AI Fact or Fiction: The Fable Ban, Tokenmaxxing, Saaspocolypse — With Ara Kharazian
Ara Kharazian is the lead economist at Ramp. Kharazian joins Big Technology to discuss how much companies are actually spending on AI and whether that spending is producing real value. Tune in to hear why Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI among businesses, how AI spending varies dramatically from company to company, and whether “tokenmaxing” is really happening. We also cover Anthropic’s clash with the White House, the resurgence of DeepSeek, Google’s underrated position in AI, and whether the predicted SaaS apocalypse is materializing. Hit play for a data-driven look at which AI narratives are real, which are exaggerated, and where business adoption goes next.
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Why AI Isn’t Killing SaaS Yet
Originally aired on MTS segment, Monetary Matters, Jack Farley and Max Wiethe speak with Ara Kharazian, Lead Economist at Ramp, about what real business spending data says about AI adoption, why the “SaaSpocalypse” narrative is overblown, and how companies are actually buying and deploying AI tools. They also discuss Anthropic overtaking OpenAI in Ramp’s AI Index, token-based pricing, AI productivity gains, and why many legacy software firms may be more resilient than people expect.
Resources:
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Magic School uses AI to help kids learn, not cheat | E2196
Are AI tools in the classroom just time-savers, or can they have genuine educational value?In a must-watch TWiST 500 interview, Alex chats with Magic School founder (and former principal) Adeel Khan about how AI tools can make teachers more effective, and keep students inspired, without just doing all the work for them. He talks about turning an AI chatbot into a true assistant teacher, that keeps the lessons balanced yet challenging, and particularly empowers classroom novices and non-professionals.THEN… is 6 years too long for employees to wait to vest? Is this just another founder trying to reinvent EVERYTHING, just because they can’t resist? Ramp CEO Eric Glyman joins Jason and Alex to answer pressing founder questions from viewersPLUS there’s a new entrant in our Gamma Pitch Deck competition, and it’s so compelling, Jason can’t wait to invest! Kris Canete of On the Fly Energy tells us about America’s fragile power grid and his elegant solution: flywheel energy storage!Timestamps:0:00 - Welcome to TWiST!02:59 - Former principal Adeel Khan of TWiST 500's Magic School AI tells us why “teachers are magic”09:41 - Goldbelly ships America’s most delicious, iconic foods nationwide! Get 20% off your first order by going to Goldbelly.com and using the promo code TWiST at checkout.10:50 - How AI tools can particularly help out classroom novices and non-pros who are just getting started20:57 - Check out the online payroll and benefits experts with software built specifically for small business and startups. Try Gusto today and get three months FREE at Gusto.com/twist.26:58 - How Magic School stays ahead of shifting standards across different states and regions32:57 - Zite is the fastest way to build *business software* with AI. Build apps, forms, websites and portals that connect to the tools you already use. Go to *zite.com/twist* to get started.33:30 - Why the best feedback Adeel ever got came from a teenager36:30 - Making AI a true assistant teacher, that keeps lessons balanced yet challenging38:38 - Is a 6-year vesting schedule too aggressive? Eric Glyman responds.41:00 - When even ambitious founders should sometimes just accept a standard deal.57:33 - What IS flywheel energy storage?01:00:00 - Why Jason loves the Fly Energy Gamma pitch and wants to invest right now.01:34:13 - Gamma Outro*Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: [https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com](https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com/)Check out the TWIST500: [https://www.twist500.com](https://twist500.com)Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp*Follow Lon:X: https://x.com/lons*Follow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: [ / alexwilhelm ]( / alexwilhelm )*Follow Jason:X: / jason LinkedIn: [ / jasoncalacanis ]( / jasoncalacanis )Great TWIST interviews: [Will Guidara,]( • Lessons in Unreasonable Hospitality with W... ) [Eoghan McCabe]( • Great Builders & Success First with Interc... ), [Steve Huffman](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast..., [Brian Chesky](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast..., [Bob Moesta,]( • Decoding Customer Insights, Trust, and the... ) [Aaron Levie](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast..., [Sophia Amoruso](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast..., [Reid Hoffman](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast..., [Frank Slootman](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast..., [Billy McFarland](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast...)*Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis*Follow TWiST:Twitter: / twistartups YouTube: / thisweekin Instagram: [ / thisweekinstartups ]( / thisweekinstartups )TikTok: / thisweekinstartups Substack: [https://twistartups.substack.com](<a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_
Karim Atiyeh - Building Ramp - [Invest Like the Best, EP.445]
My guest today is Karim Atiyeh. Karim is the co-founder and CTO of Ramp, the fastest-growing finance automation platform in history, reaching over $1 billion in revenue in just over five years. Ramp is, of course, also our presenting sponsor, so I’m obviously very biased in how highly I think about Ramp and about Karim. But, this interview was not part of that sponsorship, I simply view Karim as one of the best operators active today.
Ramp is building what Karim calls "self-driving finance"—using AI agents to automate everything from expense policy enforcement to invoice processing, eliminating the bureaucratic waste that plagues modern businesses. Karim shares his framework for moving from using AI as a productivity tool to programming AI as your actual product, with policy agents that understand context better than humans and improve continuously. Our discussion captures the relentless iteration speed and technical depth required to build generational companies in the age of AI. We explore his systematic approach to building consumer-grade experiences for business software, the psychology behind his "divinely discontent" management style, and why he believes technical founders will dominate this era because they can see possibilities others miss. Please enjoy my conversation with Karim Atiyeh.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to Ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus.
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This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform.
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This episode is brought to you by AlphaSense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster.
