incredible 👇 1️⃣ It's kind of an open secret that Brex had the lead in the corporate credit card market....and then fumbled it, to other upstarts such as Ramp that started well after they did. 2️⃣ Pedro first starts with the positives and strength: listing the great things that Brex has done over the past year to move forward. 3️⃣ But then, he acknowledges the open secret and showcases self-awareness. Most founders who fall behind don't do this, and it looks dumb. Pedro doesn't skirt from the facts that Brex fell behind after massive growth. 4️⃣ Pedro doesn't acknowledge competitors (smartly, a la Apple style) at all. This is smart. Instead, he takes accountability and doesn't give others space. I like this approach: make sure people know that it's you that can control your fate and that you're fully in control of changing it. 5️⃣ The tone of voice does not look like it's written by AI. Yes, that's a thing nowadays. 6️⃣ This post is incredible because it serves 3 constituents beautifully at once: Customers (who want the Brex experience to be better), investors (who want more returns on a possibly high premium they paid and a plan for how it's going to be executed), and employees (who probably want answers to why the changes were happening internally). That's a really hard needle to thread, and he does this beautifully. Link to his post is in the comments below! LMK what y'all think of it.

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 feeling – one so profound I ended up building a lot of my life around chasing: the feeling of building something you’re proud of. Then I started my first payments company in Brazil inspired by what great APIs could do to how businesses moved money. And I started Brex because I wanted to build a new kind of company, at the intersection of financial service and software, that no one thought was possible. Over the past 6 months we changed a lot of how we run Brex. And what I realized is that “building something you’re proud of” isn’t so much about hitting a goal, a particular metric, or a financial outcome. It’s about the inherent feeling of doing great work, and navigating the inherent messiness that comes with it. I noticed a few patterns: 1. There is no recipe for great work, and yet, great people tend to love processes (including me). Don’t let the process get in the way of the messiness involved in building something great. The only “process” you can follow is to love the struggle. When you’re banging heads against the wall late at night, with no obvious path forward, keep in mind that persevering in those moments is the hallmark of great work. This is how it’s done, and this is how all the great people do it. Keep going and learn to love it. 2. Nascent ideas are fragile. The easiest thing is to shut down a new idea because it doesn’t clear the bar yet – losing it before it morphed into something better. What’s the fastest way to kill a nascent idea? To treat it like a final product before it gets there. 3. Simplify. Great ideas fit into a napkin. Eliminate the non-essential, but keep the right balance between logic and emotion. Figure out how to tell a story that’s rational, and yet evokes a feeling. People make emotional decisions for logical reasons. Great work has both. 4. Focus. You can’t apply this level of care and rigor on everything. The only way to do great work is to do fewer things really well. It takes time and many mental cycles to achieve greatness. You need to be thinking about it in the shower. If you don’t have the mental bandwidth required to achieve something you’re proud of, it’s not worth starting. These learnings have resulted in releases we’re more proud of than ever, and have received tons of positive customer feedback – which we’re so grateful for. Thank you to our customers and our team for building something we’re insanely proud of!

I’ve spent my last four and a half years at Brex. Joining back in January of 2020, a lot has changed between myself, the company, and the world. Over my time at Brex, I’ve seen or experienced: - Rolling out career ladders, working towards a staff engineer promotion, and moving into management - Onboarding hundreds of engineers, resulting in the growth of the company from under fifty engineers and three hundred employees to over a thousand employees - Surviving three different rounds of layoffs, and countless numbers of re-organizations - Moving from a product engineer helping to build and launch Brex Cash, to an internal platform tech lead focused on developer productivity for a rapidly scaling organization, back to working on product as an engineering manager helping to re-launch our Bill Pay product integrated into our expense management software Since 2023, I've been writing down some key learnings from my time at Brex. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eXRV8NNz #TechCareer #SoftwareEngineering #Fintech #StartupLife #CareerGrowth #EngineeringManagement #ProductDevelopment #DeveloperProductivity #TechInsights #Scalability #OrganizationalGrowth #TechLeadership #Brex #TechLearnings #EngineeringJourney

When I was at Brex, I launched a series called $0 to $1M and interviewed top founders who did $1M in <18 mos. It was some of our highest-performing content. Why? 1️⃣ It put a face to the brand - Fintech is often stuffy and not very fun - Video humanized us and made it personal - Put a real person at the forefront 2️⃣ It put the focus onto our ICP/customers - It wasn’t about how great our software was - It was about how dope our founders are 3️⃣ It gave practical and tactical advice - Language was simple, easy to understand - Tips were real, lived experiences The point? When B2B companies empower *individuals* to create unique content and operate within their creative genius, they create the opportunity to build deeper relationships w/ their ICP – Thus, leading to ROI on the sales side. Shoutout to the 🐐 Tyler Denk 🐝 for being my first victim.

This past week, we held a meeting with one of my first target accounts here at Brex. How this happened: 1. We developed a POV: They're a very global account, and we assumed they probably dealt with issues around global acceptance or weren't able to issue local currency cards in some countries. 2. We found key stakeholders: Initially, I was not able to reach C-suite executives. I worked from the bottom up, connected with a new manager, who then introduced me to leadership. 3. We stayed patient: This was not a key initiative in the summer. Instead of pushing for a meeting, I made sure to follow up last month. The lesson learned: Taking your time to understand your prospect is a true game changer. Understanding their organizational structure, what they care about, their potential pains, and when they'll matter are key! LinkedIn Fam – What's the longest you've worked an account before you were able to break in?

Founders talk a lot about lightbulb moments 💡 that altered the course of their destiny. But it isn’t always smooth sailing. For us – we started our journey with this "brilliant" idea for invoice financing. We had letters of intent. We even fronted our own money. Y Combinator believed in us. Sounds like a dream, right? Wrong. When we spoke with customers, they basically looked at us, shook their heads, and said, "Nope. This isn't it." Pivot time. And not just a small tweak - COMPLETE reinvention. Those early days were a blur of late-night strategy sessions. I'm talking midnight calls with the Brex team (who were incredibly generous with their time and insights). Pro tip: Surround yourself with people who will brainstorm with you when the rest of the world is sleeping. The turning point for us? Focusing on what we actually knew. We built a risk ops copilot. Our design partners at Slope helped us turn a crazy idea into something real. Then came many other companies and ultimately, Pleo - a major European fintech. After a rigorous pilot, they signed on. Suddenly, we weren't just another startup. We were expanding into Europe. We started winning RFPs against our competition. Big companies started using our platform. And we're not done. (Hint: Something big is coming soon 👀)

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of being part of the Brex company-wide on-site! As much as I’ve enjoyed the flexibility of remote work, there is so much value in connecting with your peers in person. One of my biggest takeaways of the week came during our keynote. “Companies become what they invest in.” Since my first day on the job, it’s been clear that we at Brex are leaders in our space because we invest in the right areas. But more than anything, a statement like that serves as a reminder. The person we are tomorrow is defined by what we invest in today. What are those areas I need to invest in to ensure I’m where I want to be in the future? LinkedIn Fam - What are some of those areas for you?