Podcast Summary: "I built a billion dollar company in 18 months"

Podcast: My First Million
Host(s): Sam Parr and Shaan Puri
Guest: Eric Lyman, Co-founder of Ramp
Date: August 20, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features Eric Lyman, co-founder of Ramp, a financial services company which achieved a billion-dollar valuation in under 18 months and is now valued at $20 billion. Sam Parr and Eric explore how Eric and his co-founder reverse-engineered their audacious goal, built a team for speed, and navigated the challenges and psychology of hyper-growth. The episode is rich in operational, philosophical, and tactical details of company building, leadership introspection, and the evolution of financial products.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Setting a Billion-Dollar Target and Moving With Velocity

• The Audacious Goal:
  • Eric and his co-founder set out with the explicit intention to build a billion-dollar company in just 18 months.
  • [00:54] Eric Lyman: “That's a real conversation… We knew that if we wanted to leave, we wanted to go and make this company big and either make it huge quickly or fail really quickly.”
• Timeline:
  • Incorporation: March 2019
  • Public Launch: February 2020
  • Hit $1B+ valuation: Less than 2 years from incorporation
  • [01:58] Sam Parr: “Two years after incorporation? That's insane.”
• Valuation and Revenue Growth:
  • Year-over-year revenue grew 70x at one stage.
  • By end of 2021, Ramp was valued at $8.1B, with revenue approaching $100M (but had started 2021 under $10M revenue).
  • [03:25] Eric Lyman: “...from like time from incorporation, I want to say like 15 to 17 months. From a million to 100 million. It was explosive.”

Business Model Mechanics: How Card Companies Make Money

• Interchange Fees:
  • Ramp (and similar card issuers) earn the majority of interchange fees – the portion of a transaction fee collected with every card swipe.
  • [04:49] Eric Lyman: “Every time a card is swiped, there's a series of payments... the remainder tends to go to the issuer... traditionally keeping most of that interchange.”
• Risk and Opportunity:
  • Issuing banks take the credit risk; that's why interchange is profitable for them.
  • Shift from slow-moving, legacy banks to tech-enabled, scalable financial service models.
  • [05:17] Eric: “…they collect it, but they don’t keep a huge percentage. At the very end… maybe 0.1 to 0.5% is ultimately their net take.”

Scaling Operations: Talent, Culture, and Tooling

• Blitzscaling Challenges:
  • Ramp went from 100–200+ employees in 18 months, now over 1100.
  • [07:04] Sam Parr: “…just the logistics of getting that many people… That’s incredibly challenging. So that’s 10 people a month.”
• Importance of Modern Tools:
  • Leveraging software to scale finance, HR (e.g., Rippling) and other ‘boring’ yet lucrative business models.
  • [08:45] Eric: “There’s a lot of these tools… that take what used to be lots of little paper cuts… and abstract those away.”
• Design for Velocity:
  • Explicit focus on speed and high frequency goal-setting.
  • [11:11] Eric: “We were like hell bent on… within 45 days, we want to be approved by the network… within 70, we want to be… funding our first transactions.”

Founder Psychology: Imposter Syndrome, Emotional Regulation, & Sustainable Success

• Overnight Success & Responsibility:
  • Fast success can cause “imposter syndrome”; pressure to “grow into” the role.
  • [09:29] Eric: “There’s always like imposter syndrome… we… designed the company explicitly around Velocity.”
• Competing With Legacy Giants:
  • Outpacing slow legacy institutions by constant shipping and counting every day in business.
  • [10:56] Eric: “Today we’re 2,310 days old...”
• The Role of Personality:
  • Contrasts typical aggressive founder archetypes; prefers rallying craftspeople who love their work.
  • [12:05] Eric: “I would rather find people who find extreme joy in their craft…”
• Emotional Well-being, Stoicism, and Family Influence:
  • Eric’s upbringing and intentional emotional regulation shape his leadership—drawing on philosophy, family practices, and regular self-audits.
  • [44:01] Eric: “You know, you have to go say it back to him, and then you’re going to say your side, and then he’s going to say it back to you…”

Reverse Engineering as an Advantage

• Idea Generation, Research, and Frameworks:
  • Sam and Eric discuss structured research over coming up with “random ideas.”
  • Reference to Brad Jacobs and systematic company analysis.
  • [12:39] Sam Parr: “I actually don’t come up with a lot of original ideas. Instead, what I’m really, really good at… is researching different ideas, different gaps in the market and reverse engineering companies.”
• Allowing for Dead Ends:
  • Not all early ideas pan out (e.g., manufactured homes, crypto, DTC healthcare).
  • [17:10] Eric: “One, I actually had no business in doing it. I rented an apartment in New York... manufactured anything.”

