In this article
Spending made smarter
Easy-to-use cards, spend limits, approval flows, vendor payments —plus an average savings of 5%.1
|
4.8 Rating 4.8 rating
Error Message
No personal credit checks or founder guarantee.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Webinar: Smart ERP setups to automate expense management
Dec. 13, 1 PM EST/10 AM PST

Extending the lifespan of businesses has been a recurring theme in our CEO Eric Glyman’s career to date. His very first job was at a firm that helped struggling companies restructure their bankruptcies. After selling his first startup Paribus, Eric teamed up with Karim Atiyeh and Gene Lee to co-found Ramp, a corporate card designed to help businesses save more and spend less.


These experiences have taught Eric a thing or two about building self-sustaining businesses. He recently went on the 20VC podcast to share his top advice for founders: 

Define the core of the company early on.

You get pulled in a million directions when building a product. Having a clear view of your company mission will help you put the right constraints in place for your team and move much faster. At Ramp, our singular focus on helping companies spend less guides our decisions and priorities every day.

Be ready for moments of intense pressure.

Extreme stress is inevitable and it's during these times that the worst decisions are often made. At Paribus, Eric and the team once saw 80% of their revenue disappear overnight. He shares how he and the team put their terrified emotions aside to work through the crisis one step at a time.

Funding rounds should be thought of as science experiments.

What do you need to prove with the limited amount of capital you have on hand to unlock the next stage of funding and growth? Asking this question will help you hone in on your most important goals in light of constraints.

Never take the highest single round price.

Take the long view. Your goal is to maximize your ultimate enterprise value, not the value of a single round. Sometimes this means leaving capital on the table so you’re able to pull together the right team and create more upside for your investors and employees. 

Know when to optimize for a fast decision versus a higher quality one.

When it comes to core foundational building blocks, take the time to get them right. For all other issues, what matters most is iterating fast instead of proving things right. Push your team to continuously test tactics that lead to incremental, compounding growth. 


In his wide-ranging conversation with Harry Stebbings, Eric also tackles the questions of whether the world really needs another corporate card, when to build versus buy, and how to get the most out of your board meetings. To get a full download of Eric’s insights, listen to the 20VC podcast episode here.

Head of Content, Ramp

Fiona Lee is the Head of Content at Ramp, overseeing content marketing, customer education, and customer marketing. She brings over a decade of editorial experience developing high-quality B2B marketing and customer support content. Prior to Ramp, she led content teams at companies large and small, including Google and Intercom, where she developed a strong interest in small businesses growth topics. Fiona graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English. Outside of work, she spends time dreaming about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail one day.

Ramp is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes make informed decisions. We adhere to strict editorial guidelines to ensure that our content meets and maintains our high standards.

FAQs

How Alexandra Lozano Immigration Law prepared for scale with Ramp

"I used to have to call our card provider and sit on the phone for a couple hours a week, I don’t have to do that with Ramp.”
Wayne Robinson, CFO, Alexandra Lozano Immigration Law

How Ramp helped Smart City Apartment Locating save time, expedite month close, and grow sustainably

"Five to 15 hours each month of non-value-add activities are off my plate. I’m able to be a strategic advisor versus just a tactical manager when it comes to spend management.”
Dustin Walsted, VP Finance, Smart City Apartment Locating

How TaskHuman built their runway with Ramp

“I’ve pretty much seen or used everything that’s out there, everything does something Ramp does, but nothing does everything Ramp does.”
Matthew Ferguson, Controller, TaskHuman

How First Tee transformed its bookkeeping and saved time with PwC and Ramp

"The efficiency of using PwC Bookkeeping Connect, coupled with the Ramp platform, has probably been about 75% time savings. Instead of every hour I would have had to spend on bookkeeping, I’m probably having to spend maybe 10 or 15 minutes.”
Dan Burke, CEO, First Tee San Francisco

How Mix Talent cut costs, gained transparency, and improved efficiency with Ramp

"I use Ramp’s functionality to examine the contracts and understand whether we’re getting the best terms, as opposed to just trying to get the bill paid. Ramp has allowed us to project cash flow so much better."
Paul Streitenberger, Accounting & Finance Lead, Mix Talent

How The Joffrey Ballet cut their month-end close time with Ramp

“One of the things I was looking for, and which Ramp has done for me beautifully, is to consolidate credit cards, ACH payments, check payments, and reimbursements into one place and give us a full picture for insights."
Gee Hoon Lim, Director of Finance, The Joffrey Ballet

How Beyond sped up reconciliation time 8x faster with Ramp

“With Ramp we close in 5-6 days, which is pretty quick for a company with four different subsidiaries."
Jake Steele, Senior Staff Accountant, Beyond