8 ms·

Works in Progress has joined Stripe

67 points by mjmasn 5y ago

erex78 5y ago
I hadn't heard about Works in Progress before, but looks like incredibly well researched content. Pretty stark difference between the writing and what you see on something like sfgate.com or cnn.com. I find it pretty awesome that the Stripe is successful enough to start branching out from core product into founder hobby areas. The cynical perspective is that this is not core to the product, but I find it kind of beautiful that the founders can do a bit of what is personally interesting to them with their company. This reminds me of another incredible resource for deep learning articles: https://distill.pub/ https://distill.pub/, which unfortunately looks like is going silent.
- capableweb 5y ago
  Stripe actually been in the business of "content" for quite some time by now. Unfortunately, https://press.stripe.com/ https://press.stripe.com/ doesn't date anything they are releasing apparently, but I remember reading about things they've released for at least a couple of years. They also famously "purchased" patio11, probably mostly because of his skills of writing and promoting content on the internet.
  - tyre 5y ago
    July 2018 was the announcement. The original HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17551687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17551687
  - erex78 5y ago
    Yeah, I even own some physical Stripe Press books. But it's definitely not core to payment processing. Stripe Atlas has a better case for being useful: more companies -> more stripe users. Stripe Press feels more like a passion project (which, to be clear, I think is awesome).
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I highly doubt Patrick is 'for sale'.
    - capableweb 5y ago
      "Purchased" being used here as a more fun term for a company hiring someone who was independent for a long time, for a large amount of money :)
- nojito 5y ago
  It’s quite incorrect to compare them to cnn as a whole instead of cnn’s long form investigative content.
  - erex78 5y ago
    I was just using cnn as an example of a generic news website today.
radihuq 5y ago
Does anyone know Stripe's strategic reason to acquire a content company and/or run Stripe Press? I find it hard to think of the connection here other than a philanthropic effort by the founders.
- lemax 5y ago
  They also acquired Indiehackers a few years ago, I think this is part of a wider content marketing / brand halo effort.
  - radihuq 5y ago
    Indiehackers makes a lot of sense since they can sell builders on using Stripe Payments and Stripe Atlas on Day 0. Here though, I'm not so sure - maybe they try to sell intellectual content creators on a Gumroad alternative via Stripe Checkout? Seems like too small of an opportunity to be worth pursuing Edit: honestly, could just be a recruiting play. IMO they have the brand "our founders are incredibly intellectually curious, and some of the smartest people work here", and this acquisition could help strengthen that brand. I think this could be the most plausible reason.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- fnbr 5y ago
  I think you’re right. I’d do stuff like that if I was a billionaire. You have the ability to shift resources to what you think is important; this probably costs a comparable amount to a single SWE. Having said that- Stripe does have a credible claim to making a % of the GDP of the internet. Maybe they view this sort of activity as increasing that; progress studies in general does have the potential to have a non-trivial impact on the economic impact of the internet.
- Barrin92 5y ago
  plainly put, propaganda. Technological companies face increasing pressure from regulators and the public and the answer is to produce their own media, see also a16z branching out into content more and more, sidestepping the press in general. Works in Progress has people like Sam Bowman from the Adam Smith Institute on board which is aligned with the kind of policies these companies would want to see. Just one article picked from the frontpage: https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/interview-mike-solana-on-tech-and-its-critics/ https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/interview-mike-solana-o... "Mike Solana: The first real instantiation of Techlash we saw in the media happened about a year ago, though there’s been talk of it for longer. It was anti-Uber and anti-Facebook stuff, and it all felt pretty fake. The average American doesn’t really care about those supposed problems at all. They love Uber and aren’t concerned with whether Facebook is “violating privacy.” I have plenty of friends who care a lot about privacy, especially libertarians, and they don’t like to hear this. But the average person just isn’t concerned when they get targeted advertisements for trendy leather boots or some other product that they actually want.[...] Fixing the first piece presents a difficult question: How do you tell a story about yourself that is compelling? For a long time, Tech didn’t and we got away with it because our products were just so good. It doesn’t really matter what stories you’re telling about Uber; everybody just wants to use it. It’s harder now in the midst of an aggressive negative media narrative about how evil we are."
holler 5y ago
Had never heard of them but absolutely love the UI of their site, wow.
- social_quotient 5y ago
  Something about it reminds me of https://www.ft.com/ https://www.ft.com/ in how they use a non white background for a lot of the text. I find it pleasant to read on/with. It’s fun that the print version is also not white.
  - erex78 5y ago
    This site is another example.
  - dmlittle 5y ago
    The design looks like a crossover between the Financial Times and Increment[0] (which is published by Stripe). [0] https://increment.com/ https://increment.com/
    - holler 5y ago
      Also had never heard of this and you're right they have great design! May get some inspiration from these.
scoot 5y ago
"Mens in Black" would like a word about grammar... Although I guess it doesn't matter for an "acquire and expire" target whose name wasn't publicly recognised to start with.
- samatman 5y ago
  Nope, works is the valid plural here, consider "Department of Public Works", "By their works shall ye know them". Work is not reliably a mass noun: it makes sense to speak of a work by a particular author. In fact I suspect that's the joke in the name, "work in progress" uses the mass noun and "works in progress" uses the count noun, which is somewhat specific to creative, well, works.
- samhw 5y ago
  Do you think "works" is not a valid word? I can't see any other grounds for objecting to their grammar. This is quite a bizarre comment.

