Stripe launched 10 years ago today(twitter.com)
twitter.com
Stripe launched 10 years ago today
https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1443289393695911938
85 comments
Isn't that more than 10 years ago?
Not sure about the other poster but I know Stripe existed by another name first as they iterated on the product. I remember being there when Twitter tried to buy the early startup to monetize tweets. They sure missed out on that acquisition. Stripe is now worth more than all of Twitter :)
Yes, /dev/payments iirc
I signed up on 9/30/2011 and the registration form was sparse and a little confusing to the point that I ended up emailing support to make sure my account was set up correctly. Got an email back from some dude named John Collison who helped me out. Of course I had no idea who he was at the time but instantly recognized the name several years later when I came across the email again - Gmail had automatically put him in my contacts and I kept thinking it must be a mistake bc there's no way I have John Collison as a personal contact. Stripe has been good to me as a developer over the years and I hope they continue to innovate well into the future.
I still like them because their support folks sent me a t-shirt in, I dunno, maybe 2012, when I posted a slightly-clever workaround on their forums, for some subscription-related functionality they didn't have yet. Fairly cheap way to keep me feeling positive vibes about them, nearly a decade later.
Nice story - thanks for sharing.
I think thoughtfulness sticks because it requires effort, and injects humanity in an otherwise efficiently transactional culture.
Thoughtfulness may be inexpensive to exercise money-wise, but it ain’t cheap. ;)
I think thoughtfulness sticks because it requires effort, and injects humanity in an otherwise efficiently transactional culture.
Thoughtfulness may be inexpensive to exercise money-wise, but it ain’t cheap. ;)
In the early days (2013-14?) of Stripe, I was responsible for maintaining my company's integration.
I still remember how one day there was a message on the announcements newsgroup about how the size of a key was increasing, only three or four days before the we'd start seeing the change in API responses. Dealing with this needed a database migration that I would need more time to schedule, and I sent back a polite-but-direct response to the generic posting email expressing my disappointment with how little notice we received.
A couple minutes later a Google Chat bubble pops up from some guy named gdb (aka Greg Brockman), who I subsequently learned was Stripe's CTO. He apologized, asked why the timeline was tough for me, and when I explained it, immediately set something on my account so that the migration would be delayed by a couple weeks.
8 years later I remain impressed by that level of customer connection from a senior executive, and the technical excellence that allowed them to special-case delay my migration.
I still remember how one day there was a message on the announcements newsgroup about how the size of a key was increasing, only three or four days before the we'd start seeing the change in API responses. Dealing with this needed a database migration that I would need more time to schedule, and I sent back a polite-but-direct response to the generic posting email expressing my disappointment with how little notice we received.
A couple minutes later a Google Chat bubble pops up from some guy named gdb (aka Greg Brockman), who I subsequently learned was Stripe's CTO. He apologized, asked why the timeline was tough for me, and when I explained it, immediately set something on my account so that the migration would be delayed by a couple weeks.
8 years later I remain impressed by that level of customer connection from a senior executive, and the technical excellence that allowed them to special-case delay my migration.
The Stripe docs are a master-class in API documentation. I strive to write APIs that reach the knees of the height of theirs, all while keeping the docs simple and understandable.
Amazing. No surprise from me the success they've had.
Amazing. No surprise from me the success they've had.
Another feature about the Stripe docs that made me go "shit, these guys are good". When you are looking at the docs in your account, the "examples" will come from your own sandbox calls if you've made them. I remember the first time I saw that I was like "wait a second, that's my test data". I thought that was such a brilliant little touch, one of those things that immediately seemed like such a great idea that I wondered why I hadn't thought of it before.
I remember the fiery conversation at DigitalOcean about switching over to stripe in 2016:
Me: We should probably switch to stripe eh?
Joonas: Yah, we should probably switch to stripe.
Brooke: Yup, we should probably switch to stripe.
Joonas: k.
Me: Hey Alex Sexton can you please get Joonas hooked up with what we need?
Alex Sexton: Yup
Joonas: k, done.
I'm not sure finance even noticed, it was really so easy.
Me: We should probably switch to stripe eh?
Joonas: Yah, we should probably switch to stripe.
Brooke: Yup, we should probably switch to stripe.
Joonas: k.
Me: Hey Alex Sexton can you please get Joonas hooked up with what we need?
Alex Sexton: Yup
Joonas: k, done.
I'm not sure finance even noticed, it was really so easy.
