Art Levy
@Alevy1511
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PSA for junior VCs or MBAs looking to join a startup: there are no "strategy" or "corp dev" jobs. You can join to either:. → Sell (Sales/BD).→ Build (Product).→ Manage Burn (Finance).
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Well that aged well :) Right on the nose with my $30B number
Wiz isn’t declining the deal. Here’s what I think is actually happening (as someone with 10+ years of M&A experience):. • Engage Google and get offer for $23B.• Let news of offer "accidentally" get out.• Publicly decline the offer to rally team.• Get Google to increase.
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Wiz isn’t declining the deal. Here’s what I think is actually happening (as someone with 10+ years of M&A experience):. • Engage Google and get offer for $23B.• Let news of offer "accidentally" get out.• Publicly decline the offer to rally team.• Get Google to increase.
The memo Wiz CEO sent his company after passing on a $23 billion deal from Google. --.Wizards,. I know the last week has been intense, with the buzz about a potential acquisition. While we are flattered by offers we have received, we have chosen to continue on our path to.
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Ten years ago, I worked in M&A for F100 companies . In the past five years, I��ve lead all of Brex’s M&A deals . This thread will teach you:.→ The three types of startup sales .→ When a Founder should consider selling .→ What goes through a Buyer's mind.
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@MarioNawfal Have to ask. why are civilians helping Hamas? Are they then really “civilians”?.
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You’re one well-crafted cold email away from speaking with (literally) whomever you want. Then you'll have to jump on a plane (per yesterday's tweet). This has helped me land huge partners for Brex. Here are my pro tips for writing that actually gets shit done.
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Effective Monday @Brex Business Accounts is increasing our Fdic insurance limit from 1m to 2.25m across nine program banks.
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Most underrated skill in Sales and Partnerships by year:. 2004: Ability to follow up relentlessly. 2014: Ability to follow up relentlessly. 2024: Ability to follow up relentlessly. 2034:.
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Tech founders should not work with an M&A bank if they’re selling the business for less than $100M. Here’s why (my take after 10+ years on both sides of the M&A table):.
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My career path that made me Chief Business Officer @ Brex:. 2011-2014: M&A IB Analyst.2014-2017: B&D/Corp Dev.2017-2018: VC.2018-Present: CBO @ Brex. Many people with this career arc start their own company. Here’s why I haven’t:.
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I tell every startup partnerships team the same thing:. Chase deer, not elephants. Elephants = big-name companies that are tempting to partner with, but are WAY harder to derive value from (Tier 1 public banks or SaaS co's are a great example). Deer = larger than the startups.
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SVB gave us our start. Now is the time to support the ecosystem
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@ElliotComite Correct but I never said anything different ?. Strategy is not a job. Every strong candidate in their real job is also strategic. So we agree actually.
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In 2019, American Express tried to enter the corporate card for startups game. They failed. Today, they turned to M&A to see if that's how they could make it work. After leading M&A at Brex for seven years, here's what this means for the market:
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@eladgil NYTimes is the absolute worst of them all. It’s frankly appalling how far it’s fallen.
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Underrated key predictor of someone’s future success. Their willingness to get on a plane to meet someone at a moment’s notice. No other context needed.
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You get outsized value from staying in touch with exceptional people.
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🧵Getting a ton of DMs so wanted to clarify how @brexhq keeps your funds safe. TLDR: diversification, no lending of assets and AAA MMF rating.
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I’m two years into angel investing with a partner. We write $25K checks into fintech infra, AI and payment companies. If you’re an angel trying to decide check size, here’s what you need to consider:.
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@mrexits Erlich’s Sandhill shuffle is still the all time.greatest scene and a masterclass on fundraising 🤣.
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I’ve been fortunate enough to negotiate dozens of M&A deals and partnerships in the last 10 years. Now that BrexPay for Navan partnership has been live for a few months and going extraordinary well, I want to highlight one key difference in negotiating that nobody talks about/.
