7 ms·

It's odd that people still look to Google or Apple by default for management ideas. Stripe is easily the best run tech company at scale, and might be the best r

by joshe 5y ago

It's odd that people still look to Google or Apple by default for management ideas. Stripe is easily the best run tech company at scale, and might be the best run company in any industry ever. Just emulating the clarity of Stripe's internal and external communications (like this letter), would be a better use of company time than 99% of corporate strategic goals.

Shadonototra 5y ago
stripe charge too much they have no tech to prevent fraud, and you have to pay fees whenever customer chargeback google/apple provide better services, plus it's built in
- fillskills 5y ago
  Stripe customer for a long time. Stripes chargeback and fraud prevention are by far the best in the industry. We have researched and tried a lot of different solutions so saying this with some confidence
  - Shadonototra 5y ago
    You having to pay bank fees for frauds and therefore bank issuing a chargeback means they are not willing to depend on their "tech", symptom of a poor/inexistent tech In comparison, with PayPal, if the fraud was detected and the bank issue a chargeback, you have nothing to pay, i have a SaaS since 2008, and never had a single problem with PayPal, the day i added Stripe, that issue started to appear, it disappeared the day i removed Stripe, i don't want to depend on a company that make me loose money (SaaS with low prices, -$15 per fraud, no thank you)
pc 5y ago
It's kind of you to say that, and people at Stripe certainly try very hard, but there's plenty that's broken or that we're trying to figure out at scale... I don't think those claims are true.
- skillpass 5y ago
  Can you expand on what's broken and how Stripe is trying to address it?
- hibikir 5y ago
  Hi pc, former employee here, from back in the day where meetings could be held in Alabama. It's not that Stripe doesn't have broken things: I could have made a big list from back when I worked there, and I bet the list is still large. However, you are just underestimating how broken other companies are. I've worked at 10+ companies, some far bigger, and some far smaller than Stripe, and even the smallest ones had a higher percentage of broken things, and the brokenness is often in far more vital places. It's never going to happen, but you'd learn so much from joining me as a professional tourist, and going incognito as a random dev in another big company for 6 months. But you are showing classic Stripe culture here: I remember a place where everyone was embarrassed about how bad they think their latest shipped email was, and how they have so much to do, while their typical coworkers is instead in awe of how good said shipped email was.
  - pc 5y ago
    That comment made my day -- thanks :-)
- reducesuffering 5y ago
  Blind reviews seem to corroborate this. Not the best feedback, but mostly good. I'd recommend going through this anonymous feedback from verified Stripe employees for tips on where to improve. https://www.teamblind.com/company/Stripe/reviews https://www.teamblind.com/company/Stripe/reviews
- de-asis-kevin 5y ago
  Hey PC, Pretty cool to see a CEO of a famous company here at HN. Especially a humble one with a learning mindset. I think back in the day I heard you mention that you are a big history buff. I do have a history question for you. Do you know of any existing public company who were able to fix their problems at scale that did not have to change their flagship product? It seems like new product line were a forcing function to fix broken things at scale. It's as if those who kept their flagship product who had scalability problems had to either use duct tape fixes or make really painful choices.
spamtarget 5y ago
Not really, they are on the "we don't give you back the fee after a refund" train, which is why we're getting rid of them and moving to braintree
- ksec 5y ago
  >we don't give you back the fee after a refund,.... moving to braintree Well Braintree don't give you back the fee after a refund either.
  - spamtarget 5y ago
    I don't do this here, just a bystander, but you made me curious. I looked it up, and you are right, this is from their website: "Transactions fees charged by Braintree will not be returned for refunded transactions. However, if you signed up prior to 1 August 2018, transaction fees charged by Braintree are returned for fully refunded transactions." So my boss actually told them, we would use them only, if fees for refunds will be returned. And the deal was made this way. So I encourage everyone else to do so...
hahaxdxd123 5y ago
hacker news moment
civilized 5y ago
I don't know. Writing good letters isn't the same as running a company especially well. Internally, Stripe has the same unevenness, cultural anomie, and mediocre middle management of any big company.
- leehuffman 5y ago
  > I don't know. Writing good letters isn't the same as running a company especially well. * Warren Buffett enters the chat* > Stripe has the same unevenness, cultural anomie, and mediocre middle management of any big company. “I put numbers on the boards” - Pusha T
hackernewds 5y ago
Personally think this is an exaggeration. Google an Apple are massively diverse products and have complex structures, cultures and practices