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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:05:09) The Competitive Landscape and AI Advancements
(00:07:27) Building Self-Driving Finance with AI
(00:08:28) Policy Agents and Automation
(00:12:14) Ramp's User Experience and Design Philosophy
(00:23:10) Kareem's Background and Entrepreneurial Journey
(00:28:06) Founding Paribus and Lessons Learned
(00:41:57) The Birth of Ramp and Early Challenges
(00:54:30) Nurturing Investor Relationships
(00:57:10) Challenges in Fundraising
(00:58:23) Customer Adoption and Product Evolution
(01:01:55) Transition to SaaS Revenue Model
(01:06:37) Marketing Innovations and Experiments
(01:24:16) Recruiting for Spikiness and Speed
(01:31:29) Future of Payments and Business Models
(01:39:06) The Kindest Thing
What Ramp’s data tells us about AI, unemployment and more with CEO Eric Glyman | E2192
Today’s show:
*Eric Glyman of Ramp joins us to share the fintech unicorn’s growth secrets AND their Lab full of research data.
On TWiST, Jason and Alex chat with Eric about Ramp’s counter-intuitive mission — helping startups spend LESS money — PLUS they take a deep dive into the company’s treasure trove of startup trend data. Why is there a huge spike in unemployed recent college trends? Is “static team size” as a big a story as Jason and Alex think? What does it actually take to get companies to adopt AI Agents? The answers all might be in these Ramp numbers.
PLUS Eric joins us for some hot Founder Q’s, and what’s going on with all this Y Combinator drama? We’re sifting through the angriest tweets for the inside scoop.
FINALLY, Jason recommends some of his favorite startup accelerators of the moment (aside from his own) including…
PearX
Arc from Sequoia
Antler
Speedrun from a16z
Timestamps:
(00:02:18) The 72-hour rule strikes again: Trump’s China’s tariff reversal
(00:03:10) Why crypto got hit even HARDER than the stock market post-Trump announcement
(00:07:32) Market manipulation “at a scale we’ve never seen before…”; what does this mean for everyday investors?
(10:05) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(00:12:55) Ramp CEO Eric Glyman swings by to update us on his fintech unicorn’s growth and their “Lab” for research data
(20:09) Netsuite - Download the ebook CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
(00:21:40) Is “static team size” a real trend? What the Ramp data shows…
(00:26:25) Ramp’s “counter-intuitive” mission: to help companies spend LESS money, not more.
(30:24) Paper OS offers the largest library of AI-driven Workflows for both founders & fund managers. Claim your $10K credit at paperos.com/twist
(00:38:07) WHY the huge spike in unemployed recent college grads? Especially among the guys?
(00:49:16) What it actually takes to get companies to adopt AI agents into their processes
(00:52:25) Why Jason thinks Eric is a top-tier TWiST guest. We’re going through the metrics…
(00:54:05) There’s YC drama on social media now… we’re spilling the tea.
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
Follow Jason:
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
Netsuite - Download the ebook CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
PAPER OS - Building an empire? PaperOS offers the largest library of AI-driven Workflows for both founders & fund managers. Whether you’re raising capital, launching a fund, or wading through diligence, PaperOS unlocks simplicity and scale for your ever-growing empire. Claim your $10K credit at paperos.com/twist
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
Follow TWiST:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
I built a billion dollar company in 18 months
Want to research million-dollar opportunities like Eric did with Ramp? Get Sam's Company Research Playbook: https://clickhubspot.com/kbf
Episode 737: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) sits down with Eric Glyman ( https://x.com/eglyman ) about how he built a unicorn in less than 2 years.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) $100M in 18 months
(4:13) The Ramp business model
(8:58) Moving fast
(15:29) IDEA: Manufactured homes
(18:24) IDEA: Creator credit card
(21:51) The crazy history of credit in America
(28:15) Building a 100-year company
(31:20) Favorite business biographies
(40:03) Auditing your weaknesses
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Links:
• Ramp - https://ramp.com
—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com
• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
—
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
20Growth: Inside Ramp's Growth Engine: How Ramp Became the Fastest Growing SaaS Company Ever | What Worked & What Did Not Work | How to Hire for Growth | How to Find Alpha in Channels Where No One Else Can with George Bonaci
George Bonaci is the VP of Growth at Ramp, where he's helping one of the fastest-growing fintech companies scale even further. Prior to Ramp, George was VP of Growth at Gong. Before Gong, George was at Samsara where he helped grow revenue from $650M ARR, and played a pivotal role in the company's successful IPO.
In Today's Growth Masterclass We Discuss:
03:57 How the Best Growth Teams Experiment
05:10 How to Allocate Bets and Resources for Growth
07:09 Velocity vs. Quality in Growth
15:05 The Role of Postmortems and How to Do Them
19:16 Growth Team Structure and Standalone or Not?
20:01 The Three Ways to Find Alpha in Growth
30:01 How to Hire for the Best Growth Hires
31:30 How to do Take-Home Assignments When Hiring for Growth
32:51 Common Pitfalls in Hiring Growth Talent
34:16 Investing in Management and Learning
42:43 How AI Changes Growth Products and Strategies
46:43 Quick Fire Round: Common Mistakes and Growth Channels
How Companies Are Actually Spending Money on AI Now
In theory, all of this AI spending has to deliver some kind of return. Companies (or other end users) will have to get tangible value from its outputs in order to justify the billions spent on research, chips, energy, and more. So what's actually happening at the corporate level? On this episode, we speak with Eric Glyman, who is the co-founder and CEO of Ramp, which helps corporations manage their expenses. As such, he has front row visibility in terms of what's actually being spent and who is actually getting the money. We talk about trends he's seeing in terms of spending going toward companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as how AI tech is affecting the operations of his own business.
