Brex says it did a ‘poor job’ explaining its decision to cut off SMBs

Many were shocked and upset by Brex's announcement last week that it would stop serving small- to medium-sized businesses.

The decacorn began notifying customers last week that they would no longer be able to use Brex as of August 15. Brex had declared a move toward serving enterprise customers and a big push into software so from that perspective, the news wasn't completely shocking.

Many people were confused as to who would be affected, and CEO and co-founder Henrique Dubugras said on June 17 that it would affect companies that had not received professional funding. Customers who received notice they would be affected were later restored.

Pedro Franceschi, founder and co-CEO, addressed the issue in a post titled "About last week's announcement."

The poor job explaining the decision eroded some of the valuable trust Brex had built over the years.

He said that there was confusion about which companies would still be served by Brex.

He said that later.

Last week’s announcement was an incredibly disappointing moment for Brex. I signed off on the email that went out, which lacked the transparency our customers deserved. As someone whose dad was a small business owner, the way we communicated this decision weighed heavily on me.

The following criteria had to be met in order for a company to be kept on as a Brex customer.

• Received an equity investment of any amount (accelerator, angel, VC or web3 token).
• More than $1 million a year in revenue.
• More than 50 employees.
• More than $500,000 in cash.
• Tech startups who are on a path to meeting the criteria above and are referred by an existing customer or partner.

Is the missive too late to make up for the hit to Brex? I guess we will see.

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