Karim Atiyeh, co-founder and CTO of Ramp, explains how Ramp viewed American Express when launching Ramp to compete in the corporate card and spend management space.
“Like they still have a really good brand. But at the time like that, that, that, that's all they had. I mean, that's still all they have is like, they have a good brand and yeah, I guess you could log in and check your statement, but that that's about it.”
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More from Karim Atiyeh
Insight
Atiyeh: Future Software Code Is LLMs, Instructions, and Infinite Loops
“The next phase that we're entering and the one that I'm seeing in our company is one where you start thinking about these LLMs really as part of your product and your pro Programming them. So you're no longer writing the same code that you used to write with t…”
Karim AtiyehOct 21, 2025▶ 3:30The Anatomy of Ramp's Hyper-Growth | Karim Atiyeh Interview · Invest Like The Best
Insight
Atiyeh: Fixing bugs hyper-fast builds more customer trust than unbroken software
“I often find it a much better way to build credibility with them and trust if things break and you fix them very quickly as opposed to if they just don't care and don't notice anything about the products and whenever it's like one of my favorite things to do i…”
Karim AtiyehOct 21, 2025▶ 31:04The Anatomy of Ramp's Hyper-Growth | Karim Atiyeh Interview · Invest Like The Best
Opinion
Atiyeh: Most consumer cards are identical products marketed differently
“Frankly, to this day, a lot of the consumer card products still fail like different versions of the same product, just marketed differently.”
Karim AtiyehOct 21, 2025▶ 37:44The Anatomy of Ramp's Hyper-Growth | Karim Atiyeh Interview · Invest Like The Best
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Atiyeh: Adding a paid SaaS model accelerated Ramp's overall growth
“There was a lot of fear when we did, I'd say internally, because you have this like beautiful business model that's working really well. And everyone's a little freaked out that it's like, well, are people going to be willing to pay for it? Is it going to hurt…”
Karim AtiyehOct 21, 2025▶ 1:01:04The Anatomy of Ramp's Hyper-Growth | Karim Atiyeh Interview · Invest Like The Best
Opinion
Atiyeh: Pricing AI agents on execution time disincentivizes engineering efficiency
“I worry a little bit about that model sometimes incentivizing the engineering team to not be as efficient as possible with their use of AI, right? Like if you're a company charging for how much time the agent is spending on the task, like, are you not incentiv…”
Karim AtiyehOct 21, 2025▶ 1:02:43The Anatomy of Ramp's Hyper-Growth | Karim Atiyeh Interview · Invest Like The Best
Insight
Atiyeh: Vetting candidates on more criteria increases the likelihood of hiring average performers
“I'm a lot more interested in, in essentially assembling the Avengers at the company where everyone has like a clear superpower than a lot of people who just check the box on 10 things. It's like, if you're looking, the more things you are looking to Vet someon…”
Karim AtiyehOct 21, 2025▶ 1:26:49The Anatomy of Ramp's Hyper-Growth | Karim Atiyeh Interview · Invest Like The Best
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