Karim Atiyeh, co-founder and CTO of Ramp, shares his journey from growing up in war-torn Lebanon to building one of the fastest-growing B2B companies ever. In this conversation, we explore Ramp's mission to eliminate bureaucratic waste in business finance through AI-powered automation, the transition from a payments company to a comprehensive finance platform, and Karim's unique approach to product development. He discusses the challenges of competing against incumbents like Amex, the importance of consumer-grade UX in business software, and how technical founders can leverage AI to build better products across domains they haven't traditionally worked in. From his early days building Paribus to scaling Ramp past $1B in annualized revenue, Karim reveals the principles behind building high-velocity teams, the power of hiring for "spikiness," and why speed remains the ultimate competitive advantage for startups. #Ramp #Fintech #Startup #AI #Entrepreneurship #B2B #SaaS #CEO #VentureCapital #ProductDevelopment #Leadership #tech Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:29 Competing with a Day One Mentality 7:58 Winning with Consumer-Grade UX 10:40 Divinely Discontent 14:18 Building a Culture of Mutual Accountability 16:05 Origin Story: Growing Up in Lebanon 21:40 The First Company: Paribus 28:02 Lessons from Building on an Unstable Platform 36:42 From Paribus to Ramp 48:59 The Framework for Choosing Investors 57:54 Shifting the Business Model 1:03:00 Why the Best Builders Will Be Technical 1:06:05 An Engineer's Approach to Marketing 1:20:15 The Power of Differentiation 1:22:22 Recruiting for Spikiness 1:27:41 The Tactics of Speed 1:34:52 The Vision for Ramp 1:43:40 Kindest Thing Presented by Ramp: https://ramp.com/business-cards?utm_s Sponsored by AlphaSense and Ridgeline: https://www.alpha-sense.com/invest/ https://www.ridgelineapps.com/ ****** Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of Positive Sum. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of Positive Sum. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of Positive Sum may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. To learn more, visit psum.vc