Building Brex: Arthur Levy on Networking, Grit, and the Power of Showing Up

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/people00:00 Introduction01:29 How Arthur made the jump from investing to operating as Brex's CBO06:56 How Arthur pitched to Brex his perfect role09:56 Betting your career on a startup's founders11:28 Brex's positioning and market change13:15 What defines the best founders16:08 Advice for young investors considering a career as a VC18:30 Balancing being blunt and being effective as an operator22:03 Dealing with rejection with business partnerships24:18 How Arthur and Brex thinks about competition25:33 The challenges Brex faced to validate their first product27:44 The power of networking in the right circles28:55 What is a Chief Business Officer?29:56 Lessons from Arthur's role at Brex for evaluating the best talent32:24 Why Art prioritises in-person meetings and showing up34:13 What Arthur's father taught him36:16 Where Arthur got his business acumen37:02 The winning culture at high-performing companies38:39 How to assess the drive of founders39:40 Being open to cold outreach messages because "no's are free”42:18 Tactical advice to make intros as easy as possible⁠Arthur Levy⁠⁠Jason Shuman⁠Primary Venture Partners