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Karim Atiyeh

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Ramp

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Overview

Karim Atiyeh is co-founder and CTO at Ramp[1]. Atiyeh holds a B.A. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Harvard University and an M.S. in Computer Science from Harvard University as a Siebel Scholar[10][9]. Atiyeh served as a teaching fellow for CS50 at Harvard University from September 2009 to January 2010[7]. Prior to Ramp, Atiyeh founded Paribus Co., serving as founder and CTO from 2014 to 2019 before the company was sold to Capital One[5]. Atiyeh participated in Y Combinator's S15 cohort[8]. Atiyeh's professional experience also includes a position at Oliver Wyman from August 2011 to September 2014[6].

Career history

  1. Co-Founder, Co-CEO RampMar 2019 to PresentRamp
  2. Founder, CTO (Sold to Capital One)2014 to 2019Paribus Co.
  3. Powerpoint and ExcelAug 2011 to Sep 2014Oliver Wyman
  4. CS50 Teaching FellowSep 2009 to Jan 2010Harvard University

Education

  1. S152015 - 2015Y Combinator
  2. M.S., Computer Science - Siebel Scholar2010 - 2011Harvard University
  3. B.A., Electrical and Computer Engineering2007 - 2011Harvard University

Insights & ideas

The through-line

Everything Karim Atiyeh says about Ramp comes back to a single obsession: doing the work so the customer does not have to. He frames the previous generation of business software as built for the person who signs the contract rather than the people who live in the product every day, so that it "solves the problem of the one decision maker but makes everyone else at the company just a small paper cut every day" [1]. Ramp's counter-position is to treat every screen, email and form as a place where a step can be removed, until "that obsession over design really turned into an obsession over minimizing the amount of time people spend in our app" [1]. That is an unusual goal for a software company, and it is the same promise the company makes commercially: a finance platform whose pitch is that businesses spend less time and less money [9][11].

The idea has widened rather than changed. What began as design discipline in a corporate card product has become an operating principle applied inside the company as well, with Ramp building internal systems for sales, marketing and product on the same logic that automation should absorb work rather than hand it back [10].

On building consumer-grade experience into business software

Atiyeh traces early customer wins, from a period when Ramp had little credibility or social proof, to the decision to build a consumer-grade user experience for a business product [1]. The reference point he names is Instagram: "we wanted the user experience of an Instagram but applied to business software" [1]. The critique underneath it is structural. Legacy business tools were built for decision makers, pitched to decision makers, and then neglected once the switch was made, "and once they do we're going to care a lot less about them" [1]. Reversing that means the polish has to serve everyone in the company who touches the product, not the buyer.

Asked why Ramp seems to be displacing competitors in a slowly-then-suddenly way, he does not reach for pricing or distribution. He reaches for design obsession and "polishing every single interaction" [1]. He also describes a compounding effect: as more people use the product, Ramp learns more about how they want to use it, "and we can skip even more steps" [1]. That connects to how he has publicly discussed Ramp's positioning and alignment with its customers in the corporate spend market, a market where the incumbent business model rewards customers spending more rather than less [7].

On the practice of removing steps

Pressed on how someone else would actually replicate this, Atiyeh gives a repeatable method rather than a philosophy. Look at every interaction you have with a customer, whether an email or a form, and ask two questions: "how can I figure out the answer to that question myself without asking the customer," and "if I'm telling the customer to do X why can't I do it for them?" [1] The worked example is the familiar failed-payment message that instructs the user to retry the transaction or update their bank details. His response is blunt: "we could retry it ourselves" [1]. And where information genuinely must come from the customer, the form belongs inside the email itself rather than at the end of a link to a website [1]. The rule he draws from this is that "there's always a way to like skip a step and make it a little bit faster" [1]. Only ask questions that are absolutely necessary; prefill anything that can be prefilled [1].

On internal tools and AI

The same instinct points inward. Atiyeh and his co-founder have described Ramp engineers building best-in-class SaaS solutions purely for internal use, on the reasoning that the quality of a company's own systems is a competitive matter [10]. One example he has discussed is using LLMs to turn sales calls into internal podcasts, so that what customers are actually saying reaches the whole company rather than only the people on the call [10]. He has also talked about where AI augments marketing and creative work, and about a harder commercial problem that sits underneath Ramp's entire proposition: the challenge of selling productivity [10].

On adversity, risk and doing it a second time

Atiyeh has spoken repeatedly about formation before the company: growing up in Lebanon, and why adversity at a young age matters [9][11]. He has also been candid that founding a second time is not simply easier, discussing what gets harder the second time around after building and selling Paribus to Capital One [11], and what he took from working inside Capital One after that acquisition [7]. The risk theme extends to timing, including launching Ramp's product a month before the pandemic began, from a New York office [7]. His accounts of the company's growth are framed less as a single insight than as consistency sustained through scaling and leadership choices [9][11].

Takeaways

  • Build business software for everyone who uses it, not the decision maker who buys it, because tools designed only for the buyer give the rest of the company "a small paper cut every day" [1].
  • The concrete practice is two questions asked of every customer interaction: can I answer this myself without asking, and if I'm telling the customer to do something, why can't I do it for them [1].
  • Treat error messages as design failures. Instead of telling a user to retry a payment, retry it yourself; instead of linking to a form, put the form in the email [1].
  • Success metric is inverted: minimise the time customers spend inside your app [1].
  • Usage data compounds the advantage, because more data about how people want to use the product lets you skip more steps over time [1].
  • Build serious internal software for your own teams, including LLM-generated internal podcasts from sales calls so customer feedback reaches everyone [10].
  • Selling productivity is its own commercial challenge, distinct from building the product that delivers it [10].

