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Plug the Rising Tide of Corporate Travel Leakage with Consolidated Reporting

David Barrett —  July 27, 2015 — Leave a comment

“Open booking”, “invisible spend”, “leakage” — these are terms that cause travel managers to break out into cold sweats.  And with good reason: employees who book outside the “managed” travel system miss out on negotiated rates, quietly slip through the travel policy cracks, or find themselves out of luck when SHTF.

Combating this has always been hard, and the explosion in “unmanaged” travel options hasn’t helped.  In fact, it’s steadily increased the temptation for employees to go rogue, making it harder than ever for travel managers to provide control travel spend and execute on duty of care obligations.  Thankfully, help is on the way.  Continue Reading…

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New SmartScan Camera Flow

David Barrett —  February 11, 2015 — 1 Comment

Hey there, I hope you had a great holiday season and that 2015 is off to a great start.  I won’t bore you with the details, but needless to say 2014 was a big year for us — most notably by adding 4000 new customers, including the BBB, ZenDesk, and most recently Yahoo!  At this scale of growth, just keeping the lights on is a lot of work.  But in addition to the mundane details of scaling a mission-critical, global-scale financial application processing $billions of expenses, I’m very happy to share details on our latest creation: our new mobile camera!  Continue Reading…

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[CEO Friday] How Difficult is It to Be a CEO?

David Barrett —  January 30, 2015 — 2 Comments

Being a founder and starting your own business has become the *it* thing to do lately.  In 2012, more than 500,000 companies were founded, and it’s not shocking that the numbers got even higher in 2013 and 2014.  It’s no wonder everyone wants to get in the startup game.

Interestingly enough, I came across the question of how difficult it is to be a CEO in today’s startup ecosystem.  The question, at length, from Quora:  Continue Reading…

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[CEO Friday] Top Three Skills for Software Engineers in 2015

David Barrett —  January 2, 2015 — 2 Comments

A new year is always the perfect time to break the cycle.  Stop doing what you hate, and find something you love to take its place.  This includes job hunting — if you hate your job, do something else.  Like everyone else, we’re eagerly hiring, so if you are intrigued by what we do, here’s what we look for:

Plan out your projects

Have a side project you’re passionate about? Figure out how to get it done!

Continue Reading…

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[CEO Friday] One Piece of Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs

David Barrett —  December 12, 2014 — 2 Comments

You can troll all day on the internet for tips and tricks on what you should and shouldn’t do as a first time entrepreneur.  Maybe it’s not your first time, but you’re still figuring things out.  Either way, here’s one more that you probably already know (deep within your heart, maybe?).

Burger King's got it right. Have it your way

Burger King’s pretty much got it right. 

Continue Reading…

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[CEO Friday] How to Create a Tagline for Your Startup

David Barrett —  December 5, 2014 — 2 Comments
Coming up with a company tagline isn't always easy

Coming up with a tagline isn’t always easy…

“Expense reports that don’t suck!”

People often chuckle when they hear our tagline – it’s memorable, it’s catchy, and it captures a feeling that they’ve probably experienced before. As an occasional advisor to growing startups, I often get questions about product branding during our early days. Where did our tagline come from? How did we decide on this one? Here are three quick points to consider: Continue Reading…

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Don’t Fall into the Trap! Three Myths About Finding Great Leaders

David Barrett —  October 24, 2014 — 2 Comments
myths about great leaders expensify

To be a great leader, you can’t just put on a mask…

So much reading on the internet today revolves around what makes a good leader, what characteristics a good leader has, and ultimately, how to be a good leader.  What we forget is that leaders are inherently part of a team, and without a team of supporters, leaders don’t exist.  A true leader relies on his or her peers and surroundings to help be the most effective they can be.  Bulldoze over these myths and avoid common misconceptions when trying to identify the leaders at your organization.  You’ll be glad you did.  Continue Reading…

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[CEO Friday] 5 Fast Tips for Business Travelers

David Barrett —  October 17, 2014 — 6 Comments
David Barrett Travel Expensify

With the faithful sidekick, Lemony, of course! Photo by Robert Chen

Every year, I spend 1-2 months overseas, with probably a trip every month in between. In the last four weeks alone, I spoke at conferences in Norway and Tunisia, before heading to Portugal with the team for our 2014 Offshore. Currently, I’m writing this on a 30-hour journey from Portugal to SFO — which due to the miracle of timezones, happens in a mere 16 hours.

With all this movement, you can say that I’ve had my fair share of both delightful and horrifying experiences in business travel. Along the way, I’ve developed some core nuggets of knowledge that I live by, and I’m passing them along to the next travel-savvy entrepreneur (aka YOU).  Continue Reading…

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[CEO Friday] Step Up and Help Your Bosses

David Barrett —  October 10, 2014 — Leave a comment

You just started your new job and you want to make a good impression.  You’ve been working at the same job for years and want more responsibility.  In either case, how do you step up your game and make a difference?  What can you do to get yourself noticed?  Continue Reading…

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Expensify: Now Free for the Remainder of Your Concur Contract

David Barrett —  September 30, 2014 — 2 Comments
Submit to Concur

Submit to Concur, easy as 1, 2, 3!

You might have read the news that our friends at Concur have just sold to SAP, a global enterprise powerhouse.

This is great for nearly everybody: SAP, Concur shareholders, and especially for us.  As for Concur customers… well the future just got a bit cloudier (and not in a good way).  They probably feel locked into a long-term contract with a company whose focus has suddenly shifted away from their needs, and I’m sure that doesn’t feel great.  Expensify exists to help people feel great about their expense reports, so in light of the news we’re offering a very special deal:  Continue Reading…

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