by joshe 5y ago

Shadonototra 5y ago

stripe charge too much they have no tech to prevent fraud, and you have to pay fees whenever customer chargeback google/apple provide better services, plus it's built in

fillskills 5y ago
Stripe customer for a long time. Stripes chargeback and fraud prevention are by far the best in the industry. We have researched and tried a lot of different solutions so saying this with some confidence
- Shadonototra 5y ago
  You having to pay bank fees for frauds and therefore bank issuing a chargeback means they are not willing to depend on their "tech", symptom of a poor/inexistent tech In comparison, with PayPal, if the fraud was detected and the bank issue a chargeback, you have nothing to pay, i have a SaaS since 2008, and never had a single problem with PayPal, the day i added Stripe, that issue started to appear, it disappeared the day i removed Stripe, i don't want to depend on a company that make me loose money (SaaS with low prices, -$15 per fraud, no thank you)

pc 5y ago

It's kind of you to say that, and people at Stripe certainly try very hard, but there's plenty that's broken or that we're trying to figure out at scale... I don't think those claims are true.

skillpass 5y ago
Can you expand on what's broken and how Stripe is trying to address it?
hibikir 5y ago
Hi pc, former employee here, from back in the day where meetings could be held in Alabama. It's not that Stripe doesn't have broken things: I could have made a big list from back when I worked there, and I bet the list is still large. However, you are just underestimating how broken other companies are. I've worked at 10+ companies, some far bigger, and some far smaller than Stripe, and even the smallest ones had a higher percentage of broken things, and the brokenness is often in far more vital places. It's never going to happen, but you'd learn so much from joining me as a professional tourist, and going incognito as a random dev in another big company for 6 months. But you are showing classic Stripe culture here: I remember a place where everyone was embarrassed about how bad they think their latest shipped email was, and how they have so much to do, while their typical coworkers is instead in awe of how good said shipped email was.
- pc 5y ago
  That comment made my day -- thanks :-)
reducesuffering 5y ago
Blind reviews seem to corroborate this. Not the best feedback, but mostly good. I'd recommend going through this anonymous feedback from verified Stripe employees for tips on where to improve. https://www.teamblind.com/company/Stripe/reviews https://www.teamblind.com/company/Stripe/reviews
de-asis-kevin 5y ago
Hey PC, Pretty cool to see a CEO of a famous company here at HN. Especially a humble one with a learning mindset. I think back in the day I heard you mention that you are a big history buff. I do have a history question for you. Do you know of any existing public company who were able to fix their problems at scale that did not have to change their flagship product? It seems like new product line were a forcing function to fix broken things at scale. It's as if those who kept their flagship product who had scalability problems had to either use duct tape fixes or make really painful choices.

spamtarget 5y ago

Not really, they are on the "we don't give you back the fee after a refund" train, which is why we're getting rid of them and moving to braintree

ksec 5y ago
>we don't give you back the fee after a refund,.... moving to braintree Well Braintree don't give you back the fee after a refund either.
- spamtarget 5y ago
  I don't do this here, just a bystander, but you made me curious. I looked it up, and you are right, this is from their website: "Transactions fees charged by Braintree will not be returned for refunded transactions. However, if you signed up prior to 1 August 2018, transaction fees charged by Braintree are returned for fully refunded transactions." So my boss actually told them, we would use them only, if fees for refunds will be returned. And the deal was made this way. So I encourage everyone else to do so...

hahaxdxd123 5y ago

hacker news moment

civilized 5y ago

I don't know. Writing good letters isn't the same as running a company especially well. Internally, Stripe has the same unevenness, cultural anomie, and mediocre middle management of any big company.

leehuffman 5y ago
> I don't know. Writing good letters isn't the same as running a company especially well. * Warren Buffett enters the chat* > Stripe has the same unevenness, cultural anomie, and mediocre middle management of any big company. “I put numbers on the boards” - Pusha T

hackernewds 5y ago

Personally think this is an exaggeration. Google an Apple are massively diverse products and have complex structures, cultures and practices