Henrique Dubugras

Brex CEO Henrique Dubugras found himself playing an important role during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Brex is what you might call a neobank — not a traditional bank but rather a financial services provider that helps companies manage how they spend money, corporate cards, travel expenses and the rest. In the middle of the SVB collapse, Brex was more than just a spending management company. It was also a safe place to park money. Brex saw billions of deposits in a very short period of time, giving Dubugras a bird's-eye view of what was happening — and what was happening was not great for the banking system, especially in Silicon Valley. (Our own Liz Lopatto has been covering this in depth.) I wanted to hear Dubugras' perspective on SVB both as a fintech CEO and a founder himself, whether he thought the crisis was rational or just a panic caused by group texts and easy-to-use mobile banking interfaces, what he thinks will happen to the startup ecosystem next, and how much of an opportunity all this was for Brex. Dubugras is a young CEO. He just turned 27. He really surprised me with his depth here, and he will probably surprise some of you as well. Okay, Henrique Dubugras, CEO of Brex. Here we go. Links: The tech industry moved fast and broke its most prestigious bank  Liz Lopatto - The Verge  A fintech CEO is trying to raise more than $1 billion to fund bridge loans for startups impacted by the Silicon Valley Bank collapse Robinhood Users Say The Trading App Won’t Cash In Their Profitable Bets Against Silicon Valley Bank  What Is A Neobank? – Forbes Advisor   Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23433504  Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. It was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Director is Eleanor Donovan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex

The best advice Brex founder and co-CEO Henrique Dubugras ever received came from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel: The best CEOs, Spiegel told him, are “extremely authentic to themselves ... If you try to emulate being Elon Musk and you’re not like that, you’re just gonna fail.” This wisdom has empowered Dubugras and his co-founder, Pedro Franceschi, to focus on the places where they can be most effective at Brex, and to be more authentic with their coworkers.  In this episode, Henrique and Joubin discuss coaches vs. therapy, mutual crushes, “hacker famous,” big egos, why missions are overrated, dropping out of college, CEO’s identities, the “Silicon Valley mold,” trojan-horsing Max Levchin, pivoting after two years, going to the ground, compensation and hiring myths, core customers, fixing expense report policies, and joining the Expedia board. In this episode, we cover: Growing up in Brazil and Henrique’s relationship with his mom (01:07) The first company he sold, Pagar.me, and his co-founder Pedro Franceschi (07:11) Becoming “successful” and why it’s fine to have a “f**ked up motivation” (10:35) ADHD, dueling superpowers, and focusing on the right things (15:56) Being an authentic CEO and not reading books (19:51) The radical changes Brex has experienced in the past three years (24:40) Brex’s new spend management product and landing initial customers (30:30) The messages sent by how Brex structures its employee compensation (34:07) How Henrique and Pedro recruited top talent when they were just getting started (38:57) Pivoting a $12 billion company: “We can’t do all these things” (43:33) The challenges of becoming more of an enterprise company than a Fintech one (50:34) Links: Connect with HenriqueTwitter LinkedIn Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex

This week, Mary Ann is taking the reins with another favorite from the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. She sat down with Brex CEO and co-founder, Henrique Dubugras, and Anu Hariharan, YC’s managing director for continuity and an early Brex investor, to expose the context around this whirlwind of a year. The conversation candidly uncovers details behind the fintech's pandemic pivot, layoffs, and going remote. If you love the conversation, share it with a friend. And if you want more on Brex, Mary Ann dove deeper into the conversation last month. Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, a show that details how our stories come together and more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex

Anu Hariharan

Managing Partner

YC ContinuityY CombinatorAvra

Henrique Dubugras is the Founder and CEO @ Brex, the company re-imagining financial systems so every growing company can realize its full potential. To date, Henrique has raised over $1.1BN for Brex from some of the best including Ribbit, Greenoaks, DST, IVP, Caffeinated Capital and Elad Gil to name a few. Henrique is also a board member at Mercado Libre. Prior to co-founding Brex, Henrique co-founded Pagar.me, there he scaled the company to $15BN in GMV and over 100 people before selling the company in 2016. In Today's Episode with Henrique Dubugras You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Brex: What was the founding a-ha moment for Henrique and Pedro with Brex? What advice did Evan Spiegel give Henrique when it comes to being a great CEO? 2.) Hiring: The Trials and Tribulations What have been Henrique's biggest hiring mistakes? How do founders know when they are ready to bring in the seasoned exec vs the younger jack of all trades candidate? What have been Henrique's biggest lessons in what it takes to hire true A* talent? Where does Henrique see other founders make big hiring mistakes? 3.) Product Expansion and Marketing: How does Henrique assess when is the right time to release a second product? What have been Henrique's biggest mistakes and lessons when it comes to product marketing? How can one retain the simplicity of product messaging with scaling the product? Brex expanded the product too far, too fast. How did they walk it back so successfully? 4.) Henrique: The Leader How does Henrique approach his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? What luxury expenditure has Henrique made over the last 12 months that he feels is worth it? How does Henrique think about ego management? What does he do to keep his in check? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Henrique Dubugras Henrique's Favourite Book: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex

