5 ms·

HN: I need help getting to launch

15 points by marcamillion 16y ago

I am bootstrapping my startup, however I live in Jamaica. I have been teaching myself Rails and all the web languages necessary (jQuery, html, css, etc.) to get this thing done (for the last 7 - 8 months) the way I need it and am very close to launching. I have spoken to customers, gotten feedback, validated the idea, built everything out, and have the marketing site ready to go. Where I am stuck is billing and actually accepting payment. I started going down the path of using something like 2checkout and have been approved for an account - but none of the recurring billing management solutions (recurly, chargify, spreedly) will work for me because I am not from the US. So I had to resort to building that functionality on my own. Given that I am literally learning Rails while I am doing this, the more I dug into building billing/subscription functionality is the hairier it got, the more frustrated I became. To prevent me from giving up altogether, I gave up on that path. I have decided that it might just be better to incorporate as a US entity and get a US bank account and deal with a US gateway, and use their API, etc. My Jamaican registered company has a US issued EIN, but nothing else. Ideally, I would want the US based company to be a wholly owned subsidiary of my Jamaican company. Can anyone help/give suggestions on how I can navigate these waters and get to an amicable solution as quickly and cheaply as possible ? I am SOOO close, this is the last MAJOR obstacle before launching. Oh, and I need to have payment in place because I need to start making money. As I said, I am bootstrapping, so having cash flowing in is of utmost importance. I always see you guys help out other startups, and I know that this might be a gargantuan task - but if you can contribute in a little way, then hopefully the cumulative effect will be enough to get me through the launch. For those interested, the app is: www.compversions.com If you need any more info, let me know and I will gladly provide. I am SOO close, and would love if the community could help me get there. You guys are my board of advisors :)

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Clickable: http://www.compversions.com http://www.compversions.com
- marcamillion 16y ago
  Thanks for that.
trevelyan 16y ago
Setup a secure payment page on your site which collects credit card information and saves it to an encrypted file on your server. Then when someone tries to pay upgrade their account automatically just as if you were processing their payments in real-time. As far as they are concerned your site and payment systems now work perfectly. Have your server email you whenever this happens so that you can login and process their payment manually through Paypal's premium merchant service. That provides a virtual terminal which accepts major credit cards and costs something like $30 a month. You will occasionally have trouble processing a payment and have to take the hit or come up with an excuse to get another card from your customer. This isn't a long-term solution but it will tide you over until you have a real processor and 99.9% of your users will never know. Good luck!
- marcamillion 16y ago
  I know this is a 'quick and dirty' solution, but it just screams security flaw. I am nervous about accepting credit cards period - much less collecting it into a file and trusting myself to encrypt it and secure it properly. I agree with the thinking and sentiment though, and appreciate the suggestion.
  - trevelyan 16y ago
    You have to judge the tradeoffs for yourself. That said, whatever you do remember that anyone with access to your server has full access to all your payment data regardless of how you process the actual payments.
- ig1 16y ago
  You can't do that, it violates the mastercard/visa agreement. If you want to store credit card details you have to get full PCI/DSS compliance and that includes things like third-party auditing. It's a process that's far more complex than simply obtaining a merchant account.
  - trevelyan 16y ago
    Oh, you absolutely CAN do it, you're just not supposed to, since the terminal service is designed for merchants who accept fax/telephone orders. It's a totally arbitrary distinction these days, but the risk is Paypal cutting him off if they find out he's using it for online orders instead of faxed ones. It's not the perfect solution, but this guy's alternative is twiddling his thumbs for 5 months while he gets screwed over by high-risk international payment processors and/or spends a couple thousand bucks registering an American business only to be told he can't get a merchant account as a foreign alien unless he shows up stateside in person to fulfill US "know your customer" requirements. It's not a crime for anyone to give him their credit card number, and his worst outcome is Paypal cutting him off before he is processing with someone else. So I wouldn't lose any sleep over PCI/DSS compliance.
ig1 16y ago
What's wrong with 2checkout's recurring billing solution ?
- marcamillion 16y ago
  It's not that...it's the integration with my app - that is lacking. i.e. being able to put a user on a trial account, then have the app send an 'upgrade token' to 2checkout when their trial expires. Then also automatically renewing every month - and allowing the user to be able to upgrade and downgrade as they see fit (from within the app). The integration is very lacking for 2checkout.
sammville 16y ago
Hey! why not try paypal recurring payments!

15 points by marcamillion 16y ago

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

Clickable: http://www.compversions.com http://www.compversions.com

marcamillion 16y ago
Thanks for that.

trevelyan 16y ago

Setup a secure payment page on your site which collects credit card information and saves it to an encrypted file on your server. Then when someone tries to pay upgrade their account automatically just as if you were processing their payments in real-time. As far as they are concerned your site and payment systems now work perfectly. Have your server email you whenever this happens so that you can login and process their payment manually through Paypal's premium merchant service. That provides a virtual terminal which accepts major credit cards and costs something like $30 a month. You will occasionally have trouble processing a payment and have to take the hit or come up with an excuse to get another card from your customer. This isn't a long-term solution but it will tide you over until you have a real processor and 99.9% of your users will never know. Good luck!

marcamillion 16y ago
I know this is a 'quick and dirty' solution, but it just screams security flaw. I am nervous about accepting credit cards period - much less collecting it into a file and trusting myself to encrypt it and secure it properly. I agree with the thinking and sentiment though, and appreciate the suggestion.
- trevelyan 16y ago
  You have to judge the tradeoffs for yourself. That said, whatever you do remember that anyone with access to your server has full access to all your payment data regardless of how you process the actual payments.
ig1 16y ago
You can't do that, it violates the mastercard/visa agreement. If you want to store credit card details you have to get full PCI/DSS compliance and that includes things like third-party auditing. It's a process that's far more complex than simply obtaining a merchant account.
- trevelyan 16y ago
  Oh, you absolutely CAN do it, you're just not supposed to, since the terminal service is designed for merchants who accept fax/telephone orders. It's a totally arbitrary distinction these days, but the risk is Paypal cutting him off if they find out he's using it for online orders instead of faxed ones. It's not the perfect solution, but this guy's alternative is twiddling his thumbs for 5 months while he gets screwed over by high-risk international payment processors and/or spends a couple thousand bucks registering an American business only to be told he can't get a merchant account as a foreign alien unless he shows up stateside in person to fulfill US "know your customer" requirements. It's not a crime for anyone to give him their credit card number, and his worst outcome is Paypal cutting him off before he is processing with someone else. So I wouldn't lose any sleep over PCI/DSS compliance.

ig1 16y ago

What's wrong with 2checkout's recurring billing solution ?

marcamillion 16y ago
It's not that...it's the integration with my app - that is lacking. i.e. being able to put a user on a trial account, then have the app send an 'upgrade token' to 2checkout when their trial expires. Then also automatically renewing every month - and allowing the user to be able to upgrade and downgrade as they see fit (from within the app). The integration is very lacking for 2checkout.

sammville 16y ago

Hey! why not try paypal recurring payments!