Welcome to November's episode of This Month in Fintech, recorded live from the Honey Pot at Money2020.

I'm joined today by special co-host Nik Milanovic, Founder of TWIF, as we sit down with Michael Sindicich, CEO of Navan Expense.

Michael, Nik and I recorded this episode around Navan's landmark new partnership with (former) rival Brex - BrexPay for Navan.

BrexPay for Navan is a seamless integration that directly embeds Brex cards into Navan’s travel management software. Customers can now leverage Brex and Navan to achieve 100% automated travel payment reconciliation on bookings made through Navan. This means receiving a perfect report at the end of the month, where every booking is linked to a traveler and a trip with zero manual effort, thanks to a per-booking virtual card number. Through the direct integration, customers can also instantly activate local currency cards for all their global subsidiaries within one card program, saving countless hours in onboarding and underwriting, besides avoiding all FX fees.

We had a lot of fun in this live conversation talking through Michael's journey to Navan (including a wild valley hacker house), the delicate art of partnering with a rival, fascinating insights from Navan's State of Corporate Travel and Expense Report, and a great rapid fire round.

Enjoy the show!

Navan Expense CEO Michael Sindicich: A Landmark Brex Partnership and Unpacking the Business Travel Whipsaw - Live at Money2020

This Week in Fintech’s Podcast · Episode

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Navan Expense CEO Michael Sindicich: A Landmark Brex Partnership and Unpacking the Business Travel Whipsaw - Live at Money2020

Podcast Episode · This Week in Fintech’s Podcast · 11/18/2024 · 41m

Apple Podcasts

Navan is the all-in-one travel, corporate card, and expense management solution. Navan makes business travel and expense management easy, giving users visibility, savings, and control with their all-in-one super app.

Their corporate travel and expense solution allows users to easily book, view, and manage business travel and expenses. Navan is reinventing the legacy category of travel and expense with one of the first enterprise technologies utilizing the cloud, mobile, and AI to balance business needs with today's modern standards. 

Michael Sindicich is the CEO of Navan Expense. Michael joined Navan as one of its earliest employees in 2016 as an Account Executive and has risen through the ranks to CEO of Navan's Expense business. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science from UCLA.

You can find him on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Ryan Zauk is the Host of the This Month in Fintech Podcast and Bay Area lead for the broader This Week in Fintech platform. In his day job, Ryan is an investor on the Ventures team at OMERS, the direct investing arm of one of the world’s largest pension plans with over $130Bn in net assets. Prior to OMERS, he worked in Morgan Stanley’s Tech Investment Banking team focused on M&A and capital markets. He is based in the Bay Area.

You can find him on Linkedin or Twitter.

Episode Highlights

02:05 - Ditching medical school to start an insurance brokerage, then pivoting to living in a Silicon Valley hacker house

04:54 - Doing 'practice interviews' but ending up falling in love with TripActions

06:54 - Navan's footprint, scale, and product offerings today

09:43 - A landmark partnership with Brex - BrexPay for Navan

17:46 - Key principles and lessons learned from navigating this partnership

20:37 - Navan's product expansion over the last decade

24:25 - Navan's company culture and history of promoting within

26:54 - Insights from Navan's State of Corporate Travel & Expense report

29:42 - Where Navan is deploying AI

32:52 - Navan's sales organization evolution and structure as they scaled

34:48 - What to expect from Navan going forward

37:18 - Rapid fire round

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Ryan Zauk, Host: The views expressed in this podcast are the speaker's own and are not the views of This Week in FinTech or any other person or entity. The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or a recommendation, solicitation, endorsement, or offering by me or anyone else for the sale, subscription, or purchase of securities or for investment advisory services of any kind.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode of the This Month in FinTech podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Zauk, and today I'm bringing you a special episode that was recorded live at Money2020 with Michael Sindicic, CEO of Navan Expense, Nik Milanovic of This Week in FinTech, and myself. This episode was a blast and packed with insights from Michael, As we debut the launch of their landmark partnership with Brex, Brex pay for Navan.

We also discussed Mike's wild career start scaling an insurance agency and living in a Silicon Valley hacker house, the art of mastering partnerships and a great rapid fire round. Let's jump in.