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Spend management software that gives finance teams more control over employee purchases.
first 15 customers brought a few hundred thousand dollars ARR · about 300 employees
The first 15 or so customers came before a scalable sales engine; those conversations were primarily about learning product-market fit.
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Airbase is a spend management platform sold to finance leaders, including CFOs, controllers, accounting teams, and procurement professionals. Founder Thejo Kote began by examining the problem from the perspective of businesses where employees use cards and finance teams struggle to see or control spending until statements arrive. He spent roughly six months validating the problem through conversations before committing to build, and he used early adopters to pressure-test the concept before the product was fully live. The first 15 or so customers brought in a few hundred thousand dollars of ARR. A sales leader later helped the company reach its first $1 million in ARR. At the time of the interview, Airbase had well into eight figures in ARR and about 300 employees across 16 countries. The founder described a global, fully remote team from the beginning. The episode also emphasizes a prior lesson from his earlier company, Automatic Labs: keep customer segments and business models coherent rather than mixing consumer and enterprise motions.
Airbase’s earliest customer discovery leaned on Thejo Kote’s founder network, but the ask was specific: introduce him to heads of finance and controllers at companies with established finance teams.
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Data credibility: Founder Thejo Kote reported Airbase had well into eight-figure millions of ARR, about 300 employees, and was distributed across 16 countries. He also described the first 15 or so customers generating a few hundred thousand dollars ARR and a sales leader helping reach $1 million ARR. These are interview claims and were not independently verified.
Thejo described an early set of customers waiting to use Airbase while the product was close to launch. The first 15 or so customers generated a few hundred thousand dollars in ARR, indicating a meaningful B2B contract value rather than a low-priced self-serve product.
Airbase’s growth loop depended on becoming more valuable as a company used it across more spending workflows. The core pain was the lack of visibility and control when employees spend on cards and finance sees the activity only later.
Thejo’s advice for the uncertain stretch was to preserve runway and stay close to learning. He describes the first customer conversations as difficult because a founder has little value to give yet, and recommends offering useful help before asking for time or access.
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