In the last 3 years, Brex has raised nearly $600 million in venture funding. In this #DreamitLive episode, Michael B. Tannenbaum, CFO & CBO of Brex, and Steve Barsh will discuss Michael’s experiences at Brex in raising successive large venture rounds while executing and growing a company quickly. Michael will also speak about his experiences growing SoFi, another fintech unicorn where he was an early executive. We discuss Michael’s top 3 lessons learned and his biggest "Wow, I wish someone had told me that beforehand!" thoughts.
In this episode:
2:00—What is Brex and how did it get started?
15:00:00— What are the KPIs that Brex looks at to measure success?
16:30:00—How much has Brex raised in debt and equity funding?
17:00:00—What does it mean to raise debt capital (versus equity capital)?
19:00:00—How does the team come together to raise funding rounds?
24:00:00—How does the collapse of WeWork affect the valuations of other unicorns?
26:30:00—When does it make sense to raise debt capital?
35:00:00—Setting valuation with potential investors
38:50:00—How do you think about stock options? How to talk to investors about granting stock options?
41:00:00—What are the top 3 lessons learned from raising capital for SoFi or Brex
44:00:00—The importance of making decisions and sticking to them
47:00:00—What do you look for in a lead investor?
50:00:00—Why it's difficult to bootstrap a fintech company
51:20:00—Do you detail your 3 to 5 year financials? How much do VCs analyze these numbers?
55:00:00—Good sources of venture debt