How the founders of Brex built a billion-dollar business in less than 2 years

Re:How the founders of Brex built a billion-dollar business ... by philip1209 on Saturday October 06, 2018 @08:33AM (#18154828)

> is going to extend 10x as much credit as established institutions (without collateral) to random startup execs?

There functionally is collateral. They monitor your bank account, you need min $50K in cash in it, and they only extend credit that's something like a quarter of your cash balance. It's a charge card, so you can't carry a balance.

It makes a lot of sense for cash-rich startups. The model doesn't work (in this form) for many small businesses.

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Re:How the founders of Brex built a billion-dollar business ... by CPLX on Saturday October 06, 2018 @08:36AM (#18154841)

So basically it’s a product for valley startup type companies that just closed rounds of financing, but don’t yet have sophisticated financial controls and cash management and banking relationships?

That makes a lot more sense, but is that really a large addressable market? Is the idea to beat Amex with reporting?

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Re:How the founders of Brex built a billion-dollar business ... by philip1209 on Saturday October 06, 2018 @08:50AM (#18154883)

I think the idea is "cash is all the trust we need." It's parallel to Square or Stripe. "Is getting a merchant account really that hard?" Yes, it turns out it is. It's the same thing with credit cards - you shouldn't have to personally guarantee your company's credit.

It also competes directly with the expense market. If everybody can have a controlled company card, why do you need expense software?

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Re:How the founders of Brex built a billion-dollar business ... by skinnymuch on Sunday October 07, 2018 @06:49AM (#18159947)

Ah I didn’t realize you need $50K minimum in your bank account. That changes things quite a bit, but also makes sense for them.

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