Seeing as Stripe is generally more expensive than other payment processors (including PayPal, particularly for <$12 transactions but even for large transactions at bulk, which I am sure Digital Ocean did), I'm sure finance noticed, one way or another ;P.
I, like my other devs dreamed of starting my own SAAS product when Stripe made it so easy to start accepting payments. No hyperbole here. I remember their tagline used to be "Payments for developers" back in 2012 when I found them and I remember setting it up within few minutes even back then.
Well deserved success to the Stripe team and we have been a happy customer in production since 2014. They even reached out to me once to discuss dashboard/UI change feedback. I know they have a few criticisms lately as they have grown but overall, if I could use the word "disruptor" (which usually is overused and cliched these days), it truly applies to Stripe. Kudos for not making me deal with Paypal and the others for the most part.
Well deserved success to the Stripe team and we have been a happy customer in production since 2014. They even reached out to me once to discuss dashboard/UI change feedback. I know they have a few criticisms lately as they have grown but overall, if I could use the word "disruptor" (which usually is overused and cliched these days), it truly applies to Stripe. Kudos for not making me deal with Paypal and the others for the most part.
I have to admit, there are zero competitors that I would seriously consider using instead of Stripe.
They've got a moat the size of an ocean.
They've got a moat the size of an ocean.
Accepting payments and starting a business has never been easier ... and Stripe is a major contributing factor to that welcomed change.
I do wonder what Stripe's financials look like given they have raised more funding than most startups ($2.2B raised [0]).
Given these extremely favorable market conditions, I have to imagine they are accelerating an IPO very soon (no inside knowledge).
[0] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/stripe
I do wonder what Stripe's financials look like given they have raised more funding than most startups ($2.2B raised [0]).
Given these extremely favorable market conditions, I have to imagine they are accelerating an IPO very soon (no inside knowledge).
[0] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/stripe
Apparently the founders are anti-IPO.
How does that affect engineer comp? I imagine folks are granted a lot of equity, but if the founders don't want to IPO... is there a buyback scheme in place for internal holders?
Mind you, I'm also pretty anti-IPO -- I think that going public usually has a negative impact on a company's products (more push towards profit at the cost of quality and employee QOL). But if you're stuck with a lot of stock that you haven't exercised 10 years on, I can see the engineers getting really frustrated.
Mind you, I'm also pretty anti-IPO -- I think that going public usually has a negative impact on a company's products (more push towards profit at the cost of quality and employee QOL). But if you're stuck with a lot of stock that you haven't exercised 10 years on, I can see the engineers getting really frustrated.
The company can offer something called a Tender Offer or Liquidity Event (I've heard them used interchangeably) where when they're raising new funding the employees can put up the shares they hold as a part of the sale. Alternatively a share buy back.
It is hard to overstate how much influence Stripe had on the financial services online. Great job Stripe!
It also had immense influence on eng part as well. Stripe despite being a fintech startup set benchmarks of what we can expect in terms of developer friendliness.
I'd heard about Stripe for years but earlier this year I was finally given a solid opportunity to utilize it for a small-scale contract web development position. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy to use it was, I expected a ton of boilerplate and dependencies but for a simple, straightforward PHP app, setting up secure payments was an absolute breeze. it's very satisfying to go in expecting headaches and edge cases and come away with a streamlined, efficient experience!
OMG - Congratulations!
I remember, 10 years ago when Stripe launched. Our SaaS was using some shitty merchant account provider. We had to have a merchant account, which after tons of paperwork, we got.
Now, we were a travel technology SaaS (not a travel business), but our merchant provider closed our account without notice, because, according to them, we were selling consumer travel. With just under 100 subscribing customers at the time, this was very painful for us. They NEVER took the time to talk to us and see what our business was.
But just a few months earlier, Stripe launched.
We IMMEDIATELY signed up and did a very light integration. We manually called all our customers and input their credit cards. And we've been with Stripe since that time till today.
Brilliant service. Easy to integrate. Highly recommended.
Because of that pain though, we still are always prepared to go with a different provider if something happens, but so far, the other shoe has NOT dropped.
Stripe took the time to understand that we are a company that provides technology services to travel companies. Not a travel company.
I remember, 10 years ago when Stripe launched. Our SaaS was using some shitty merchant account provider. We had to have a merchant account, which after tons of paperwork, we got.