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When someone tells you something will be done in a week, you should immediately ask is why it can't be done tomorrow. This goes for all types of deals:. Partnerships, sales, fundraising, acquisitions, and more. It is true - time does kill all deals. And if you need a deal to.
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Definitively my proudest partnership yet. Shout out to Dani on our team for leading the charge. Molly is a FIERCE negotiator but ultimately that LA tech life bond was too much to say no to.
BIG News. Sourcery is now sponsored by @brexHQ. This marks a special milestone for us. With a community of over 30,000+ founders, executives, capital allocators, and family offices, we’ve built Sourcery to deliver insightful, research-driven, and yes, fun content for
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This is product M&A at scale. you don't pay 30x revenue for just a "business".
Wiz reportedly doing close to $400m in ARR growing +120% as of middle of this year. Assuming grows another 100% this year ($800m in ARR), Google is paying ~30x EV/NTM ARR. $23b would be ~100% premium over $12b valuation in May ‘24 raise . WE ARE SO BACK 🚀
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My wife told me she had a surprise for me the Thursday before the Masters. This was the surprise:
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TLDR:. → Understand if you’re the big or small fish. → Establish credibility immediately. → Tailor a personal message and soft ask.
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3) Transition to a brief pitch and soft ask. Reach out about something specific, and be hyper tailored. Following on the example above, I’d say “Reviewing [highly specific press release or company announcement] I think Brex could integrate with [company] in X way. Do you think.
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→The three types of startup sales: . 1) Talent M&A — Your team has value .2) Product M&A — Your product has value .3) Business M&A — Your business as a whole has value . Generally, Purchase Price increases with M&A type (Business M&A > Product M&A > Talent M&A). Difference.
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(As I board my final flight of 2024). BD. Is. About. Showing. Up. Two weeks in the air✈️
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I’ve worked in both M&A + Partnerships for 10+ years. Take it from me - Partnerships is harder than M&A in a lot of ways. The main reason being the deals are more fluid for longer:. → In M&A, you need to win over the CEOs of both companies and a Product Evangelist at the Buyer.
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BEST OF BREED: . Everybody has been talking about the 'death of SaaS' as the application layer becomes highly commoditized in the AI age. BrexPay for Navan is each of us doubling down on our true moat—for Brex our global financial infrastructure and corporate card —to create a
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1) Understand if you’re the big fish or the small fish. Put ego aside and ask yourself where you fit compared to person on the other side of the table and how you can help them. Most times it’s obvious. Especially during my early days at Brex, I had to get in touch with huge.
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(1) You’re still young. Don’t rush it, and don’t force it. (2) Don't pick your head up and "evaluate options" every three months. Do it once a year. (3) Focus on the mission at hand, and consider your options later. LMK your thoughts on this.
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Most Founders have no clue if or when is a good time to sell their startup. This thread will change that. After helping to evalue and acquire companies for 10+ years, I can honestly say there are only four key reasons a Founder should consider an acquisition:.
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Let's gooo baby. We are SO. BACK.
📈Revenue growth accelerated almost 3x in 2024, net revenue retention is up more than 15 points, while burn rate is down almost 70%. Customer acquisition accelerated 50%, while sales efficiency and CAC paybacks improved by 40%.
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Ex-Founders make GREAT BD hires. In fact, one just shut down his startup and joined our team. Here’s why we chose him:.
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@saranormous Such a great question. Huge adverse selection for folks who are actually on the networks. Nobody legitimate should be spending their time that way. .
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I’m hiring a BD Director for my Embedded Finance team . You’ll be responsible for developing a pipeline of partners and then executing on a GTM strategy around select anchor partners to drive embedded card volume. 8+ years of experience in strategic partnerships/sales/product.
