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Welcome to The<\/span> Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you\u2019re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I\u2019ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There\u2019s a lot of fintech news out there and it\u2019s my job to stay on top \u2014 and make sense \u2014 of it so you can stay in the know. Let\u2019s goooo! \u2014 Mary Ann<\/a><\/p>\n Hey, hey \u2014 this will be a slightly abbreviated version of this newsletter, as Monday the 5th is a holiday here in the U.S. and news was a bit slower than normal last week. But there ain\u2019t no rest for the weary, so here we go!<\/p>\n On Friday\u2019s episode of the Equity Podcast, Natasha, Alex and I discussed what a small world this venture community is.<\/p>\n Just hours after recording on September 1, we got wind of yet another example of this.<\/p>\n Forbes\u2019 Alex Konrad reported that Brex\u2019s chief revenue officer, Sam Blond, is becoming a partner at Founders Fund.<\/p>\n Now, executives or founders moving into full-time investing roles is not uncommon. But there were a couple of things about this news that made our ears perk up.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Brex reached decacorn status with a $300 million raise. The buzzy startup began its life offering corporate cards to startups and over time has evolved its model to include \u201ca big push\u201d into software and serving larger enterprise customers with less of a focus on SMBs and bootstrapped startups. (The move was a bit of a controversial one that was met with surprise and some disappointment in the startup community.)<\/p>\n Now, if you\u2019re a chief revenue officer at a startup that\u2019s on a growth trajectory, it seems like, well, a bit of an unusual <\/em>time to leave. Especially when Blond was reportedly one of the company\u2019s first 20 employees.<\/p>\n Konrad wrote: \u201cAt the time, Brex had only a placeholder website and less than $100 in sales\u2026four-plus years later, the business has several hundred million dollars of annualized revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n Even more notably, though, Blond left Brex to join a venture capital firm that is an investor in one of the company\u2019s biggest rivals in the corporate spend space, Ramp.<\/p>\n For the unacquainted, Brex and Ramp have gone head-to-head for years.<\/p>\n Blond told Forbes that he\u2019d made the decision to begin \u201cfull-time startup investing\u201d early in the year. According to the article: \u201cHe interviewed with several firms, but ultimately went with the one whose partner, Midas List investor Keith Rabois, had helped welcome him into the local tech scene. \u2018I\u2019ve always been impressed with Keith and, reputationally, Founders Fund,\u2019 Blond says. \u2018When I decided that I wanted to get into VC, it was obvious that Founders Fund was the top option for me to explore.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n I reached out to Blond to get his take on the news from a fintech lens. He was about to board a plane but we did manage this quick Q&A:<\/p>\n TC: When exactly did you leave Brex?<\/strong><\/p>\n SB<\/strong>: I\u2019m still a full-time employee at Brex. My last day as a full-time employee is right before I start at FF. We went out and hired an amazing new CRO, Doug Adamic, to replace me, and I\u2019ve been helping with the transition.<\/p>\n You told Forbes that you had decided to go into full-time startup investing earlier this year. What led you to make that decision, and how long were you angel investing?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been angel investing for about four years. I decided I wanted to do VC full time for a few reasons: (a) I\u2019ve really enjoyed angel investing, have learned a ton, and believe I\u2019ve been able to really help the companies I\u2019ve invested in scale their go to market. (b) I\u2019ve had success in joining two of the fastest-growing tech businesses (Zenefits and Brex) with some of the best founders around (Parker, Pedro, and Henrique). The combination of (a) and (b) give me some level of confidence that I will be good at being a VC (picking the right companies, and helping them scale revenue). (c) Brex has been a really incredible experience, and the success we\u2019ve had will be difficult to replicate if I join another company. I\u2019m ready and motivated for a new challenge.<\/p>\n What will be your focus at Founders Fund? Will you be investing in fintechs?<\/strong><\/p>\n This question was answered by Founders Fund\u2019s comms head Erin Gleason:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n EG:<\/strong> Sam will be a generalist investing across stages, sectors and geographies, like all our partners, but he\u2019s particularly interested in early-stage enterprise deals.<\/p>\n What did you think about the fact that Founders Fund is an investor in Ramp, one of Brex\u2019s biggest rivals? Is that an issue at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n I view Ramp being an FF portfolio company as coincidental. It wasn\u2019t influential in my motivation to want to join, and my focus will be on investing in and helping new portfolio companies. I\u2019m very loyal to Brex and everyone I\u2019ve developed close friendships with there.<\/p>\n You were one of Brex\u2019s earliest employees. What are your thoughts on the company\u2019s future?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m very bullish on Brex\u2019s future. The team is incredible, and the strategy with Empower is differentiated and already seeing a lot of early success winning larger enterprise customers.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Founders Fund<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Just how lucrative is the buy now, pay later (BNPL) market? asks TC+ editor Alex Wilhelm<\/a>. \u201cNew data from Klarna and recent earnings results from Affirm make it clear that building a global business in the fintech space is far from inexpensive. The two companies, Affirm American and Klarna Swedish, are among the most valuable players in the BNPL market today. They\u2019re both now nearly equal in value. And both recently reported financial results.\u201d<\/p>\nWeekly News<\/h2>\n