Brex is one of the fastest growing fintech companies, providing credit cards tailored for startups. With their rapid expansion, competition for jobs at Brex is fierce. Preparing for the Brex interview means anticipating and practicing answers to common questions about your background, qualifications and interest in their mission.
This article will overview 15 of the most frequently asked Brex interview questions along with sample responses to help you ace your upcoming interview. With some preparation, you can stand out as a top candidate. Let’s dive in!
Overview of Brex
Founded in 2017, Brex is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that offers corporate credit cards and spending management tools designed specifically for startups They provide high credit limits and rewards while requiring no personal guarantee from startup founders
Brex has exploded in popularity thanks to their customer-centric approach and innovative products They’ve raised over $500 million in funding, reached unicorn status in 2018 and now serve over 400,000 customers Employees highlight the fast-paced, energetic environment and mission-driven culture focused on helping entrepreneurs.
With rapid growth, Brex only hires top talent aligned with their values Let’s look at the key interview questions you’ll need to prepare for.
15 Common Brex Interview Questions
1. Tell me about yourself
This open-ended question allows you to highlights your most relevant qualifications. Share your current role, past experience, and skills that make you a strong candidate.
Example: As a product marketing manager with 5 years experience, I’ve led go-to-market strategy for two successful FinTech products. I’m highly analytical with expertise in positioning products to both consumers and enterprise clients. Brex’s mission-driven culture and industry-leading reputation make this an ideal next step to grow my career.
2. Why do you want to work at Brex?
Demonstrate your passion for their mission of helping entrepreneurs. Highlight aspects of their culture and values that resonate with you. Share specific products or initiatives that excite you.
Example: I’m deeply inspired by Brex’s mission of fuelling the entrepreneurial dreams of startups. Your customer-first approach and innovative products like cash flow forecasting would allow me to make an real impact for those customers. Brex’s culture of innovation and collaboration also closely align with my values and passions. I would be so excited to contribute my skills as Brex continues to grow.
3. What makes you a strong candidate for this role?
Summarize your most relevant qualifications and achievements. Focus on the skills and experience that make you uniquely suited for the role and company.
Example: With over 7 years of experience driving digital marketing strategy for FinTech companies, I have a strong track record of success in this space. Specifically, I led acquisition efforts that doubled customer signups for a lending platform last year. My expertise in performance marketing, conversion rate optimization and digital campaigns would enable me to make an immediate impact on Brex’s growth. I’m passionate about FinTech and startups, making me a uniquely strong fit for this opportunity.
4. What do you know about Brex?
Demonstrate your research here by highlighting facts about their products, mission, culture, leadership team, growth and more. Share why their story excites you.
Example: As a mission-driven FinTech unicorn, Brex fascinates me. You’re founded by entrepreneurs to help entrepreneurs, designing products like credit cards specifically for high-growth startups. Your customer-obsessed culture is led by CEO Henrique Dubugras. And you’ve raised over $500 million while amassing an impressive customer base. Your story proves that with smart design and great service, financial products can empower business owners. I would love to be part of writing the next chapter.
5. Why are you looking to leave your current job?
Share your desire to take on new challenges and continue advancing your career. You can mention wanting to work at a high-growth startup like Brex. Focus on the positives.
Example: I’ve learned an immense amount in my current role, but am ready to take on a new challenge aligned with my long-term goals. Brex’s mission-driven culture combined with the opportunity to drive impact during a rapid growth phase makes this an ideal next step for me. While I appreciate my current employer, Brex is on the cutting edge of financial innovation for entrepreneurs in a way no other company is.
6. What is one of your weaknesses?
Be honest but pick a minor weakness not core to the role. Highlight what you’re doing to actively improve. Show how you find ways to work around it.
Example: One of my weaknesses is that I sometimes focus too much on the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. However, I’ve improved on this by proactively looking at the broader goals and vision for each project first. I also lean on my teammates for perspective if I ever feel lost in the details. While attention to detail is important, I’m mindful not to let perfectionism hold me back from pushing projects forward.
7. Why are you interested in this role?
Show your enthusiasm and understanding of the role. Share why it’s an ideal match for your skills and interests. Highlight how it will help you develop professionally.
Example: I’m highly interested in this product marketing role because of Brex’s incredible reputation for leading innovation in the FinTech space. Having the opportunity to shape narrative and messaging around industry-leading products would be an ideal way for me to leverage my background in both marketing and finance. This role is also a great match for my passions around technology and helping entrepreneurs succeed. I’m excited by the opportunity to grow and make an impact.
8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Demonstrate ambition and interest in growing your career at Brex. Share your vision for taking on more responsibility in areas that interest you. Make sure goals seem achievable.
Example: In 5 years, I hope to be managing a marketing team driving awareness and adoption for Brex’s expanding product lines. I aim to continue developing my leadership abilities and domain expertise around startup marketing. Most of all, I want to grow along with Brex, contributing to ever greater success in fulfilling the company’s mission of fueling entrepreneurs.
9. Why should we hire you?
Summarize your strongest qualifications here. Focus on the most relevant skills, achievements and experiences that make you uniquely suited to add value to the role and company.
Example: You should hire me because my 7 years of FinTech marketing experience allows me to make immediate strategic contributions. My successful track record developing digital campaigns that drive double-digit customer acquisition growth is directly aligned with Brex’s goals. I’m deeply passionate about innovating financial products that create value for entrepreneurs. And colleagues describe me as a collaborative team player. This range of marketing expertise, strategic vision and cultural fit make me a strong candidate to help drive Brex’s continued success.
