How Ramp's Eric Glyman Built a $22.5 Billion Startup in 2,367 Days

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
A billion in revenue and then a 22.5 billion valuation. Is the mass massing or are we in some sort of valuation hype cycle? What is happening? How does that work?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
Over the last year, we've just about doubled revenue. And so the velocity that we are growing at, combined with the scale of the company, is part of what's getting investors so excited.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:20)
Ramp CEO Eric Glyman is the architect behind one of Fintech's fastest climbs.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:26)
Going fast, I think, is fun.
And I think there's an appeal. You figure out if you're right or wrong quick.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:30)
Within three years of its launch, Ramp hit 100 million in annual revenue. And just a few years later, the financial operations platform crossed one billion in annualized revenue. Investors have taken notice. This summer, Ramp was valued at 16 billion dollars. And just six weeks later, that number shot up to 22.5 billion. Ramp's rise stems from flipping the industry's incentives on their head. Instead of rewarding customers for spending more, Ramp is designed to help companies spend less.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:59)
Since inception, we've helped our customers spend 10 billion dollars less than they would have otherwise spent, and automated 27.5 million hours of work.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:08)
I sat down with Glyman at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech Conference in Park City, Utah, to talk about valuations, hyperscale, AI-powered finance, and how a startup born just six years ago is rewriting the playbook for corporate spending.
All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Eric, thank you so much for being with us here today. And at a big moment in time for Ramp, you are one of the hottest startups. You raised at a 16 billion dollar valuation over the summer. And then like eight weeks later, raised at a 22.5 billion valuation. You just crossed a billion in annualized revenue, 45,000 customers. So a lot going on. But first, I want to just talk about that number. You look at like a billion in revenue and then a 22.5 billion valuation. Is the mass massing or are we in some kind of like valuation hype cycle? What is happening? How does that work?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:04)
You know, I think Ramp is just growing so unbelievably quickly. Over the last year, we've just about doubled revenue. The fastest growing public software companies, for reference, you know, expect and hope to grow something like 20 to 30 percent over the next year. And so the velocity that we are growing at, combined with the scale of the company is part of what's getting investors so excited. But beyond it, I think the unusual part is Ramp is actually growing even faster this year and doing it while generating cash flow than we did last year. And so when you combine that last with the sheer scale of the market, you know, there's over two trillion dollars spent in the United States on corporate and small business cards, which is just one of our markets and we're something like one and a half percent of that market. It's hard not to get excited about the potential ahead.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:50)
Co-founded in 2019 by Eric Glyman, Karima Tia and Jean Lee, Ramp quickly became one of the fastest growing corporate card and spend management platforms in the United States. Instead of rewarding companies for spending more, Ramp positioned itself around saving them money, a strategy that resonated during the pandemic when budgets were under pressure. Early on, the founders zeroed in on a major frustration, expense reports. In February 2020, they rolled out a tool that automated the process. When an employee uses a ramp card, the expenses either log directly from transaction data, or the employee gets a text requesting a receipt. That innovation helped fuel ramps rise, propelling it to generate 100 million in annual revenue in just three years.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:31)
We were put on this earth to do expense reports and to keep books, but everyone's paying for it and everyone has an hourly rate, and if you can go and take that work and automate it away, for organization that adds a lot when you start thinking about what's the value of everyone's hour.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:45)
Beyond its physical and digital cards, ramp has since expanded into a full suite of tools for expenses, bill pay, and financial workflows. Replacing the patchwork of cards and software, many companies still juggle. But its core business remains interchange fees. The cut ramp takes on each transaction. Today, the company says it serves more than 45,000 businesses and generates more than one billion in annualized revenue, all while maintaining positive cash flow. But still, it only reaches one percent of Fortune 500 companies. Hyperscale has been in your bones since even the company pre-launch phase. You and your co-founder, Kareem, sat down together and you said, we want to try and create a unicorn company, which is a billion dollar valuation, within 18 months. No company in New York had ever done that before. Why is that such an ambitious goal? But you manifested a billion dollar company because you did it within 18 months. I think you were there. And with two years, you had what, like, a hundred million dollars in revenue run rate about?