In the last 3 years, Brex has raised nearly $600 million in venture funding. In this #DreamitLive episode, Michael B. Tannenbaum, CFO and CBO of Brex, and Steve Barsh discuss Michael’s experiences at Brex in raising successive large venture rounds while executing and growing a company quickly. Michael also speaks about his experiences growing SoFi, another fintech unicorn where he was an early executive. We discuss Michael’s top 3 lessons learned and his biggest "Wow, I wish someone had told me that beforehand!" thoughts. In this episode (approximate time stamps): 2:00—What is Brex and how did it get started? 15:00:00— What are the KPIs that Brex looks at to measure success? 16:30:00—How much has Brex raised in debt and equity funding? 17:00:00—What does it mean to raise debt capital (versus equity capital)? 19:00:00—How does the team come together to raise funding rounds? 24:00:00—How does the collapse of WeWork affect the valuations of other unicorns? 26:30:00—When does it make sense to raise debt capital? 35:00:00—Setting valuation with potential investors 38:50:00—How do you think about stock options? How to talk to investors about granting stock options? 41:00:00—What are the top 3 lessons learned from raising capital for SoFi or Brex 44:00:00—The importance of making decisions and sticking to them 47:00:00—What do you look for in a lead investor? 50:00:00—Why it's difficult to bootstrap a fintech company 51:20:00—Do you detail your 3 to 5 year financials? How much do VCs analyze these numbers? 55:00:00—Good sources of venture debt Learn more about Dreamit Ventures here: https://www.dreamit.com/