My conversation with @karimatiyeh, co-founder and CTO of @tryramp and one of the best operators active today.
I love talking to people who are obsessed with their craft, and Karim is one of them. The way he talks about every part of the business makes it clear that Ramp wins by caring more than anyone. They labor over every pixel and detail that helps customers save time, eliminate waste, and spend less.
We talk about how to build products faster, assembling a team of "Avengers", seeking differentiation and how Karim’s "divinely discontent" mindset drives Ramp’s culture.
It's a conversation about craftsmanship, obsession, and the quiet intensity behind one of the fastest-growing companies in the world.
Enjoy!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:29 Competing with a Day One Mentality
7:58 Winning with Consumer-Grade UX
10:40 Divinely Discontent
14:18 Building a Culture of Mutual Accountability
16:05 Origin Story: Growing Up in Lebanon
21:40 The First Company: Paribus
28:02 Lessons from Building on an Unstable Platform
36:42 From Paribus to Ramp
48:59 The Framework for Choosing Investors
57:54 Shifting the Business Model
1:03:00 Why the Best Builders Will Be Technical
1:06:05 An Engineer's Approach to Marketing
1:20:15 The Power of Differentiation
1:22:22 Recruiting for Spikiness
1:27:41 The Tactics of Speed
1:34:52 The Vision for Ramp
1:43:40 Kindest Thing