Since fintech startup Brex’s inception in 2017, its two co-founders Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi have run the company as co-CEOs.But starting today, the pair told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview, the San Francisco-based corporate credit card and expense management company is shifting to a more traditional — and what they say should be a more agile — model of just one CEO at the helm. Franceschi will become the sole CEO while Dubugras will become chairman of Brex’s board.In an in-depth conversation, the two co-founders gave us a peek into what the new structure will look like, the company’s current state of finances and how it has managed to reduce its cash burn.The close friends started working together as co-founders of another startup, Brazilian payment processing startup Pagar.me, in 2012 at the wee age of 16 years old. (That company ended up getting acquired by Stone Pagamentos for “tens of millions of dollars” — before the two had even gone to college.) While both founders could code, they quickly realized that Franceschi was the “better coder.” Rather than having one person manage a part of the organization like product and engineering and the other one manage sales and marketing, they decided to split their duties as external and internal co-CEOs (a decision they touched on in this episode of the Found podcast last year). The model worked so well at that company, they said, they decided to employ the same strategy when they founded Brex after dropping out of Stanford to participate in the YC Winter 2017 cohort.“The upside is that we had twice as much time as other CEOs,” said Dubugras.But now, the co-founders believe that having two CEOs could be a bottleneck to the company’s growth by keeping its leadership from making faster decisions. They also feel like when they eventually do go public — something they don’t anticipate doing until 2025 or later — that investors will be more attracted to a traditional model of just one CEO running the company.“I think we’re at a scale where we’re starting to see some of the cracks in the co-CEO model,” Dubugras told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. “After talking, we thought this would help the business succeed. We thought this would enable much faster and better decision-making.”Image Credits: BrexOver the years at Brex, Franceschi led the development of the company’s core financial infrastructure from scratch, which the pair claim allowed Brex “to have great margins and expand faster globally.” He, according to the company, “led the entire organization over the last six years,” helping it grow to more than 30,000 customers (from startups to over 130 publicly traded companies) and a product suite that spans corporate cards, banking, expense management, travel and bill pay

Brex, a fintech startup known for offering corporate credit cards to startups, is facing some challenges. The news comes at a time when startups are struggling to raise funding due to the worsening global economic conditions and high interest rates.According to a report from The Information, Brex, once considered a standout in the fintech sector during the pandemic, is currently burning through $17 million each month. This has sparked concerns and raised questions about the company’s future growth prospects.In the fourth quarter, Brex disclosed to its staff during an all-hands meeting that it had been burning an average of approximately $17 million in cash monthly. While the company assured employees in early January that it had enough cash to sustain operations until March 2026, Chief Financial Officer Ben Gammell emphasized the need to continue reducing the cash burn during the meeting.“Brex, which issues credit cards and manages cash for businesses, burned an average of about $17 million a month in cash in the fourth quarter, the company told staff at an all-hands meeting earlier this month. Brex has enough cash to last through March 2026, according to the data given to employees in early January, although Chief Financial Officer Ben Gammell emphasized to staff at the all-hands meeting that the company had to continue reducing its cash burn,” The Information reported.A few years back, we highlighted Brex when the fintech startup closed a $125 million Series C funding round aimed at bolstering its corporate credit card features and launching rewards programs. Leading this round were Greenoaks Capital, DST Global, and IVP.Founded in 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, both engineers with a background in founding Pagar.me, one of Brazil’s largest payment processors with a GMV exceeding $1.5 billion, Brex has been on a mission to revamp B2B financial products

Successful founder stories are a trove of information and inspiration. They’re also a map of sorts, one that provides insight into the challenges of navigating the complex startup landscape. Hearing about the triumphs and challenges — and the inevitable missteps — can help new and aspiring early-stage founders stay the course and even avoid common pitfalls. When it comes to startup founder stories, you’d be hard-pressed to find one as compelling as Henrique Dubugras, founder and co-CEO of Brex, a financial services company. He learned to code at age 12 and started his first fintech at age 16. Three years later, he sold that company, went to Stanford, founded Brex and joined the Y Combinator Winter 2017 cohort