The Art of Team Diversity and the Value of In-Person Connections

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk is joined by Art Levy, Chief Business Officer at Brex.

Brex is the modern finance platform that empowers growing companies to spend smarter and move faster in 120+ countries. Brex combines global corporate cards, expense management, banking, and travel. Their platform is trusted by 30k+ companies including ServiceTitan, DoorDash, ScaleAI, and Wiz.

In this episode, Art & Ryan discuss:

2:23 - The exact decision making framework he uses (and we all probably should) to assess career opportunities in tech, including the "Five F**k Ups Rule"

4:50 - The 3 things that gave him confidence in Brex after assessing hundreds of companies as a VC...and the role Michael Tannenbaum + Sam Blond played

8:29 - His definition of what a CBO does, how he tracks himself, and his 'CBO Role Model'

10:39 - Brex's specific positioning in this massive, ultra-competitive global market and the types of customers Brex serves

14:54 - How his team balances product decision-making tactics across building their own roadmap, responding to competitor products, and listening to customers

16:25 - His Partnership Playbook and why "Rabbits, Deer, and Elephants" help him focus. How to think about value maximization vs. long-term partnership.

23:56 - What it would take for Brex to buy (or partner with) your startup

30:48 – Brex, Pedro, and Henrique going 'Founder Mode' and why it was the perfect movement for Brex in 2024

35:20 - Filling your team with 'spikes'

36:48 - Why you must always get on the plane

39:18 - An all-time rapid fire round including who he would box, why he invested in Bridge.xyz (acq by Stripe), his favorite apps, Brex team shoutouts, and more.

Enjoy the show.

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Art Levy is the Chief Business Officer of Brex leading business development, strategic partnerships, and M&A. Over the past six years, Art has led Brex's key partnerships with companies like Navan, Coupa, Apple, AWS, Zoom, and JetBlue and its M&A deals across the US and EMEA. Arthur started his career at Centerview Partners in tech investment banking and has spent the last 15 years operating and investing. Art is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University.

Ryan Zauk is the Host of the This Month in Fintech Podcast and Bay Area lead for the broader This Week in Fintech platform. In his day job, Ryan is an investor at OMERS Ventures, the direct investing arm of one of the world’s largest pension plans with over $130Bn in net assets. Prior to OMERS, he worked in Morgan Stanley’s Tech Investment Banking team focused on M&A and capital markets. He is based in the Bay Area. You can find him on Linkedin or Twitter.

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