Brian Baumgartner plays Ramp's CFO for a day in a live stunt on the streets of New York

number one AI agent for customer service. Number one in performance benchmarks, number one in competitive bake offs, number one ranking on G2. Keith Ra Boy put the timeline in turmoil. He said, "If anthropic actually believe their rhetoric about safety. " Oh, look who we have here. Here he is, Brian. How are you doing?

Hello. Hello. Uh, I'm I mean, I'm good. How are you guys doing? We are doing fantastic. The exhausted long day at the office so far. Yeah, I I have uh I've had some people allegedly helping me. Uh, I took I I I took like 25 minutes during this entire day and now it looks like a bomb went off in here. Oh no.

I felt like I was in a good place before I left. But anyway, it's hard to compete with uh the super intelligence for the for the finance suite that is uh but it's great to have you on the show. But as a as a as as a as a leader, I felt like it was uh well, it was incumbent upon me.

I'm not sure if that's exactly the right phrase, but I I to show my own value and and how I could contribute and and and and process like like RAMP does. Yes. Uh what has been harder, playing Kevin or trying to be the CEO of uh the CFO of RAMP? Um this has been much more difficult.

Um, there's also a fly in here now that looks like the size of a um of a hummingbird. So, I mean, there's a lot of adversity here being on the street. There's also, by the way, I don't know, you know, I I I'm used to working in front of an audience, but usually they're not live and in person here.

They're they're waving. They're there's lots there's lots going on here. Lots to distract me. But look, I'm I'm I'm doing the best I can. How many What's What's the tracker out right now? How many receipts is that? Does that say 80? Well, it says 84. 84.

To be fair, but to be fair, I felt like I was I was almost at 100 before I left for a few minutes. So, basically, I got no help from the people who were supposed to help me. Okay, that's So, what am I supposed to do? And and you're racing against ramp. Uh what what what uh what's the counter up to now on that side?

Uh 225,229 [Music] uh 50 60 70 Okay. 80. It's going very fast. I don't I guess that's accurate. I guess they process a lot, but yeah, it's a tough showing for you so far. Uh how are you feeling? Are you optimistic that you can catch up? What's the strategy? Yeah, you got 15 minutes left in the workday. Yeah.

I don't know if you're getting out at 5:00. I know. I I'm working I'm working overtime for sure. I think I'm working until 7, isn't it? I I think for a seuite, by the way, that's a new phrase I learned. Seauite. I'm a seauite guy. And so I think seuite guy. I think I'm I'm a big sweet seauite guy.

So I think uh I think we worked till 7 here. Maybe you have 500 distraction seats. Yo. Yeah. Who's been the biggest distraction? Yeah. Who's the biggest distraction? Was it Eric trying to throw you off the game to prove that his software is more effective than than human labor?

Well, I mean to be clear, you guys are a distraction. I mean, I'm trying to do inputting here and now I'm suddenly doing a press interview. But again, that's what's that's what seauite guys do, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to make time for media. Yeah.

Uh, do you think that uh Dunder Mifflin would still be around if they had ramp? I'm sorry, could you say that again? Uh, do you A question from the chat. Do you think that Dunder Mifflin would still be around if they used ramp?

Uh, you know, I when I was there, I wasn't really uh I wasn't really a part of those those seuite type decisions. Yeah. Uh I'm not. But listen, I thought we did a pretty good job in the accounting department. Yes. There at Dunder Mifflin. So, uh remember I got fired or or my character got fired.

So, yeah, things went downhill after that clearly. Yeah. Uh yeah, I guess I guess what uh kind of zooming out a little bit obviously. Uh obviously um zooming out that's another great program. Zooming out we use that a lot in the seauite we're we're just podcasters but we talk to people in the sea suite.

Um okay what uh yeah I guess like what what is your what like there's thou hundreds thousands of people surrounding your office here. We don't have a view but but people are looking at the stream. What is uh like what what what is your experience like walking on the street in New York uh dayto day?