My guest today is Henrique Dubugras, co-founder and CEO of Brex, an all-in-one finance account for businesses. Brex recently raised funding at a valuation of over 7 billion dollars despite being founded only four years ago. In our conversation, we cover Brex’s transition from a credit card for start-ups to the central account for businesses, why building that central account was orders of magnitude more difficult than expected, and the difference between building a business in Brazil and the US. We also discussed Henrique’s term horizon for building Brex and how that impacts his decision-making for the business. Please enjoy my conversation with Henrique Dubugras.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:53] - [First question] - The state of the B2B financial world before Brex [00:06:29] - How such a high margin space was generally underserved [00:08:24] - What the first version of the Brex card looked like [00:10:48] - How long it took to build and launch their infrastructure [00:11:13] - Why market penetration is so low for cards in B2B businesses [00:13:14] - How he thinks about this landscape in Brazil versus the US [00:14:55] - What interchange and high margins allows him to pass on to the consumer [00:16:23] - Brex’s first revenue event [00:17:38] - What the biggest hurdle was to overcome when they launched [00:19:02] - Key marketing strategy early on and what made it successful [00:21:16] - Continued distribution lessons they learned from their initial success [00:22:39] - Building an effective sales force to push their product [00:24:41] - What makes the current landscape so fertile for fintech businesses [00:27:12] - Analysis of their unique funding round dynamics [00:28:42] - Their second product and the insight that lead to that decision [00:31:05] - Darkest moments while trying to build their central account [00:31:50] - What their central account allows them to facilitate writ large [00:35:27] - Notable differences between entrepreneurship in Brazil versus the US [00:38:55] - Observations on inefficiencies in the US startup space [00:40:16] - Pros, cons, and costs of being largely remote [00:41:50] - Keys to building a successful hiring pipeline [00:44:05] - Lessons learned about decision making and optimization [00:45:39] - Developing an effective skill set to convince other people of anything [00:47:35] - What excites him about being a part of Brex lately [00:49:13] - What excites him about the future in general [00:50:39] - His business philosophy and the set of principles that guide him  [00:52:03] - Nuances that make focusing on a single problem so attractive [00:53:51] - Long term infrastructure decisions that will pay off in the end [00:55:12] - Thoughts and hi perspective on cash flow in general [00:58:18] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex

Brex Co-Founder and CEO Henrique Dubugras will talk about what he's learned building the fastest-growing B2B company. Henrique started his first company at 16 and has now built two successful companies from nothing. Learn what he did differently the second time around and the specific decisions he made to drive growth among B2B companies with Brex. Missed the session? Here's what Henrique talks about: How Brex grew from a few basic functionalities to a corporation Growing from $0 to $2B in ARR in less than two years. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin SaaStr Henrique Dubugras

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex

Henrique Dubugas is the Founder & CEO @ Brex, the first corporate card for startups offering instant online application, no personal liability, and tailored rewards. In a staggering 2 years, Henrique has grown Brex to a $1.1Bn valuation having raised over $180m in funding from some of the best in the business including Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Elad Gil, DST, Y Combinator and IVP just to name a few. As for Henrique, prior to founding Brex he founded Pagar.me, a payments solution that he sold in Sept 2016, a year that the platform processed over $1.5 billion in GMV. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Henrique made his way from learning to code games in Brazil to starting a leading payment processor to founding one of the world's fastest growing B2B companies in Brex? 2.) How does Henrique think about hiring the very best people? How has that strategy shifted and changed over time? What is the best advice Henrique has been given on hiring? What interview questions does Henrique think are crucial to ask? What are leading indicators that an individual has the ability to scale with the company? 3.) Why does Henrique think it is wrong to down people for being "compensation motivated"? How does Henrique think about compensation structures? Should candidates have to take pay cuts to join startups? What have been some of Henrique's biggest learnings and challenges here? 4.) How does Henrique approach the current sentiment to fundraising in the valley today? Why does Henrique disagree with founders who have periods of not speaking to VCs? What does Henrique believe is the right way to build VC relationships? How does Henrique think about the right time to raise? What advice does Henrique have for founders when it comes to investor selection? 5.) How does Henrique think about his own personal development? Where would he personally like to improve and strengthen? What is he doing to make this happen? How has Henrique seen himself as CEO change over the last 2 years with Brex? What have been some of the challenges of scaling himself as CEO? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Henrique's Fave Book: 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Henrique on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Henrique Dubugras

CEO & Co-Founder

Brex