Bare-bones banking, constant receipt chasing, and inefficient bill pay

When Sahil Hasan, Dots CEO and co-founder, joined Y Combinator in 2021, he and the team were figuring out the basics of running a business, which included securing a business bank account. “We were 23 years old and had not even set up our own personal bank accounts before, let alone a business bank account,” he said. “We really didn’t know what we were doing.”

The Dots team was also learning the ropes on other parts of startup life, like how to efficiently pay and manage the constant stream of bills, which became a growing source of frustration for Sahil. “In the early days, everything with invoices was infuriating,” he said. “There were so many bills coming from everywhere, and we were getting hit with a ton of late fees because it was so difficult to manage. Plus, nobody would give me an easy way to pay — they all wanted wires for some reason. Paying bills was one of the most annoying things for me as a founder.”

Additionally, obtaining the right documentation for expenses led to more wasted time for the busy co-founder and CEO. “Every week we’d be chasing people for receipts,” Sahil said, “and when you have so many other things to do in a day, begging for a single receipt is far down the list of priorities.”

The growing company sought an integrated approach to startup finance, with easy-to-use banking solutions, customizable spend controls, and efficient bill pay processes.

Startup banking, bill pay, and expense tracking on one platform

Dots chose Brex for startup banking in 2021, and the company now also uses Brex to pay its bills and track expenses. The comprehensive platform and its overall ease of use were difference-makers for the high-speed fintech startup.

“In YC, you know that Mercury and Brex are your two choices in startup financial services,” Sahil said. “Brex was hands-down the easiest to onboard, and it was very straightforward. And the yield has been really nice.”

Sahil says he knew he made the right choice due to the immense expertise of the Brex team, who were eager to get on the phone with Sahil to answer questions about building a startup, explain business banking best practices, and more.

“The Brex team was very responsive to our questions,” Sahil said. “It’s nice to know we have that level of attention from our banking partner. Several large banks have pitched us to move our business over, but we love Brex because we get amazing service, high yields, and no hidden fees.”

Sahil even joined Brex’s customer advisory board in 2022 and beta-tested early versions of Brex bill pay. He used his own experiences with invoice payments to provide valuable feedback to the Brex team as they built out the product.

“I saw early how a product like Brex bill pay could make life easier when, as a co-founder in the early days of a startup, you have a million things going on,” he said. “The Brex team took to heart the real challenges from those of us living them.”

Materially extended runway and 2-4 hours a week saved paying bills

The benefits of a Brex business account for Dots were clear from day one: “The yield we earn from Brex treasury has materially extended our runway,” Sahil said. “As a startup trying to scale, that was such a value add.”

Sahil says Dots save significant time and money paying bills with Brex. By his estimate, he saves two to four hours every week with Brex bill pay now that he can automate the approval flows, capture itemized invoices automatically, and pay those invoices however his vendors prefer.

“We use Brex to pay all of our bills, and the ability to forward a bill via email, hit approve, and move on is a game-changer. Plus, the OCR technology captures every detail to automate invoice processing. Brex bill pay helped eliminate the least fun part of my job, and we’re saving 20-30% because Brex’s automation put an end to all the late fees we were paying.”

Automating purchase approvals with Brex spend limits saved the team two hours a week on receipts and helped the company prevent rogue transactions. “Having spend controls within virtual cards is really useful for preventing unauthorized spend, especially when it comes to managing and paying those recurring bills,” Sahil said.

Sahil lauds the overall power and simplicity of the Brex platform: “How Brex visualizes information has always been clean and nice, and the user experience is very positive. Having all of this under one roof is really powerful, too. Some fintechs end up creating more work for founders, but Brex built a platform that actually reduces the amount of finance work on my plate.”