5 ms·

Stripe cofounder here. Needless to say, this article contains many factual inaccuracies. More broadly, articles like this are part of why we didn't announce ou

by pc 13y ago

Stripe cofounder here. Needless to say, this article contains many factual inaccuracies. More broadly, articles like this are part of why we didn't announce our previous financings. If you don't also announce metrics, it's easy to write articles like this.

tomasien 13y ago
Did they bother to check PG's Twitter account? I mean, do they think he's lying?
- TheMakeA 13y ago
  https://twitter.com/paulg/status/403183731449413632/photo/1 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/403183731449413632/photo/1
  - dangrossman 13y ago
    That graph certainly makes the premise of the article seem entirely incorrect.
    - rgbrenner 13y ago
      That graph contains no numbers and therefore does not have enough information to refute (or even disagree) the article
    - joshuaknox 13y ago
      That graph doesn't have labelled axes, so it's pretty hard to glean much of anything from it accurately. Assuming blue is Nov 2012-Nov 2013, that means that the starting point for 6 months ago is roughly 2/3 of the way across the blue. Eyeballing it, the height roughly doubles during that period, which would be consistent with the article. Disclosure: I work for Braintree.
      - pbreit 13y ago
        If blue is 12 months then 6 months would be 1/2 across and it looks more like tripling (and accelerating, rapidly).
mcarney7 13y ago
Hey Patrick, we'd be happy to include any numbers that you share publicly. We gave you that opportunity yesterday, but you declined. You guys have been fundraising and having M&A talks over the last 6+ mo, meaning your numbers are "out there." I find it hard to believe that everyone we spoke to is grossly inaccurate in the exact same ballpark. I'm happy to concede that the figures may be outdated, and we acknowledged that in the article. But we also compared you guys against competitors' metrics from the same period. Our goal is to be fair and accurate. The more you share, obviously, the better.
- adamnemecek 13y ago
  Seems like a blackmail-y proposition.
- throwawayun 13y ago
  > The more you share, obviously, the better. Better for who? They obviously have a strategy, and your comment is rude and presumptive. This is why people often hate the press.
  - mcarney7 13y ago
    We didn't write "stripe's metrics today are X." We wrote, "Stripe's metrics 6 months ago, when they were in fundraising and M&A talks were X...during the same period its competitors metrics were Y, Z." Seems fair and accurate. Stripe doesn't need to share data if it doesn't want, but then criticizing us for being inaccurate is a bit ridiculous. Also, it's not our job to tell Stripe's (or any company's) story as they want it told. It's to report on the ecosystem. Its better for the ecosystem – investors, competitors, customers, etc. – if they share transparent numbers.
    - ivanca 13y ago
      >Stripe doesn't need to share data if it doesn't want, but then criticizing us for being inaccurate is a bit ridiculous. Ridiculous is to making ANY present tense assertions when your using old data, like in the title you don't say "Memo for Stripe for where it was 6 months ago" or any other indication of the time period at hand. Your magazine is the only thing here poisonous for the ecosystem.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Shocking that PandoDaily got their facts wrong! :-) In a weird way, the press coverage feels more bubblish when the press can't figure out what is going on and do this sort of article (one presumes to draw out data they couldn't get in the first place). Of course it could just be to get the rage views.
zallarak 13y ago
First off, congrats on the hard work and incredible progress you guys have made. I'd just comment that you responding to this, along with a YC partner, only adds credibility to the story. If its BS, it should be totally ignored. The fact that both of you took time to attempt to discredit an article from a blog would make one question why you feel the need to do so. Interestingly I got down-voted on this comment too.. Ironic because I am generally impressed with and love Stripe and its story. Just sayin' to not take an outlet like Pando too seriously.
- ivanca 13y ago
  So, when scientist take the time to point out why creationism is wrong it means that they believe creationism is correct? I call bullshit on you.
  - zallarak 13y ago
    You make a good analogy but in my personal opinion, stretch it too far. The greatest scientists don't get caught up in squabbles about creationism with fools - they simply let their work prove it wrong. They are too busy to engage in petty debates with a blog. Why should founders of a billion dollar company care what a blog says? Now if it were a regulatory institution or a credible news organization that investors take seriously/Stripe was publicly traded, then its a different matter because media perception would have a material impact on the business. Debating Pando does no benefit for them, so it makes one wonder why they engaged.
rgbrenner 13y ago
Out of curiosity, why don't you release metrics? I would like to use Stripe for one of my startups.. but wasn't able to find any numbers.. so since the company is young, and you get a small fraction of the total processed... with 30 employees at Stripe... I figure you have a huge burn rate.. and I'm hesitant to use it.. not when I'm already familiar with authnet, paypal, and others.. Stripe looks great, but no numbers means I can't be sure if you guys are doing well.. or if I'm going to be doing an integration with a different company in a year.
- pc 13y ago
  Want to drop me an email? patrick@stripe.com. Would be happy to describe our thinking and see if we can help out with your startup. (Also -- we're now 85 people and have companies like Rackspace and Hubspot using Stripe in case that helps :-).)
- dangrossman 13y ago
  > I can't be sure if you guys are doing well.. or if I'm going to be doing an integration with a different company in a year. If you can spend a couple extra bucks, you might consider integrating with Spreedly instead of with any individual processor. They're a unified API for 55+ gateways, and a gateway-agnostic card vault. This is one of the worries using them eliminates; you can use Stripe no matter what your concerns are, because if they do disappear in a year, you can point your sites back at Authnet or whoever you prefer without changing any code. No interruption of service, no lost customer info to continue billing. http://www.spreedly.com http://www.spreedly.com You do have to trust Spreedly will still be around, but that's much easier than trusting in a new processor. Unlike a payment processor, they don't suffer from existential threats like a failure in their risk evaluation allowing a fraud event to wipe out a month's worth of profit at a time. Their business model basically prints money (run an API, keep a few pennies of each transaction) and they've been at it for years.

by pc 13y ago

tomasien 13y ago

Did they bother to check PG's Twitter account? I mean, do they think he's lying?