History and Structure of the US Credit Market

• Origins of Credit:
  • Early roots in department stores, Bank of America’s mass credit card mailing, and American vs. European attitudes to credit.
  • [23:04] Eric: “History says it started by a guy named A.P. Giannini... first big opportunity was the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco...”
• American vs. European Credit:
  • More inclusive credit systems in the US compared to strict European lending.
  • [27:54] Eric: “...in Europe if you’re rich you can borrow… in the US... you can borrow for that car, farm equipment or that laundry machine... good that comes with it.”

Endurance, Legacy, and Compounding

• Building for Decades vs. Selling Early:
  • Lessons from old-money families: “Don’t sell”, compound for decades.
  • [30:46] Eric: “...interrupt the power of compounding. You want to find a business where you can just compound for a long time.”
• Ramp’s Own Trajectory:
  • Though growing at hyper-speed, they aspire to become one of those enduring compounders.
  • [29:38] Eric: “...we have grown extraordinarily quickly. We’re still just about doubling each year at enormous scale.”

Daily Life, Weaknesses, and Ongoing Growth

• Self-Audit and Calendar Control:
  • Regularly reviewing where time is spent, redesigning weeks to stay energized.
  • [47:18] Eric: “I pretty regularly try to go and blow up my calendar... redesign my weeks or months pretty regularly.”
• Weaknesses, Team Construction & Coping Mechanisms:
  • Eric’s limitation: will focus only on “Top 5–10” issues, so surrounds himself with strong operational talent.
  • [48:09] Eric: “...I'll start with a blank sheet of paper and I'll be like, what are the top five or ten things? ... I surround myself with people who are operationally unbelievable...”
• Emotional Regulation Lessons:
  • Both Sam and Eric share approaches to becoming less reactive (“don’t go to the grocery store when hungry”).
  • [50:24] Sam Parr: “Don't make a big decision. When I'm feeling pissed off... or really happy... just say, okay, let me think about it.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Ignoring the Odds:
  • [02:00] Eric Lyman: “...it's best not to know the odds. If I had looked it up...there was no company in New York's history ever that was worth a billion dollars within 18 months or two years or three.”
• On Business Model Simplicity:
  • [08:45] Eric Lyman: “...these boring business models can actually be very good.”
• On Corporate Survival:
  • [29:37] Eric: “It’s not who grew 100% or 200% ... it’s that which businesses can grow 30% for 30 years.”
• On Founders and Compounding:
  • [30:49] Eric: “Don’t fight or interrupt the power of compounding. You want to find a business where you can just compound for a long time.”
• On Emotional Regulation:
  • [43:54] Sam Parr: “That's an interesting, very, very introspective, philosophical question to ask. Like, well, why do I feel this way and do I have to?”
• On Building for the Long Run:
  • [36:32] Eric Lyman: “I hope this is the last company that I ever work on, you know?”
• On Company Design Philosophy:
  • [48:09] Eric Lyman: “...I surround myself with people who are operationally unbelievable, who are incredibly good at triaging, cascading, getting things done and making things move.”

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:54–03:21: How Ramp set—and hit—a billion dollar target in <2 years
• 04:35–06:57: Deep dive into Ramp’s business model and how card issuers work
• 07:41–08:45: Challenges and tools for scaling to hundreds of employees
• 09:29–11:48: Psychological toll and company design for high velocity
• 12:39–18:12: Approaches to generating business ideas and vetting opportunities
• 22:22–29:13: Banking history, the birth of credit cards, and U.S. credit culture
• 29:37–31:05: Lessons from “old money” families and compounding businesses
• 44:01–47:18: Lessons from upbringing and emotional regulation as a founder
• 48:09–50:46: Weaknesses, operational compensation, and team-building philosophy

Tone and Atmosphere

The conversation is candid, energetic, intellectually rigorous, and introspective. Eric brings a calm and methodical tone, balancing ambition with practicality. Sam presses for details with a friendly style, adding humor and vulnerability about his own entrepreneurial journey.

Summary Takeaways

• Reverse-engineering goals and moving rapidly is possible with deep industry knowledge, operational focus, and tight team dynamics.
• Boring business models—when paired with velocity and technology—are ripe for billion-dollar disruption.
• Compounding over decades is more valuable than short-term fireworks, but hypergrowth can be sustained if the market is big enough.
• Emotional wellbeing, introspection, and continuous self-audit are as critical for founders as technical and operational skill.
• Surrounding oneself with operationally strong teams can cover for personal blindspots and scale fast growth effectively.

If you want a primer on blitzscaling, founder psychology, and how “boring” businesses quietly become giants, this episode is essential listening.