Financial Optimization Reimagined

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Doug Lewis: We're live. Should we retell the generator story? No. We can't. I'm here for it. I think that the people would eat that up. Listeners love that. They love home. Home disasters for people that are. That were. When was that, by the way? So for those just joining, by the way, Barrett King, who we'll get to in a moment who he actually is. But before we don't care about what he does or anything important. Tell us about your home generator. [00:00:30]

Barrett King: Yeah, it feels like a really logical topic for our conversation today. Back in 2019, October 2019, I bought a new house, moved my wife and son in with me. My son is an infant. He's like eight months and nine months at the time. And we have a typical nor'easter. I'm south of Boston, so we have them all the time. And this like old growth, 12 foot wide behemoth of a tree two streets over from me fell. And when it fell, it didn't just take down wires. It took down like nine poles, like it literally snapped poles. And so we lost power and we lost power for almost five [00:01:00] full days. It was four and three quarter days. House got down to like 48 degrees. Needless to say, we were not happy. We had to heat his bottles over a candle in the kitchen on the counter. We went full like, you know, early settler move or whatever. And um, so I called the company that does generators as one does after a disaster like that and said, hey, I want a generator. And they were like, cool. Yeah. You and your entire neighborhood. Thanks for letting me know. And so, um, it's great, but I have an infant here and it really matters. And the guy was like, yeah, we'll get to you. Like this year, something like six weeks later, I get the phone call, we're coming to your house. We're doing it now. [00:01:30] And it was not cheap, but it was probably the best money I've ever spent as a homeowner, because now if somebody breathes in the wrong direction and the power blips, the whole house comes back on, like I'm talking that next year, massive snowstorm, neighborhood out for three days and we were watching movies, eating popcorn like a bunch of jerks. It was great.

Matt Lescault: Oh yeah, I was going to say, most people do this, spend all that money and then like, it never happens. Never happens. Yeah. At all.

Barrett King: No. We like it happens. I haven't lost power. Knock on wood. This year we've had a couple brownouts just from big storms and [00:02:00] a few like, you know, it runs out for two hours or whatever kind of thing. The thing kicks on, it runs the entire house. Take a hot shower, watch a movie, eat some food like it is the best thing I've invested in as a homeowner.

Matt Lescault: I've been in my house for ten years. I'm on a well and I've been lucky. Knock on wood, I don't have a house generator. But you know what happens if we get out of power? It's not a it's a hotel because we don't got we don't got toilets.

Barrett King: Everything shuts off. Yeah, that's the thing. It shuts off your entire house. And like, you know, we I know we're going to talk about partnerships here, but when you think [00:02:30] about like the, the way that you operate and run your home, it's sort of like a business and it's a partnership with all of these different vendors. And you hope that they hold up their end of it. Well, New England, like I'll say this openly on a recorded line, has some of the worst infrastructure because we were originals to this country in that sense, and we just never did anything with it. Right. So a lot of our power lines are above ground. A lot of our water is like fairly shallow. So those things break. And just the idea of like waking up at it happened a few times, like at three in the morning and everything [00:03:00] is shut off and like your fridge spoils and you wake up and you know, that kind of stuff versus now the only negative. And this is so bougie to say on any story, but like it, the entire house turns on because a lot of our lights are on an app on my phone. And so at like three in the morning, you hear the generator kick and then all the lights are full blast. That's my only negative to having a whole home generator.

Matt Lescault: I feel like we're gonna do that. You might as well put. Like, the, uh, every device, Alexa, like, start blasting music just to get everybody up and going. [00:03:30]

Barrett King: Something intense to like, Rammstein or whatever. Like go just full on angry screamo at three inches the morning. Let's go.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, yeah.

Doug Lewis: Real real man of the people, bear King. Hey, buddy. Uh, well, that was an interesting. But that's why people tune in. They want to hear about. This is exactly what people.

Emily Madere: They want to hear about generators. They want to hear about infrastructure in New England.

Doug Lewis: The amount of comments I've gotten to say, your lack of generator talk in residential homes is, is is saddening to me. So I'm glad we got that out of the way early. Uh, Barrett, now that you've told us about your your personal life, all that fun stuff. [00:04:00] Let's talk about your professional life. Who are you? Why should people listen? Why are you at all in this age ecosystem? Sure. Give me. Give me that. The 50,000 foot flyby. Who is Barry King?