Now, we were a travel technology SaaS (not a travel business), but our merchant provider closed our account without notice, because, according to them, we were selling consumer travel. With just under 100 subscribing customers at the time, this was very painful for us. They NEVER took the time to talk to us and see what our business was.
But just a few months earlier, Stripe launched.
We IMMEDIATELY signed up and did a very light integration. We manually called all our customers and input their credit cards. And we've been with Stripe since that time till today.
Brilliant service. Easy to integrate. Highly recommended.
Because of that pain though, we still are always prepared to go with a different provider if something happens, but so far, the other shoe has NOT dropped.
Stripe took the time to understand that we are a company that provides technology services to travel companies. Not a travel company.
I managed the Stripe relationship from my position at Google (Google Pay) and now happily have joined Stripe. Stripe was/is GPay's #1 partner and was always a joy to work with and now a joy to work within.
Patrick and John - you solved a real pain point for our community. Thank you.
https://twitter.com/xsc/status/106149101720186880
https://twitter.com/xsc/status/106149101720186880
What happened to capture the flag? I still have my t-shirt. But let's talk about the product. As a business owner and a developer, I would prefer suppliers that can make their invoices / receipts available via an API. It's such a mess and would save so much data entry. Someone please make this happen!
Is that _not_ what Stripe invoicing is for?
https://stripe.com/invoicing
https://stripe.com/invoicing
This is what https://peppol.eu/what-is-peppol/ is meant to solve (with many countries' registries online) via a low-cost federated solution
Xero, amongst others, is starting to roll-out support.
The future is looking pretty good for B2B invoices.
Xero, amongst others, is starting to roll-out support.
The future is looking pretty good for B2B invoices.
My favorite thing about stripe isn't even their product. It's the support. I know when I have a question, I can reach out, and speak to someone who has some clue about what I need. It's really enjoyable, and I almost look forward to speaking with them it's so anathema to anything else.
Absolutely. I've been having a nightmare with PayPal for the past couple of weeks, to the point that they made me believe I maybe wasn't complying with local laws. I checked with Stripe to make sure my parallel use with them is all above board and properly legal. Got a very quick and comprehensive reply that it is. So of course PayPal are using "local law" as a scapegoat for their own bananas unnecessary rules.
This is my experience as well. If you have any issue, you just start a chat and they will find an explanation. So very different to the other dominant payment processor I won't mention that is trying its hardest to keep you away.
I don't use Stripe but my understanding is that it has dominance in its space. What are the competitors? BrainTree? Google Pay? Why haven't those services eaten Stripes lunch?
Stripe focused on, built, and has amazingly mostly maintained goodwill and good word of mouth among developers. The others haven't focused on that.
BrainTree was decent a few years ago, but PayPal acquired them and that seemed to drain the quality away.
There are other, older competitors that have much worse APIs and docs and support, but my impression is they survive due to implementation lock-in.
BrainTree was decent a few years ago, but PayPal acquired them and that seemed to drain the quality away.
There are other, older competitors that have much worse APIs and docs and support, but my impression is they survive due to implementation lock-in.
Payments business is huge and there is a lot of space there. A few global competitors are:
* Braintree (acquired by PayPal) * Checkout.com * Adyen (more enterprise oriented)
+ there are a lot of local players, e.g. Mollie is popular in the Netherlands, Payu and Przelewy24 are large providers in Poland, in China people pay with Wechat and Alipay, and in Indonesia with GoPay by Gojek
Stripe provides a lot of services besides payments, but if you just need a payment provide for your on-line shop, whether you go with Stripe or Braintree is not a very big difference. I mean sure, quality of documentation and customer service matters, but the 2 most important factors for people are pricing and support for the payment methods popular in your country (e.g. iDeal in the Netherlands, fast bank transfers in Poland etc.)
* Braintree (acquired by PayPal) * Checkout.com * Adyen (more enterprise oriented)
+ there are a lot of local players, e.g. Mollie is popular in the Netherlands, Payu and Przelewy24 are large providers in Poland, in China people pay with Wechat and Alipay, and in Indonesia with GoPay by Gojek
Stripe provides a lot of services besides payments, but if you just need a payment provide for your on-line shop, whether you go with Stripe or Braintree is not a very big difference. I mean sure, quality of documentation and customer service matters, but the 2 most important factors for people are pricing and support for the payment methods popular in your country (e.g. iDeal in the Netherlands, fast bank transfers in Poland etc.)
