Max Segall – Transcript

Q&A Session with Max Segall @ Brex

July 17th, 2019

Are you guys hiring Product Managers?
Always looking to hire top talent! Check out open positions here – https://careers.brex.com

How does a company scale that fast without falling apart?
Scaling sustainably is very top of mind at Brex! One helpful tactic has been hiring people who have experience working at hypergrowth companies so they can bring perspective on what works well and what doesn’t

When you have an idea (well planned) and you have 0 experience searching for investors. How do you find them?
A lot of major markets have pitch events where you can practice your pitch in front of experienced investors and get genuine low-stakes feedback. DM me where you’re at so that I can recommend a few.

Was there any marketing content that was key to Brex’s success?
Here’s an article we wrote about our Outdoor Ad campaign which really helped us get off the ground early: https://www.producthunt.com/stories/how-brex-is-building-the-startup-marketing-playbook-beyond-the-billboards.

You said you’ve been advising and investing in tech companies your whole career. What is the biggest red flag you see that would make you end the relationship?
One red flag I’ve seen is when a founder doesn’t understand all of the nuances of the market and the competitive landscape they’re going after.

How do you go about validating ideas before building products?
Brex builds products based on the verticals that we feel are underserved by the corporate credit card market. For example, our startup, ecomm, and life sciences products are all going after pockets of the small business universe that don’t have good financing alternatives available today.

Hi Max, for a card supposedly focused on startups, you guys seem to have rather high and inflexible qualification requirements. I think it’s $50K/mo of sales, not taking into account the profit margin, or am I getting something wrong?

Hey Ray! Brex’s underwriting philosophy for startups is based on the available cash balance/burn rate of startups. For eCommerce, Brex evaluates the trailing 30-day net sales to determine their credit limit. Happy to answer any specific underwriting questions over DM.

How long is your sales process at Brex? Do you have any tips for nurturing users to close, especially on big/expensive/new tech accounts?
Signing up for Brex is really simple – our online application only takes a few minutes to fill out. For prospects that prefer a direct sales dialogue with a demo, the sales cycle will typically last ~one week. Once users see the product in action during demos, the value prop makes a lot more sense, and getting signups is really easy from there.

The Insights section of your website is brilliant. Can you tell us a bit about your content strategy, how you went about it?
Thanks so much, Pamela! We put a lot of energy behind being a trusted knowledge center for our customers. We actually hired the amazing TechCrunch reporter who covered our first big fundraising announcement to manage this section of our site

Do you offer any solutions for high-risk industries? Cannabis or CBD?
Not yet! But stay tuned.

What kind of partnerships do you focus on? What partnership tactics have worked best for you?
The best partnerships have been those where our customers love our partners’ product and our partner’s customers love ours! From that starting point everything from cross-promoting, product integrations, and events/content flow very naturally

Who do you consider to be your #1 competitor, and how do you think you’re different?

Many of our clients will switch over to us from either: 1) reimbursing spend on personal or 2) Amex / SVB / Chase. We think we’re different since 1) we’re underwriting our clients differently which allows us to give clients higher limits without requiring the founder to personally guarantee the card, 2) we have best in class rewards, and 3) we automate many aspects of the expense management process on the back end.

How important do partnerships in any regard fall into your growth plan?
2) Besides the good ole fashion way of building partnerships… Are you using any software or services?

Partnerships are a critical part of Brex’s growth story – not only do partners connect us with new customers, but they also offer rewards perks that our customers LOVE – as an example, Zoom offers every Brex customer 20% off of their first year’s subscription costs.
Here’s a summary of our rewards program – some great stuff in here! brex.com/rewards
Would love to hear of any tools/services you’d recommend for building partnerships!

What does your ideal client look like?