Barrett King: Who is Barry King? So, um, back in 1985. Now, I won't do that whole thing. I mean, look, I, I've spent most of my professional career in partnerships. I started early on in hospitality and restaurants, opening a couple of restaurants in Boston. And I was a GM. And a lot of those early relationships you develop [00:04:30] with vendors and relationships with with local businesses that you cater for and hold parties for and such. Those are partnerships. And so I, I never intentionally went into partnerships, but I learned about those things early on, and then I went to tech. And for me, tech has always been somewhere between a sales role and a partnerships role. The last 12, 13 years now, it's only been partnerships. And so I did something like nine years at HubSpot in a variety of different roles across the ecosystem, everything from acquiring partners to. I was the global head of sales and partner training for a couple [00:05:00] of years. I managed some of Hubspot's top partners. I did global strategy for a while around partners, so a bunch of the sort of surround sound of the partner ecosystem that they were building at the time. And then I worked for a top partner for a period of time after that. That role in that company, just to learn about services, businesses from the inside out. And then for the last 99 days today, I have been at Ramp and I'm the head of alliances, so I get to work with all of the letter, acronym, partnerships, ERP, Hris, ISV, all that fun stuff. And [00:05:30] then within those ecosystems, we've developed a services partner model where we work with businesses like yours and others to deliver additive value to our customer base. And so for me, partnerships has been an integral part of my professional career, and I really wouldn't have it any other way.

Matt Lescault: How did you get to ramp, by the way? I mean, you spent all this time in HubSpot, and you kind of left one specific ecosystem into a pretty different one if you if you think about it.

Barrett King: Yeah. Yeah. I had a it's a pretty clear reason. [00:06:00] I know somebody here. So we'll keep it simple in that sense. But I think, you know, when you I had a really smart leader once say to me, you're either the smartest guy in the room, so you make the most money or you're not. And what you don't make in money, you make up for in knowledge gain. And once in a while you get to have both. You make some good money and you learn a bunch along the way. And much of my HubSpot career is that. And I was super fortunate to to learn and grow. You know, a lot of my peers, when they leave HubSpot at the time, a lot of them were going to like businesses that were building an agency program or and I, you know, I, I think that was an opportunity I was fortunate to have [00:06:30] spent a lot of time there and have a persona and a profile and a bit of knowledge that was probably marketable and valuable to those opportunities. And I had a lot of outreach from companies looking for it. I didn't want to do the same thing again. I wanted to learn a different product, a different motion.

Barrett King: Hubspot was a category creator. Ramp was a category disruptor. Our product here is innovative and on the front lines of what it means to, you know, truly impact the way that a company spends and saves and manages their financial standing. And so it was a little bit of like, [00:07:00] I know our VP, we worked together years past. I sent a text message. I'll probably look back in ten years and say, I'm glad I did. I'm just like, hey, it looks like you're having a blast there. Hope all is well. We should catch up sometime as one does. And that turned into, hey, we're actually working on some cool stuff and I would love to talk to you and get your input. And then that turned into me sort of saying, like, maybe I come help you guys do this. And I think when you look at what ramp does to transform the way companies grow and scale and the way that they run their, their organizations and how we're working with certainly, you [00:07:30] know, partners like you to build something truly impactful that's just like your absolute darling moment, right? I get to get paid to do cool stuff like that all day. It's great.

Matt Lescault: Well, one of the things and reasons that we were really interested in bringing you on to the podcast and you know, we are the unofficial Sage Intacct podcast. Yeah, you guys just inked. Well, first of all, one a pretty, uh, prestigious award with Sage and just inked a three year deal with Sage to really, uh, depth and depth, [00:08:00] and that's not right. Deepen your, uh, your partnership with in.

Barrett King: Depth in it, too. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: No depth in it. Depth. You're right.

Barrett King: Yeah. I'm going to use that word now.

Matt Lescault: Yeah. I, I don't know if you really do, but, uh, to deepen your relationship with Sage Intacct, can you tell us a little bit about the award and that, you know, now, kind of extension of the partnership you've had?

Barrett King: Yeah. I mean, we were very intentional early on looking where our customer base exists. Right. So sort of like a, a core principle within partnerships is go to where your customers are, join that conversation [00:08:30] and obviously look to add more value. Right. And deliver more value. For us, Sage was one of those ecosystems that was a no brainer. That customer base, you know, as you guys know, obviously is in a position where they can really benefit from the things that we do, right? So corporate card and spend management. Procurement. Ap travel, like all of the different components of what makes ramp unique in a good solution for our customers. We're we're all parts of what, you know, sometimes Sage does, but in many ways does not do as a platform. And so connecting with them and building a relationship with them made sense. A because [00:09:00] we can service the customer well together and B because for us as a go to market, you know, it makes sense to go where we can do that really effectively early on at a later date. You know, years down the road, we'll talk about sort of kicking the door in in other places and making it more of a battle and fight.

Barrett King: But like, I always subscribe to this idea that if you can do something really effective but also easy and it delivers additive value, it's a win. Sage for us for sure. Um, you know, the relationship with predates me, certainly significantly. But having spent time with Sage customers, partners and [00:09:30] leadership there, it's pretty evident, like they're very much bought in on this relationship as well. We see great customer metrics, like our customers are super happy, our mutual customers, right. Our partners are super happy. And so I think if you look at from a go to market perspective as a leader in any business, all you want is happy, healthy customers that stick around and do so for many years. And so the unit economics and the metrics around what Sage has been able to do for our customers in terms of relationship and how we've been able to do it together, has just been fantastic. And [00:10:00] so long winded answer. But I think if you look at accolades aside, the way that our relationship benefits our mutual customer and our mutual partner, it's a no brainer to stick around and do it for longer.