Read More:
SoftBank Shares Soar as Masayoshi Son’s AI Vision Coalesces
Trump Pushes to Make US an AI Superpower, With Fewer Guardrails
Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SaaStr 786: Adding AI to SaaS: Inside the AI Product Strategies of Figma, Cloudflare, GitHub and Ramp
SaaStr 786: Adding AI to SaaS: Inside the AI Product Strategies of Figma, Cloudflare, GitHub and Ramp
At SaaStr Annual's AI Summit, we gathered an all-star panel of product leaders who have built some of the most widely-used AI features in production today. The speakers included Mario Rodriguez, Chief Product Officer at GitHub at GitHub, Diego Zaks, VP of Design at Ramp, Dane Knecht, SVP of Emerging Technologies at Cloudflare, and Vincent van der Meulen, Design Engineer at Figma, and Dani Grant, CEO at Jam.dev.
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SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet.
Hey everybody - thanks to the 10,000 of you who came out to SaaStr Annual. We had a blast and big news -- we'll be back in MAY of 2025. That's right, the SaaStr Annual will be a bit earlier next year, May 13-15 2025. We'll still be back in the same venue, in the SF bay area at the 40+ acre sprawling san mateo county events center. Grab your tickets at saastrannual.com with code JASON50 for an extra discount on our very best pricing.
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Ramp CEO Eric Glyman: Using AI to Build “Self-Driving Money”
When ChatGPT ushered in a new paradigm of AI in everyday use, many companies attempted to adapt to the new paradigm by rushing to add chat interfaces to their products. Eric has a different take—he doesn’t think chatbots are the right form factor for everything. He thinks “zero-touch” automation that works invisibly in the background can be more valuable in many cases. He cites self-driving cars as an analogy—or in this case, “self-driving money.” Ramp is a new kind of finance management company for businesses, offering AI-powered financial tools to help companies handle spending and expense processes. We’ll hear why Eric thinks AI that you never see is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing time spent on drudgery and unlocking more time for meaningful work.
Hosted by: Ravi Gupta and Sonya Huang, Sequoia Capital
Mentioned in this episode:
Paribus: Glyman’s previous company, acquired by Capital One in 2016
Karim Atiyeh: Cofounder and CTO at Ramp and Glyman’s cofounder at Paribus
Devin: AI agent product from Cognition Labs and Glyman’s favorite AI app
Hit Refresh: Book by Satya Nadella
How AI can help build smarter systems for every team with Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh of Ramp
In this episode of No Priors, hosts Sarah and Elad are joined by Ramp co-founders Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh of Ramp. The pair has been working to build one of the fastest growing fintechs since they were teenagers. This conversation focuses on how Ramp engineers have been building new systems to help every team from sales and marketing to product. They’re building best-in-class SaaS solutions just for internal use to make sure their company remains competitive. They also get into how AI will augment marketing and creative fields, the challenges of selling productivity, and how they’re using LLMs to create internal podcasts using sales calls to share what customers are saying with the whole team.
Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com
Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @eglyman l @karimatiyeh
Show Notes:
(0:00) Introduction to Ramp
(3:17) Working with startups
(8:13) Ramp’s implementation of AI
(14:10) Resourcing and staffing
(17:20) Deciding when to build vs buy
(21:20) Selling productivity
(25:01) Risk mitigation when using AI
(28:48) What the AI stack is missing
(30:50) Marketing with AI
(37:26) Designing a modern marketing team
(40:00) Giving creative freedom to marketing teams
(42:12) Augmenting bookkeeping
(47:00) AI-generated podcasts
SaaStr 751: How to Use AI-Powered Marketing to Get More Leads and Customers with Guillaume Cabane of HyperGrowth Partners
SaaStr 751: How to Use AI-Powered Marketing to Get More Leads and Customers with Guillaume Cabane of HyperGrowth Partners
As a marketing leader, how do you use today's AI platforms and tools to become more efficient?
Guillaume Cabane, Co-Founder and General Partner at HyperGrowth Partners and ex-head of marketing at Drift, Gorgias and Segment, shares how you can win with AI in outbound, SEO, and paid.
AI was good a year or two ago, but its quality was less than that of a human. There was less cost and less quality. Nowadays, we have more quality and speed, yet still at a lower cost.
What does that mean for marketing?
Each motion has different CACs. The sales-led approach we're used to, which is pretty efficient but relatively expensive. On the other side, you have PLG, which is fairly cheap but generally drives lower CAC and smaller customers. You have this spectrum from low contract value to high ACV, which is correlated with low CAC to high CAC.
With those CACs and ACVs, you have typical segmentation of micro to Enterprise, and within that segmentation, you have the channels. On the cheap, low-CAC side, you'll have SEO and virality: the PLG playbooks.
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SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet.
Join us in 2024 at:
SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20
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EP 110: How Eric Glyman (CEO, Ramp) Runs One of The Fastest Growing Startups
Eric Glyman (CEO, Ramp) shared his operating playbook for leading one of the fastest-growing startups on his second appearance on the podcast. We also explored the unique ways Ramp leverages AI internally, strategies for startups to build moats in AI, and the concept of self-driving money. We concluded with one of the most profound and thoughtful discussions about hiring, motivations, and success I've ever had on the podcast. It was truly enjoyable to sit down with a seasoned portfolio founder.
(00:00) Introduction and Episode Overview
(01:03) Market Reflections and Ramp's Growth
(04:01) Artificial Intelligence in Business
(10:09) Ramp's AI Implementation: Toby the Slack Bot
(16:49) AI's Impact on Business Models and Hiring
(31:15) The Future of Organizational Structure
(31:36) The Evolution of Bookkeeping
(33:49) The Impact of Automation on Bookkeeping Jobs
(35:31) Streamlining Expense Management with Ramp
(37:00) The Concept of Self-Driving Money
(38:09) AI Integration in Ramp's Services
(39:38) Zero Touch AI and Customer Experience
(40:54) Agentic AI and Practical Applications
(49:15) Balancing Autonomy and Centralization in Organizations
(56:09) Developing New Products at Ramp
(01:04:01) Resource Allocation in Organizations
(01:05:00) Creating Conditions for Success
(01:08:37) Balancing Existing and New Products
(01:11:02) Hiring for Curiosity
(01:16:09) The Pursuit of Perfection
(01:21:21) The Joy of the Process
(01:24:37) Building a Timeless Product
(01:33:15) Conclusion and Reflections
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.
