WEBVTT - Expensify CEO Focused on Long-Term Results

0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.600
<v Speaker 1>You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and

0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:08.479
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well. Expensive

0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:11.040
<v Speaker 1>as the payment apps it works with businesses and individuals

0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.120
<v Speaker 1>to make it easier to manage expenses bills. It reported

0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.920
<v Speaker 1>earnings yesterday, revenue coming in at thirty seven point four

0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.439
<v Speaker 1>million dollars. It's an increase of seventy two point six

0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.760
<v Speaker 1>percent from the same time last year. The net loss

0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.439
<v Speaker 1>was six point three million dollars. That was compared to

0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:26.680
<v Speaker 1>six point nine million for the same period last year.

0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:28.480
<v Speaker 1>The company those saying this was due to an ip

0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.640
<v Speaker 1>O related bonus expense of more than twenty six million

0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.480
<v Speaker 1>dollars that impacted a net loss and adjusted ebit. Joining

0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.000
<v Speaker 1>us now is David Barrett, the founder and CEO of Expensivefy.

0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.480
<v Speaker 1>He joins us on the phone from San Francisco. David,

0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.519
<v Speaker 1>how are you doing great? Thanks? Hey, So, I want

0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:46.280
<v Speaker 1>to talk a little bit about what the journey to

0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:48.800
<v Speaker 1>becoming a public company has been like for you and

0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:50.600
<v Speaker 1>also what it's been like just over the last month.

0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.040
<v Speaker 1>Is you've watched your company shares look move a lot

0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.200
<v Speaker 1>higher and also move a lot lower. We should say

0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.240
<v Speaker 1>that shares are higher to the tune of about thirty

0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.480
<v Speaker 1>percent since the company I p O though about off

0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:06.120
<v Speaker 1>of highs reached in late November. So actually, I have

0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.039
<v Speaker 1>no idea. I didn't look at the share price since

0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.200
<v Speaker 1>I left the studio. Really wait, wait, hold on the

0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:11.920
<v Speaker 1>first thing we did. You didn't check the share price.

0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.800
<v Speaker 1>You even checked the share price since when? Since we

0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.040
<v Speaker 1>left the studio and I p O day Uh wow

0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.440
<v Speaker 1>the uh. We set up a rule internally saying it's like, look,

0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.960
<v Speaker 1>it's a spoiler, like we're here for the long haul.

0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.560
<v Speaker 1>We're not here to make just results like next you know, tomorrow,

0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.000
<v Speaker 1>next quarter wherever it is. Everyone in the company has

0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.200
<v Speaker 1>focused on very long term results and so no, I

0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.039
<v Speaker 1>only pay attention to the value recruiting over the very

0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.160
<v Speaker 1>long term. That's so interesting because I talked to someone

0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.679
<v Speaker 1>like Michael Dell, who has been you know, in public

0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.679
<v Speaker 1>markets for for decades um and he writes in his

0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.360
<v Speaker 1>recent book that it's like, you know, compared to kind

0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.600
<v Speaker 1>of a report card. Uh and and talked a lot

0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.200
<v Speaker 1>about the anxiety that it brings when you know investors

0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.040
<v Speaker 1>don't believe in you. Yeah, I mean, i'd say, but

0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.880
<v Speaker 1>investors aren't my customer. I would say, like, you buying

0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.680
<v Speaker 1>my shares doesn't actually make the company any more money.

0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:01.960
<v Speaker 1>Every one's focus needs to be on how do we

0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:03.800
<v Speaker 1>build product, how do we get that product in the

0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:05.920
<v Speaker 1>hands of customers, and how do we generate very long

0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.720
<v Speaker 1>term cash flow. Everything else is just an instruction. I

0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.480
<v Speaker 1>think that's a really refreshing perspective. I mean, we spend

0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:13.360
<v Speaker 1>so much time talking about the market here, but like

0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.720
<v Speaker 1>you said, investors aren't necessarily your your customers. But I

0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:19.480
<v Speaker 1>do want to talk a little bit more about the

0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.200
<v Speaker 1>I p O. Because you founded expensivefy in two thousand eight,

0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:28.160
<v Speaker 1>you didn't go public until Uh why was Why was

0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.880
<v Speaker 1>now the right time? Well, it just really came down

0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.960
<v Speaker 1>to we wanted to provide liquidity to our early shareholders.