10. How do you evaluate success?
Share how you measure your own impact and career growth. Discuss setting goals around things like core job responsibilities as well as teamwork, innovation, and leadership.
Example: I evaluate success based on achieving key results aligned to company goals while upholding cultural values. For example, in a marketing role I aim to hit targets around campaign funnel conversion and ROAS while also supporting my team’s development. I measure hard metrics like email clickthroughs but also value soft skills like developing my management abilities. Most importantly I evaluate success based on achieving company goals the right way – through collaboration, innovation and transparency.
11. Tell me about a time you failed and what you learned from it.
Be honest in sharing a failure or setback here. Discuss what went wrong but focus most of your answer on the lessons you took away and how it helped you improve. Demonstrate growth mindset.
Example: Early in my career, I led a product launch campaign that initially fell short of goals. In analyzing the underwhelming response, I realized that while the messaging was clever, it didn’t strongly connect product benefits with customer needs. This experience taught me the importance of truly understanding your audience and clearly conveying how you solve their problems. Since then, I incorporate more customer research into campaign development to create more empathetic messaging. While never easy, facing this failure helped me become a smarter marketer focused on customer value.
12. How do you stay motivated on projects?
Share what drives you on a daily basis. Discuss being motivated by team collaboration, a sense of purpose, learning new things, overcoming challenges, achieving growth and advancing your career. Give examples.
Example: I stay motivated on projects by keeping the bigger vision and purpose in mind. Knowing I’m helping drive innovations that empower entrepreneurs inspires me. I also love learning new things so digging into analytics and fine-tuning campaigns keeps me engaged. Collaborating with talented teams focused on shared goals drives me. And achieving key milestones keeps me energized to push towards the next challenge. I’m intrinsically motivated by growth, learning and purpose – which makes Brex’s mission particularly motivating!
13. How do you respond to pressure or stressful situations?
Reassure interviewers here by discussing how you stay calm under stress. Share examples of remaining level-headed during a difficult project or heavy workload. Demonstrate how you focus on constructive solutions.
**Example
Get to know your candidate
- Walk me through your month-end close process.
- How many days do you want the books to be closed by?
- What would you accomplish on each of those days?
- What is a check or action you would take to make sure you’re not moving too quickly and losing accuracy?
- What do you like best and least about accounting?
- Tell me about a time you saved money for a boss. What was the result?.
- What will be the most important thing to you every day in this particular job?
- Tell me about a system you implemented (other than NetSuite). What was the impact?.
- Describe a mistake you made while putting a tool to use. What did you learn from it?
- Have you ever set up controls for financial reporting? If so, please describe an example of a control you created and put into place.
- What governance would you put in place around cash?
- Do you have any experience with audits? Please elaborate.
- Which part of the P do you think hosting costs (AWS, GCP, Azure) belong in?
- How healthy is a company? If you could only look at one financial statement, which one would it be and what would you look for?
- What do you include within Working Capital?
- What is the difference between Accounts Receivable and Deferred Revenue?
- Tell me about your current order-to-cash reconciliation process.
- What did you do to fix the problem while keeping the relationship with the vendor strong when you had to deal with late payments in the past?
- How do you calculate Free Cash Flow?
- How does revenue recognition differ for monthly SaaS sales vs. GMV (gross merchandise value) sales through a marketplace platform vs. professional services?.
- What happens to cash that is collected from customers but hasn’t yet been recorded as income?
- When do you capitalize rather than expense a purchase?
- Under what circumstances does goodwill increase?
- What overhead expenses would you suggest we allocate between departments?
- Who would be the first person you hire, and what would they do every day to help you?
- When did your accounting team do something great instead of getting in the way?
- Tell me about the most important KPIs you kept an eye on and how you used them to make decisions.
- What did your old CFO do at night that you solved?
- Rank how comfortable or knowledgeable you are with technical accounting, operational accounting, reporting on financial statements, payroll, taxes, and treasury.
- If you can pay for something with a wire, an ACH, or a business credit card, which would you choose?
- Have you worked with company equity plans before? What would happen to the financial statements if an ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan) was increased?
- What creates an FX gain or loss?
- Have you ever had to figure out your US or international sales tax obligations?
- You are told by the CEO that we are launching a new product or going into a new country. What do you do?
- How do you think about materiality and risk?
- What are some ways that management accounting and GAAP accounting are different?
- What spend management systems have you used in the past? Which parts of your work were able to be done automatically because you used a system?
- Have you ever used employee spend management programs? If so, how did you decide who could book what?
- Here is a picture of our current P What would you change? How could we make it better? Give at least 5 suggestions [NOTE: include a copy of your QuickBooks or NetSuite export with fake numbers].
MUST-KNOW Finance Interview Question & Answers
FAQ
Why should we hire you?
How do you pass a pre interview?
How many interview questions are there at Brex?
Prepfully has 600 interview questions asked at Brex. All interview questions are submitted by recent Brex candidates, labelled and categorized by Prepfully, and then published after verification by current and ex- Brex employees. What did you learn from a craft conference you attended recently?
What do you like most about Brex?
1 “Brex is fantastic – recommend it for all startups / small businesses.” 2 “Overall experience has been a joy. 3 “Favorite feature is that you can text them your receipts with basically a 99% chance that it works. 4 “I like that each employee can be responsible for their own receipts and with the app it makes it simple.”
What does Brex do?
By rebuilding the credit card tech stack from the ground up, Brex is able to reimagine every aspect of corporate cards, including underwriting, transparency and approvals, all to create a radically better experience for customers.