20VC: The Memo: Keith Rabois and Ramp's Eric Glyman on Behind The Scenes at The Best Run Private Company on the Planet; The Tools, Tips, Secrets and Process That Drive Efficiency
Eric Glyman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ramp, America's fastest growing corporate card and finance automation platform. Under Eric's leadership, Ramp has raised more than $1 billion in financing, with a valuation of $8.1 billion. Prior to Ramp, Eric co-founded Paribus, a price-tracking app to help consumers save money (acquired by Capital One). Ramp recently raised another $150 million series D round co-led by Founders Fund and Khosla ventures, with a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion.
Keith Rabois is a Managing Director @ Khosla Ventures and one of the most respected venture investors of the last decade. Keith has led investments in Stripe, Faire, Ramp, Affirm and many more. Prior to Khosla Ventures, Keith was General Partner at Founders Fund, where he led investments for Ramp, Trade Republic, and Aven.
In Today's Episode with Eric Glyman and Keith Rabois We Discuss:
Behind Ramp's Partnership with Founders Fund & Khosla Ventures
How did the first Founders Fund deal come to be? How was the first meeting?
What does Keith mean when he says Ramp has the "secret sauce" to be successful?
What are 1-2 things Keith thinks Eric is world-class at? What are 1-2 things Eric thinks Keith is world-class at?
How did the latest Khosla deal come to happen?
Ramp: The Fastest Executing Company on the Planet.
How is Eric so good at executing at Ramp? What is his biggest advice to founders on speed of execution?
What are Eric's biggest challenges in the next 12 months at Ramp?
Why does Keith believe momentum is crucial for early stage startups? What are some easy ways founders can build momentum?
How does Eric think AI will accelerate Ramp and the world of finance?
Leadership Lessons From the Best Founders
What are Keith's biggest lessons from Brian Chesky @ Airbnb?
What did Keith learn from Jack Dorsey @ Square about leadership?
What does Eric think founders today should build? What should they not build?
What did Eric learn from Keith on how founders should measure time & progress?
Hiring & Team Management
How did Ramp build a solid talent team? What did they do differently?
Does Keith & Eric believe it is better to hire externally or promote internally? What is the right balance?
Does Keith agree founders should hire & get out the way or micromanage?
How many direct reports does Keith think is enough?
SaaStr 725: Mastering High-Volume, Low-CAC Marketing: Strategies from Gorgias, Vercel, and Hypergrowth Partners
SaaStr 725: Mastering High-Volume, Low-CAC Marketing: Strategies from Gorgias, Vercel, and Hypergrowth Partners
In today's world, there's a clear shift in what founders, boards, and investors are all after — scalable, low-CAC (customer-acquisition cost) growth strategies.
In a panel, Guillaume Cabane (G) and Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto), co-founders of HyperGrowth Partners, Axelle Heems, Senior Director of Growth Operations at Gorgias, and Morgane Palomares, VP of Marketing at Vercel, share real-life examples of how demand generation, growth, and marketing strategies have been executed to scale beyond 2x ARR each year, even on a low budget.
Let's deep dive into how combining innovative demand gen strategies with a modern tech stack and specific team setup can provide a winning formula for scaling B2B growth, even with low budgets of greater than a 2x burn multiple.
In this episode we'll share:
Automated outbound at-scale strategies.
Sales-assisted, product-led growth strategies that close Enterprise leads.
How to use community as a driver of product-led growth.
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SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet.
Join us in 2024 at:
SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20
SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave200
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This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent
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20VC: Ramp's Product Playbook: How To Hire Product Teams, How to Run Sprints, How to Increase Product Velocity, When and How to Go Multi-Product with Geoff Charles, VP Product @ Ramp
Geoff Charles is the VP of Product at Ramp, leading the product management, operations, and support teams. Prior to Ramp, Geoff helped spin off Mission Lane and scale credit products to millions of consumers. He started his career advising Fortune 100 financial services companies.
In Today's Episode with Geoff Charles We Discuss:
1. How to Become a Product Leader:
How did Geoff make his way into the world of product?
What are the single most important skills for product people to learn early?
What are the biggest mistakes that product people make early in their career?
2. When and Who to Hire for the First Product Team:
When is the right time to hire your first product people outside of founding team?
Why are the best product teams in the early days professional services teams?
What is more important; the person has stage or sector experience, when joining?
Should you hire senior product people or junior product people as the first hires?
3. How to Increase Velocity Using Sprints:
How does Geoff and Ramp use two-week sprints to have insane product velocity?
How are they structured? How are goals set? Who is included?
What makes a good vs a bad sprint? How is accountability tied to sprints?
When do two-week sprints no longer become possible? What happens then?
4. Going Multi-Product, Will Incumbents Kill You and Product Re-Usability:
When is the right time to add a second product?
What are the biggest mistakes companies make when going multi-product?
Why is it unlikely that an incumbent is the one to kill you? What competitor should worry you?
What does Geoff mean when he speaks of "product re-usability"? Why is it crucial to velocity?
20Growth: The Golden Rule to $100M in ARR, Why CAC to LTV is BS Early On, Why Your First Growth Hire Should Be a Former Founder & How Ramp Does 200 Growth Experiments Per Quarter with Guillaume Cabane
Guillaume Cabane is a growth advisor to high-growth SaaS Startups, including Ramp, Spot, Airbyte, G2, Gorgias, Metadata, Madkudu, and others. Guillaume held VP of Growth roles at Drift, Segment, and other successful startups, where he helped them grow from ~50 to 300. Prior, Guillaume spent 6 years at Apple.
