nami sung

@eglyman @karimatiyeh Who’s cutting onions?! What a blessing and such fun to get to work (repeatedly!) with a long time comrade who knew you back when you were likely still learning to know yourself. Life is short and long all at once. Also: Karim, you’re such a badass.

As Ramp turns five, I want to share a little about my cofounder Karim Atiyeh. To give you a quick sense: at 18, Karim was taken hostage at gunpoint by a group of armed militiamen at the border with Syria, when he was trying to leave Lebanon for his college exams. Ten other people were held with him, and he was the only one who spoke fluent Arabic. He thought fast, talked fast, convinced the gunmen he was on their side, and somehow got them to believe the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding. He negotiated an escape for the entire group, and by the end, some of the militiamen even helped the group carry their suitcases across the border. This is someone who can always pull a rabbit out of a hat. The first memory I have of Karim was him talking to me in French. I don’t speak French and had no idea what he was saying. It was our first winter in Boston, and we both grew up in the desert — he in Beirut and myself in Las Vegas. So we had equipped ourselves with the heaviest jacket we could find: Canada Goose, which in 2009 was only worn by French people and Canadians — and Karim, and me. Turns out Karim saw my jacket, assumed I was French, and tried to bum a cigarette. The request failed but our friendship began then and there. (He still can’t handle the cold and lives in Miami now.) When I was learning computer science, Karim helped teach me. He assistant-taught the intro course alongside other greats like @OpenAI's @gdb and @figma's @yuhkiyam. When Karim couldn’t get a visa to work in the US one summer, I helped him get a slot on Harvard’s delegation to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai; I also got myself on a local game show, and so we both went to China. We started our first company Paribus together, and I discovered that Karim was not only a great programmer and a great friend, but exactly the kind of person you want to be in business with. When we sold the company, we allocated most of the retention package to our team, not to ourselves like the acquirer had offered. We thought it would mean more to share it even beyond what the employee ownership stakes implied. And we made a point of recognizing the many other people that had helped us (@eglyman/founders-get-too-much-credit-a-thank-you-note-to-the-team-behind-paribus-908c4ae4bc87" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@eglyman/found…). Doing the right thing and being generous with people are why there are so many repeat team members from Paribus at Ramp, and it’s part of what makes Karim a leader people want to follow. Five years after cofounding Ramp, and fifteen years after accosting me in French, Karim is still pulling rabbits out of hats regularly. @tryramp has been called one of the top startups in America, and if that’s true, it’s because I have one of the best cofounders in America. @karimatiyeh, thank you “a bunch”!

Ramp turns 5 today, and I want to share what we’ve learned about what it takes to build a great company. In 1827 days, this team has built one of the fastest growing startups in history and assembled some of the most talented people in tech. More importantly, we’ve recovered over $1 billion and 10 million hours for customers, allowing their finance teams to be leaner and more strategic. The secret is: there is no secret to building a great company. It’s a long, patient process with no shortcuts, no tricks, and often little glamor. Building a business is hard, and not in a flashy way. Once in a great while, it means sleeping on the office floor or scrubbing toilets (done both) — but the vast majority of the time it means doing simple things well. It means taking your work seriously, treating people with decency, and earnestly giving your best effort. Doing that consistently for years and years is the hard part, maybe harder than scrubbing toilets. Over two years ago I shared our growth playbook publicly (x.com/eglyman/status…). Despite growing headcount 3X and monthly customer purchase volume by more than 10X, it's actually remarkable to see that little else about how the @tryramp team operates has changed. The things that got us to day 1000 — hiring on potential, caring about customers, focusing on data, and simply being kind — are the same things that got us to day 1827, and they’ll be the same things that get us to day 10,000. Although growth doesn’t come from hacks, it does come from habits and incentives. Our habits are to care about people and obsess over excellence, and our incentives are simple: make our customers more profitable and efficient, because we only succeed if they do. That ethos is shared by the 725+ Ramplings I’m tremendously proud to call colleagues. This is one of the most talent-dense teams in tech, with a high-velocity engineering culture, a commitment to elegant design, and one of the highest performing sales operations anywhere. Across these and other teams, every role here is mission-critical; we have no second class citizens at Ramp. So how do you build a great company? One day at a time, together with great people. Thank you to our team and our customers for everything, and see you on Day 1828.

Congrats to Ramp on an amazing 5 years! I conducted over 20 interviews to make my biggest documentary ever. Here’s the trailer:

5 years and over 25,000 businesses running on Ramp. 🚀 Today we’re celebrating the incredible companies of all shapes and sizes who do more on Ramp. Together, we’ve saved them over $1 billion and over $10 million hours. Here are just a few of their stories 🧵

Today we’re thrilled to announce Ramp Plus, an even more powerful edition of our core platform We built it in lockstep with our most financially complex customers, including @Shopify. We’re grateful to all of our customers who helped get us here– quick 🧵 ramp.com/blog/introduci…

NEW: We’re proud to announce Ramp Plus Ramp Plus is an even more powerful edition of our core platform, built in lockstep with our most financially complex customers like @Shopify. ramp.com/blog/introduci…

Incredibly fulfilling to connect IRL with @SlackHQ users and the team at @sxsw this week! Seeing the love reminded me of why we do what we do. Simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.

@aviza @ParkerAviza Gravel grinding Parker!

@TheDropoutHulu #Unsubscribe

@nami A new episode of #TheDropout is now streaming, and there's a good chance the machine is totally working this time... Reply #unsubscribe to opt-out.

@mari4ju @hjackson_10 @SlackHQ Gotta get the dream team back together again!

Reuniting and reminiscing with my OG crew. The people you work with make all the difference.

When talking about our agendas for the day, I told my 5yo I was a little nervous about a meeting I have today. He said, “Mama, I am nervous all the time. I know what to do.” So friends, here is all the advice he could fit into the drive to school:

@aviza @ParkerAviza Meanwhile @EllisAviza crushing home base

@matmullen Way to go, Mat! Thank you for everything, friend!!

After 8 years of working at Slack, this week is my last. It's been an unbelievable experience getting to help build the company into what it is today. From joining as a tiny start-up to an IPO and then an acquisition, I think I've covered all the bases. ✌️

@ckosmowski @LogicMonitor Whoa, congrats CK!!!

I'm so excited for my future as @LogicMonitor’s CEO! It has always been a dream of mine. Today marks the culmination of that dream and the start of a new one; to lead an enduring global business. This company is on a roll! I can’t wait for what’s still to come!

Parents of children under 5

@chrisriedy What kind of bird is that? I basically only know pigeons. Pigeons and parrots.

While on a walk in Dublin…

@annapickard Oops I misunderstood- I thought you meant if I were called mrs Parker!

@jerryjamesstone Omg I can’t stop laughing 💀

Um I am all for plant based but can it not look like dicks please