Doug Lewis: So we've gotten a little bit a little bit in here, which I love, by the way, but I think we skipped past something that's kind of important, if you don't mind me circling back. Sure. So we know who you are. You mentioned ramp a couple of times how great the partnership is with Sage Intacct. All this fun stuff. Do you want to take your best stab at [00:10:30] giving us ramp in a box? Give us the elevator pitch. That 62nd or less. Who is ramp? But I'm gonna challenge you. He seemed like a guy who likes a good challenge. I mean, you got to do it in a way that's not just pitching ramp. Yeah. Who are you? But that's fun. Salesy way, you know?

Barrett King: Yeah. You know, I think, um, I think I'll keep it simple. I used to use this framework when I ran sales training. It was. What? How? Why? What do you do? How do you do it? And why? Is it valuable? Super simple. It's not really a pitch here, I think about being [00:11:00] a CFO. It was a persona, actually. I tried to sell to for years at HubSpot when we were selling CRM. And like, with all due respect and love and care here, like the hardest persona for me to work with because they were so hyper focused on profitability, spend management, you know, financial optimization. And that was not what the platform did. Hubspot has CRM and martech and etc. then I came here and I listened to a couple early calls and I talked to a few CFOs. Totally different [00:11:30] conversation, you know, because we spoke their language. And so if you're a controller or a CFO, if you're a CEO, if you're anybody who cares about the way that your dollars in and dollars out are being optimized not just for better profitability, but time well spent ramps. Your solution? We are very uniquely positioned to be the CFOs operating platform, and because we connect to tools like Sage, we get to bring all of your data in and use [00:12:00] that to inform how you spend your time and money to be not just effective and efficient, but truly optimized for what makes you free, frankly, to do more of the thing that you signed up to do in the beginning, which is build great products and deliver great services and help your customers win. And so I think what makes ramp unique and the value prop that we deliver today is we are an all in one solution for financial teams to truly do what they do best. And then we bring a little flair [00:12:30] to it. You know, we've got some machine learning and some AI and some little pizzazz on top that accelerates that value and growth over time and saves, you know, countless hours and dollar signs at the end of every month and every year. And that matters to us.

Doug Lewis: So I feel like you skipped over something that is shockingly interesting. Flare. Pizzazz. Two of my most used words I think anyone, anyone who knows me will say, those are. That's what I'm known for saying. And you just kind of glossed over some of the interesting components of what you guys are doing. [00:13:00] Can you publicly disclose some, some meaty details on on some of those flare components? Because I love.

Emily Madere: Flare share some, some top secrets. This is the unofficial. So we can we can be unofficial.

Barrett King: Totally, totally. I also like having a job, so I'll be conscious of what I say next. Um, especially this job. Here's what I'll say. Like, you know, if you think about what we're doing right now, right. We're we're in a point in in tech. I'll go big picture for a second, where the more [00:13:30] interconnected our systems become, the more data flows freely. So if you build something really effective and really good, if you will, at ingesting that data, which ramp is and then you point that power at finance, just money in general. I think we can all agree, like the lifeblood of any company is how they spend their money. If you listen to an early stage founder or VC, they'll tell you like, what's your burn rate and how much time do you have left? Basically. It's always a countdown. I have a buddy who's got a startup he's been at for about eight years now, and every month he's [00:14:00] like, I might run out of cash, I might not. He's always thinking about it. If you think about a late stage, you know, fortune 1000, big company, same thing like where we spend our money. And how are we getting the most return on our dollar? And so if you could get to a point where you could impact. Right. If you could, if you could touch and impact all the different ways that a dollar is spent throughout the life cycle of a customer, how could you drive value differently? It's interesting to think about that.

Barrett King: And what I would offer is like when you look at the way that ramp does impact [00:14:30] a variety of different components and does it well and does it consistently. And then you add in the fact that, like we're doing it across tens of thousands of customers and working with thousands of customers more every month and growing and doing our best to deliver that value consistently. I could hypothetically say it gets interesting to think about, how could you take the learnings of one industry and share it more broadly? How could you amplify what's working well in one sector to help others do the same? How could you take the information [00:15:00] you're gathering? Prime example. Like we just had our kickoff in New York, and I took the train up and my tickets showed up in the app and automatically matched to the spend program that was already in existence. And, you know, then I went and I bought, um, like this little fruit bowl thing or whatever the heck it was, and a soda water when I got to the station there because I was starving, because why would I ever eat in the train? And, um, that matched again. And then I went to my hotel and had it was like an hour and a half later and I was really hungry again.

