In this episode of Change Order, Jason Shuman (General Partner at Primary) sits down with Arthur Levy (Chief Business Officer at Brex) to hear his extraordinary journey, from his venture capital roots to becoming an indispensable operator at Brex.
Arthur shares the pivotal decisions that shaped his path, reveals how to form strategic partnerships, and unpacks the significance of grit and personal connections in the business world.
Learn Arthur’s playbook for networking with authenticity and how he made the successful transition from investor to operator.
Connect with Primary: https://primary.vc/people
00:00 Introduction
01:29 How Arthur made the jump from investing to operating as Brex's CBO
06:56 How Arthur pitched to Brex his perfect role
09:56 Betting your career on a startup's founders
11:28 Brex's positioning and market change
13:15 What defines the best founders
16:08 Advice for young investors considering a career as a VC
18:30 Balancing being blunt and being effective as an operator
22:03 Dealing with rejection with business partnerships
24:18 How Arthur and Brex thinks about competition
25:33 The challenges Brex faced to validate their first product
27:44 The power of networking in the right circles
28:55 What is a Chief Business Officer?
29:56 Lessons from Arthur's role at Brex for evaluating the best talent
32:24 Why Art prioritises in-person meetings and showing up
34:13 What Arthur's father taught him
36:16 Where Arthur got his business acumen
37:02 The winning culture at high-performing companies
38:39 How to assess the drive of founders
39:40 Being open to cold outreach messages because "no's are free”
42:18 Tactical advice to make intros as easy as possible
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