Expensify.com – David Barrett Interview

Is there anything more annoying than filing an expense report? Especially if you have a ton of tiny charges that you have to keep track of along the way, the process can be painstaking, annoying and, quite frankly, a waste of your time.

An online startup that is trying to make the expense report process much easier is Expensify.com. This startup, which has been named as one of the ten finalists for Startup 2009, could be a godsend to anyone who files expense reports on a regular basis.

With Expensify, you can import information from your existing credit cards, receive a dedicated corporate card for free, manage receipts electronically and submit expense reports with one click. Additionally, the service makes getting reimbursed a breeze for everyone involved.

Recently, I had a chance to conduct an email interview David Barrett, the CEO of Expensify, to learn a little bit more about the service available at Expensify.com.

Stephen Kersey: Can you tell the StartupSpark readers a little bit more about Expensify.com? What makes your startup better than the competition?

David Barrett: The key: we have a *way* cooler name.

But seriously, Expensify doesn’t have a lot of real competition.  There are the “Big Guys” like Concur, but we don’t really compete with them: they have really advanced functionality targeted to Fortune 500 CFOs — and huge price tags to match.  And there are hosted accounting packages, essentially competitors to QuickBooks Online, but they don’t import credit cards nor reimburse real dollars to real bank accounts.  So again, we don’t really compete with them either.

Ultimately, I’d say we’re better than the competition because we’re the only real option for our userbase.  If your company has less than 100 employees — or *especially* less than 20 — and if you want to import credit cards and reimburse online, there is simply no choice but Expensify.  Not that you’d *want* any other choices, naturally…

SK: What has your experience been like with Startup 2009 so far? Are you excited about your chances of winning the grand prize on June 3rd?

DB: Yes, we’re very much looking forward to it.  As for our chances, I feel they’re better now than ever as the past year has really focused attention on the importance of maximizing productivity and saving money: two things Expensify does really great.

SK: What have been the most difficult obstacles your startup has faced?

DB: Getting the word out.  Ultimately we’ve found the most reliable method is to just make a good product and ask your users and fans for help.  As such, to anybody reading this article who thinks we’re on to something good, please do me a huge favor: Tweet this article to your friends!

SK: What do you enjoy the most about the startup process?

DB: Working in small teams.  It’s just so much more fun, rewarding, and productive to have everyone around the same table, working on the same thing at the same time.

SK: What are your startup’s short-term and long-term goals?

DB: Alas, I’ll need to stay mum on this question.  Needless to say, we’ve got a lot going on, and even more planned!

SK: What tips do you have for other entrepreneurs who are thinking about joining the startup world?

DB: There’s that old statement “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” — that is definitely true in the startup world.  There are tons and tons of people who will happily lecture you about the right way to do anything.  But despite their best intentions, if they’re not actually doing it — right now — odds are their experience and advice is obsolete.  So stop asking and start doing.  It’s so much faster, easier, and funner to learn how to build wheels by reinventing them from scratch, than by trying to find someone to teach you.  Because when you’re done, you’ve learned not only how to make wheels, but how to make *anything*.

Expensify Demo (Expensify.com)