Do you do you cover up and wear a hat? Are you getting are you getting uh I do I do I do it today might be the first day that I've been that I've been on the streets of New York without a hat on and uh and sunglasses. And you know look what I what I've learned as a leader here is you got to be a people person.

So, I'm really it's all about it's all about doing people for me. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if I know what I'm saying, but it's it's about that connection that is important when you're when you know when you're when you're a CFO. I mean, that in finance, but that's secondary in a way.

Do you prefer finance or finance? How do you say it? Am I saying it wrong? I mean, you can say it either way. The really fancy people on Wall Street often they call it finance, not finance. Finance. Finance. Yeah. Do they Do they spell it with an E? No. Finance. It's spelled the same way, but they say finance. Finance.

Hi, finance. Hold on. I've been taking some notes today about things that I need to work on. I've got another question. How's your golf How's your golf game has your golf game improved since you became CFO? Well, it's one it's one day to be clear. Uh, you know, I I I still talk about uh golf.

Uh, that's sort of a different job. I'm kind of trying to transition in a new direction, but I you look what I've learned is if you're a CFO, you have to work much harder than other people think you do. Mhm. Yeah.

I feel like the best the best CFOs figure out a way to combine combine the their love of golf and and uh you know their their role at their company. So I would say once they let you out of the cage at uh 700 p. m. hopefully you can at least hit the range and get some movement in. They need a putting green in there.

Here's the thing that I'm I'm thinking is I I think I I I'm starting to realize I have an efficiency issue. Mhm. Uh meaning I need to be more efficient with finance. Yeah. So uh maybe I'll get to golf after I decide that this is not working for me. Well, you're giving I'm going to stay high level. I think you're right.

I think you're right. Stay high level. Zoom out, you know, bring strategy into the sea suite. Start start Yeah. Focus on strategy. Yeah. You know, another thing that occurs to me is probably working on the street with people watching is probably not the best idea. Maybe that was the problem all along.

I mean, it's a high pressure role. You got to be I mean, if you're going to perform in the boardroom on earnings calls, you got to be able to perform, you know, in flat iron. Yeah. Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to a a cheering crowd of thousands. This is similar in a way. In a way it is.

In a way it's very very different. Yes. Yeah. You got to be able to per perform under pressure, perform in front of in front of thousands as they walk by. Uh it's all it's all important in business. Potato potato, as we say on the seauite floor. Potato potato. Um guys, pause one second. Say again. Is that Taipei?

She probably got to get on with Taipei. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I we do I listen I um I I I would I thought you guys were were ESPN. I'm gonna be honest with you. So, I um I think it's time for uh for me to go. You got a lot of work to do. We appreciate and good luck catching up.

Listen, I've I've got some Jerger here in the office. If you guys ever want to stop by, we'll see you. Fantastic. Would love that. Okay. Great having you on, Brian. Good to see you. All right. Cheers. Byebye. [Music] Wild truly truly uh truly an incredible actor. His ability. I kept trying to throw him off.

He stayed fully in character. Uh but uh but yeah, I seeing some of these videos like the crowd outside uh we obviously couldn't see it on that camera angle, but uh meanwhile on X, the crowd outside of the office uh is absolutely insane. Yeah, we should share some of the videos to the timeline.

I saw Jeb Bush was uh coming out in support was coming out in support as he does as he does. Um but uh that was super fun. I Were you Did Were you big into The Office back in the day? Yeah, I watched a few seasons of it at some point.

one of the few uh like work focused shows that's actually still relaxing to watch because it can turn your brain off, right? Silicon Valley is on the opposite end where it just reminds you of like emails you need to respond to and things that you need to do whereas The Office is just great. Nothing matters.

It's just uh all of our problems are made up. It's all it's all uh fake politics. Yeah, it was very odd being so young and still extremely into like workplace white collar comedies as a kid. It's like not what you'd expect, but I was obsessed with Office Space. That was like one of my favorite movies as a kid.

I enjoyed The Office and uh I don't know, even