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2) Establish credibility early. The person needs a reason to keep reading after they open the message. Establish credibility however you can. For example, I’d open with a brief line saying “I’m Art, CBO at Brex, a $12B global payments platform”. Do whatever you can (without.
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→ When a Founder should consider selling:. If you've raised less than $5M , have struggled with PMF but have assembled a good team, you could consider: . 1) Talent M&A . Without PMF, Product/Business M&A isn’t feasible—but your team may be valuable to potential Buyers. Buyer is.
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Sales roles don’t require the most sales skill. Partnerships roles do. You have to literally sell EVERYONE. Let me explain:
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OH at brunch: “you gotta get the @eightsleep, people are out here throwing up 89’s on their @ouraring on a random Tuesday.”.
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Hiring advice that’s never failed me:. Always choose the candidate that wants the max variable comp.
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Was in Napa yesterday for a birthday. Heard about a sheep vendor that brings them to your vineyard to eat+ clear the weeds. Made a joke about a new “SaaS” offering. Nobody laughed. Guess we are in a new market.
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“I couldn’t get into their round” often means “you didn’t try hard enough”. I’ve seen VCs who aren’t Sequoia, Benchmark, etc. break into hot deals simply by making 10 customer intros. Act like you’re on the payroll, and you’ll be taken care of.
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Work with a serious mature company for your financial services. Work with Brex.
Our CEO said to me, should we get off of Ramp? They have that guy on twitter calling everyone retards with the Ramp badge. And that's our bank? Like are they a serious company, do we need a new one?.
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One thing I love about Brex:. Our culture is direct. In an execution business like ours, there’s no time to waste. Given how cross-functional BD is, I say what I mean and what I need and try to be extremely clear about timelines and prioritization. The better I know another.
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Many Founders get calls from CorpDev at scaled tech companies like Shopify, Amazon, or Stripe and think they’re being acquired. It’s actually quite the opposite. Here’s what those calls actually mean, and how you can tell if you’re actually being considered for Acquisition:.
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You, the Founder, reading Chris Voss' Never Split the Difference and taking a walk with the Buyer CEO explaining how and why you want to build together long-term, and that the extra [$XM] will help motivate you over the line to do so. Your banker has nothing to do with it.
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You don’t have to drop out of college and build the next unicorn to be a “successful founder”. Look at Buffett - >50% of his wealth came after age 50. I’m in my early 30's. I don’t plan on retiring for another 35+ years. I have time. More importantly though:.
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2020-2022 (ZIRP): Every man, woman, child and vertical software platform thinks they can build corporate cards natively. 2023: They all realize cards are hard. 2024: Everyone wants a partner to handle cards. Brex is that partner, and Brex Embedded is the way.
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@JasonrShuman i was thinking about one for Ops but couldn't think of something pithy. God you're so good . cc: @ElliotComite.
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FYI - the real story. Need to include BillPay on both sides. not one. Glad one of our Core Values is Seek Truth.
@zebulgar you need to compare card spend to card spend, and all money movement (all payment types) to all money movement, you can't just compare Brex card to Ramp all money movement. apples to apples it looks more like this
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Advice for anyone considering a career change in tech:. VC and Partnerships are not THAT different. → Both require lots of diligence/vetting. → Both are a complete “hits” business. → Both require you to always hunt the next deal. Partnerships just doesn’t get the praise VC.
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Google’s acquisition of Wiz at $32B instead of $30B raised some eyebrows. People are asking me what the extra $2B was for (as opposed to a clean $30B). The truth is, that $2B is much more deliberate than many realize. Here’s why - with the receipts:
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Agreed. Just found another 100 bodies in our closed-won channel.
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We are absolutely dominating Enterprise. Can't wait for more traction with BrexPay for @Navan :).
🏦The enterprise business grew 91%, with net revenue retention of >130%, while adding 50% more customers than a year ago. We now serve the largest and most important organizations on the planet, with a combined market cap of >$2.9 trillion, and over 150 public companies.