In Today's Episode with Guillaume Cabane We Discuss:
1. Entry into Growth:
How did Guillaume make his way into the world of growth?
What are 1-2 of his biggest lessons from him time at Segment where he 4x revenue?
What does Guillaume know now that he wishes he had known when he entered growth?
2. Enterprise vs SMB & CAC/LTV:
Why does Guillaume think it is harder to go enterprise down than SMB up?
What are the biggest mistakes companies make when scaling into enterprise?
What are the biggest mistakes startups make with product-led-growth motions?
Why does Guillaume believe it is impossible to analyse CAC/LTV in early companies?
3. Activation, Engagement and KPI Setting:
What are the biggest mistakes companies and teams make in activation?
What can growth and marketing teams do to guarantee engagement in prospects?
Why are all KPIs not tied to revenue BS?
4. Hiring the Growth Team:
What are the core characteristics of great growth hires?
How quickly does it become apparent when you have made a bad growth hire?
Why do founders make the best profiles when hiring your first growth hire?
What are the biggest mistakes Guillaume has made when hiring for growth?
5. Why Growth is Like Venture:
What is the secret to building a great growth portfolio?
Why is it impossible to scale to $50M ARR with only one good channel?
What is the right way to spread resources across channels?
When is the right time to add new channels and diversify?
The ultimate guide to Martech | Austin Hay (Reforge, Ramp, Runway)
Brought to you by OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster | Mixpanel—Event analytics that everyone can trust, use, and afford | Brave Search API—An independent, global search index you can use to power your search or AI app
—
Austin Hay is currently Head of Marketing Technology at Ramp and was previously the VP of Business Operations at Runway, the VP of Growth at mParticle, and the fourth employee at the unicorn Branch Metrics. In 2022 he sold his online course, the Marketing Technology Academy, to Reforge, where he now teaches Martech and has a program launching in the fall. He’s consulted on Martech and growth for companies including Notion, Airbnb, Robinhood, Postmates, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and many others. In today’s podcast, we discuss:
• What exactly marketing technology is
• What a Martech person can do for your business
• When to hire a Martech person and what to look for
• Austin’s favorite tools
• Advice for doing attribution
• Frameworks on tooling, systems, and building vs. buying
• How to apply the concept of “thinking gray” to make better decisions in work and life
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-martech-austin
—
Where to find Austin Hay:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinahay/
• Threads: @austinahay
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Austin’s background
(03:58) What marketing technology is
(06:17) The difference between typical growth roles and Martech
(10:23) Signs you need a Martech person on your team
(14:03) Hiring and placing a Martech person in B2B, B2C, and B2B2C businesses
(21:15) A day in the life of a Martech professional
(25:05) Marketing technology vs. marketing operations
(31:14) Tooling recommendations
(41:49) The never-ending struggle of how to do attribution well
(50:47) Emerging tools and platforms to keep an eye on
(55:26) MMM modeling
(57:47) What to look for when hiring a Martech professional, and Austin’s favorite interview questions
(1:02:45) His red flags for companies and “false flags” for potential hires
(1:04:51) His favorite frameworks
(1:13:37) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• Siqi Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/
• Austin’s marketing technology course on Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/courses/marketing-technology
• Notion: https://www.notion.so/
• Sri Batchu on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-from-scaling-ramp-sri-batchu-ramp-instacart-opendoor/
• Cody Morgan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-morgan/
• Braze: https://www.braze.com
• Marketo: https://business.adobe.com/products/marketo/adobe-marketo.html
• Mparticle: https://www.mparticle.com/
• Segment: https://segment.com/
• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/
• Reverse ETL: a primer: https://medium.com/memory-leak/reverse-etl-a-primer-4e6694dcc7fb
• RudderStack: https://www.rudderstack.com/
• Hightouch: https://hightouch.com/
• Mike Molinet on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemolinet/
• Thena: https://www.thena.ai/
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• Gong: https://www.gong.io/
• How today’s top consumer brands measure marketing’s impact: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-todays-top-consumer-brands-measure
• About MMM: https://www.marketingevolution.com/marketing-essentials/media-mix-modeling
• Recast: https://getrecast.com/
• The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Contrarians-Guide-Leadership-Steven-Sample/dp/0787967076
• The Art and Adventure of Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Adventure-Leadership-Understanding-Resilience/dp/1119090318/
• Suits on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70195800
• Our Flag Means Death on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Flag-Means-Death-Season/dp/B0B8N4R4X1
• What We Do in the Shadows on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-0b10c46a-12f0-4357-8a00-547057b49bac
• Silo on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/silo
• Cal.com: https://cal.com/
• Brian Balfour on the Startup Dad podcast: https://www.startupdadpod.com/coping-with-the-loss-of-a-child-and-protecting-your-time-brian-balfour-father-of-2-ceo-and-found/
• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/
• AppsFlyer: https://www.appsflyer.com/
• Customer.io: https://customer.io/
• Branch: https://www.branch.io/
• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product)
Brought to you by Ezra—The leading full-body cancer screening company | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Attio—The powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups
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Geoff Charles is VP of Product at Ramp—the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time, Fast Company’s #1 Most Innovative Company in North America, and a company I believe we should all study for how they operate, execute, and hire. At Ramp, Geoff has led the product team from the early days, including the development and release of 60+ products and features in the past year alone. He has been building financial services for over a decade, and his interview in Lenny’s Newsletter quickly became one of the most widely read newsletter issues of all time. In today’s podcast, we will discuss:
• How velocity is at the heart of Ramp’s culture and success
• How writing can unlock clarity, creativity, and rapid problem-solving
• How to empower your product team through context sharing
• How to practically approach problems from first principles
• How Ramp approaches hiring in a unique way
• Suggestions for breaking into the world of product management
—
Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp-became-the-fastest-growing-saas-startup-of-all-time-geoff-charl/#transcript
—
Where to find Geoff Charles:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffintech
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffrey-charles/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Geoff’s background
(04:49) An overview of Ramp
(06:20) The importance of velocity at Ramp
(08:50) Single-threaded goals and how to keep teams away from distractions
(13:20) Setting lofty goals
(15:17) How Ramp empowers teams
(17:37) How Geoff’s management style has evolved at Ramp
(19:55) The product design process at Ramp
(21:19) Ramp’s system for sharing feedback
(23:07) How Ramp handles bug fixes
(24:15) Advice for PMs who want to move faster
(29:29) Why velocity and impact can help protect against burnout
(32:33) Planning vs. doing
(37:54) Ramp’s strategy documents
(40:55) Finding your unique positioning
(42:46) OKRs
(44:53) The importance of first-principle thinking
(48:53) How to use writing to think through problems
(51:46) How Geoff carves out time for deep work
(54:05) How Geoff manages tasks and stays organized
(57:15) Why other roles share the PM load at Ramp
(1:00:30) PM responsibilities at Ramp
(1:01:46) Identifying A+ talent
(1:06:02) The skills Ramp looks for when hiring
(1:07:33) Advice for people wanting to break into product management
(1:10:37) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• How Ramp builds product: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-ramp-builds-product
• Bill: https://www.bill.com/
• Expensify: https://www.expensify.com/
• Concur: https://www.concur.com/
• Coupa: https://www.coupa.com/
• Nicole Forsgren on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-measure-and-improve-developer-productivity-nicole-forsgren-microsoft-research-github-goo/
• Sheryl Sandberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryl-sandberg-5126652/
• Getting Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563
• When Breath Becomes Air: https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X
• The Bear on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f
• Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
SaaStr 679: Scalable, Low CAC Growth Tactics with Hypergrowth Partners Co-Founder Guillaume Cabane
Are you trying to unlock sustainable low customer acquisition costs (CAC) growth for your SaaS company?
Then you need to hear what Guillaume Cabane, Co-Founder and President of HyperGrowth Partners, has to say on the subject. In this podcast, Guillaume shares the formula he used at Ramp, Gorgias, and Drift to reach explosive saas growth - showing you the secrets of smart scaling.
Don't miss out - listen now now for groundbreaking advice on generating fast CAC growth success!
20Growth: Biggest Growth Lessons from Instacart and Opendoor, Why 70% of Growth Experiments Should Fail and How to Fail Fast, How to Hire a Growth Team; Secrets and Tips & Why Operator Investors WIll be the Best Investors in 10 Years with Sri Batchu @ Ram
Sri Batchu currently leads Growth at Ramp. He previously led Growth Strategy and Operations at Instacart where he also helped grow their Ads business. Prior to that, he was one of the first 50 employees at Opendoor where he built, scaled, and managed a variety of business teams including Analytics, Sales, and Pricing. During his time, the company grew from $100M to $5B+ revenue and to 1500+ people. He started his career in management consulting at McKinsey and also held various investing roles including in private equity at Bain Capital.
In Today's Episode with Sri Batchu We Discuss:
1. From Harvard to Private Equity to Leading the Best Growth Teams:
How did Sri make his way into the world of growth with Instacart and Opendoor?
What are 1-2 of his biggest takeaways from his time at Instacart? How did it change his approach and mindset towards growth?
How did Zilllow burn themselves by buying homes? What did that teach Sri about hitting metrics and goal setting in growth teams?
2. Growth Teams Should Fail and Fail Fast:
What is the right ratio of success to failure within growth teams?
What are specific ways that growth teams can increase the speed with which they fail?
How are the best post-mortems run? Who joins them? Who leads the agenda?
What are Sri's biggest lessons on how to set the right goals?
Where do so many growth teams go wrong with the North Star that they set for themselves?
3. Building the Bench: Hiring a Growth Team:
When is the right time to make your first growth hires?
What profile should your first growth hires be?
How should one structure the interview process when hiring growth teams?
What is the first question Sri asks all new hires?
Why does Sri believe you have to hire slowly?
Should candidates do case studies as part of the process, if so, on a new company or on the company they are interviewing for?
4. When Operators Become Investors:
Why does Sri believe the best investors of the next 10 years will be operators?
Why does Sri believe that operators can do due diligence to a higher level than traditional VCs?
Why does Sri believe that investors should not take cold emails?
Why does Sri believe that it is not wrong for an investor to hire from their portfolio companies?
What does Sri believe the future of venture holds over the next 10 years?