0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.520
<v Speaker 1>I mean, like, we're a profitable company. We didn't need

0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:39.720
<v Speaker 1>any money. We have all the resources we need to

0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.240
<v Speaker 1>keep growing. But as you have investors in with like

0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.720
<v Speaker 1>a you know, ten year LP requirements and they're like

0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.000
<v Speaker 1>eleven years in, at some point they're like, look, it's

0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:50.480
<v Speaker 1>not my money, need to give it back. And so

0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.959
<v Speaker 1>we actually did leveraged buyouts of early investors. We took

0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.000
<v Speaker 1>on debt because Republic are profitable company and bought out

0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.800
<v Speaker 1>early vcs. But that only works for so long. At

0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.080
<v Speaker 1>some point we're like, look, there's no future where we

0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.360
<v Speaker 1>can keep buying out everyone through LEVERAGETEP, like, we just

0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.200
<v Speaker 1>have to go public eventually. So once it was no longer,

0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.720
<v Speaker 1>uh and if but a when that, they came down

0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.320
<v Speaker 1>to why not today, Like it's better to be growing

0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.680
<v Speaker 1>in a public company that growing as a private company.

0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:16.639
<v Speaker 1>If you're just growing the same all the same, I'd

0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:18.120
<v Speaker 1>rather have the look good or than not. So we

0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.640
<v Speaker 1>just decided, look, there's really no reason to wait, let's

0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.160
<v Speaker 1>just do it right now. I would imagine that over

0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.400
<v Speaker 1>the last thirteen years you've gotten some serious offers to

0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.399
<v Speaker 1>be acquired that could have been a different path. Yeah,

0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:29.000
<v Speaker 1>but that's not very fun. And listen, what I would

0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.080
<v Speaker 1>do is to start all over and couldn't entirely new company,

0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:32.960
<v Speaker 1>Like that's that sounds like a huge fan the ass

0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.720
<v Speaker 1>would much rather just like I worked so hard to

0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.080
<v Speaker 1>build this company, to hire this team. I don't want

0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.240
<v Speaker 1>to start over and like have thirteen more years of

0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:41.839
<v Speaker 1>effort to get back to where I am right now,

0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.680
<v Speaker 1>we're just barely getting started here. So does it feel

0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:46.760
<v Speaker 1>any different being a public company than you were private

0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.640
<v Speaker 1>company for more than a dozen years. It feels great,

0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.400
<v Speaker 1>I would say. I think that the big challenge for

0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.040
<v Speaker 1>our company has always hasn't the courage to believe in ourselves,

0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.040
<v Speaker 1>like overcoming this idea, the imposters, you know, dilemma. And

0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.480
<v Speaker 1>I think like, now we're a legit, multi million dollar

0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.040
<v Speaker 1>public company and you know, with employees and offices all

0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.520
<v Speaker 1>over the world, like at some point we have to

0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:06.600
<v Speaker 1>accept maybe we do new a thing or two. And

0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.440
<v Speaker 1>I think that the confidence has given employees to just

0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.040
<v Speaker 1>really believe in ourselves and believe in our product vision

0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.400
<v Speaker 1>has been really helpful. And so we're coming back with you.

0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.400
<v Speaker 1>We have just about thirty seconds though, but this was

0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.320
<v Speaker 1>your first earnings report as a public company. It seems

0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:25.960
<v Speaker 1>like what got a lot of headlines was the launch

0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:30.360
<v Speaker 1>of your your Free Plan. Yeah, and so it's basically

0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:32.800
<v Speaker 1>when we started a card first, we were targeting just

0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.680
<v Speaker 1>cross shilling to existing customers. The new free plan is

0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.280
<v Speaker 1>targeting entirely new class of customers. They have very very

0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.360
<v Speaker 1>simplified requirements. And then so yes, it's a opening up

0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.120
<v Speaker 1>the market even further. Hey, David, we're gonna come back

0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:45.679
<v Speaker 1>with you, So sit tight. We're gonna do some news

0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.320
<v Speaker 1>and we're back in just a few minutes. We're talking

0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.720
<v Speaker 1>to David Barrett, the founder and CEO of Expensive I.

0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.960
<v Speaker 1>He's joining us on the phone from San Francisco, Katie.

