Brex created a category. Life before Brex was terrible for founders and growth businesses. The least worst option was Silicon Valley Bank which would offer a veneer of founder friendliness but with a terrible digital UX.

Brex turned this on its head with corporate cards that just worked and removed the personal guarantee. It’s hard to understate the revolution this created in experience and the step change in productivity for businesses. Today a Series A company might have a finance team of 1, and maybe 2 by Series B.

Today there are many competitors to Brex, but this is a multi-billion dollar valued juggernaut with a substantial lead in deposits and float.

Brex started as the corporate card for startups, but today they’re expanding—with expense management, travel, business accounts, and bill pay. Can they win the race for the finance operating system of digital companies, and if so how?

What makes Perdro tick? And how are they building an enduring business?

Ramp has become known for its expense cards that "just work." While a few competitors are in this category, none have grown as quickly as Ramp.

I put that down to obsession—an obsession with the details driven by North Star metrics like hours saved per user and dollars saved per customer. But how does that manifest as a product?

As the old saying goes, it takes a lot of effort to make it look effortless. Never want to add a memo to a monthly expense again? Just hit the "make recurring" button.

There is so much to learn from how Ramp executes, yet such a challenging road in front of them.

Today, Ramp is so much more than an expense card. It's one payment and procurement platform. Yet it has taken a downturn. It has famously not charged for key bits of the product, and it is in the single most competitive spot in Fintech, with companies like Mercury, Brex, and Arc snapping at its heels.

This wide-ranging conversation starts with Eric and Ramp, but I also wanted to discuss Fintech as an industry and whether it is here to stay in the post-SVB world. Or is it all just waiting to be acquired by JP Morgan.

Hey Fintech Nerds 👋,

Can B2B Fintech rescue us from the banking crisis, or does it make it worse?

Fintech Brainfood Interviews is a series of 1:1 conversations with CEOs of Fintech companies. We go deeper, getting into how they're building the product and partnering and how that makes them different.

The first five episodes are with Ramp.com, Brex, Arc, Meow, and Modern Treasury. Episode 6 is a bonus after-show with my favorite nerds picking apart the differences.

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