TheMakeA 13y ago
https://twitter.com/paulg/status/403183731449413632/photo/1 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/403183731449413632/photo/1
- dangrossman 13y ago
  That graph certainly makes the premise of the article seem entirely incorrect.
  - rgbrenner 13y ago
    That graph contains no numbers and therefore does not have enough information to refute (or even disagree) the article
  - joshuaknox 13y ago
    That graph doesn't have labelled axes, so it's pretty hard to glean much of anything from it accurately. Assuming blue is Nov 2012-Nov 2013, that means that the starting point for 6 months ago is roughly 2/3 of the way across the blue. Eyeballing it, the height roughly doubles during that period, which would be consistent with the article. Disclosure: I work for Braintree.
    - pbreit 13y ago
      If blue is 12 months then 6 months would be 1/2 across and it looks more like tripling (and accelerating, rapidly).

mcarney7 13y ago

Hey Patrick, we'd be happy to include any numbers that you share publicly. We gave you that opportunity yesterday, but you declined. You guys have been fundraising and having M&A talks over the last 6+ mo, meaning your numbers are "out there." I find it hard to believe that everyone we spoke to is grossly inaccurate in the exact same ballpark. I'm happy to concede that the figures may be outdated, and we acknowledged that in the article. But we also compared you guys against competitors' metrics from the same period. Our goal is to be fair and accurate. The more you share, obviously, the better.

adamnemecek 13y ago
Seems like a blackmail-y proposition.
throwawayun 13y ago
> The more you share, obviously, the better. Better for who? They obviously have a strategy, and your comment is rude and presumptive. This is why people often hate the press.
- mcarney7 13y ago
  We didn't write "stripe's metrics today are X." We wrote, "Stripe's metrics 6 months ago, when they were in fundraising and M&A talks were X...during the same period its competitors metrics were Y, Z." Seems fair and accurate. Stripe doesn't need to share data if it doesn't want, but then criticizing us for being inaccurate is a bit ridiculous. Also, it's not our job to tell Stripe's (or any company's) story as they want it told. It's to report on the ecosystem. Its better for the ecosystem – investors, competitors, customers, etc. – if they share transparent numbers.
  - ivanca 13y ago
    >Stripe doesn't need to share data if it doesn't want, but then criticizing us for being inaccurate is a bit ridiculous. Ridiculous is to making ANY present tense assertions when your using old data, like in the title you don't say "Memo for Stripe for where it was 6 months ago" or any other indication of the time period at hand. Your magazine is the only thing here poisonous for the ecosystem.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Shocking that PandoDaily got their facts wrong! :-) In a weird way, the press coverage feels more bubblish when the press can't figure out what is going on and do this sort of article (one presumes to draw out data they couldn't get in the first place). Of course it could just be to get the rage views.

zallarak 13y ago

First off, congrats on the hard work and incredible progress you guys have made. I'd just comment that you responding to this, along with a YC partner, only adds credibility to the story. If its BS, it should be totally ignored. The fact that both of you took time to attempt to discredit an article from a blog would make one question why you feel the need to do so. Interestingly I got down-voted on this comment too.. Ironic because I am generally impressed with and love Stripe and its story. Just sayin' to not take an outlet like Pando too seriously.

ivanca 13y ago
So, when scientist take the time to point out why creationism is wrong it means that they believe creationism is correct? I call bullshit on you.
- zallarak 13y ago
  You make a good analogy but in my personal opinion, stretch it too far. The greatest scientists don't get caught up in squabbles about creationism with fools - they simply let their work prove it wrong. They are too busy to engage in petty debates with a blog. Why should founders of a billion dollar company care what a blog says? Now if it were a regulatory institution or a credible news organization that investors take seriously/Stripe was publicly traded, then its a different matter because media perception would have a material impact on the business. Debating Pando does no benefit for them, so it makes one wonder why they engaged.

rgbrenner 13y ago

Out of curiosity, why don't you release metrics? I would like to use Stripe for one of my startups.. but wasn't able to find any numbers.. so since the company is young, and you get a small fraction of the total processed... with 30 employees at Stripe... I figure you have a huge burn rate.. and I'm hesitant to use it.. not when I'm already familiar with authnet, paypal, and others.. Stripe looks great, but no numbers means I can't be sure if you guys are doing well.. or if I'm going to be doing an integration with a different company in a year.

pc 13y ago
Want to drop me an email? patrick@stripe.com. Would be happy to describe our thinking and see if we can help out with your startup. (Also -- we're now 85 people and have companies like Rackspace and Hubspot using Stripe in case that helps :-).)
dangrossman 13y ago
> I can't be sure if you guys are doing well.. or if I'm going to be doing an integration with a different company in a year. If you can spend a couple extra bucks, you might consider integrating with Spreedly instead of with any individual processor. They're a unified API for 55+ gateways, and a gateway-agnostic card vault. This is one of the worries using them eliminates; you can use Stripe no matter what your concerns are, because if they do disappear in a year, you can point your sites back at Authnet or whoever you prefer without changing any code. No interruption of service, no lost customer info to continue billing. http://www.spreedly.com http://www.spreedly.com You do have to trust Spreedly will still be around, but that's much easier than trusting in a new processor. Unlike a payment processor, they don't suffer from existential threats like a failure in their risk evaluation allowing a fraud event to wipe out a month's worth of profit at a time. Their business model basically prints money (run an API, keep a few pennies of each transaction) and they've been at it for years.