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Henrique Dubugras
Entrepreneur and Co-CEO of Brex
Henrique Dubugras is a prominent entrepreneur and co-founder of Brex, a financial technology company that specializes in corporate credit cards and spend management solutions. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1995, he began coding at the age of 12 and founded his first company, EduqueMe, at just 16. This initial venture focused on crowdfunding to support Latin American students studying in the United States.
In 2013, Dubugras co-founded Pagar.me, Brazil's largest payment processor, which gained significant recognition and was sold in 2016. He later co-founded Brex in 2017 with Pedro Franceschi, aiming to innovate the corporate credit card experience for startups, particularly addressing the challenges they faced in obtaining credit.13
Dubugras and Franceschi met through a Twitter discussion in high school, which led to a strong partnership and friendship that has lasted over a decade. They both dropped out of Stanford University after less than a year to focus on Brex, which has since grown to serve tens of thousands of businesses, including major companies like DoorDash and Coinbase.13
In addition to his role at Brex, Dubugras is also a board member for Expedia Group and Mercado Libre, and he has been involved in various philanthropic efforts related to education.24 As of June 2024, he transitioned from co-CEO to the role of board chair at Brex, while Franceschi became the sole CEO, a change aimed at enhancing the company's agility as it prepares for an initial public offering in 2025.35
Highlights
Happy to share this next conversation with my friend @zachperret about all things fintech, company-building, and fundraising. One thing that surprised me the most about Plaid's story was how right their intuition was about where the fintech market was headed without a lot of early traction to support it for several years. Later, of course, the gates flooded and they reaped what they sowed but I was really impressed with their grit throughout the process.
Hope you enjoy this episode of the HD in HD podcast, available on all platforms, including below.
00:00:00 Zach’s upbringing 00:05:49 Source of motivation 00:07:04 Liking to work hard 00:10:40 Working in consulting 00:13:44 Meeting Will at Bain 00:19:28 Knowing to work with financial data 00:24:02 Early ideas 00:30:37 Raising money 00:34:26 Getting customers 00:38:54 Hard work vs. tailwinds 00:45:29 What they didn’t predict 00:48:24 Traits are that authentically Zach 00:51:44 Expanding from the core product 00:54:33 Selling to Visa 01:01:49 Post-deal sentiment 01:04:37 Opportunities in fintech 01:07:25 Plaid’s Powers 01:10:25 Fuck-ups 01:14:16 Market competition 01:17:51 Final thoughts
Some personal news - I am launching a podcast @hdinhdpod to share what would normally be offline conversations with exceptional people online. Have had the great fortune of co-founding @Brex which has led to several great relationships with other builders over the years. I find that the best way to learn anything is through conversations with brilliant people. To kick things off, listen in on a thoughtful conversation with @vladtenev. Hope you enjoy these off the script conversations.
00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:00 Decision to stop drinking 00:07:26 Day of the IPO feeling 00:12:37 How Vlad was as a kid 00:19:51 Raising kids 00:24:01 Source of motivation 00:24:48 Getting into Stanford 00:30:05 Time at Stanford 00:33:32 Grad school 00:42:25 First company 00:48:35 Second company 00:53:10 Beginning of Robinhood 00:59:54 Positioning of Robinhood 01:04:04 Being depicted in movies 01:12:06 Trader influencers 01:15:27 Serving active traders 01:20:26 Meeting wife 01:27:13 Downsides & upsides of being a CEO 01:31:30 Minimizing phone addiction 01:35:06 GameStop 01:49:02 Final learnings