Przelewy24 and iDeal are supported on Stripe, too. (Among a variety of other payment methods not tied to a credit card.)
There's payment gateways before Stripe and there are payment gateways since.
Huge congrats, to say you've had an impact is an understatement.
Huge congrats, to say you've had an impact is an understatement.
Well done.
This reminds me of how I personally experienced the pain of writing payment code a year or so before Stripe came out, then quickly moved onto more fun stuff - exactly as described in the "Schlep blindness" essay - http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html
This reminds me of how I personally experienced the pain of writing payment code a year or so before Stripe came out, then quickly moved onto more fun stuff - exactly as described in the "Schlep blindness" essay - http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html
Wow, hard to believe how much the team lead by the collison's have achieved in only a decade...
Stripe was a sea change for those of us who implemented PayPal. It was so much better it seemed too good to be true.
I’ll be cheering for them until they get too huge and complacent, and then some brilliant startup will disrupt them and the cycle of nature will continue.
I’ll be cheering for them until they get too huge and complacent, and then some brilliant startup will disrupt them and the cycle of nature will continue.
So when are you guys IPOing so I can throw my life saving at your stock and forget it until I retire?
A decade of developer love, its 10 and never been binary with them.
Awesome job patrick and team
The launch thread:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3053883
Interestingly, unlike most HN launches, the majority of the comments were actually positive, instead of "why not just do X instead?".
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3053883
Interestingly, unlike most HN launches, the majority of the comments were actually positive, instead of "why not just do X instead?".
Probably because Stripe solved a problem to which there was not a great existing solution for
PayPal did that, Stripe was a good alternative with better documentation. They later expanded to many more features that are nice for small businesses.
CTR+F "paypal" in the launch thread. I don't view Stripe as visionary or a break through in payment processing, that goes to PayPal, but Stripe has a better user experience.
CTR+F "paypal" in the launch thread. I don't view Stripe as visionary or a break through in payment processing, that goes to PayPal, but Stripe has a better user experience.
I disagree. I use both Stripe and Paypal and Stripe is not just "better documentation". The APIs are far more reliable and stable, customer support is better with Stripe (in my experience) and overall, it is very friendly to developers. Paypal could HAVE eaten Stripe for lunch but considering their shitty way of doing things, they never bothered to improve. They are the incumbent but Stripe is far better.
> They are the incumbent but Stripe is far better.
This was my point. PayPal disrupted the banks and ACH processors. Stripe perfected the UX/DX.
PayPal is much larger than Stripe, afaik it's net worth is more and it's revenue is 3x.
This was my point. PayPal disrupted the banks and ACH processors. Stripe perfected the UX/DX.
PayPal is much larger than Stripe, afaik it's net worth is more and it's revenue is 3x.
I think you're saying this, but wanted to expand on this. I find positivity/negativity of Show HN a useless heuristic. What's important is how constructive the comment is:
- "This is dumb and it'll never work"
vs
- "I'm you're target audience and I would never use this service because XYZ"
Both have negative sentiment but one is FAR more useful and should be encouraged.
- "This is dumb and it'll never work"
vs
- "I'm you're target audience and I would never use this service because XYZ"
Both have negative sentiment but one is FAR more useful and should be encouraged.
Not really. If you are my actual target audience you use my product, because despite my solution being shit, it's still filling a desperate need you have.
Then you come to talk to me about all your pain points afterwards.
Then you come to talk to me about all your pain points afterwards.
Sure, but what I’m in the audience you say that you intend to target, but I can see that I wouldn’t use the product?
That means you have a problem that you’d want to know about early.
A. You aren’t filling a need I have.
B. You aren’t showing that you’ll fill a need I have with enough clarity to motivate me to invest a bunch of time into the product.
C. Your description of your intended audience is low-specificity enough that I’d waste your sales time talking to them.
D. Your description of your intended audience is low-specificity enough that if you give it to half your engineering team, she will spend lots of effort building something misaligned with the other half.
That means you have a problem that you’d want to know about early.
A. You aren’t filling a need I have.
B. You aren’t showing that you’ll fill a need I have with enough clarity to motivate me to invest a bunch of time into the product.
C. Your description of your intended audience is low-specificity enough that I’d waste your sales time talking to them.
D. Your description of your intended audience is low-specificity enough that if you give it to half your engineering team, she will spend lots of effort building something misaligned with the other half.
> Sure, but what [if] I’m in the audience you say that you intend to target, but I can see that I wouldn’t use the product?