Barrett King: I ordered a burger and it [00:15:30] matched again. And so like I think about what that means from a scale perspective and and understanding deeply how customers are optimizing their spend. And then applying that at a global scale across a customer base becomes really fascinating to think about. I would describe that a little bit of like our pizzazz there, but then also, you know, the interconnectivity of the tools, right? So if you think about, like, whether you're a customer who's never been on technology, so you're a technology adopter and or you're somebody who's [00:16:00] like been on the cutting edge, bringing all of your financial systems together will inevitably uncover issues. And so partners like you, combined with tools like ours become really interesting, because if the tech itself can learn as it goes and become better, you know, we all love to say I recordings these days, right? And I would say like an AI becomes better. Llms become stronger. You know, the way to glean insights and then apply, it becomes more effective. And then you say, well then, agents, we have a word we love [00:16:30] to use right now. Like they could do things for you. You combine everything that I just said, hypothetical and sort of realistic to the market, and you apply that to money, you apply that to time. I think it gets pretty cool pretty quick.

Matt Lescault: One of the things that I always talk about internally and externally, when when somebody wants to listen to me, is that connected systems, whether it's expense or AP, whether it's an AR system, whether it's an industry specific system, is you're really expanding your corporate corporate [00:17:00] knowledge, your employees knowledge into the transactions in real time. So what historically has always happened is the accounting Office has been the aggregator of all of this messy information, trying to just dump it into a software. So we get some level of insight into financials, where now products like ramp or other solutions across many subsets of of the businesses operations are now feeding that information, creating more, uh, more in-depth, [00:17:30] uh, transparency into the operations of the company. Now, you said something that I don't think you meant to say, but I'm just going to ask anyway. Is there a potential in which you guys are going to aggregate data that you have from industry specific information to start pulling together sort of trends by industry or by micro vertical or something of that nature?

Barrett King: I mean, everything I say, right? I of course I do. I mean, here's what I would offer. Like, I don't I don't know from a product perspective [00:18:00] where that goes, I know what I see, right. I see more and more platform solutions taking collective insight and applying it. Hubspot did that for years. Salesforce does that. You know Amazon does that. We've all experienced the like, buy this next thing, right? Um, I don't know if that becomes a product or if that's just a part of what we do, but I know that financial spend optimization and time optimization are the key sort of pillars and cornerstones of what make ramp really valuable and unique right now. And it's why competitors and like products [00:18:30] in the market are in some ways struggling to win against us. Not an ego statement. We just were very intentional around building an all in one solution. And so I would say, like, simply put, you know, customer data is interesting because it helps us to improve the platform and build the things that they need. So if you're a customer of Ramp and you want more of that, speak up. We're always listening.

Matt Lescault: Well, data is king today. And so I mean, I think it is I think it is a big impact. And you know what organizations like your [00:19:00] yours, where you have the credit card product on top of the AP product, have insights that I don't think everybody does. You know, every product does that that separate separates it.

Barrett King: It's interesting to think about this is not a ramp statement. This is a Barrett statement observing the market, observing our product and our customers. And what I'm hearing from partners I would say it would be interesting if you could take all of that feedback, you could take all of that insight and, [00:19:30] you know, apply. You know, that that to a technology that could take procurement to the next level. Like I respectful statement here. I mean this genuinely but like to those that are in procurement, I absolutely appreciate what you do and could never be in that world. It's brutal. You just like put on armor every day and go battle in the streets, right? Um, what if it wasn't that difficult? Like, what if you could just say, I'm an organization, I'm on ramp. I want to buy a thousand seats [00:20:00] of, I don't know, Gong. We all know what gong is, right? Um, I don't have to go and, like, call some ACO. I don't have to go and, like, run through a sales process. Like, I know, I know what it is. Maybe I'm the CRO and I've been at ten companies in the past 15 years and all of them have had gong. I just want gong, but I want the best price. I want the best package. I want to optimize for my teams use. What if you could just do that? Like I've heard, I had a partner asked me that actually, in a customer, funny enough, on a call a couple of weeks ago. Like, could you do that? I'm like, I don't know. That's an interesting idea. I think there's a world where that starts to become the norm. [00:20:30] Procurement becomes easier. Like you connect product usage to ROI. You can expend ROI. And so it's not just can we help you to manage your corporate spend and be really effective. But like what if you could procure software easier, faster, more effectively? What if you could drive value quicker to your team members who need that tool because you weren't having to think about. But how do I get there? It's just done. It's pre-baked.

Matt Lescault: So I think you're speaking me and Emily's language right now. You're you're you're kind of [00:21:00] flip flopping the whole idea of sales processes and making them truly consultative sales process in which knowing the product and how it can solve the solution is more important than knowing how to sell the product, if that makes sense.

Barrett King: Yeah. I mean, if you like, if you ask the sales trainer in me from years ago, I'd always say, um, you know, solve the pain, but sell the value. I love my little statements like that. I get a kick out of it. Like, do you put them on t shirts?

Emily Madere: That that would be a good thing to put on a t shirt.

Barrett King: That's a good t shirt.

Emily Madere: I have an enamel pen. And then, like, keep on putting them. We [00:21:30] should. It's $1 million idea.