0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:53.480
<v Speaker 1>When we come back, we're gonna have a good bit

0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.400
<v Speaker 1>of time with him. We gotta talk blockchain. Oh my gosh,

0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.320
<v Speaker 1>I need to talk about the blockchain. We only did

0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.359
<v Speaker 1>one block on it. Yeah, I know so far, so

0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:04.599
<v Speaker 1>we have an extra block to do later in just

0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.520
<v Speaker 1>a few minutes. Once again, David Barrett, the founder and

0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.120
<v Speaker 1>CEO of Expensive I, joining us on the phone from

0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.280
<v Speaker 1>San Francisco. Still with us is David Barrett. He is

0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.040
<v Speaker 1>the founder and chief executive officer of Expensive Fied. He

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.400
<v Speaker 1>joins us on the phone from San Francisco. And David,

0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:22.240
<v Speaker 1>I was looking at your bio and there's a line

0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.520
<v Speaker 1>in there that caught my eye that you created expensive

0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.760
<v Speaker 1>fies blockchain powered database a year before Satoshi's white paper

0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.520
<v Speaker 1>on bitcoin. There's so many people who can say that.

0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:34.600
<v Speaker 1>Tell me, why were you looking at the blockchain all

0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.360
<v Speaker 1>the way back in two thousand seven, two eight, Yeah,

0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.279
<v Speaker 1>well it wasn't called that then. That name was invented later,

0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.400
<v Speaker 1>I guess. But it's basically I was starting off this company.

0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.960
<v Speaker 1>I needed to build a database that could replicate an

0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.960
<v Speaker 1>incredibly high volume and security, and I just I was

0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.680
<v Speaker 1>an individual engineer with you know, my background been I've

0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:55.719
<v Speaker 1>been a programmer since I was six, like you know,

0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.360
<v Speaker 1>distributed systems from my thing for a very long time,

0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:00.719
<v Speaker 1>and had a problem I need to solve. None of

0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.520
<v Speaker 1>the databases at the time offered what I needed. I

0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.000
<v Speaker 1>couldn't afford oracles because I was just a random dude.

0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.080
<v Speaker 1>Because I'm like, it's good, I can just build us myself.

0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:10.120
<v Speaker 1>So explain what it means to people who might not

0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:14.160
<v Speaker 1>be familiar that it's blockchain powered. Well, basically, blockchain is

0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.839
<v Speaker 1>a replication technology, and what that means is if it

0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.880
<v Speaker 1>allows you to have multiple copies of the same data

0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:24.080
<v Speaker 1>in multiple locations and cryptographically guaranteed that they're exactly the same.

0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.719
<v Speaker 1>And so blocking under the hood is really just a

0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.600
<v Speaker 1>method of ensuring data integrity across multiple location. Now there's

0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.839
<v Speaker 1>a ton of two different kinds of blockchains. There's the

0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.480
<v Speaker 1>public blockchains like Bitcoin and things like this. We use

0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.360
<v Speaker 1>a private blockchain, meaning it operates only on our own servers,

0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.159
<v Speaker 1>but we get all the same cryptographic guarantees that the

0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.919
<v Speaker 1>replication that's happening and incredibly hyperflorma. So so somebody could say, well,

0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.080
<v Speaker 1>how is that necessarily different from the cloud? Um, well,

0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:51.640
<v Speaker 1>I would say the difference is so we buy our

0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.640
<v Speaker 1>own hardware. Like there's this weird myth that somehow Amazon

0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.000
<v Speaker 1>is cheap and fast and efficient. None of that is true, Like,

0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.359
<v Speaker 1>we buy a hardware that you are so much more

0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.440
<v Speaker 1>powerful than anything you can get in the cloud, and

0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.400
<v Speaker 1>it's literally like a tense of the cost um. And

0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.360
<v Speaker 1>so I would say, no, we we operate our own hardware. Uh,

0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.160
<v Speaker 1>and we use blockchain to replicate the databases between our

0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.400
<v Speaker 1>own servers. When did you start using the term blockchain

0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.000
<v Speaker 1>in your press materials? Uh? We didn't even really think

0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.720
<v Speaker 1>about blockchain for a very long time until I think

0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:23.560
<v Speaker 1>we're just like like, wow, you know, we should do

0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.240
<v Speaker 1>something with with bitcoin because people seem nuts for this thing,

0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.040
<v Speaker 1>and we're like, well, wait a second, we didn't. Didn't

0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:34.720
<v Speaker 1>we invent bitcoin? Blockchain? Uh? If I if I were that,

0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.120
<v Speaker 1>I would not be talking to you today. No offense,

0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.960
<v Speaker 1>No offense, taken, don't worry. Okay, yeah, but no, no,

0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.120
<v Speaker 1>I think that for us, we view blockchain is as

0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.280
<v Speaker 1>a important solution to that particular problem, which was back

0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.800
<v Speaker 1>end replication of very sensitive and important data at high volume.