Media & appearances

  • Podcast Notes PlaylistApple Podcasts
    Karim Atiyeh - Building RampStartup: Invest Like the Best Key Takeaways Check out the episode pageRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest today is Karim Atiyeh. Karim is the co-founder and CTO of Ramp, the fastest-growing finance automation platform in history, reaching over $1 b
  • Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'ShaughnessyApple Podcasts
    Karim Atiyeh - Building RampMy guest today is Karim Atiyeh. Karim is the co-founder and CTO of Ramp, the fastest-growing finance automation platform in history, reaching over $1 billion in revenue in just over five years. Ramp is, of course, also our presenting sponsor, so I’m o
  • TBPNApple Podcasts
    LIVE FROM HILL & VALLEY: Jacob Helberg, Delian Asparouhov, Christian Garrett, Josh Wolfe, Eric Glyman, Karim Atiyeh, Mike Solana, Keith Rabois, Qasar Younis, Shaun Maguire, Sampriti Bhattacharyya, David Friedberg, Joshua Steinman & moreTBPN.com is made possible by: Ramp - https://ramp.com Linear - Linear.app Figma - https://www.figma.com Eight Sleep - https://eightsleep.com/tbpn Wander - https://wander.com/tbpn Public - https://public.com AdQuick - https://adquick.com Bezel - https://
  • Uncharted PodcastApple Podcasts
    From Beirut to Billion-Dollar Success: Lessons in Leadership, Risk, and Scaling with Ramp’s Co-Founder Karim AtiyehKarim Atiyeh is the co-founder and CTO of Ramp, a finance automation platform that helps businesses spend less time and money. Founded in 2019, Ramp powers the fastest-growing corporate card in America and enables billions of dollars of purchases each year on the heels of nearly 10x year-over-year growth. Valued at $8.1 billion two years after launch, Ramp has raised hundreds of millions in equity from backers including Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Coatue Management, Iconiq, Goldman Sachs, and Stripe. A Lebanese entrepreneur, Karim previously built and sold Y Combinator-backed Paribus to Capital One in 2016. This episode is brought to you with the support of Netsuite, download their guide at netsuite.com/scale
  • No PriorsApple Podcasts
    How AI can help build smarter systems for every team with Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh of RampArtificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups: In this episode of No Priors, hosts Sarah and Elad are joined by Ramp co-founders Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh of Ramp. The pair has been working to build one of the fastest growing fintechs since they were teenagers. This conversation focuses on how Ramp engineers have been building new systems to help every team from sales and marketing to product. They’re building best-in-class SaaS solutions just for internal use to make sure their company remains competitive. They also get into how AI will augment marketing and creative fields, the challenges of selling productivity, and how they’re using LLMs to create internal podcasts using sales calls to share what customers are saying with the whole team. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @eglyman l @karimatiyeh Show Notes:
  • Fintech In the CloudApple Podcasts
    Ramp: The Fastest Growing Fintech in Spend ManagementFounded in 2019, Ramp powers the fastest-growing corporate card in America and enables billions of dollars of purchases each year on the heels of nearly 10x year-over-year growth. Ramp is building the next generation of finance tools – from corporate
  • Uncharted PodcastApple Podcasts
    Uncharted Podcast #126 ft Karim Atiyeh: Why Adversity is Important at a Young Age, What Get's Harder The 2nd Time Around As a Founder, and the Secret Sauce Behind Ramp's Consistent GrowthKarim Atiyeh is the co-founder and CTO of Ramp, a finance automation platform that helps businesses spend less time and money. Founded in 2019, Ramp powers the fastest-growing corporate card in America and enables billions of dollars of purchases each year on the heels of nearly 10x year-over-year growth. Valued at $8.1 billion two years after launch, Ramp has raised $670 million in equity from backers including Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, Thrive Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Coatue Management, Iconiq, Goldman Sachs, and Stripe. A Lebanese entrepreneur, Karim previously built and sold Y Combinator-backed Paribus to Capital One in 2016. This episode is brought to you with the support of Indeed.
  • "Age of Miracles"Apple Podcasts
    Ramping UpToday, Ramp announced that it raised $750 million -- $200 million in equity and $550 in debt -- at an $8.1 billion valuation from existing investors, led by Keith Rabois at Founders Fund. Not Boring Capital participated. It also hit $100 million in annu
  • The Razor’s EdgeApple Podcasts
    Ramp Co-Founder Karim Atiyeh On The Corporate Spend Market And Ramp's PositionThis week on the Razor's Edge, we speak with Karim Atiyeh, a serial fintech entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Ramp, a fast-growing spend management fintech company. He talks about the company's positioning and alignment with customers, what he learned from his time at Capital One after the credit card giant acquired his previous company, and what it was like launching a product a month before the pandemic began, from a New York office no less. Topics Covered
  • Building RampApple Podcasts
    Karim Atiyeh - Building Ramp - Apple PodcastsMy guest today is Karim Atiyeh. Karim is the co-founder and CTO of Ramp, the fastest-growing finance automation platform in history, reaching over $1 billion in revenue in just over five years. Ramp is, of course, also our presenting sponsor, so I’m o
  • Karim Atiyeh discusses Ramp's design philosophy and customer acquisition strategy, explaining that the company prioritizes building consumer-grade user experience for business software rather than designing only for decision makers. He describes their obsession with minimizing friction by eliminating unnecessary questions, prefilling forms, and automating tasks like payment retries, rather than asking customers to perform steps themselves.YouTube
    Why customers choose Ramp - YouTube
  • getpodcast.com
    Karim Atiyeh - Building Ramp - [Invest Like the Best, EP.445]

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