The Exchanges

Q guys' sort of net burn. Uh, it's really astonishing, right? And it's gotta be, if you're running a business, you know, at, at anywhere in the same category, even adjacent categories, you have to be highly concerned at the, at the rate that you guys are growing in that context. Uh, is that how much of that do you credit to ramp versus yourself and your team's, uh, operational abilities?

A I think our whole mission, right, to your point is, like, make the most of every dollar and every hour. If you're spending it, you should know why, um, uh, and it's not just that you're spending it in one place, but, but what actually generates the return? What, what, what connects to growth? Um, and I, I, I would say that, um, we certainly benefit a lot from our own product. Um, uh, we try to be obsessive over making sure we're not wasting, and if we're spending on, on, Um, you know, software license is a product. We buy 500 seats. We want 500 people to use it. And we use RAMP to cut out extra licenses. Um, we look and make sure we're getting the, the most impact for, for prices and, um, you know, software that we're buying. And, uh, I, I just think, you know, for the same reason, a lot of the highest performing best running companies, um, on the planet run on RAMP and use it. Um, you know, we do too. We, we want to be the best customer of our own product. And so some of it's that, um, but I, I'd also say with your whole mission is, You know, to obsess over getting, you know, your customers the most from every dollar an hour. Um, as long as you're not a big hypocrite, you start thinking about it for yourself too. And so, um, I, I would give credit to the team. Uh, I just think that the rigor, um, you know, not just financially, but even just from a, you know, engineering persp…

AI assessment note: “some of it's that, um, but I, I'd also say... I would give credit to the team”

Q of knows, okay, Super Bowl, like, it just looks good, it looks like a six to seven figure spend, but how do you, everyone wants to know, You know, what does it feel like? How do you start calculating? Like, does this make sense? And did we make money from it? What's your early read? And then what do you look, what signals are you looking for down the road?

A It's incredible. Um, so there was a couple of things and also there was even kind of in ramp fashion, some things that made the, um, the, the buy particularly impactful and maybe a little more clever. So, um, by being By buying the ad much later than most normal people would do, we had access to very unique inventory. Like it's sort of is a little insane to say, 11 days before the Super Bowl, you know, what if we did that? Um, and so as a result, we actually knew who was playing in the Super Bowl, you know, you know, we were able to find someone that had incredible relevance to what people were watching. And of course, Saquon is an amazing one of one talent. Um, That was phenomenal. Next, um, there was, without getting too specific, a lot of folks that, um, for various reasons would normally buy Super Bowl ads, insurers who had to deal with fires and other things like that, that dropped out of the Super Bowl. Um, you know, didn't want to be advertising at a time when, you know, we're, we're sort of, uh, coming under attack, and it meant that some of the, the spots that we were able to get were in extraordinary slots. Um, for people who were watching closely, we were the very last ad Uh, going in to the Superbowl. Um, uh, and that was nationally aired, um, for folks in other markets saw the ad twice. And, um, well, I can't get specific on the figures. It was a lot less than what…

AI assessment note: “I can't get specific on the figures. It was a lot less than what people think.”

Q You know, ramp is the Superbowl felt like this first moment where ramp was going mainstream. Right. And you know, what does that look like over the next like couple of years, uh, in terms of, you know, getting, uh, there's, there's many more businesses that, that, uh, aren't on ramp that then are, uh, what does the next two years look like in term, in terms of going mainstream?

A Two things. I mean, there's something just timeless about, ah, RAMP's core ideas. Um, you know, I need to paraphrase, you know, Jeff Bezos, when he was talking about Amazon, he couldn't imagine, ah, 10 years in the future, people would ever, you know, say, you know, Jeff, I, I love Amazon, but I wish the prices were higher. I, I just wish that, you know, these packages got to my door a, a little bit slower. You couldn't imagine it. People always want lower prices, um, you know, and getting things earlier, getting more done with less effort. And, Uh, in some ways, we just took the simple idea very seriously. Um, for a business owner, you know, in the US, average profit margin is eight and a half percent. Um, it means a dollar saved is not equivalent to a dollar earned. Uh, you know, a dollar of cost that you cut is equivalent to increasing your revenue by 12 dollars, and, uh, I just think that we, you know, looked at the math, uh, and just took it seriously. Um, and I, I think that, um, You know, simple truths in some sense are one of the most powerful forces in, in, in business. Um, uh, when I look at where we are, it's, it is incredible to be serving, uh, empowering. I, what we believe is one to two percent of all corporate and small business card spend in the U S which is maybe the market that we're largest in. Um, you know, it's 98 to 99% to go. I think part of going.

AI assessment note: “it is incredible to be serving... one to two percent of all corporate and small business card spend”

Q it feel to, uh, Not only achieve it again, but exceed it dramatically. And what did you have to do to kind of like motivate and rally the team in those sort of like the darker days, uh, where again, this sort of public narrative was that, uh, you know, these valuations were never really real. Uh, and, uh, yeah. So how, how good does it feel at this moment?

A I think someone really has to do just like a deep in-depth piece of like the big comeback and building up from like these 20, 21 companies and, and, and what it took because there really were, uh, companies that would raise at, you know, a hundred X revenue multiples. Um, I, I don't think it was a sin necessarily to raise at high prices. I think probably the sin was just spending it all, uh, really quickly. Um, you look at a lot of the companies that have transformed Uh, their industries, Amazon, Google, uh, Apple, like you, you name it, uh, often started with, um, some kind of bubble or hysteria. People were investing a lot in it. Uh, I think it does interesting things to businesses. Uh, I, I can tell you that, um, you know, our, our mission has been very consistent, start a business that is obsessed with saving our, our, our customers time and money, um, help them have every dollar an hour that they're spending in their business go a lot further. Um, And when you have, uh, a large amount of capital behind you, uh, you of course think about what are the results that you produce next week, but you start obsessing over, um, could I make this outcome, uh, 10 years from now larger? Um, instead of taking that next marginal dollar and I'm keeping it, um, how do we put it back into the hands of customers, see them succeed, um, have the ability to use that next dollar to invest in fas…

AI assessment note: “I think someone really has to do just like a deep in-depth piece”