Abiel Gutierrez: Brex alumni interview

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Founded 2021
Series A
Raised $26M

BUILT BOLD

A CONVERSATION WITH ABIEL GUTIERREZ

LOCATION: NEW YORK, NY

A CONVERSATION WITH ABIEL GUTIERREZ

LOCATION: NEW YORK, NY

The thing I carry from Brex into my current work the most is a constant reminder to be ambitious and bold. That can manifest itself in many ways.

Abiel Gutierrez

Brex Alumni Class ‘21

EngineerING Manager, Brex

Co-Founder & CTO, Comun

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Brex is a place where you become your best self and learn to be ambitious.

Being ambitious manifests in terms of the candidates you source, making sure you keep a very high bar and never limiting yourself. When you think about marketing campaigns, being bold pays off. When you think about product investments and how much complexity to bring in-house in terms of infrastructure, Brex on the engineering front took a lot of complexity in house, and that allowed us to build products in a very unique way.

What did you do when you first joined Brex?

I was a front-end engineer and then the manager of the growth engineering team. I started working part-time while I was still in school wrapping up. It was my first real software engineering job. I joined pre-launch, and I built the dashboard, which was pretty cool because that's the first thing I got to do.

How much responsibility and autonomy were you given?

A lot of responsibility. I was in charge of the dashboard, which felt crazy to me because I hadn't done much front end development. But I was surrounded by more senior engineers. My manager taught me a lot. But it was basically up to me to deliver.

What did it feel like to have that much trust?

It felt great. I was definitely stressed at times, but amazing all throughout. This was a big part of the Brex culture. Within a few months, once the CTO got hired, I told him I wanted to manage a team and he gave me that opportunity like maybe three or four months after having that conversation within my first year there.

Within a few months, once the CTO got hired, I told him I wanted to manage a team and he gave me that opportunity like maybe three or four months after having that conversation within my first year there.

What kind of people thrive at Brex?

Everyone was very smart, and so there's meritocracy to the ideas that get investment and get executed. You have to be a critical thinker and be able to argue for your ideas to management. But the most important thing is, are you energized by doing great work? You're gonna be surrounded by people for whom that's the case, and that energy feeds off of each other, so it gets pretty special.

What was the hardest challenge you faced at Brex?

The hardest challenge I faced was one of my direct reports was the first person to quit from engineering. And I was a first-time manager. I would go to the engineering leads meetings with people that had 15, 20 years of engineering leadership experience. That felt like a big weight on my shoulders.

A few months later, my manager told me, I think you handled that entire situation incredibly well with a lot of maturity, which is impressive. That was great validation because I was being tough on myself before then. It made me realize that I was growing and learning a lot through the hardship.

How did Brex push you outside your comfort zone?

It was an incredibly talented team, and everyone was very motivated. It was all about keep going, keep growing. When you realize that the company's gonna keep growing, something that you have top of mind is, I better be my best self because that way I'm gonna be well positioned to take on opportunities as the needs of the company change.

Today, I think the hardest part about my job is how much I demand of myself. But at Brex that, plus the culture that surrounds you, really pushes you to be the best version of yourself.

Brex always prioritized talent. It was very evident.

How did that prepare you for being a founder?

Brex always prioritized talent. It was very evident. So at Comun, I have top of mind the importance of talent. At the end of the day, that's what makes or breaks your operation. The other thing is the ambition and boldness of Pedro and Henrique is something that I constantly remind myself of.

What drove your decision to leave Brex?

I left Brex to focus on ideation full time. Two other people at Brex who were my age did that before me. If they hadn't, I don't know when I would've started a company, but I saw them do it. So I was like, okay, that must be the thing to do. And that's how I came across my co-founder and the idea for Comun. So for aspiring founders, I always tell them, put yourself in environments in which you're gonna meet people that have the same goals as you and they're gonna push you to reach 'em. And I think that's what Brex did.

How were you different on your last day at Brex versus your first?

I was ready to start a company. What gave me the confidence was seeing Brex grow from a front row seat, seeing how everything worked, not just from an engineering perspective. Early on, Pedro and Michael Tannenbaum allowed me to join weekly business review meetings with executives as a listener. It gave me a blueprint on how to run a company.

Because of Brex, I was ready to start a company and draft a big vision that would convince other people to join me in my journey.

ONE
TEAM

CEO / FIGURE

“Culture at Brex in one word would be intense.”

ZERO TO ONE

CEO / 11x

“Brex took smart people and gave them hard and sometimes impossible problems.”

DREAM BIG

CO-FOUNDER & CEO / Spark

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Back

Founded 2021Series ARaised $26M

BUILT BOLD

The thing I carry from Brex into my current work the most is a constant reminder to be ambitious and bold. That can manifest itself in many ways.

Abiel Gutierrez

Brex Alumni Class ‘21

Brex is a place where you become your best self and learn to be ambitious.

What did you do when you first joined Brex?

How much responsibility and autonomy were you given?

A lot of responsibility. I was in charge of the dashboard, which felt crazy to me because I hadn't done much front end development. But I was surrounded by more senior engineers. My manager taught me a lot. But it was basically up to me to deliver.

What did it feel like to have that much trust?

Within a few months, once the CTO got hired, I told him I wanted to manage a team and he gave me that opportunity like maybe three or four months after having that conversation within my first year there.

What kind of people thrive at Brex?

What was the hardest challenge you faced at Brex?

How did Brex push you outside your comfort zone?

Brex always prioritized talent. It was very evident.

How did that prepare you for being a founder?

Brex always prioritized talent. It was very evident. So at Comun, I have top of mind the importance of talent. At the end of the day, that's what makes or breaks your operation. The other thing is the ambition and boldness of Pedro and Henrique is something that I constantly remind myself of.

What drove your decision to leave Brex?

How were you different on your last day at Brex versus your first?

ONETEAM

“Culture at Brex in one word would be intense.”

ZERO TO ONE

“Brex took smart people and gave them hard and sometimes impossible problems.”

DREAM BIG

“Brex taught me that operating at all levels is the ultimate founder mode.”

Founded 2021
Series A
Raised $26M

ONE
TEAM