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There’s lots of work for me to do at Brex. I’m still learning a TON. We have many massive milestones to hit still. I’m laser-focused on Brex. Leaving to start my own thing interferes with that. Advice I’d give anyone in a similar spot:.
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Thanks for the clear breakdown @NikMilanovic ! We are @brexHQ, the serious fintech disruptor. No shitposting, just shipping.
Expense management provider @brexHQ is doing what banks should have done years ago. No more clunky policies. No more expense reports in PDFs. No more one-size-fits-all corporate cards. Instead? Custom-built financial infrastructure that actually works.
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While Brex is *mostly* known for our corporate cards, we also have a history of fire swag. See CFO pundit and valuation heartbreaker @cjgustafson222 rocking his finest this AM. "You Pick the Valuation, I Pick the Swag"
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When choosing a corporate card+ spend management tool, you have two options:. -The one that *claims* the smartest execs choose it. -The one who has the net revenue to prove them otherwise. The choice is yours.
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Another earnings call cycle, another public company CEO with Brex on their mind:
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The most undercover-stressful tech job:. Partnerships at a high-growth startup. → Company culture is “what have you done for me lately”.→ Partnerships take FOREVER to scout, vet, and invest in. You must manage stakeholders 24/7. Not for the faint of heart. But so much fun!.
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Everyone’s mistaking $32B Wiz deal as a sign that an uptick in M&A activity is widespread. It’s simply not. Here’s where these people are going wrong and what this actually means for M&A:.
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Brex would never block the sun. We aren’t Icarus. Plus we need to allow our customers to keep transacting (as they do today) in all 195 countries.
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Big news from @brexHQ today as we launch our AI powered Brex Assistant. Follow along with me as I live tweet our AI launch event in SF with several guest speakers!.
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3. Business M&A. Buyer is thinking: this business as a stand-alone entity improves my holistic platform offering. EXAMPLE: MSFT/LinkedIn; CRM/SLACK; IBM/RedHat; OpenText/MicroFocus; Cisco/Splunk; Paypal/Honey.
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Been at @brexHQ for a while but this Release feels different. SO excited to get this out to customers, in particular the delicious accounting features. Can't wait to get all our accounting partners in the mix!!!.
Today we’re announcing our 24’ Summer release at @BrexHQ! ☀️ AI-powered accounting with continuous close (first software ever to do so), two completely redesigned products, and a blazing-fast new UI with 100+ improvements that make Brex the most powerful *and* simple it’s ever
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Very excited to be involved! Tough problem and Fragment poised to solve it.
Fintech has a ledger problem. We raised $9 million from @stripe , @BoxGroup and angels like @zachperret , @cjc ,@gokulr , @jaltma, @Emiliechoi__ and @thefintechfund to solve it.
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Silicon Valley’s “be a nice guy” and “pay it forward” mentality is the opposite of what you need to “win” in an M&A negotiation. Everyone knows it to be true. Nobody says it out loud.
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Founders - I hope this helps. Follow for more startup and investing content🙏.
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Below $100M (and honestly up to $250M), Buyers mostly care about the Product fit and Culture fit of your company into theirs. In other words: They want to make sure your team will mesh well, and your product does what it says it does. That means one thing for your Banker:.
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I've seen a lot of fintech card businesses in the last six years since I joined Brex but I think what @patrickmro_ is building at @atlascardhq is truly special. Access x Spend Controls for the "whale" consumer is very interesting. Amex has dropped the ball on its largest.
EXCLUSIVE: Fintech Atlas launches a platform with card and concierge services.
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Very excited for @zcabrams and the whole @stablecoin team. So proud to have backed him from the beginning. What an amazing outcome. Brex Mafia ftw :).
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Can I say for sure that @jaytatum0 and the @celtics won their 18th title tonight because they use @brexHQ for spend management?. Well I can’t rule it out. CONGRATS GUYS! #sports.
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