67 points by mjmasn 5y ago

I hadn't heard about Works in Progress before, but looks like incredibly well researched content. Pretty stark difference between the writing and what you see on something like sfgate.com or cnn.com. I find it pretty awesome that the Stripe is successful enough to start branching out from core product into founder hobby areas. The cynical perspective is that this is not core to the product, but I find it kind of beautiful that the founders can do a bit of what is personally interesting to them with their company. This reminds me of another incredible resource for deep learning articles: https://distill.pub/ https://distill.pub/, which unfortunately looks like is going silent.

capableweb 5y ago
Stripe actually been in the business of "content" for quite some time by now. Unfortunately, https://press.stripe.com/ https://press.stripe.com/ doesn't date anything they are releasing apparently, but I remember reading about things they've released for at least a couple of years. They also famously "purchased" patio11, probably mostly because of his skills of writing and promoting content on the internet.
- tyre 5y ago
  July 2018 was the announcement. The original HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17551687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17551687
- erex78 5y ago
  Yeah, I even own some physical Stripe Press books. But it's definitely not core to payment processing. Stripe Atlas has a better case for being useful: more companies -> more stripe users. Stripe Press feels more like a passion project (which, to be clear, I think is awesome).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jacquesm 5y ago
  I highly doubt Patrick is 'for sale'.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    "Purchased" being used here as a more fun term for a company hiring someone who was independent for a long time, for a large amount of money :)
nojito 5y ago
It’s quite incorrect to compare them to cnn as a whole instead of cnn’s long form investigative content.
- erex78 5y ago
  I was just using cnn as an example of a generic news website today.

radihuq 5y ago

Does anyone know Stripe's strategic reason to acquire a content company and/or run Stripe Press? I find it hard to think of the connection here other than a philanthropic effort by the founders.

lemax 5y ago
They also acquired Indiehackers a few years ago, I think this is part of a wider content marketing / brand halo effort.
- radihuq 5y ago
  Indiehackers makes a lot of sense since they can sell builders on using Stripe Payments and Stripe Atlas on Day 0. Here though, I'm not so sure - maybe they try to sell intellectual content creators on a Gumroad alternative via Stripe Checkout? Seems like too small of an opportunity to be worth pursuing Edit: honestly, could just be a recruiting play. IMO they have the brand "our founders are incredibly intellectually curious, and some of the smartest people work here", and this acquisition could help strengthen that brand. I think this could be the most plausible reason.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
fnbr 5y ago
I think you’re right. I’d do stuff like that if I was a billionaire. You have the ability to shift resources to what you think is important; this probably costs a comparable amount to a single SWE. Having said that- Stripe does have a credible claim to making a % of the GDP of the internet. Maybe they view this sort of activity as increasing that; progress studies in general does have the potential to have a non-trivial impact on the economic impact of the internet.
Barrin92 5y ago
plainly put, propaganda. Technological companies face increasing pressure from regulators and the public and the answer is to produce their own media, see also a16z branching out into content more and more, sidestepping the press in general. Works in Progress has people like Sam Bowman from the Adam Smith Institute on board which is aligned with the kind of policies these companies would want to see. Just one article picked from the frontpage: https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/interview-mike-solana-on-tech-and-its-critics/ https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/interview-mike-solana-o... "Mike Solana: The first real instantiation of Techlash we saw in the media happened about a year ago, though there’s been talk of it for longer. It was anti-Uber and anti-Facebook stuff, and it all felt pretty fake. The average American doesn’t really care about those supposed problems at all. They love Uber and aren’t concerned with whether Facebook is “violating privacy.” I have plenty of friends who care a lot about privacy, especially libertarians, and they don’t like to hear this. But the average person just isn’t concerned when they get targeted advertisements for trendy leather boots or some other product that they actually want.[...] Fixing the first piece presents a difficult question: How do you tell a story about yourself that is compelling? For a long time, Tech didn’t and we got away with it because our products were just so good. It doesn’t really matter what stories you’re telling about Uber; everybody just wants to use it. It’s harder now in the midst of an aggressive negative media narrative about how evil we are."

holler 5y ago

Had never heard of them but absolutely love the UI of their site, wow.

social_quotient 5y ago
Something about it reminds me of https://www.ft.com/ https://www.ft.com/ in how they use a non white background for a lot of the text. I find it pleasant to read on/with. It’s fun that the print version is also not white.
- erex78 5y ago
  This site is another example.
- dmlittle 5y ago
  The design looks like a crossover between the Financial Times and Increment[0] (which is published by Stripe). [0] https://increment.com/ https://increment.com/
  - holler 5y ago
    Also had never heard of this and you're right they have great design! May get some inspiration from these.

scoot 5y ago

"Mens in Black" would like a word about grammar... Although I guess it doesn't matter for an "acquire and expire" target whose name wasn't publicly recognised to start with.

samatman 5y ago
Nope, works is the valid plural here, consider "Department of Public Works", "By their works shall ye know them". Work is not reliably a mass noun: it makes sense to speak of a work by a particular author. In fact I suspect that's the joke in the name, "work in progress" uses the mass noun and "works in progress" uses the count noun, which is somewhat specific to creative, well, works.
samhw 5y ago
Do you think "works" is not a valid word? I can't see any other grounds for objecting to their grammar. This is quite a bizarre comment.