Barrett King: That's what I'm in for. That. Sparkles and pizzazz. Yeah. I mean, like, if you look at. If you look at the way people spend money, you know, candidly, like before joining ramp, I looked at, you know, corporate spend management in my mind, I'm like, I haven't had a corporate card in years. Like for what? For those eight business trips I'll take over the course of a ten year period. First off, there are millions of people that travel every day, every week, every month. So I'll just eat that real quick and say I was totally wrong. Forgive me world. The other side of it, though, is [00:22:00] all the other things that companies spend money on, like pens for your office lunch that you get catered every week, you know, and I can go on and on. Right. And so if you think about all the different ways that, you know, the, the world around your company is trying to take cash from your pocket and you say, like, could I, could I optimize that? It directly correlates to you being sold to. And, you know, I could see a world where like, what if that was easier? And I'm a salesperson at heart. I was in sales [00:22:30] for years, I guess in part in sales now. Like and I think if you look at the way that technology and platforms like ramp, I'll say openly have evolved and how quickly we have, we move very fast. We are very effective and efficient in how we deliver scaled value to our customers. What if the tools could do that for you over time? I think with agents and AI and the advancement of, you know, um, true enterprise computing, you're going to see those connectors happen faster, which means the sales person, the sales role, the sales function in any organization [00:23:00] needs to be more effective at conveying value and specific problem solving. Need the idea of like show up and be sold? Something is kind of dead. I'll put that on record. It's kind of old. It doesn't work anymore.

Doug Lewis: You. So you said that was kind of a that was a Barrett statement. Barrett thought process, if you will. Um, now, do you think that that could be on the product roadmap for rent moving forward? Uh, have you seen any other call it competitors not to be named because we'll never name another competitor.

Barrett King: Would never [00:23:30] do that. Never.

Doug Lewis: Um, who have been either shopping that idea, pitching it out there in some type of beta form, or is this is this a concept that you think just needs to happen and somebody needs to evolve to get to that point?

Barrett King: The idea of being able to have a system that would help you buy. Is that what you're saying.

Doug Lewis: Tied in with just all expenses related to the organization. So yeah, quasi procurement, you know, the general travel spend tech spend all that fun stuff in one spot, I think.

Barrett King: Yeah, you hear it like you hear it in the industry. You do hear [00:24:00] it from competitors. All the people that are out there that are users, like it's definitely in the forums. I don't know what the word is you would use there. Probably forums. Um, I think there's archives.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Barrett King: Archives. Yeah. I think there's a world where. I mean, if you like. The reason I'm sort of double talking is twofold. One, like, I'm not that important. I don't know that much. But also two, I do think that there are ideas that get thrown around that I want to be respectful of, of sharing in a space where, like someone goes, are you doing that? I don't know, but I could say openly, [00:24:30] I think it'd be interesting if companies were able to capture that interconnectivity and speed it up, and that'd be really interesting to think about. Um, beyond this idea of like an all in one solution, but in a truly like, outcome oriented, um, and like to be clear to an automated like we're not talking about people having to push buttons. If you look at I saw a case study the other day, I don't remember the name of the company or I'd reference them, but they said they spent an average of 3 to 5 hours at the end of every month settling their books and [00:25:00] sort of finishing up their, their, um, you know, their taxes and their spend and all the stuff that they have to do. Right. And using ramp, they shorten that 3 to 5 hours to 15 to 25 minutes. You're like, Holy crap, what else could you do with that level of optimization? What if you could find ways to the point we were making of like bringing in, well, how are you using this software and what is user data like? And I just I think it's sort of boundless at this point.

Doug Lewis: More, more applicable type of more applicable knowledge. Um, [00:25:30] you brought up a good use case there. Um, I always love to ask this, especially with people in the kind of technology implementation world, obviously. Sage Intacct that's that's the world we talk about here. Yeah. Can you recall offhand, maybe the absolute, I want to say, most disastrous entity you've gone into and what that process looked like before you came in? I'm really curious because I love hearing about the train wreck stories. Yeah. Everyone always talks about the great partnerships, the success, all the great outcomes. [00:26:00] What was just horrific.

Barrett King: Yeah, I heard a I don't know if this is true, so call it what it is. But I heard a story in my first couple of weeks here as a business. That was three weeks post end of month close to finish their books. That was like to pay their team members to rectify, you know, everything. Like it was three weeks into the next month and then they would literally have like, call it five business days to kind of clear their heads and reset and do it all over again. Um, that to me sounds horrific, like I don't my brain [00:26:30] doesn't function that way. The idea of doing something for three weeks and then and that's like, not that it was valuable. I'm saying these people were doing great work, but it took them three weeks because they were on a homegrown solution and it just was acceptable. I think that's the part that was most shocking to me. I think there's probably better examples than that. Maybe I'll go dig and I'll send you guys a little, you know, iPhone selfie video. Go, Emily hit me.

Emily Madere: But no, but I but I, I talk to clients all the time and that what you just said is more common than you think. [00:27:00]

Matt Lescault: I was thinking the same thing.

Emily Madere: Three weeks. That's. I've had people go longer than three weeks. Yeah. Um, and they are just they're on, like you said, a homegrown system. Maybe they're on QuickBooks. Whatever they're on, it's just it's not working for them. And technology needs to come in and help them free up time. And then whenever they they have time freed up, they're able to make those strategic decisions that I think every accounting team, every CFO wants to make.

