It was really nice to hear someone else talk about Marc Hedlund (the VPE in the article). I wasn't one of the back channel references, but I would have said the

It was really nice to hear someone else talk about Marc Hedlund (the VPE in the article). I wasn't one of the back channel references, but I would have said the same things: "he’s been an amazing influence and mentor for me”, “I still keep in touch." Back when all I did was write code, Marc took me out for lunch and told me, "If you can write code and speak English, then you need to be in leadership." There's some major hyperbole in that statement. I'm sure I'm not quoting him correctly, but that's how I remember it. Speak English was short hand for likes people & communicates well. I had never considered that having a dual skill set was particularly valuable or that there was a bigger impact to make than just writing really clean code. He really opened my eyes to a bigger world. And then he followed through by making great connections and being a constant advisor. I've known him for 12 years now and he's the person I always think of when people talk about a career in startups. He's got such a huge network of people that he's helped and that now look to him for advice. A lot of my career is thanks to Marc. Stripe is really lucky to have him.