WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:01.929 David. Barrett the ceo of expense. If I 00:00:01.929 --> 00:00:04.309 it's an expense report platform, it serves more than 00:00:04.309 --> 00:00:06.690 10 million workers, David, it's great to talk 00:00:06.690 --> 00:00:09.080 with you again, you have this really interesting source 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:11.599 of data because you understand what people are expensing how 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.730 much they're expensing what companies are spending on expenses. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.359 How would you characterize the state of the economy right 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.070 now based on expensive eyes activity? Are people moving 00:00:20.070 --> 00:00:21.789 more than they were a year ago? Our company's 00:00:21.789 --> 00:00:24.699 hiring, Are they spending more money? Yeah, 00:00:24.699 --> 00:00:25.820 I mean, it's hard to say. Of course 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:27.370 , everything's such a mess. I mean, the 00:00:27.370 --> 00:00:29.809 economy is a complicated place and on the best of 00:00:29.809 --> 00:00:31.859 days and these are certainly not the best of days 00:00:31.870 --> 00:00:33.740 . I mean, I think from where we sit 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:37.439 , it seems like people are more influenced by hospitalizations 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:39.450 and death rates and they are by infection rates. 00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:42.409 And so even though a micron is showing huge spikes 00:00:42.409 --> 00:00:44.170 , just like vertical spikes, when it comes to 00:00:44.170 --> 00:00:47.039 infection rates, it's happening pretty mild effects upon actual 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:49.310 death rates, which is very promising. And so 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:51.600 I think that as a result, people are pretty 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:53.600 much keeping on with the normal habits. We see 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:55.820 that the cities are largely open. I think that 00:00:55.829 --> 00:00:58.380 people are traveling and so forth. So, it's 00:00:58.380 --> 00:00:59.939 too early to say for any of this. I 00:00:59.939 --> 00:01:00.759 am sure the historians are gonna be looking back at 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:03.189 this time with wonder for decades, but from where 00:01:03.189 --> 00:01:04.959 we said, I think things are reasonably strong. 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.870 But man, who knows? Yeah, that's a 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:10.560 pretty fair question. Who knows? But I want 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:11.870 to go from the state of the economy to the 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:15.810 state of expensive fi because your company and only went 00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:17.500 public in november, even though, you know, 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:19.819 you've been around for a long time and I'm curious 00:01:19.829 --> 00:01:23.019 what are you looking to for the future now that 00:01:23.019 --> 00:01:23.459 you have the listing out of the way, what 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:26.650 is going to drive growth for expense if I where 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:30.450 are you looking to experience? Well, I mean 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:30.670 , we're looking this fan everywhere. I mean, 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:33.680 the way that we view it is every single business 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:36.469 business on the planet has an expensive problem because way 00:01:36.469 --> 00:01:38.840 before you have revenue, you definitely have expenses, 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:40.780 but only like, I don't know, half a 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:42.560 percent of businesses in the world use any form of 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:45.469 expense management. So the way that we see it 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:48.069 is, it's a completely untapped opportunity. And so 00:01:48.069 --> 00:01:49.670 whether the economy is great or bad, the place 00:01:49.670 --> 00:01:52.519 you cut isn't the place you keep track of your 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:56.590 expenses like expensive fi is basically targeting a problem that 00:01:56.590 --> 00:01:59.530 is always in fashion. And so, you know 00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:00.519 , obviously laments the state of the environment, the 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:04.010 state of the economy. For us, it's really 00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:07.049 basically just about growth regardless of the conditions. Hey 00:02:07.049 --> 00:02:07.479 , David. Last time, Katie and I spoke 00:02:07.479 --> 00:02:10.330 with you just a few weeks ago on Bloomberg radio 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:13.139 , it was just a few weeks after you went 00:02:13.139 --> 00:02:15.439 public, you told us that you ignore the company's 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:17.560 stock price as ceo, somebody who's run this company 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:20.509 for years, I got to ask because the stock 00:02:20.509 --> 00:02:23.060 hitting a new low today, what is, what 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:25.360 are investors getting wrong about expense if I right now 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:29.439 ? Well, I mean, there's clearly nothing that 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:30.830 investors no new information they have, like we haven't 00:02:30.830 --> 00:02:34.009 released anything since the last earnings call. And so 00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:36.189 when the stock price changes on a daily basis, 00:02:36.189 --> 00:02:38.759 it's clearly has nothing to do with us. And 00:02:38.759 --> 00:02:40.050 so I'd say when investors get wrong, I'm not 00:02:40.050 --> 00:02:44.020 saying that the price is right or wrong, it 00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:45.960 goes up or down depending upon a huge number of 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:47.169 factors. The only time you get the information from 00:02:47.169 --> 00:02:50.060 us during the turning skulls, that's why I'd say 00:02:50.139 --> 00:02:52.490 any Ceo that's overly focused on the day to day 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:53.629 share price is just holding it wrong. That's just 