Barrett King: It was fascinating, though, is like you also have to do something with that time. And I actually think there's I've [00:27:30] heard a few recordings. Again, I try and listen to like client and partner calls as often as I can to stay on the pulse, but where they're like, what would I do with, you know, basically three extra weeks a month and you're like, let's get creative and think about how we could spend our money better, how we spend our time better. Right? Like, holy cow, what a novel concept. I liken it back to like early. Here's a relatable example I can give. So, uh, I'll speak back to HubSpot again because it was a good early career comment, and I joined HubSpot at like 29. So it's like sort of mid sales career, [00:28:00] early sales career. And, um, I came from a startup that had like almost no infrastructure to like a, I don't know, a mediocre built engine. Hubspot was like 800 people. And I go there and I'm going to do outbound or I'm going to go reach out to prospective partners. And so I probably will sell you on, you know, on this call like, or this combo. Excuse me. Um, I hit 186% of my goal in six months. And folks are like, what are you doing differently? I literally had built sequences.

Barrett King: I had built like my own automation. I crafted a specific message that worked, but that's a separate [00:28:30] convo. But I had cadenced out a series of five emails, and I included emails and tasks to go and connect with them on LinkedIn and then send them a message there as well. In my cadence, it lived in a Google doc. I used Salesforce reports to know the next email I had to send like I had. I sent email to cool. It would filter into the view that showed email three as an extend, and I would go and send individually to those folks. But I was doing about 50 to 75 net new email outreaches a day because of this, which was more than our Bdrs [00:29:00] were certainly doing, and they were the engine at the time and it helped me annihilate my number. I generated an average of 50 to 75 new opportunities a month. My peers were generating 30 to 40. So, like all of these metrics happened because I figured out how to automate myself in the most horrific way possible. I joined ramp, and, I don't know, a week or two in, I got word of this platform that we were using to help optimize the way that our teams were engaging our prospective customers. It made that process I just shared with you sound like your grandmother [00:29:30] was trying to bake cookies on her own.

Barrett King: Like over a fire in the woods with like, no tray to cook on. It was like, so antiquated and so old school. And I think about how technology continues to drive its force forward, that people like us, that are in it every day are so comfortable with that. And then I talk about what I do with, like my wife who's not in tech, and she'll just look at me with this glazed over look sometimes and be like, I don't. You just said words. I didn't listen to anything you said. I don't know what happened. And then I think about, like my peers sometimes who are in tech, who are still like, you did what? How did [00:30:00] you do that? I don't understand what you just said. And then I think about the customer example you just gave Emily, which is spot on, and that's. But we've existed like this for so long. It's frankly what makes me bullish on ramp as a platform partners like you all. And then the Sage Intacct ecosystem where there are thousands and thousands of customers that would benefit from this, and it's just a matter of letting them know it exists. And that's pretty exciting to me.

Matt Lescault: And help help him manage that fear of change. I mean, that's the thing that that I see so much and where I think [00:30:30] me and Emily fight because me and Emily spend a lot of time scoping and and doing this, and it's that consultative space and it's how do we communicate with them that a better approach that actually helps them, doesn't hurt them. Isn't isn't this fear?

Barrett King: Fear of change.

Emily Madere: Is what Matt means by fight. We literally we meet up in the middle of the country and we throw hands.

Barrett King: I pictured you guys in the in the streets somewhere, just like swinging at each other. I mean, the change management is hard. Yeah, I don't doubt that. Change management is hard. Like, I think [00:31:00] if you look at the way that most customers see value, it's through comfortability. I always use the analogy of, like the scary movie thing. So does anyone here like scary movies? Any of the three of you like scary movies?

Doug Lewis: Of course.

Barrett King: Oh you do. Doesn't surprise me. Doug. Matt. Emily. You guys like scary movies?

Matt Lescault: It's not my favorite, but I don't hate them.

Emily Madere: Yeah. Yeah. I'm much into, like, a rom com.

Barrett King: Yeah, I didn't I didn't like scary movies. I met my wife and she's like, I do. Uh, okay, great. So I'm gonna watch scary movies now, and we, you know, we, we watched the first couple or whatever. And I remember [00:31:30] being like, you know, jump scared constantly. And then I had this moment where I'm like, why am I what's scary? Like, I know it's not real. It's because movies. I'm about to be 40 for age reference here, right? So movies growing up were always predictable. There's like 6 to 8 formats. Every movie you watch was that. And while you get excited about it, it wasn't until the early 2000 with like inception and other movies 300 that, like, became really innovative, that you saw new for the first time in a generation or two, and then you change genres and you're like, Holy crap, this is terrifying. [00:32:00] Well, it's scary because you don't know what's coming. Same thing is true for prospects. Same thing's true in the market right now where we talk about how ramp delivers specific value. Now that I work here, I'm like, why would you not ever do this? But then I talked to customers and they're like, well, the hallway is dark.

