Brex, a financial technology company, is reshaping its approach to software tool evaluation by empowering its engineering teams with a monthly budget for licensing software. Each engineer is allocated $50 to spend on tools from an approved list, encouraging experimentation and adaptability in an ever-evolving technological landscape.
James Reggio, Brex Chief Technology Officer, alluded to the company’s departure from traditional procurement tactics when he stated at first, Brex tried to evaluate software solutions using a typical, months-long piloting plan. Unfortunately, this approach turned out to be inefficient to the quickly-evolving needs of the organization as well as its developers.
“The months-long piloting process was not yielding the desired results,” Reggio stated during his presentation at the HumanX AI conference in March. Understanding the importance of agility, Brex implemented a “superhuman product-market-fit test” to better assess software tools. This hands-on approach helps engineers identify, test and adapt the best tools for their workflows in a fraction of the time.
Brex’s approach has led to the cancellation or non-renewal of five to ten larger software deployments. The company in recent months has shifted its focus to the tools that consistently provide concrete value to its various teams. To stay ahead, Brex has implemented over 1,000 AI tools internally. This unique arrangement allows engineers to rapidly experiment with various software solutions, without being encumbered by bureaucratic hold-ups.
Reggio emphasized the need to empower engineers to be able to choose wisely when it comes to what tools they’ll use. “By delegating that spending authority to the individuals who are going to be leveraging this, they make the optimal decisions for optimizing their workflows,” he explained. This empowerment creates an environment where innovation can flourish. It empowers their engineers to choose the best tool for the job tailored to their unique needs.
Funnily enough, in spite of all this heavy lifting, Brex really hasn’t seen a stampede to any one tool so far, including Cursor. Reggio noted, “It’s actually really interesting and we haven’t seen a convergence. I think that that has validated the decision to make it easy to try a bunch of different tools, is that we haven’t seen everybody just rush in and say, ‘I want Cursor.’”
This insight speaks to the varied nature of engineers’ willingness to adopt emerging technologies. Reggio is convinced that knowing what each person on a team likes and needs will be really important to successfully integrating these tools into teams. He stated, “We go deep with the folks who are getting the most value out of the tool to figure out whether it is actually unique enough to retain.”
Like Brex, Pitch is deeply committed to flexibility and experimentation. They know every decision won’t be the right one the first time through. “Knowing that you’re not going to always make the right decision out of the gate is just paramount to making sure that you don’t get left behind,” Reggio asserted.