Lessons from scaling Ramp | Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor)
Brought to you by Attio—The powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments
—
Sri Batchu currently leads growth at Ramp, the fastest-growing SaaS business (and fintech business) in history. Previously, he led growth strategy and operations at Instacart and was one of the first 50 employees at Opendoor, where he built, scaled, and managed a variety of business teams, including analytics, sales, and pricing. During his time there, the company grew from $100M to $5B+ in revenue and to 1,500+ people. In this episode, we discuss:• The surprising tactics behind Ramp’s unprecedented early growth• A breakdown of Ramp’s current growth org and growth channels• Why you need to be “failing conclusively”• Ramp’s unique approach to metrics and measurement• Examples of Ramp’s “secret sauce”: a data- and technology-driven approach to everything• Why Sri prioritizes employee autonomy and flexibility over hours worked• Why team structure is a red herring for growth teams, and what Sri focuses on instead• How to set good North Star metrics, and why you should have more than one• Why Sri prefers payback periods over CAC for measuring investment ROI
—
Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-ramp-sri-batchu
—
Where to find Sri Batchu:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sri_batchu
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sribatchu/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Sri’s background
(04:07) Stats surrounding Ramp’s hypergrowth
(06:20) How Ramp set the stage for their remarkable growth
(09:19) New customers vs. customer expansion
(10:20) How Ramp has prioritized data-driven decisions
(12:12) Ramp’s growth engineering team, and how it supports the sales team
(13:41) The structure of the growth team at Ramp
(14:36) The “skunk works” team
(15:49) How Ramp maintains working at such high velocity
(19:11) How Ramp boosts morale and keeps employees engaged and excited
(21:45) How to promote hard work
(25:10) Optimizing efficiency in your growth engine
(27:28) Leveraging PR and fundraising
(29:20) Traditional media vs. newsletters and podcasts
(30:49) Building a repeatable and scalable growth process
(32:28) Examples of good North Star metrics
(37:09) Lower-level metrics
(40:30) When it makes sense to use the North Star framework
(42:03) Why Ramp doesn’t allow signups through personal emails, and how to reach out if you’re in that position
(43:11) Efficiency metrics and volume metrics
(46:49) Payback period vs. CAC for measuring ROI
(48:55) Defining payback period and contribution margin
(49:51) How to sequence growth tactics for B2B
(52:18) Experimentation and the importance of failing conclusively
(58:06) Ramp’s tool stack
(1:00:32) How to hire great people
(1:03:21) The importance of compensating employees properly
(1:06:28) The MECE framework
(1:09:21) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• How Ramp builds product, in Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-ramp-builds-product
• Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/
• Keith Rabois on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith/
• Packy McCormick’s article on Ramp: https://www.notboring.co/p/ramps-double-unicorn-rounds-behind
• Gibson Biddle’s framework: https://gibsonbiddle.medium.com/9-the-gem-model-65c89face5de
• DoorDash’s business model: https://businessmodelanalyst.com/doordash-business-model/
• Airtable: https://www.airtable.com/
• Mutiny: https://www.mutinyhq.com/
• Gokul Rajaram on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gokulr
• Claire Hughes Johnson on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-from-scaling-stripe/
• MECE principle: https://productfolio.com/mece-principal/
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805
• Stories of Your Life and Others: https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/r
• Everything Everywhere All at Once on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/movie/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-fa320000-8cf3-46fc-8c45-df5ec67b71f2
• Fellow kettles: https://fellowproducts.com/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
20Sales: Why You Should Never Hire a VP Sales First, How To Create Urgency in a Sales Process, How to Do Traditional Outbound 10x Better, Why Revenue Doesn't Matter with Your First Customers | Mark Goldberger, Head of Enterprise Sales @ Ramp
Mark Goldberger is Head of Enterprise Sales at Ramp, the fastest-growing corporate card and bill payment software in America, and recently named Most Innovative Company in North America by Fast Company. Prior to joining Ramp, Mark was the first enterprise rep at TripActions (now Navan), where he helped bring in more than $100m of ARR as an IC and sales leader. Before TripActions, Mark worked at Highfive, a video conferencing company since acquired by Dialpad.
In Today's Episode with Mark Goldberger We Discuss:
1. From Wine Industry to Sales Leader:
How Mark made his way into the world of enterprise sales having been in the wine industry?
Mark sent out 100 CVs for his first sales role, why did they not respond? How should companies think differently about the people they hire? What could he have done better with the outreach?
What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of sales?
2. The Sales Playbook and Why You Should Never Hire a Sales VP First:
Why does Mark believe that you should never hire a Sales VP as the first sales hire?
What does Mark mean when he says product-customer-fit is more important than product-market-fit?
Why does Mark believe that revenue does not matter with your first customers? If revenue does not matter, what should you be trying to get out of them?
When should the founder handover sales to either a junior or more senior hire?
3. How to Hire 10x Sales Teams: The Process:
How does Mark structure the process for hiring 10x sales reps?
What questions are most revealing in identifying a 10x sales rep? How do they respond?
Why does Mark want candidates to pitch his own product back to him?
How does Mark make the hiring process more challenging to really test the quality of candidates?
What is the core difference between losers and winners in sales?
4. Discounting, Champions, Creating Urgency:
Why does Mark not like discounting? Where do many sales teams use it poorly?
How does Mark like to create urgency in a sales process? What works? What does not?
How can sales reps know whether they truly have a deal champion within a buyer?
What is the right way for sales reps to ask to meet the exec buyer?
When is the right time to ask to meet the exec buyer?
What are some clear signs that you are not speaking to a decision-maker?
5. Building a High-Functioning Sales Org:
What is the right way to do deal reviews? How often? Who should be invited?
What is the right way to do sales onboarding for all new reps?
Why is traditional outbound still the most important thing in a sales process?
Why do so many people get pipeline qualification so wrong?
EP 20: Interview with Ramp’s Eric Glyman (+ explaining Cartoon Avatars’ origins) and a Crypto Debate with Mike Dudas and Zach Weinberg
(01:14) Introducing Zach Weinberg and Mike Dudas
(06:06) Mike’s background
(19:02) Exciting about crypto
(24:18) Zach vs crypto
(32:04) Inflation hedge
(38:25) Does Zach own Crypto
(41:00) Banking in foreign countries
(53:59) Stablecoin vs wire transfer
(59:00) KYC
(1:03:57) Crypto insurance
(1:09:24) Eric Glyman: Welcome
(1:11:32) Eric Glyman: Background
(1:16:57) Eric Glyman: Mandarin Debate video
(1:20:28) Eric Glyman: Starting Paribus
(1:24:51) Eric Glyman: Selling to Capital One
(1:28:57) Eric Glyman: Fintech’s success
(1:33:49) Eric Glyman: What is Ramp?