Barrett King: There's a creepy sound. There's a creature in the corner, and there's a, you know, it's like smell in the air or whatever it is. We'll get gross. And then you turn the light on and you're like, oh, it was like a coat on a rack in the corner. The dripping is the faucet. They didn't turn off. [00:32:30] And like, the smell is the bacon. They cooked this morning and you're like, it's actually not scary. It's totally just a living room. A lot of what happens in industry shifts like this is as soon as you have to shed a little bit of light on the problem, people get even more awkward because they're like, oh, it's not a scary monster that I've been putting off for ten years. It's actually just a coat on a rack. And I think businesses like yours partnered with companies like ours, get to be in a really cool spot to have that conversation every day. Frankly, it's part of what excites me about where we're going.

Doug Lewis: You painted a phenomenal picture, by the way, [00:33:00] until you got to the bacon smell. I feel like that was me who smelled that and then got scared or like, oh, that's weird.

Barrett King: It's the only thing I could think of. It was, like, strong enough, you know?

Doug Lewis: Yeah. I mean, that's a that seems like a product issue at that point with the bacon.

Barrett King: It's. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: But you you brought up an interesting point which ties directly into you not only like the outsourcing world, the expense management world, but kind of the technology world in general. Right now, the average baby boomer is 68 years old, and they still own the overwhelming majority of privately held businesses in the US. [00:33:30] Now we're getting into my world. I do a lot of M&A work between accounting firms, so this is something I come into every single day. It's not uncommon for me to see not only accounting firms themselves, but the client base inside these practices are on archaic systems, mainly due to the owners of these organizations fearing change, not understanding the technological advancements that have happened in the past ten, 15, sometimes 20, 30 years at these organizations so that that fear of change management and all that fun stuff, I think is really [00:34:00] starting to rear its head across the board. And from what I see, it's there's no industry that's really safe from that. I mean, the amount of succession and M&A activity that's that's happening right now in across the entire US. Honestly, globally is pretty staggering.

Barrett King: It's impressive, isn't it? Cody Sanchez says it's like 10 million businesses a year or something like that, some crazy number. I think if you look at the big picture right now, people talk a lot about AI and agents and how disruptive it is in tech and everywhere [00:34:30] else. And that's the sort of like blanket statement that we make, because it's easy to point to one dimension of the opportunity or problem, depending on how you look at it. I think when you look at, to your point, the massive wealth shift and the way that the boomers are, you know, they're distributing their businesses and they're either giving them to their kids or they're selling them off to the market. Or obviously we're seeing with the acquisition of like, respectfully, what I would say, like the unsexy, the boring businesses. Right. Because they're very profitable and consistent. I have a secret [00:35:00] wish, I'll tell you on recording here that someday, and I believe I will do this, that I'm going to buy an HVAC company. I'm just fascinated by it because it's like something we all need. It exists in the market.

Barrett King: It has for years. Your grandfather probably owns one, and tech is so opportunistic in that space you could do some really cool stuff. Same thing is true for CPAs and accountants. Same thing is true for, you know, uh, my wife was in, um, hair early in her career and used to work in a salon. She was the the head stylist. Like, salons, like, all of these different industries are primed for disruption. I think what's cool about and unique about ramp as [00:35:30] a platform and why I get sort of anchored back into it, why I'm excited to be here is that our Tam, our customer, ICP, is any company anywhere that spends money ever. It's like so okay, so every company on earth like yes, that's that's who we help. And so whether you are 80 years old and refusing to let go or you are 18 and you just started your first. This is a cool time to be in tech, and it's a cool time to be in business and consumer facing roles because of the way that technology is accelerating how we deliver value.

Matt Lescault: Now, you said something interesting there, [00:36:00] and this will get to sort of where I wanted to end the conversation in a way, uh, is kind of what that may be unsaid roadmap is for ramp. You said any company anywhere in the world. But I think that ramp is everywhere in the world. Maybe yet.

Barrett King: Not today. Nope. Today we're in North America and Canada, primarily focused. Um, look, I mean, we're we're growing fast, and we're doing really cool stuff. I think you can paint the picture for yourselves in terms of knowing what we're trying to do as we grow. My core remit, my focus, [00:36:30] my mission is to cultivate partnerships with organizations that add value to our customer base, help us increase our reach, our impact, and the value that we deliver. And for me, in my mind, that's boundless. I would say over time, product will evolve. You know, um, offices will grow, people will get hired. Like that's the sort of natural progression of a platform that accelerates growth in other companies where we go next. Time will tell.

Matt Lescault: There you go.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I think that's a great way to end it.

Doug Lewis: It can be. And [00:37:00] I'm going to throw the offer out to you, Barrett. So we end every single episode with just a terrible dad joke. And I mean bad. I mean, just just, you know, bank and smelling dad joke.

Barrett King: Yeah.

Doug Lewis: And I always throw the offer out to Emily, Matt and or our guest if they want to take a stab at one. Otherwise, I'm happy to take it on. But I.

Barrett King: Bet you seem like.