00:02:53.629 --> 00:02:55.409 not the way to be running your business. You 00:02:55.409 --> 00:02:59.849 can't control the macroeconomic trends. You can only control 00:02:59.849 --> 00:03:01.500 your business and we don't work for the next person 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:04.330 who buys your shares or the people who are selling 00:03:04.330 --> 00:03:06.120 our shares. We work for our customers and our 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:07.849 customers just have the same problems every single day, 00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:10.509 regardless of what the market does. And so David 00:03:10.509 --> 00:03:12.879 , we will definitely keep an eye out for the 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:14.740 next earnings call. But I do want to ask 00:03:14.750 --> 00:03:16.909 expense if I it's this payment. Super app. 00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:20.080 Obviously I got to go to Crypto. I'm curious 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.740 if you're integrating Crypto into your payment system? Well 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:25.860 , so interestingly, so we operate expense. If 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:29.370 I on the longest continuously operating Blockchain in the world 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:31.830 since before Blockchain since before Bitcoin. And so as 00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:35.539 we're very familiar with Crypto overall I think the N 00:03:35.539 --> 00:03:36.949 . F. T. Market and the web three 00:03:36.949 --> 00:03:40.099 is interesting but hilariously bizarre. I mean everything about 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:43.270 it, my best interpretation of the value of N 00:03:43.270 --> 00:03:44.530 . F. T. S. Is the same 00:03:44.530 --> 00:03:46.699 kind of value of modern arts kind of like you 00:03:46.699 --> 00:03:49.539 know Don and I think Fort Worth, David Bowie 00:03:49.539 --> 00:03:52.229 peed on a pipe and that made basically a million 00:03:52.229 --> 00:03:53.870 dollar piece of modern art now. Is that valuable 00:03:53.889 --> 00:03:55.550 ? It depends who's p. It is I guess 00:03:55.550 --> 00:03:58.340 . And so as a result I think 10 FPs 00:03:58.349 --> 00:04:00.740 are kind of in the same boat if you want 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:02.849 to own a piece of Minecraft World or something like 00:04:02.849 --> 00:04:05.969 that, it has value in the sense that nothing 00:04:05.969 --> 00:04:09.169 has intrinsic value. You just say it has value 00:04:09.169 --> 00:04:11.340 and if someone's willing to buy it it does. 00:04:11.349 --> 00:04:13.250 But I don't know I feel like all this stuff 00:04:13.250 --> 00:04:15.460 is just madness and I heard you talking about metaverse 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:16.600 earlier. I feel there's so much nonsense in the 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:18.629 market right now and it was just desperate for the 00:04:18.629 --> 00:04:20.839 next big thing. But the digital environment is very 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:24.620 mature at some point there might not be the next 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:26.660 big thing. There's not a next big thing for 00:04:26.670 --> 00:04:29.569 oil, it's just a mature industry. Like there's 00:04:29.569 --> 00:04:32.350 nothing has really changed about phones about the internet in 00:04:32.350 --> 00:04:34.449 a very long time. And so as such, 00:04:34.449 --> 00:04:38.790 I feel like investors are desperate to invent some kind 00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:41.279 of like next new wave, but it could be 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:43.420 the next new wave is not in digital technology to 00:04:43.420 --> 00:04:45.430 a large degree. I feel like expensive. I 00:04:45.430 --> 00:04:46.389 kind of caught the last train out of the station 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.850 . There was an opportunity to step into a market 00:04:48.850 --> 00:04:51.959 vacuum immediately after a new platform is enabled. But 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:55.470 no new platforms come out in the past decade. 00:04:56.540 --> 00:04:58.240 So David, you've been in the industry for a 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.170 long time. Where are you looking for? Where 00:05:00.170 --> 00:05:02.490 are you looking for innovation right now? Where where 00:05:02.490 --> 00:05:05.560 where should I look for lack of a better question 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.759 . I mean where should investors look for inspiration right 00:05:08.759 --> 00:05:11.750 now across industries? I think we should be taking 00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:14.930 inspiration from mature industries that have shown consolidation. Like 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:16.310 we're talking about acquisitions and so forth. I think 00:05:16.310 --> 00:05:18.540 that at the end of the day being the first 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:21.029 mover advantage only works in a new market. The 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:24.399 most important thing in a mature market is being the 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:26.120 last mover. You don't want to be the first 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:28.149 search engine. Even to be the last search engines 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:30.860 like Google was the 25th search engine to come out 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:32.240 . That means that 20 for search engines before them 00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:34.600 just missed that opportunity. It's not like search was 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:36.389 a new thing and Google came out. They just 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:39.259 perfected it in a way that they were the last 00:05:39.259 --> 00:05:41.459 man standing. That's how we take for expensive I 00:05:41.459 --> 00:05:44.329 as well. The accounting isn't new, expense management 00:05:44.329 --> 00:05:46.660 isn't new, but our product is new. Our 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:47.889 approach to our customer acquisition is new, and so 00:05:47.889 --> 00:05:51.199 we're not being the first dissolution were being the last 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:54.939 platform that anyone's gonna ever need. David. I'm 00:05:54.939 --> 00:05:56.300 sad to say we have to leave it there. 00:05:56.300 --> 00:05:57.769 Got to get you back soon, though. That 00:05:57.769 --> 00:05:59.800 is expensive. I Ceo, David. Barrett, 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:00.990 Thank you so much for your time.