0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.000
<v Speaker 1>And so it's it's cool that. I mean, it feels

0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.240
<v Speaker 1>like blockchain is such a buzzword that's thrown around, but

0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.360
<v Speaker 1>it seems like expensive. I Again, you could argue you

0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.320
<v Speaker 1>coined it, but I'm curious, do you think that when

0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.640
<v Speaker 1>you look across the competitive landscape, do you see your

0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:09.280
<v Speaker 1>competitors also sort of realizing the benefit that this type

0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:15.040
<v Speaker 1>of technology holds. Not really? And I would say, like fundamentally,

0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.640
<v Speaker 1>what makes expensive by different than everyone else, isn't I

0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.200
<v Speaker 1>guess We've got the best corporate card, our best expense reports,

0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.480
<v Speaker 1>all that kind of stuff, But most importantly, we have

0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.560
<v Speaker 1>a completely different business model than everyone else. Everyone else

0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.200
<v Speaker 1>basically has a very siloed uh sales model where you

0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.960
<v Speaker 1>sell a customer top down, and that customer is an island.

0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.640
<v Speaker 1>It only talks within itself, and so everyone has a

0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.079
<v Speaker 1>very simple database because you only need a database as

0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.560
<v Speaker 1>big as your biggest customer, and your biggest customer has

0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.120
<v Speaker 1>you know, several thousands of employees like that fits in

0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.320
<v Speaker 1>a small data base. It's actually very easy. We have

0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:50.079
<v Speaker 1>a completely different design. We have a single gigantic database

0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.800
<v Speaker 1>that is replicated in multiple locations that stores all of

0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.800
<v Speaker 1>our customers, which means our design is much more like

0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.160
<v Speaker 1>a Facebook or linked in that it would be like

0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:00.920
<v Speaker 1>a salesforce to concur because any two users and the

0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.319
<v Speaker 1>Insensibi platform can talk to each other just like a

0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.680
<v Speaker 1>social network, and so we're built to capture essentially all

0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.760
<v Speaker 1>of the billions of financial conversations. They happen not just

0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.560
<v Speaker 1>inside of companies, but between companies and between employees in

0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.760
<v Speaker 1>their um in their personal lives. And so we're bringing

0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.600
<v Speaker 1>all these financial conversations onto a single global platform. And

0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.200
<v Speaker 1>that's a completely different technology stack than anything else out there.

0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.120
<v Speaker 1>So our technology is not just for you know, kind

0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:29.880
<v Speaker 1>of just to be fun or neat. It's there to

0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.960
<v Speaker 1>support this radically different business model because we aim to

0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:37.320
<v Speaker 1>link a billion people through their financial conversations, just like

0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.600
<v Speaker 1>Instagram links billion people by talking about photography. How do

0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.280
<v Speaker 1>you get there? How are you able to get to

0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.240
<v Speaker 1>that number? Well, that's a great question, because you can't

0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.480
<v Speaker 1>get there through a traditional sales model like use this,

0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.760
<v Speaker 1>aren't enough sales people to call a billion people and saying, Hi,

0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.520
<v Speaker 1>have you considered expensive by Uh? The only way you

0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.320
<v Speaker 1>can get to a billion user platform is through viral

0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.800
<v Speaker 1>and word of mouth because like you didn't do you know,

0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.679
<v Speaker 1>talk to a salesperson to decide to adopt Facebook. You

0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.839
<v Speaker 1>just adopted because all your friends did. They told you

0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:05.959
<v Speaker 1>that's how people learn about expensive lies. Yeah, but you

0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.600
<v Speaker 1>need the company you work for to adopt it, right, Yeah,

0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.240
<v Speaker 1>but it starts at the individual employee. Most companies of

0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.200
<v Speaker 1>our competition has to convince the CFO. We don't even try.

