How We Got Here

What if we were to tell you that Expensify was never supposed to exist? That it all started as fiction that became fact almost by accident? Our story begins in 2008 when David Barrett, CEO and founder, was living in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. As David walked past unhoused neighbors on the street every day, he wanted to find an alternative way to help them without giving them cash directly. David imagined handing people living on the streets a debit card that would be linked to his personal account to ensure they were able to buy food, while still able to access public services that require sobriety.

When David pitched the idea to banks for funding, the banks rejected it because it was too complicated, weird, and risky. That’s when Expensify was born — an expense report platform to serve as a Trojan horse. David came up with a low-risk idea to get the banks’ approval so he could continue working on the card technology.

In 2008, David launched the card technology concept at TechCrunch50 and reframed it as an expense management system called “Expensify: The Corporate Card for the Masses!” with no plans of actually building it. But much to David’s surprise, people loved the expense reporting concept. 

So over the next couple of years, David and the growing team got to work and rolled out the first receipt-scanning technology in the industry. SmartScan revolutionized receipt tracking by allowing people to take a photo of any receipt — no matter the currency or level of scribbliness of the tip — for automatic transcription. Expensify started to spread like wildfire, growing solely through word-of-mouth. This led to the next chapter — realtime expense reports — automating the entire receipt journey, from the initial scan all the way through expense approval and reimbursement. 

Fast forward to today, we're a profitable company with offices around the globe, and remote teammates on four continents. We’ve accomplished a lot of our dreams, and had plenty of fun along the way — from hosting conferences in Hawaii and Bora Bora to producing a Super Bowl ad with 2Chainz and Adam Scott, not to mention our annual Offshore trip. But our initial goal of helping feed the houseless has never left us. We’re a team that likes to solve real problems, and though expense reports are problematic for some, there are more pressing problems facing our world that we want to help solve.

When we launched the Expensify Visa® Corporate Card in 2019, we saw an opportunity to get back to our initial dream of helping the unhoused (albeit in a different, better form). So we kicked off 2020 by introducing the world’s first card reward that helps create a more generous world: Karma Points! Every time someone makes a purchase with the Expensify Card, Expensify will donate 10% of card revenue to Expensify.org, our charitable arm. The funds are distributed to a purchase-appropriate cause — for example, booking a flight triggers a donation to plant trees to offset carbon emissions; booking a hotel triggers a donation to help reunite people experiencing homelessness with family. There are five initial funds, centered around three relevant issues facing our communities today: climate justice, food security, housing equity, reentry services, and youth advocacy.  

On November 10, 2021, Expensify went public and listed on Nasdaq under EXFY.

We’re excited to share our expense management platform and expertise to increase transparency in the donation process while connecting with donors, volunteers, and people in need. And this is only just the beginning.