5 ms·

The Story of Stripe (2018)

28 points by lowmemcpu 6y ago

conroy 6y ago
Discussion from 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18153909 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18153909
nickff 6y ago
Title should include [2018]
- dang 6y ago
  Added. Thanks!
sky_rw 6y ago
Secretive?
- noir_lord 6y ago
  To non-developers perhaps. They marketed (very well) a good product directly at developers realising that would give them a foothold when business person said "who should we use?" and dev thought...well I can deal with paypal or stripe.
DenseComet 6y ago
$35 billion and 11 years old. How can Stripe still be considered a startup? Even at the time of writing, it was 9 years old and worth $20 billion.
- vinniejames 6y ago
  Startup implies rapid growth via VC funding and reinvestment, size and age are not a determining factor
- aeyes 6y ago
  You stop being a startup when you start spending your own money.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - noir_lord 6y ago
    Hmm. I like that but how about. > You stop being a startup when you start spending only your own money. Lot's of growth based VC backed startup's have some token income you could argue they are spending.
  - JoshTriplett 6y ago
    A startup that takes no external funding is still a startup.
rattray 6y ago
Title needs a (2018)
ciguy 6y ago
Since when has Stripe ever been even remotely "secretive"? They've been highly publicized in the tech community since the beginning. Just because they weren't mainstream in the beginning doesn't mean they're secretive.
- dang 6y ago
  Perhaps they are "secretive" in the same sense that their story is "untold": not particuarly.
julianeon 6y ago
So, where did Stripe go wrong? It says in the article (and I've heard this in other places) you could start using Stripe "with only seven lines of code." Sounds like a JavaScript snippet you drop in, so the whole thing could be contained in one 15 line HTML page. It's not like this now. I recently set up Stripe and used AWS with a Lambda function, following a tutorial, to accept the token and the message back from the server and etc. You know the drill. I mean it's not insanely hard but it's sure as hell not "seven lines of code." It is definitely hard enough to deter junior devs who can code up HTML+CSS and basic JS, and maybe even a simple React page. I can easily see someone reading about the API token and responding to the API token on your server and being like "oh shit" and dropping out. So why can't it be like that anymore? It's funny, all these services say "we want payments to be easy" and eventually develop to a point where payments are no longer easy. It seems like either it's a credit card or it's complicated - nothing in between.
- stu2b50 6y ago
  It can be 7 lines, if that's what your business is. If you run a service where you mail people orders, for instance, then 7 lines of checkout is enough. The order will show up on your dashboard and you can mail them the goods. If you run a digital service where you need to automate payment confirmation, of course that will require communication between your server and their server. What do you expect.
  - julianeon 6y ago
    I expect it to be easy: actually, "seven lines of code" easy (look that up and see how many results it gets). They are getting traction and users off this claim. I expect them to live up to it - simple as that. If it's harder than that: I expect them to devote engineers and brainpower to the problem until it's not. They should solve it - that's their business. I tried just now searching for 7 line checkout code, finding the code for it. (It's fine if it's 12, that's not the sticking point - but I can't find 12 either). It's not there. The simplest result is this one. https://stripe.com/docs/payments/checkout/accept-a-payment https://stripe.com/docs/payments/checkout/accept-a-payment Note the "client and server flowchart" diagram, with its 6 boxes. https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments/blob/master/client-only/client/html/README.md https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments... I think the closest to 'simple install' I can get is this code, which was not easily discoverable, in my opinion. https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments/blob/master/client-only/client/html/index.html https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments... It stand by what I said: it's a hell of a lot harder than 7 lines of code. I find the claim irritating because the reality is it's blatantly untrue.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

28 points by lowmemcpu 6y ago

conroy 6y ago

Discussion from 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18153909 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18153909

nickff 6y ago

Title should include [2018]

dang 6y ago
Added. Thanks!

sky_rw 6y ago

Secretive?

noir_lord 6y ago
To non-developers perhaps. They marketed (very well) a good product directly at developers realising that would give them a foothold when business person said "who should we use?" and dev thought...well I can deal with paypal or stripe.

DenseComet 6y ago

$35 billion and 11 years old. How can Stripe still be considered a startup? Even at the time of writing, it was 9 years old and worth $20 billion.

vinniejames 6y ago
Startup implies rapid growth via VC funding and reinvestment, size and age are not a determining factor
aeyes 6y ago
You stop being a startup when you start spending your own money.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- noir_lord 6y ago
  Hmm. I like that but how about. > You stop being a startup when you start spending only your own money. Lot's of growth based VC backed startup's have some token income you could argue they are spending.
- JoshTriplett 6y ago
  A startup that takes no external funding is still a startup.

rattray 6y ago

Title needs a (2018)

ciguy 6y ago

Since when has Stripe ever been even remotely "secretive"? They've been highly publicized in the tech community since the beginning. Just because they weren't mainstream in the beginning doesn't mean they're secretive.

dang 6y ago
Perhaps they are "secretive" in the same sense that their story is "untold": not particuarly.

julianeon 6y ago

So, where did Stripe go wrong? It says in the article (and I've heard this in other places) you could start using Stripe "with only seven lines of code." Sounds like a JavaScript snippet you drop in, so the whole thing could be contained in one 15 line HTML page. It's not like this now. I recently set up Stripe and used AWS with a Lambda function, following a tutorial, to accept the token and the message back from the server and etc. You know the drill. I mean it's not insanely hard but it's sure as hell not "seven lines of code." It is definitely hard enough to deter junior devs who can code up HTML+CSS and basic JS, and maybe even a simple React page. I can easily see someone reading about the API token and responding to the API token on your server and being like "oh shit" and dropping out. So why can't it be like that anymore? It's funny, all these services say "we want payments to be easy" and eventually develop to a point where payments are no longer easy. It seems like either it's a credit card or it's complicated - nothing in between.

stu2b50 6y ago
It can be 7 lines, if that's what your business is. If you run a service where you mail people orders, for instance, then 7 lines of checkout is enough. The order will show up on your dashboard and you can mail them the goods. If you run a digital service where you need to automate payment confirmation, of course that will require communication between your server and their server. What do you expect.
- julianeon 6y ago
  I expect it to be easy: actually, "seven lines of code" easy (look that up and see how many results it gets). They are getting traction and users off this claim. I expect them to live up to it - simple as that. If it's harder than that: I expect them to devote engineers and brainpower to the problem until it's not. They should solve it - that's their business. I tried just now searching for 7 line checkout code, finding the code for it. (It's fine if it's 12, that's not the sticking point - but I can't find 12 either). It's not there. The simplest result is this one. https://stripe.com/docs/payments/checkout/accept-a-payment https://stripe.com/docs/payments/checkout/accept-a-payment Note the "client and server flowchart" diagram, with its 6 boxes. https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments/blob/master/client-only/client/html/README.md https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments... I think the closest to 'simple install' I can get is this code, which was not easily discoverable, in my opinion. https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments/blob/master/client-only/client/html/index.html https://github.com/stripe-samples/checkout-one-time-payments... It stand by what I said: it's a hell of a lot harder than 7 lines of code. I find the claim irritating because the reality is it's blatantly untrue.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]