0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.680
<v Speaker 1>We say, hey, any individual employee the Hasteler expension boards

0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.120
<v Speaker 1>can down to the after free sign up their company

0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:22.920
<v Speaker 1>and give it a shot. Again it's free, and then

0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.480
<v Speaker 1>we just onboard the company before the boss even knows.

0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.240
<v Speaker 1>So we call it our bottom up adoption model. Every

0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.880
<v Speaker 1>employee can pull us into the company, which is different

0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.440
<v Speaker 1>than our competition who can only talk to the top down.

0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:35.319
<v Speaker 1>And just for context, you guys have got quite a

0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.320
<v Speaker 1>way to go to get to a billion users. You

0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.120
<v Speaker 1>are saying that more than ten million people are using

0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:44.840
<v Speaker 1>expensive fies free features right now. Indeed, more grab No,

0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.599
<v Speaker 1>you go ahead, I can say more companies. He was

0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.600
<v Speaker 1>expensive fied than any of the platform and so I

0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.319
<v Speaker 1>think there's a reason for that, and we did it

0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.640
<v Speaker 1>basically through this viral word of mouth model. And so

0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.360
<v Speaker 1>that's I think the key to our historical growth and

0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.600
<v Speaker 1>absolutely keep to our future growth. And even I do

0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.520
<v Speaker 1>want to get your thoughts on the pandemic because expensive

0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.079
<v Speaker 1>fy you founded it thirteen years ago. The past almost

0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.880
<v Speaker 1>two years have been in a pandemic when it feels

0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:13.280
<v Speaker 1>like everything has I know, as if we needed a reminder,

0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.000
<v Speaker 1>but I am curious you know how that has, you know, affected,

0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.960
<v Speaker 1>expensifies business, how you're thinking about the path forward, especially

0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.480
<v Speaker 1>as we start to see cases unfortunately rise again across

0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:28.440
<v Speaker 1>the country. Yeah. I think that was certainly very daunting

0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.440
<v Speaker 1>when it happens, because we assumed we had a lot

0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.880
<v Speaker 1>of exposure to business travel or of a certain kind.

0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:34.559
<v Speaker 1>And I think it certainly, you know, it took a ding.

0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.280
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it wasn't. Pandemic is not the banner of

0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.920
<v Speaker 1>conditions for like, you know, fantastic year. But I think

0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:41.760
<v Speaker 1>what we found is a business travel is different than

0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.199
<v Speaker 1>people realize. We typically could think of like George Clooney

0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.040
<v Speaker 1>up in the air, like you know, coastal travel. Most

0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.840
<v Speaker 1>business travel is actually someone driving across town, like driving

0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.280
<v Speaker 1>to Toledo, buying some materials at the home depot and

0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.320
<v Speaker 1>then doing a job like that's business travel for like

0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.719
<v Speaker 1>a huge fraction of people. And so I think that

0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.000
<v Speaker 1>the there's a lot of focus on what the virus does.

0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.559
<v Speaker 1>But the virus isn't our customer. People are our customers,

0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.760
<v Speaker 1>and people actually their behavior doesn't move as quickly as

0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.640
<v Speaker 1>the virus itself. Even like omicron, it hasn't changed really

0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.560
<v Speaker 1>what people do. People are still traveling, people are still

0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:16.319
<v Speaker 1>going into the office, People are doing a lot of things,

0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.360
<v Speaker 1>like even in San Francisco here, um they may just

0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.640
<v Speaker 1>major masked mandate in California except for San Francisco, where

0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.400
<v Speaker 1>there's no change. Well, look, you know, we've had a

0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.040
<v Speaker 1>big change in New York City in recent days. We

0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.880
<v Speaker 1>hope that it doesn't end up happening in San Francisco certainly.

0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:31.880
<v Speaker 1>David Barrett, thank you so much for joining us. You've

0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:33.360
<v Speaker 1>got to come back. We had a great time chatting

0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.640
<v Speaker 1>with you. That's David Barrett, the founder and CEO of Expensify.

0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.360
<v Speaker 1>Just went public last month. It's been thirteen years in

0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.040
<v Speaker 1>the making. He joined us on the phone from San Francisco,