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Stripe Fund Invests $500,000 in Baremetrics

60 points by pccampbell 12y ago

instakill 12y ago
Well done Josh. Lots of competition in the Stripe space.
aarondf 12y ago
I think one of the most interesting things here is that this investment comes "as part of a new fund they’ve created for businesses on Stripe." This certainly sends a different signal to third-party applications than the signal Twitter was sending. If I had an idea to build on top of Stripe, I'd feel pretty good about that right now. Smart move. Also, congrats Josh!
- immad 12y ago
  Facebook did the same thing with FB Fund
zrail 12y ago
Congratulations Josh! I'm excited by the prospect of a dedicated VC fund specifically for Stripe ecosystem companies. That sets a fantastic tone for future products built on Stripe's APIs.
Oculus 12y ago
Love how open Baremetrics is with all their information. Really awesome to see this become more common place in the community.
travisfischer 12y ago
Congrats Josh! I think I like this model of investment a lot for a company like Stripe. Rather than trying to copy or buy Baremetrics and add that to the list of things Stripe would need to focus on, invest in someone who spend all day every day worrying about only how to make that thing the best it can be. Keeps all of the incentives nicely aligned for both Stripe and Baremetrics. I would think Baremetrics probably should grow to include other payment system integrations. However, I think as long as Stripe continues focusing on being the best option available for what they provide, choosing to invest in the eco system around them like this seems like a great way to grow the business as a whole vs. spending the same money on making their own product bigger. I also like it from Baremetrics point of view that Stripe is now invested in them for the obvious and already stated reasons.
chrisgd 12y ago
How common is it to see funds dedicated exclusively to one ecosystem (Stripe in this case)? Is this a wave of the future type of investment?
wuchin5 12y ago
Any reason why Stripe can't offer analytics themselves ? Its nice way to fool customers. First create own product , then ask few friends to create another product based on own product , create environment showing yeah we are investing then acquire friends product increasing valuation and creating false hype. Do the IPO and then Profit. What a nasty way to gain attention.
- Shpigford 12y ago
  Nailed it. Definitely a conspiracy theory here. Probably even fraud if you squint and cross your eyes a bit.
dannyolinsky 12y ago
Congrats Josh. Looking forward to see what comes of Stripe + Baremetrics working more closely together!
carsongross 12y ago
Baremetrics seems like a heck of a way to get a good view on how various SAAS startups are doing. If I were a VC...
aml183 12y ago
Awesome! This also reminds me of the Twillio fund that Danielle ran from MatterMark.
cdnsteve 12y ago
Congrats, always thought Baremetrics was promoted in an intelligent manner.
- Shpigford 12y ago
  Thanks so much!
michaelmior 12y ago
> Will this work with non-SaaS businesses? > At this point, not really. Right now Baremetrics is focused primarily on providing analytics and metrics for SaaS businesses with recurring billing. This seems odd to me. I don't see why any business which has recurring billing wouldn't benefit from Baremetrics.
- bdunn 12y ago
  I think he's mainly trying to weed out people with one-off transactional sales, like online stores. Josh has mentioned a few times that occasionally they'll sign up and end up churning out because the model just doesn't work for them. But yeah, it could definitely work if you ran like a membership site off of Stripe. Not exactly a SaaS, but same sorta rules apply.
  - michaelmior 12y ago
    Fair enough. I could see that being an issue. I'm sure targeting SaaS business specifically also makes it easier to create cohesive marketing.
    - Shpigford 12y ago
      Really any "recurring subscription" business will work just fine as long as you're using subscriptions/plans within Stripe. "SaaS" is indeed infinitely easier to market to and in reality is the lions share of "recurring billing businesses that actually make money" :)

60 points by pccampbell 12y ago

Well done Josh. Lots of competition in the Stripe space.

I think one of the most interesting things here is that this investment comes "as part of a new fund they’ve created for businesses on Stripe." This certainly sends a different signal to third-party applications than the signal Twitter was sending. If I had an idea to build on top of Stripe, I'd feel pretty good about that right now. Smart move. Also, congrats Josh!

immad 12y ago
Facebook did the same thing with FB Fund

zrail 12y ago

Congratulations Josh! I'm excited by the prospect of a dedicated VC fund specifically for Stripe ecosystem companies. That sets a fantastic tone for future products built on Stripe's APIs.

Oculus 12y ago

Love how open Baremetrics is with all their information. Really awesome to see this become more common place in the community.

travisfischer 12y ago

Congrats Josh! I think I like this model of investment a lot for a company like Stripe. Rather than trying to copy or buy Baremetrics and add that to the list of things Stripe would need to focus on, invest in someone who spend all day every day worrying about only how to make that thing the best it can be. Keeps all of the incentives nicely aligned for both Stripe and Baremetrics. I would think Baremetrics probably should grow to include other payment system integrations. However, I think as long as Stripe continues focusing on being the best option available for what they provide, choosing to invest in the eco system around them like this seems like a great way to grow the business as a whole vs. spending the same money on making their own product bigger. I also like it from Baremetrics point of view that Stripe is now invested in them for the obvious and already stated reasons.

chrisgd 12y ago

How common is it to see funds dedicated exclusively to one ecosystem (Stripe in this case)? Is this a wave of the future type of investment?

wuchin5 12y ago

Any reason why Stripe can't offer analytics themselves ? Its nice way to fool customers. First create own product , then ask few friends to create another product based on own product , create environment showing yeah we are investing then acquire friends product increasing valuation and creating false hype. Do the IPO and then Profit. What a nasty way to gain attention.

Shpigford 12y ago
Nailed it. Definitely a conspiracy theory here. Probably even fraud if you squint and cross your eyes a bit.

dannyolinsky 12y ago

Congrats Josh. Looking forward to see what comes of Stripe + Baremetrics working more closely together!

carsongross 12y ago

Baremetrics seems like a heck of a way to get a good view on how various SAAS startups are doing. If I were a VC...

aml183 12y ago

Awesome! This also reminds me of the Twillio fund that Danielle ran from MatterMark.

cdnsteve 12y ago

Congrats, always thought Baremetrics was promoted in an intelligent manner.

Shpigford 12y ago
Thanks so much!

michaelmior 12y ago

> Will this work with non-SaaS businesses? > At this point, not really. Right now Baremetrics is focused primarily on providing analytics and metrics for SaaS businesses with recurring billing. This seems odd to me. I don't see why any business which has recurring billing wouldn't benefit from Baremetrics.

bdunn 12y ago
I think he's mainly trying to weed out people with one-off transactional sales, like online stores. Josh has mentioned a few times that occasionally they'll sign up and end up churning out because the model just doesn't work for them. But yeah, it could definitely work if you ran like a membership site off of Stripe. Not exactly a SaaS, but same sorta rules apply.
- michaelmior 12y ago
  Fair enough. I could see that being an issue. I'm sure targeting SaaS business specifically also makes it easier to create cohesive marketing.
  - Shpigford 12y ago
    Really any "recurring subscription" business will work just fine as long as you're using subscriptions/plans within Stripe. "SaaS" is indeed infinitely easier to market to and in reality is the lions share of "recurring billing businesses that actually make money" :)