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I love Stripe as much as the next guy but this post seems a bit biased in that direction. You've added the caveat (and it's appreciated) but saying someone/som

I love Stripe as much as the next guy but this post seems a bit biased in that direction. You've added the caveat (and it's appreciated) but saying someone/something is the best at anything is a tall, tall order. Never align yourself to a tech, service or company so much that you miss anything else on the horizon.

zt 13y ago
I'm obviously a Stripe fanboy but I hope my point comes through that I think all credit card processing is a hard business where it is hard to make a lot of money. Stripe is best in class in my mind right now - but being the absolute best in a commodity business can be a hard position to be in.
- jareau 13y ago
  Is your thesis that Stripe will follow a similar path as Braintree's...to low margins and acquisition?
  - zt 13y ago
    No, I don't think so. My read is that Patrick and John have a long-term vision (not one that I'm particularly privy to in the details) and clarity in their desire to go all the way.
jacquesm 13y ago
I've done some work for a competitor so feel free to call me out for being biased. Stripe rocks. Documentation, interface, team, vision, customer service etc, it's all a notch above the expected. If there ever was a company that I wished that I could have invested in early stage this was it. Dropbox, Airbnb & Heroku are all great companies, Stripe has the potential to be an awesome company (no offence to Dropbox, Airbnb & Heroku intended). That I like the founders on top of all that makes it an even better story, what's not to like about Patrick & John? Stripe is a story worth knowing about, even if you're not in the payment industry, this is how you do a start-up tackling a tough problem.
- chrischen 13y ago
  I agree they seem like an awesome company, but that doesn't mean there aren't other equally awesome (or almost equally awesome) companies. Balanced Payments is an example. Recognizing one's merits while disregarding another's merit (whether by malice or ignorance) has similar effects to just undeservingly trashing a company.
- purephase 13y ago
  I'm not knocking Stripe. I use them and love them for what they provide. They've taken an extremely difficult problem and made it easy and they deserve a lot of kudos for that. However, there are others doing similar work that deserve similar accolades. Balanced is one example. I think the work that Square and now Shopify are doing in the POS space is laudable. It's just a matter of seeing the forest through the trees. Stripe is a big tree, obscuring a lot at the moment (with good reason) but it behooves us to continually look around and find new opportunities lest the entrenchment of companies like Paypal take root again.

zt 13y ago

I'm obviously a Stripe fanboy but I hope my point comes through that I think all credit card processing is a hard business where it is hard to make a lot of money. Stripe is best in class in my mind right now - but being the absolute best in a commodity business can be a hard position to be in.

jareau 13y ago
Is your thesis that Stripe will follow a similar path as Braintree's...to low margins and acquisition?
- zt 13y ago
  No, I don't think so. My read is that Patrick and John have a long-term vision (not one that I'm particularly privy to in the details) and clarity in their desire to go all the way.

jacquesm 13y ago

I've done some work for a competitor so feel free to call me out for being biased. Stripe rocks. Documentation, interface, team, vision, customer service etc, it's all a notch above the expected. If there ever was a company that I wished that I could have invested in early stage this was it. Dropbox, Airbnb & Heroku are all great companies, Stripe has the potential to be an awesome company (no offence to Dropbox, Airbnb & Heroku intended). That I like the founders on top of all that makes it an even better story, what's not to like about Patrick & John? Stripe is a story worth knowing about, even if you're not in the payment industry, this is how you do a start-up tackling a tough problem.

chrischen 13y ago
I agree they seem like an awesome company, but that doesn't mean there aren't other equally awesome (or almost equally awesome) companies. Balanced Payments is an example. Recognizing one's merits while disregarding another's merit (whether by malice or ignorance) has similar effects to just undeservingly trashing a company.
purephase 13y ago
I'm not knocking Stripe. I use them and love them for what they provide. They've taken an extremely difficult problem and made it easy and they deserve a lot of kudos for that. However, there are others doing similar work that deserve similar accolades. Balanced is one example. I think the work that Square and now Shopify are doing in the POS space is laudable. It's just a matter of seeing the forest through the trees. Stripe is a big tree, obscuring a lot at the moment (with good reason) but it behooves us to continually look around and find new opportunities lest the entrenchment of companies like Paypal take root again.