5 ms·

I don't really have an opinion on this but as a 2x YC founder, two assumptions are wrong 1. There are dozens of Stripe competitors funded by YC and new ones ge

by jimhi 5y ago

I don't really have an opinion on this but as a 2x YC founder, two assumptions are wrong 1. There are dozens of Stripe competitors funded by YC and new ones get accepted every batch from what I've seen. 2. VCs will ghost you last minute no matter who you are. Edit: You can see public YC companies here https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?industry=Payments https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?industry=Payments

ridruejo 5y ago
Yep
buryat 5y ago
your message contains less proofs than the post
tempsy 5y ago
What is an example of a direct Stripe competitor that has been recently funded? I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies. Competitors that do end up popping up are usually being funded by outsiders or smaller firms as mentioned.
- tptacek 5y ago
  Here's a list of the Summer 2021 batch companies. You can just cmd-f "pay". https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/31/here-are-all-the-companies-from-y-combinators-summer-2021-demo-day-part-1/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/31/here-are-all-the-companies...
  - tempsy 5y ago
    just because a startup is doing something payment related does not mean “direct competitor to Stripe” and one of the two I saw hooks into Stripe as part of the service. the other was doing something internationally and also was not directly competitive.
    - tptacek 5y ago
      I'm just giving a data point. I don't pretend to know how many "Stripe competitors" YC funds.
      - 0______0 5y ago
        Person: How many Stripe competitiors does YC fund? You: Go here, do this. Person: That doesn't provide anything meaningful in this context. You: I don't pretend to know... Then why present said "data point" at all?
    - collectedparts 5y ago
      FWIW Bolt (at least their official corporate LinkedIn, not sure about their founder) refers to Stripe as a "partner": https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bolt-com_the-fintech-50-2021-activity-6808136197521649664-LAFS https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bolt-com_the-fintech-50-2021-...
  - pphysch 5y ago
    > Swipe: A billing and payments solution for Indian small and medium-sized businesses. [...] As my colleague Alex Wilhelm put it, Swipe is Stripe, with a W.
    - granshaw 5y ago
      That’s for a foreign market (India) though which proves the original point
      - tyre 5y ago
        Stripe is international, including in India.
        rahulgoel 5y ago
        Stripe's messaging seems focused on infra for the "internet". I think Swipe is more niche ie: focused on Indian SMBs who may have a very different workflow. Swipe is focusing on WhatsApp powered payments. (See: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/swipe-2 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/swipe-2). Though, you'd think they would compete for the same customers over time.
    - DonHopkins 5y ago
      Also: Steal is Steel with an A, Rob is Rub with an O, and ShopLyft is Shoplift with a Y. Why PayPal for it when you can just Swipe it? In the same vein, BooKing.com is BooQueen.com with a penis. That kind of majestic insubordination can get you a €400 fine and a few weeks of jail time in the Netherlands where their headquarters are located, but I wonder what problems they had with the harsher Lèse-majesté laws in Thailand because of their name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9#Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9#Netherl... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thailand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thai... >With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years imprisonment for each count, it has been described as the "world's harshest lèse majesté law" and "possibly the strictest criminal-defamation law anywhere"; its enforcement "has been in the interest of the palace". [...] Even attempting to commit lèse-majesté, making sarcastic comments about the King's pet, and failure to rebuke an offense have been prosecuted as lèse-majesté. [...] The courts seem not to recognise the principle of granting defendants the benefit of the doubt. [...] The longest recorded sentence was in 2021: 87 years imprisonment, reduced to 43 years because the defendant pleaded guilty.
- enra 5y ago
  Not sure which rounds you are talking about but both Airbnb and Coinbase had hard time getting funding after YC. Airbnb because it was a crazy idea and with Coinbase lot of VCs didn’t understand or avoided crypto back in in 2012. Only later, after they got their first investors and became more successful, lot of other firms flocked to them.
kayhi 5y ago
1) examples? sorry I don't follow the payments space
ZephyrBlu 5y ago
Very few of those companies seem to be truly competing with Stripe. Most of them are specific to a non-US country, or target a very specific demographic.

by jimhi 5y ago

ridruejo 5y ago

Yep

buryat 5y ago

your message contains less proofs than the post

tempsy 5y ago

What is an example of a direct Stripe competitor that has been recently funded? I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies. Competitors that do end up popping up are usually being funded by outsiders or smaller firms as mentioned.

tptacek 5y ago
Here's a list of the Summer 2021 batch companies. You can just cmd-f "pay". https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/31/here-are-all-the-companies-from-y-combinators-summer-2021-demo-day-part-1/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/31/here-are-all-the-companies...
- tempsy 5y ago
  just because a startup is doing something payment related does not mean “direct competitor to Stripe” and one of the two I saw hooks into Stripe as part of the service. the other was doing something internationally and also was not directly competitive.
  - tptacek 5y ago
    I'm just giving a data point. I don't pretend to know how many "Stripe competitors" YC funds.
    - 0______0 5y ago
      Person: How many Stripe competitiors does YC fund? You: Go here, do this. Person: That doesn't provide anything meaningful in this context. You: I don't pretend to know... Then why present said "data point" at all?
  - collectedparts 5y ago
    FWIW Bolt (at least their official corporate LinkedIn, not sure about their founder) refers to Stripe as a "partner": https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bolt-com_the-fintech-50-2021-activity-6808136197521649664-LAFS https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bolt-com_the-fintech-50-2021-...
- pphysch 5y ago
  > Swipe: A billing and payments solution for Indian small and medium-sized businesses. [...] As my colleague Alex Wilhelm put it, Swipe is Stripe, with a W.
  - granshaw 5y ago
    That’s for a foreign market (India) though which proves the original point
    - tyre 5y ago
      Stripe is international, including in India.
      - rahulgoel 5y ago
        Stripe's messaging seems focused on infra for the "internet". I think Swipe is more niche ie: focused on Indian SMBs who may have a very different workflow. Swipe is focusing on WhatsApp powered payments. (See: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/swipe-2 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/swipe-2). Though, you'd think they would compete for the same customers over time.
  - DonHopkins 5y ago
    Also: Steal is Steel with an A, Rob is Rub with an O, and ShopLyft is Shoplift with a Y. Why PayPal for it when you can just Swipe it? In the same vein, BooKing.com is BooQueen.com with a penis. That kind of majestic insubordination can get you a €400 fine and a few weeks of jail time in the Netherlands where their headquarters are located, but I wonder what problems they had with the harsher Lèse-majesté laws in Thailand because of their name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9#Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9#Netherl... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thailand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thai... >With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years imprisonment for each count, it has been described as the "world's harshest lèse majesté law" and "possibly the strictest criminal-defamation law anywhere"; its enforcement "has been in the interest of the palace". [...] Even attempting to commit lèse-majesté, making sarcastic comments about the King's pet, and failure to rebuke an offense have been prosecuted as lèse-majesté. [...] The courts seem not to recognise the principle of granting defendants the benefit of the doubt. [...] The longest recorded sentence was in 2021: 87 years imprisonment, reduced to 43 years because the defendant pleaded guilty.
enra 5y ago
Not sure which rounds you are talking about but both Airbnb and Coinbase had hard time getting funding after YC. Airbnb because it was a crazy idea and with Coinbase lot of VCs didn’t understand or avoided crypto back in in 2012. Only later, after they got their first investors and became more successful, lot of other firms flocked to them.

kayhi 5y ago

1) examples? sorry I don't follow the payments space

ZephyrBlu 5y ago

Very few of those companies seem to be truly competing with Stripe. Most of them are specific to a non-US country, or target a very specific demographic.