Eric Glyman

On the time Y Combinator cofounder Jessica Livingston tore me a new one and changed the future org structure of Ramp:

At YC, we attended weekly office hours where every startup shared 1/ their weekly growth %, 2/ their biggest problem, and 3/ what they were doing to solve it.

That week in summer 2015 our startup Paribus had grown 20% w/w, our biggest problem was that we were getting too many customer support tickets, and our proposed solution was to hire a customer support person (as the third hire at a then two-person startup).

Jessica pointed out that if our solution was to hire someone to deal with customer issues, then next week when we grew more we’d have to hire another person, then another, and so on. Her point was that the real solution isn’t solving tickets, it’s listening to customers and building a better product so customers never need to write in the first place.

She told us how Brian Chesky of Airbnb, an icon even then, would still walk around wearing a Jawbone headset so he could personally take support calls, hear customer feedback and deal with problems immediately. She (kindly and graciously) schooled us in front of the group, and it was one of the best learning moments I’ve had as a founder.

In a sense, every customer support ticket is a privilege – someone took time out of their day to write about how to improve your product. But it’s also a failure – you could’ve saved them that time by making the product better and more intuitive in the first place. You can’t out-hire a bad product, or compensate for poor taste with a big support team. Support is not a cost to minimize, it’s a key function every company should take seriously. When you listen to customers and make your product intuitive, you get output graphs like the below – where the rate of active user growth far exceeds the rate of support tickets.

To this day, almost a decade later, support reports into product at Ramp

It’s day 1905 at Ramp. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ramp Travel, a new solution designed to make booking travel and managing travel expenses more intuitive, low-cost, and streamlined.

Today, 1 in 5 (20%) dollars spent on Ramp cards go towards flights, hotels, and other trip-related entertainment - double the 10% of just a few years ago. Companies are hungry for travel as a means of uncovering new growth, but are hamstrung by outdated, expensive tools that employees hate, or consumer booking sites that might be cheaper and easier to use, but lack controls to enforce travel policies. Either way, hours are wasted at the end each month on manual expense reports and cumbersome reconciliations.

But, these tradeoffs don’t need to exist. Companies deserve total control over their travel spend without being saddled with fees. And their employees deserve a delightful booking experience without the additional work. We’re excited to deliver on this vision with Ramp Travel. 

Our mission has always been to help companies spend less money and time, and this launch is a significant step towards that goal. Employees can book flights and hotels directly through Ramp, with real-time visibility into what’s in-policy and dynamically adjusted rates based on travel destinations. On the trip, Ramp AI handles the rest.

On the ground, the quality of life improvement for employees is substantial. Receipts are automatically assigned to trips, and all expenses are seamlessly integrated into our platform. Put more simply, on other platforms, you have to do your expenses as you go (or 1-3 months later); on Ramp, your expenses do themselves.

As the saying goes, “your margin is our opportunity.” We are not a travel company and aren’t in this to take price, we’re a savings company and are in this to deliver value, control, and a better experience for the customers we serve. Our new partnership with Priceline allows us to offer our customers access to a global selection of inventory from major airline partners and hotel affiliates at competitive rates, while maintaining the high level of control and visibility that Ramp is known for. Rather than ratcheting up the price through hidden fees, all savings are passed directly to our customers.

We’re excited to see how Ramp Travel helps businesses streamline their travel processes, save money, and enhance the overall travel experience for their employees. As always, we love feedback, so try it out and let us know what you think.