by Y Combinator4/21/2022
Brex went through YC in Winter 2017, and now serves over 50,000 companies, and 40% of US startups.
Last week they announced the launch of Brex Empower, a software platform that helps scaling companies manage their spend and stay financially disciplined while still moving at startup speed.
They built the product to solve the problems Brex itself faced as they started growing – and launched with DoorDash as one of their first customers.
YC’s Anu Hariharan sat down with Brex Co-CEO Henrique Dubugras to talk about the launch of Empower and Henrique’s advice for startup founders and CEOs.
You can listen here on Twitter Spaces.
12:44 - What is Brex Empower? And why did you decide to launch it now?
16:55 - What scaling challenges was DoorDash having that they thought Brex Empower could help them with?
21:05 - Speed as a strategy at Brex
24:50 - 3 features Brex Empower customers are excited about
28:50 - How spend is changing in the remote work world
32:35 - Henrique talks about the biggest challenges they faced while building Brex Empower
36:10 - Who is the right customer for Empower?
37:40 - The future of Empower and Brex
42:00 - On Brex’s writing culture
Audience questions
45:37 - What was your process for reaching product market fit at Brex/when did you know you’d achieved it?
48:05 - What convinced you to apply to YC?
49:45 - What happens when blockchain takes hold of the credit card space?
50:55 - Anu shares two early memories about the Brex team.
53:05 - Early on, how much did you focus on rewards vs. the product/platform?
57:55 - How much time did you spend on customer validation?
1:00:02 - Henrique’s super power
1:01:25: - What do you push other YC founders on when encouraging them to dream big?
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