Doug Lewis: A guy who has a good dad joke on deck. You know, your personality is just feeds that.

Barrett King: You would think so. Yeah, you would think so. And I have a six year old, so I should be better at it. He does not [00:37:30] find me funny. Not that he should, but, like, why would a six year old find their dad funny? I did make the mistake. So he's a maybe less of a joke and perhaps just a funny anecdote, but I made the mistake the other day. He's a Lego nut and a trainiac, a self-proclaimed trainiac, which means he's obsessed with the Lego concept and then obviously trains pretty easy correlation there. And I made the mistake of thinking about telling him. And then I did. Dumb idea that Legos is actually the improper [00:38:00] use of the word. It doesn't exist. If you ask Lego company, they'll say you refer to multiple Lego bricks. And so I told my six year old that, and I'm pretty sure you all can assume how that landed. Not only did he roll his eyes directly into the back of his head, I was concerned they were going to get stuck there. They went so far. But he said, dad, no, you are wrong. A phrase I should probably get used to at this point. They're Legos. Duh. And so I [00:38:30] think if anything else, the story is like, you're not as smart as you think you are as a dad.

Emily Madere: Yeah, and, Barrett, I really do think you're wrong. I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and agree with your six year old. I think you could Google it.

Barrett King: You could Google it. It was disturbing to me to find out. Maybe they've changed their position, but apparently the story is you can't say Legos. You can say Lego bricks for multiples.

Emily Madere: I think your only course of action now is to write a letter to Lego discussing this issue.

Barrett King: I think they'd care. I'm actually a LinkedIn guy, so I'm going to go tag the CEO of Lego on LinkedIn. Hey. [00:39:00] Change this. It's uncomfortable.

Doug Lewis: I'm sure you'll get a prompt response, well thought out response.

Barrett King: Like I might I might do this. This might be a fun thing.

Doug Lewis: That could be.

Barrett King: Enjoyable.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, yeah, let me know because I'd love to see the non response. So I'm going to take it. You don't want to take a stab at a dad joke then. So that was your intelligence issue.

Barrett King: I want to hear your.

Doug Lewis: Intelligence.

Barrett King: I want to see yours. Let's go. Hit me with it. I'm ready to laugh.

Doug Lewis: All right.

Emily Madere: And I don't say you'd laugh.

Doug Lewis: All right, let's see. Why did the coach yell at the vending machine? [00:39:30]

Barrett King: Oh, boy. I'm ready. Tell me.

Doug Lewis: Matt. Emily taking a stab.

Matt Lescault: I want to say it dropped the ball or something like that.

Emily Madere: Oh, yeah.

Doug Lewis: Because he wanted his quarterback. Oh, come on now. Come on.

Barrett King: Whatever website that's on. Kudos to them guys.

Doug Lewis: Oh there you.

Barrett King: Go.

Doug Lewis: I didn't say they were good. I said they were awful. I see I set the bar really low and then I just meet that bar.

Barrett King: It's gonna warm that up. Next time I'll come. [00:40:00] Better prepared. That's good to know.

Doug Lewis: You should. Well, I always do it off the top of my head if I don't. If they always offer it out to everybody. And occasionally someone takes me up on it. But if not, I gotta backfill with terrible ones. But, Barrett, um, you've been shockingly eloquent this entire time. You've actually made some good points, which I wasn't expecting. Uh, Spence. Yeah, well, you know, sorry. I call them like I see some.

Barrett King: I'll take it.

Doug Lewis: Uh, yeah. You know. Hey, come on, it is what it is, buddy. No, but.

Matt Lescault: You're getting the brunt of his animosity. Yeah.

Barrett King: Yeah.

Emily Madere: Normally targeted at Matt.

Matt Lescault: It's usually me. [00:40:30]

Doug Lewis: He was Matt when Matt was just low hanging fruit. For those who are listening and not watching this episode, Matt's wearing what seems to be a tracksuit, I believe. And I'm hoping.

Matt Lescault: It's not a tracksuit. It is just a fleece.

Doug Lewis: Just a fleece. Well, it looks okay. It looks like a tracksuit. And I love it. It looks great on you. Uh, but, Barrett. No, this has actually been shockingly fun. I again, I set the bar very low, just like my dad jokes. Um. And you, you've shockingly exceeded that. But thanks for sharing the story of ramp. Uh, you know what you're doing, what you're seeing in the marketplace. Uh, there's some interesting tidbits that came out of this, and [00:41:00] we hope to have you back on. And I would love to see your, uh, your Lego, uh, fiasco. How that plays out.

Barrett King: Can't wait. I'm gonna go viral on LinkedIn after this for calling out the CEO of Lego. Let's go. I'm in.

Emily Madere: Do it.

Doug Lewis: I think I think you know better. Yeah, you're much more successful. Thanks for joining, Barrett. Appreciate your time today, my friend.

Matt Lescault: Does Lego have ramp?

Doug Lewis: It's a great question.

Barrett King: I'm going to go check our Salesforce right now.

Doug Lewis: All right. Perfect.