A hot startup has covered San Francisco with billboards. Here's why the CEO says the ads are worth every penny

Brex

Pedro Franceschi (left) and Henrique Dubugras are the cofounders of Brex.

• San Francisco is covered with billboards for Brex, a startup that provides corporate credit cards to startups. 
• Plenty of startups find opportunities to brag about spending so little money on marketing, but Brex cofounder and CEO Henrique Dubugras says the ads were worth every penny.
• Brex, which has raised a total of $57 million in funding from Peter Thiel and Y Combinator, spent only $300,000 on the ads plastered on bus stops, buildings, and billboards.

In San Francisco, there are few places to escape them.

Jet-black billboards advertising Brex, a startup that offers the first corporate card for startups, loom over the streets and sidewalks. 

The startup appears to have gone all-in on marketing, with posters on bus stops, sides of buildings, and billboards concentrated in the South of Market neighborhood, which is home to many startups.

In a Thursday night fireside chat with Business Insider and Brex cofounder and CEO Henrique Dubugras, a member of the audience asked Dubugras to explain his thinking behind "taking over San Francisco" with billboards and reveal how much the campaign cost. ...

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