Early on, the entire target audience are customers and potential customers. The later I define as everyone that have not yet been talked to but would make the switch if they learned about the product in its current form.
Either you are a customer or a potential customer or you are just not that interesting.
Early on, the entire target audience are customers and potential customers. The later I define as everyone that have not yet been talked to but would make the switch if they learned about the product in its current form.
Either you are a customer or a potential customer or you are just not that interesting.
So you are not interested in the perspective of the following categories:
- People who would make the switch if the messaging about the product was improved
- People who would make the switch if the product had less friction
?
Your loss.
- People who would make the switch if the messaging about the product was improved
- People who would make the switch if the product had less friction
?
Your loss.
> So you are not interested in the perspective of the following categories:
That is correct.
The reason is that the number of people in the "I would make a switch if …" camp is large, and most of them are dishonest about their intentions – not deliberately, but dishonest nonetheless. They will never be customers, no matter what you do. Meanwhile you get distracted by random people on the internet instead of focusing on your actual customers or potential customers.
That is correct.
The reason is that the number of people in the "I would make a switch if …" camp is large, and most of them are dishonest about their intentions – not deliberately, but dishonest nonetheless. They will never be customers, no matter what you do. Meanwhile you get distracted by random people on the internet instead of focusing on your actual customers or potential customers.
> Meanwhile you get distracted by random people on the internet instead of focusing on your actual customers or potential customers.
This is super fair and requires some courage to stick to.
This is super fair and requires some courage to stick to.
[deleted]
No, if I use your product it's because I'm in your audience. If I'm merely in your target audience then there's no guarantee that your shots will hit the target.
Yea the hubris in thinking that if I don't actually use your product then I'm not your target is mind-blowing.
That's why it's a target, you're aiming for it, but always a chance you could miss.
Have any of y'all seen College Humor's CEO series? I laughed until I cried, I've met so many of these IRL.
Anyways the Venmo CEO spoof is what I'm reminded of here. It's not that users don't like the product/feature, it's that they are dumb and/or using it wrong.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl1USudaFHvka8yIKXlAd...
That's why it's a target, you're aiming for it, but always a chance you could miss.
Have any of y'all seen College Humor's CEO series? I laughed until I cried, I've met so many of these IRL.
Anyways the Venmo CEO spoof is what I'm reminded of here. It's not that users don't like the product/feature, it's that they are dumb and/or using it wrong.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl1USudaFHvka8yIKXlAd...
I am pretty sure the vast majority of comments in Show HN projects are mostly positive.
And yet to have a card payment go through successfully via them...
Hard to believe I've been waiting a decade to find out when they'll add support for my country. It's been almost two decades since Paypal did.
A decade has gone by and all they've managed are:
There are billions of people who stand to benefit from greater access to participation in ecommerce, but who are left out in the cold because banks won't give them merchant accounts. I once spoke to a banker who didn't know what a merchant account was.
Congrats on your success, Stripe. Please consider doing good with it.
A decade has gone by and all they've managed are:
US, Canada, Mexico
UK, EU
UAE
India
Singapore, Malaysia, Philipines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan
Australia, New Zealand
Brazil
There are billions of people who stand to benefit from greater access to participation in ecommerce, but who are left out in the cold because banks won't give them merchant accounts. I once spoke to a banker who didn't know what a merchant account was.
Congrats on your success, Stripe. Please consider doing good with it.
"EU" is like a couple dozen countries in and of itself, so all told you're looking at having expanded to forty something countries in a decade? Seems pretty good to me.
And I doubt their attitude is like, "oh yeah, eff Latin America and Africa, they can rot for all we care", presumably it's harder to roll out in poorer, less developed countries.
And I doubt their attitude is like, "oh yeah, eff Latin America and Africa, they can rot for all we care", presumably it's harder to roll out in poorer, less developed countries.
> "EU" is like a couple dozen countries in and of itself
From a regulatory standpoint (the big hurdle in fintech), not so, which is why I lumped them all together. A single team/office could handle all the EU countries.
> presumably it's harder to roll out in poorer, less developed countries.
On the contrary, the more developed a country, the more regulation and red tape there is to deal with in finance.
From a regulatory standpoint (the big hurdle in fintech), not so, which is why I lumped them all together. A single team/office could handle all the EU countries.
> presumably it's harder to roll out in poorer, less developed countries.
