David Barrett
Founder & CEO, Expensify · 2 appearances on the record.
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founderexecutiveengineer@dbarrett ↗LinkedIn ↗expensify.com ↗
David Barrett is the founder and CEO of Expensify, a cloud-based expense management platform launched in 2008 that went public on the Nasdaq in 2021. Before creating Expensify, he led engineering at peer-to-peer file-sharing company Red Swoosh, which was acquired by Akamai Technologies in 2007.
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1 assertion · 7 opinions · 16 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 1 claim: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
Everything David Barrett said on the Official SaaStr Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Barrett: Silicon Valley overwhelmingly operates on selling to a bigger sucker
“There's like, build a viable business which you care about things like profit margin, things like this, or you just sell to a bigger sucker. Overwhelmingly, Silicon Valley is based upon the latter of those, and like, the reality is at no point relevant in actu…”
Barrett: High startup valuations are bullshit caused by excess stimulus money
“I just think it's all bullshit. Like, I think the reason the valuations are high is because there's a shit ton of money in the markets, and it has no place to go. Like, there's, we just printed, what, three and a half trillion dollars of stimulus money out of …”
Barrett: High-Funded SaaS Startups Rely on Burning Cash, Not Acquisition Innovations
“Most of the companies rating it as shit tons of money, they, they're not using, like, novel customer acquisition techniques that couldn't have worked 20 years ago. They're just willing to lose more money on it. And then the VCs are willing to allow them to los…”
Barrett: Raising a gigantic VC war chest ruins company culture
“This whole idea of getting a gigantic war chest, I think that's bullshit. Like, I think that it's just a big waste of money and capital, and it just, like, ruins your company's culture.”
Barrett: Most VC Income Comes from Management Fees, Not Carry
“Like, the vast majority of a VCs, of a typical VCs income, will not come from their carry. It'll come from their management fees or some slice of that over the course of their career. They don't give a shit about the outcome or the success of your business by …”
Barrett: Hiring outside VC executives caps internal talent and drives them away
“How many of those same people just brought in some kind of outside executive from their VCs? Yeah, you just fucked your entire company. Because by doing that, you just indicated to every one of your employees, you cannot grow here. That we value skills that yo…”
Barrett: In startup funding rounds, VCs always win and employees rarely win
“Again and again, every single big round we have, the employees get fucked. And there's a whole bunch of reasons for that. It's like the VCs always win. The founders sometimes win. The employees rarely win.”
Barrett: Avoid venture capitalists as long as possible
“I would avoid the VCs as long as possible, because they're the devil. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes you need to do a deal with the devil, but you're probably gonna get fucked in the process.”
Barrett: VCs make money deploying capital, not on exits
“But the VC business model is they get paid when they invest. And so it actually, they don't really make money on the exit. Like, there's the carry, they would say, at the very end.”
Barrett: Hiring outside executives tells top internal talent to leave
“The second that you hire in, you know, sort of that, that, that pro who comes in above everyone else, you've just told everyone else in your company, fuck you. There's no way you can ever grow in this company. Because we have just hired someone above you whose…”
Barrett: A predatory executive class exploits startups with false credentials
“There's a whole class of people out there preying upon startups that will just come in with amazing credentials and a willingness to obliterate whatever's in their way and because it's not their company in the first place.”
Barrett: Startup complexity is invented by people who profit from it
“Starting a business is so much easier, ah, than it's made out to be. It's so much easier than, it's like all the complexity is invented complexity. It's a complexity, I would say, being sold to you by Primarily with people who profit from that complexity. Who …”
Barrett: Nothing of value happens inside board meetings
“Nothing of interest or value happens in the board meeting itself.”
Barrett: Seed and Series A rounds are driven by storytelling, not meaningful numbers
“This, like, the seed and A are primarily just about, like, you and the story you tell. Like, especially the seed. A, it's like you have to have some evidence that, like, you know, the story has some anecdotal evidence of some kind of traction. And then, like, …”
Barrett: Never email pitch decks ahead of VC meetings
“Never mail your deck ahead of time, because then they'll make their decision before they see you.”
Barrett: Reaching $1M revenue is the startup valley of death
“It is just a brutal, awful slog in the start, and so as much of this conference is about getting to that hundred million, really, I mean, the hard part is getting to that, that one million. Like, that is the valley of death that basically will wipe out probabl…”
Expensify intentionally has zero independent directors to avoid wild cards
“Actually I have no independents on my board, because I don't like wild cards.”
Independent board members brought in by investors aren't truly independent
“And I think they're brought in by the board, and if they're brought in by the board, that means that they're not really independent. They actually just kind of work for the board. Now not really, it's not quite the same, but it's similar.”
Barrett: The greatest companies are built on controversial decisions, not boardroom consensus
“The greatest companies don't happen because suddenly, miraculously, everyone in the boardroom always agreed on every single decision. That's never happened. The way it happens, great decisions are always controversial.”
Barrett: The best startup ideas face the most board pushback
“And in fact, the better the idea is, the worse it looks on the surface. And I think that's where it manifests itself in the board dynamic, is when you believe in something, when you truly believe in the best of possible ideas, you should expect the biggest pus…”
Barrett: Consult dozens of informal advisors instead of adding expert board members
“If I wouldn't pick one person, I'd pick 50 people, and I'd call them all the time and I wouldn't, and I would consolidate their knowledge, and then I would present that consolidated answer to my actual board, people that have, like, some influence over me.”
Barrett: Expensify is 100% inbound with zero advertising or outbound sales
“We're a hundred percent inbound it's we don't do any advertising, we do no outbound calling whatsoever and it's all just organic from the bottom up, and it works amazing.”
Founders should allocate zero equity to non-investor advisors
“I just don't think the best advice gets bought. I think that if you're not an investor, you don't get shares.”
Barrett: Startup failure is devastating for founders, but merely a bummer for employees
“Employees are naturally sort of aligned, ah, to your vision. But also, they don't really have the same downside as yours. Like, they're not, their emotions aren't as tied in the company as yours aren't. If they, if you lose, you know, if you fail, To you, ah, …”
Appearances (2)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| The Highs and Lows of Fundraising from Founders That Have Raised $1B w/ Calendly, Coda, La | Nov 17, 2021 | 10m |
| Good Intentions, Bad Advice: How to Keep Your Board Aligned with Your Vision | Jan 8, 2018 | 32m |