4 principles from Ramp’s journey to $1B in annualized revenue
Ramp's mission is to save customers time and money — and move quickly to deliver it. The results are a natural outcome of staying true to that focus.
Days after Ramp announced that it had crossed $1B in annualized revenue, Ramp co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman spoke with Fortune Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer, Alyson Shontell, at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech.
Even as Eric acknowledged this milestone, he put the number in perspective, reflecting instead on the mission and culture that have shaped Ramp’s trajectory.
"Valuation is a derivative,” he noted. “Revenue comes from customers genuinely feeling that their trust was well-earned. When they signed up for a product, it delivered, and they told other businesses about it.”
With that philosophy in mind, here are four principles Eric described as key to Ramp’s growth:
1. Align your incentives with your customers: Ramp’s mission is to help save customers time and money. As Shontell observed, this mission flipped the incentive structure of corporate credit cards, spending more to earn more points, on its head. Instead, Ramp’s co-founders asked, “What if we wanted the same thing as our customers?” This alignment allowed Ramp to compete on value — making businesses better — rather than on rewards-based pricing.
2. Prioritize velocity: Ramp has tracked each day since launch, and ships improvements daily. “The goal is that every improvement makes the time saved for the customer expand and compound even faster,” Eric said.
Ramp CEO Eric Glyman in conversation with Fortune Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer, Alyson Shontell at Fortune's recent event. Credit: Fortune
He credits leaders like Frank Slootman, former CEO of Snowflake and ServiceNow, for shaping his thinking on urgency. Slootman argues that organizations decelerate unless leaders actively drive tempo. Left unchecked, company culture defaults to pushing work to tomorrow instead of today — a pattern leaders should resist.
3. Put yourself out of the job…often: As Eric put it, “what got you here won’t get you there.” The problem of compounding growth is that what drove 100% growth last year will only translate to 50% next year and 25% the year following.
This forces self-reflection. For Eric, this means asking himself, “what was I great at that I need to give up?” The goal isn’t to get marginally better at the same few things, but to reevaluate your role and keep evolving as the game changes.
4. Focus on strengths, not weaknesses: Eric believes leaders should recruit people who surpass them in key domains and empower them to own the function. This allows leaders, in turn, to concentrate on areas where they have an edge and maximize the return on their time.
At the same time, he emphasized that building a strong team is not about hiring experts, but the people who want to learn and try harder. “Drive is about slope, not intercept,” he summed it up. “It’s not just about what you know, but how quickly you can learn.”
So, how do you distinguish yourself in a world with unprecedented AI-powered productivity, a surge of venture capital interest, and only a few companies reaching hypergrowth? Ramp’s journey points to four principles: focus on customers, ship fast, scale intelligently, and hire well.
Photos courtesy of Fortune.