(1:43:10) Eric Glyman: Learnings as a 2-time founder
(1:48:13) Eric Glyman: Being purposeful
(1:52:55) Eric Glyman: Delegating as a CEO
(1:58:53) Eric Glyman: Building the inevitability of success
(2:02:43) Eric Glyman: Thinking through your investor base
(2:08:29) Eric Glyman: How do you determine your valuation?
(2:13:15) Eric Glyman: Advice for executives
(2:18:03) Eric Glyman: Craziest investor stories
(2:20:40) Eric Glyman: The origin of Cartoon Avatars
(2:21:54) Eric Glyman: Relationship between companies and media
(2:28:58) Outro
Links:
Eric Glyman debate video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxB5bb8xEDg
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
🎙 Listen to the show
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cartoon-avatars/id1606770839
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Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars
About the Show
A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.
Eric Glyman - Reimagining Corporate Finance - [Invest Like the Best, EP. 275]
My guest today is Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp. Ramp is best known for its corporate cards but it has a range of software products to help finance teams save money and time. Since its founding in 2019, the business has grown rapidly and was last valued at $8 billion. Eric and I discuss Ramp’s initial marketing wedge, how the business has dealt with such fast growth, and why they hold stablecoins on their balance sheet. Please enjoy my conversation with Eric Glyman.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Show Notes
[00:02:41] - [First question] - What was most notably awry about the industry before Ramp
[00:04:45] - Breakdown of Visa; The business model of the Black Card compared to the business card offering of Ramp
[00:08:40] - Causes and what he attributes their early success to
[00:11:30] - Description of Ramp’s software in the beginning and the evolution of co-building it
[00:16:34] - How he’s gone about building the company and team fast enough to handle their explosive growth curve
[00:19:47] - Approaching all aspects of recruiting and acquiring such great talent
[00:21:39] - Thoughts on the biggest mistake he’s made while building Ramp
[00:24:05] - Lessons learned about marketing that this journey has taught him
[00:26:13] - Learning to manage a senior team and advice for managing rapid growth
[00:28:58] - Unique aspects of Ramp’s approach to the financing side
[00:32:56] - Why they are storing some of their balance sheet in stablecoins
[00:34:47] - What the idealized end state of Ramp looks like
[00:37:26] - How the data and information he sees indicates trends in the economy writ large
[00:39:33] - Providing secondary liquidity to employees in a world where companies stay private for longer periods of time
[00:43:03] - Aspects of company building that are still unnecessarily hard
[00:44:55] - What has him most excited about Ramp in the next 12-18 months
[00:46:42] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
20VC: Ramp's Eric Glyman on Why You Should Never Take The Highest Price, Working With Venture Funds vs Crossover Funds and How To Determine What To Buy vs Build as a Founder Today?
Eric Glyman is the Founder and CEO @ Ramp, the only corporate card and spend management platform designed to help you spend less. To date, Eric has raised over $390M for the company from some of the best including Thrive, Stripe, Founders Fund, Coatue and Box Group to name a few. Prior to changing the game of spend management, Eric founded Paribus, the price-tracking app that raised seed funding from General Catalyst and Greylock, which was acquired by Capital One in 2016.
In Today's Episode with Eric Glyman You Will Learn:
1.) Entry to Startups: How Eric made his way into the world of startups with Paribus and how that journey and exit led to his founding the recently minted unicorn, Ramp?
2.) Decision-Making: How does Eric deal with moments of intense pressure as a leader? How does pressure impact Eric's decision-making quality? Through what framework does Eric evaluate his decision-making process today? Why does Eric believe operational velocity is so key to company success? How does Eric determine between being fast vs spending real time on something?
3.) Funding Rounds: Why does Eric believe that "funding rounds are science experiments"? What should founders look to prove or disprove with each round? Why does Eric believe "you should never take the highest price"? What are the downsides? How does it impact employee stock options? Does it change investor sentiment? How does it change customer acquisition through referrals?
4.) The Rise of Crossover Funds: What does Eric make of the rise of crossover funds? In what way does their value differ to the value provided by traditional VCs? How does their communication style differ compared to traditional VCs? Does Eric worry about the signalling risk of having crossover funds invested early? Does Eric believe they will change the landscape of venture?
5.) Board Management: How does Eric analyse his style of board management today? How has it changed over time? Where does Eric believe many founders go wrong when it comes to board management? How can boards be used to bring together the wider team and company? What documents does Eric always prepare for the board?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Eric Glyman
Eric's Favourite Book: John Wooden: The Legendary UCLA Coach's Top 20 Quotes
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
FF 015: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Eric Glyman, Co-Founder & CEO @ Paribus
Eric Glyman, Co-Founder and CEO @ Paribus (Y Combinator S15), the service which scans your inbox for receipts and automatically saves you money when the items you bought drop in price. Stores often guarantee that you will get the lowest prices. But they don’t follow through unless you work for it. Paribus does the work for you.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) What was Eric's career before Paribus and what was his a-ha moment was for the idea?
2.) How did Eric do things differently from the typical startup? Was this effective or would it have been more productive to go full in?
3.) What were Paribus' testing hypotheses like? Does Eric prefer mass market testing or niche 100 person testing?
4.) How was the admissions process for YC, why did Eric choose YC and why were YC attracted to Paribus?
5.) What would Eric advise founders looking to get into YC? Is there anything they can do or know that will increase their chances of getting into YC?
6.) What were the breakthrough moments for Paribus? What were the most challenging elements and how did Eric overcome them?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Eric's Fave Book: I, Robot
Eric's Fave Blog: AppSumo by Noah Kagan
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Eric and Paribus on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, follow Harry on Instagram here!
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