Opinion
Major credit card companies trick consumers by quietly devaluing reward points.
“I thought that it was crazy that the largest credit card companies on the planet were working really hard to get customers spend a little bit more than they thought. And then once they do, they would work really hard to convince people that the points they got…”
Assertion Contradicted
Ramp was the fastest NYC company to reach a $1B valuation.
“There was no company in New York's history ever that was worth a billion dollars within 18 months or two years or three.”
Assertion Supported
Ramp hit an $8.1B valuation before crossing $100M in annual revenue.
“By the end of 20, 21 again, I think the multiples really hadn't changed too much, but the company ended with an 8.1 billion dollar valuation. And we were coming up to, but hadn't yet crossed a hundred million a year in revenue.”
Assertion Supported
Ramp scaled from $1M to $100M in revenue in under 17 months.
“I want to say like 15 to 17 months from a million to a hundred million.”
Disclosure
Glyman: Ramp had 100 to 200 employees at $100M in revenue
“Somewhere between a 102 hundred, maybe 200.”
Assertion Contradicted
Glyman: Tokyo keeps housing affordable through standardized home manufacturing
“In Tokyo or you go to Japan and it's because they actually, most of the home builders are home manufacturers. And things are very standard. The cost of a new home build is like not that expensive.”
Insight
Glyman: Zoning, not manufacturing, is the true bottleneck for modular housing
“The constraint in the bottleneck was not around manufacturing at all. It was all the zoning. And it was that you could manufacture a house that was zoned to go nowhere.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Glyman: Manufactured housing startups will compound at 10-20% rather than 10x
“If people crack this, I think it is an enormous opportunity, but it is like a big slog. And like, this is one of those businesses where you're not going to 10 X for a while. You're going to be 10%, 20% compound, but there's a great business.”
Insight
Glyman: Great businesses sustain 30% annual growth for 30 years
“I think if you, to get down to the core of what makes great businesses, it's not like who grew a hundred percent or 200 or whatever this year. It's that which businesses can grow 30% for 30 years. And if you do that, you will be a giant business.”
Assertion Supported
Ramp doubles yearly, holding 1.5% of the US corporate card market.
“We're still just about doubling each year at enormous scale. I think we are one and a half percent ish of the corporate and small business card market in the US.”
Insight
Glyman: Historic banking families build wealth by never interrupting compounding
“These families, like, I think that they're focused on doing simple things well and doing it for a very, very, very long time and consistently. And a lot of these families just like don't sell, don't fight or interrupt the power of compounding.”
Insight
Founders often lose control of their time and abandon their core strengths.
“I also think too, during your week, like I think, especially with other founders is life goes on. You were probably really good at something. And you did it a lot and that's what allowed you to build this company. Then suddenly you're running the company and y…”
Insight
Glyman: Leaders can design teams around personal flaws instead of fixing them
“It's actually totally fine to have huge flaws. And you could decide to fix them, or you can say, I'm actually going to design, you know, my life or the company or whatever to be performant in that context.”
Assertion Partly supported
Stripe and Square net just 0.1% to 0.5% per card transaction.
“At the very end of the day, they might keep, you know, it varies anywhere from like .1 to .5% is ultimately their net take, but the gross is much higher because they're collecting.”
Insight
Glyman: Card issuers keep most interchange because they absorb credit default risk
“And so the issuer in interchange is traditionally keeping most of that interchange. And the reasons actually makes sense when you think about it, you know, especially in credit, they're taking on the risk. They're saying that merchant, we will pay you know, ev…”
Disclosure
Glyman: Ramp exceeds 1,100 employees, onboards up to 50 hires biweekly
“I mean, now we're over 1100 people. There can be single, you know, two week periods when we have 40 to 50 people that start.”
Disclosure
Ramp targeted 10% weekly growth early on, 20% monthly at scale.
“We had set goals that we wanted to grow the company 10% a week. You know once you get the scale, 20% a month.”
Disclosure
Glyman sold his first startup, Paribus, for mid-eight figures.
“We even, I mean, talked about it publicly, but it was mid eight figures.”
Assertion Supported
Glyman: BankAmericard originally expanded across the US via a franchise model
“And so the initial credit card was Bank of Mericard, once they showed it successful, went to their competitor banks or regional banks and saying, I will run this program for you. We can issue bank America cards for the commerce bank of Seattle. You know, you c…”
Disclosure
Glyman keeps all of his personal stock holdings concentrated in Ramp.
“All my stock is in ramp. It's just a certificate.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glyman's first startup, Paribus, lost 75% of its revenue overnight.
“So in our first business, we had a day when we lost 75% of our revenue overnight.”
Disclosure
Glyman regularly overhauls his calendar to prioritize tasks he enjoys.
“And I pretty, pretty regularly try to go and like blow up my calendar and be like, all right, I actually love doing this thing. Am I spending any time on it? No. And I promise if you spend too many weeks in a row doing something you hate you're going to be mis…”
Assertion Supported
Glyman: Sears was the parent company of Discover Card
“You may know that Sears was the parent company to discover”
Eric Glyman