The Next Great Thing

Scaling Fast and Compounding Success with Brex Co-Founders & Co-CEOs, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi

October 25, 2023 Andrew Greenstein Season 3 Episode 3
Scaling Fast and Compounding Success with Brex Co-Founders & Co-CEOs, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi
The Next Great Thing
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The Next Great Thing
Scaling Fast and Compounding Success with Brex Co-Founders & Co-CEOs, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi
Oct 25, 2023 Season 3 Episode 3
Andrew Greenstein

As Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of fintech startup Brex, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi are true “friendpreneurs” – a​​nd they’re not even 30 years old. As teens, they met over Twitter in Brazil, hacking and jailbreaking their way through high school. After their payment startup Pagar.me (“basically the Stripe of Brazil”) achieved success, they left Brazil for Silicon Valley, where they used their unique insight into the payments landscape to start Brex in 2017. Originally offering credit cards to startups, Brex has moved and scaled at incredible speed, reaching $100 million in revenue just 18 months after launch, and expanding from credit cards into a global spend management platform that both startups and enterprise customers rely on. Today, the company is valued at more than $12 billion. But scaling this big, this fast hasn’t always been smooth. Henrique and Pedro share their journey, wisdom, and experience managing risk and making tough decisions and pivots. They also explain how their complementary skillsets, friendship, drive, and long-view approach fuel their ambition to build Brex into a global fintech powerhouse – one that’s challenging established financial services and payments players.

Show notes, episodes, and more at thenextgreatthingpodcast.com. For more information on SF AppWorks, visit sfappworks.com.

Follow Andrew on LinkedIn at @Andrew Greenstein

Questions? Feedback? Guest recommendations? Email us here.

Show Notes

As Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of fintech startup Brex, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi are true “friendpreneurs” – a​​nd they’re not even 30 years old. As teens, they met over Twitter in Brazil, hacking and jailbreaking their way through high school. After their payment startup Pagar.me (“basically the Stripe of Brazil”) achieved success, they left Brazil for Silicon Valley, where they used their unique insight into the payments landscape to start Brex in 2017. Originally offering credit cards to startups, Brex has moved and scaled at incredible speed, reaching $100 million in revenue just 18 months after launch, and expanding from credit cards into a global spend management platform that both startups and enterprise customers rely on. Today, the company is valued at more than $12 billion. But scaling this big, this fast hasn’t always been smooth. Henrique and Pedro share their journey, wisdom, and experience managing risk and making tough decisions and pivots. They also explain how their complementary skillsets, friendship, drive, and long-view approach fuel their ambition to build Brex into a global fintech powerhouse – one that’s challenging established financial services and payments players.

Show notes, episodes, and more at thenextgreatthingpodcast.com. For more information on SF AppWorks, visit sfappworks.com.

Follow Andrew on LinkedIn at @Andrew Greenstein

Questions? Feedback? Guest recommendations? Email us here.