Founder Spotlight: Extend – The Power of Virtual Cards with Andrew Jamison, Cofounder and CEO

“Nothing good really happens with cash.” – Andrew Jamison 

Andrew Jamison is CEO and Co-Founder of Extend, a virtual credit card platform. Prior to founding Extend, Andrew managed all B2B payments solutions, including virtual card platforms and products at American Express. Before that, he spent 10 years as an SAP consultant.

For more, explore the transcript of this episode.

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Topics discussed with Andrew Jamison

• 00:02:00 – Andrew’s international background and work at American Express
• 00:07:34 – What credit cards unlock in a global, interconnected world
• 00:12:39 – How Extend works
• 00:16:08 – Starting from scratch in the payment space
• 00:19:25 – The first four years of Extend
• 00:24:17 – How virtual cards benefit small businesses
• 00:34:39 – The decision not to be a card issuer
• 00:41:10 – Building software in a startup environment
• 00:48:35 – The differences between working in a large corporation and in a startup
• 00:56:07 – The entrepreneurial journey

Andrew Jamison Resources

• Connect with Andrew Jamison: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website
• Extend
• American Express
• ERP (Enterprise resource planning)
• SAP
• Marqeta
• Galileo
• i2C Inc
• TSYS
• Grubhub
• Orbitz
• Expedia

Key Quotes in This Episode

The whole point is we should be able to have fun, make fun of ourselves first, which then gives us the ability to lean in and create a bit of a comic moment across the board. So that's one of those things which you want to impart on people is, we work really hard, but we’ve got to have fun at the same time.

It's about trust in the people—because you run through walls for people, you don't run through walls for a company. And so if we create the right culture around the right people, we will continue to grow.

Technical debt is every IT person's nightmare, and it's every business person's nightmare, because every time you try and budget for something it sort of racks up into the millions before you even get started.

What people forget is you can be living here and known by your local community and your local bank, but you could at the same time be somewhere else across the world, in Australia, where you know nobody, and you pull out your card and you can make a purchase. And people let you walk out with the goods. It is quite simply incredible to think that trust is created right there and then because you present a piece of plastic.