On the contrary, the more developed a country, the more regulation and red tape there is to deal with in finance.
This is just not true.
Tons of developing countries have super aggressive financial/general regulations, for example India requires all data be stored in-country so you can't shard across geozones [https://www.lawfareblog.com/key-global-takeaways-indias-revi...]. In fact, the countries with the most complex financial compliance are almost all developing [https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/five-of-10-most-complex-c...].
But the bigger thing is generally how advanced the existing finance infra is. Lots of countries have really slow bank transfers, processing a refund requires handing in physical paperwork, etc. Stripe relies on having underlying bank infra that's somewhat functional.
As far as the EU, the regulatory environment is manageble, but the payment landscape is very different from the US where Stripe originated. For example, in Germany only around 30% of users pay for stuff online via card [https://askwonder.com/research/german-market-what-s-breakdow...], that means for every country a ton of new payment methods have to be added for the service to be actually useful.
Tons of developing countries have super aggressive financial/general regulations, for example India requires all data be stored in-country so you can't shard across geozones [https://www.lawfareblog.com/key-global-takeaways-indias-revi...]. In fact, the countries with the most complex financial compliance are almost all developing [https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/five-of-10-most-complex-c...].
But the bigger thing is generally how advanced the existing finance infra is. Lots of countries have really slow bank transfers, processing a refund requires handing in physical paperwork, etc. Stripe relies on having underlying bank infra that's somewhat functional.
As far as the EU, the regulatory environment is manageble, but the payment landscape is very different from the US where Stripe originated. For example, in Germany only around 30% of users pay for stuff online via card [https://askwonder.com/research/german-market-what-s-breakdow...], that means for every country a ton of new payment methods have to be added for the service to be actually useful.
It's not like they haven't looked at the region (re: Africa, at least)
https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/paystack-joining-stripe
Both having invested in the Series A, along with eventually acquiring 'em.
https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/paystack-joining-stripe
Both having invested in the Series A, along with eventually acquiring 'em.
It's a pity Alipay was hamstrung by an impotent Winnie the Pooh. It could have been a great catalyst in the belt-and-road region, waking US payment companies to the opportunities in this region.
I'm glad Stripe is a making small steps.
I'm glad Stripe is a making small steps.
I am very sorry to hear that because of this: https://www.jbschirtzinger.com/post/stripe/
I don't think Stripe deserves to be a major player since they are acting like the Gestapo.
I don't think Stripe deserves to be a major player since they are acting like the Gestapo.
A took a quick look through your email thread.
From your first communication it's a very combative communication style and it continues that way to the end.
"By the way, lest you think Kelsey was being super considerate above, she made sure to time several of her messages so that they arrived at three and four AM to make it rather harder to reply. Sometimes timing can be a quasi-malicious act."
Business may need to determine if its worth doing business with a customer. For stripe, it may simply not have been worth trying to business with you. The good news - TONS of other providers in this space, including for very high charge back industries (adult, tatoo, strip clubs etc) so you should be able to get services if needed.
From your first communication it's a very combative communication style and it continues that way to the end.
"By the way, lest you think Kelsey was being super considerate above, she made sure to time several of her messages so that they arrived at three and four AM to make it rather harder to reply. Sometimes timing can be a quasi-malicious act."
Business may need to determine if its worth doing business with a customer. For stripe, it may simply not have been worth trying to business with you. The good news - TONS of other providers in this space, including for very high charge back industries (adult, tatoo, strip clubs etc) so you should be able to get services if needed.
It was odd that they came back telling him used books sales was crowdfunding. They seemed to get that wrong. After that it was a bunch of useless corporate spam emails of the like you get from an App Store review or similar.
We don't know that they considered used books crowdfunding. It may have been other stuff on the site.
It also looks like the site changed from the initial email to later emails but the author is confused as to why stripe is confused.
http://www.beitesheldonate.org/ was maybe first website? Then a books website?
What can happen is they look into things more closely and see they are doing donations perhaps without a clear exempt entity (ie, not setup as a charity) or any number of things.
Anyways, to say that stripe should be shut down and is the "Gestapo" seems a bit misplaced. The crimes and methods of the Gestapo were truly horrific if you pay attention to WWII history - I'm still having trouble connecting stripe's behavior to the Gestapo.
It also looks like the site changed from the initial email to later emails but the author is confused as to why stripe is confused.
http://www.beitesheldonate.org/ was maybe first website? Then a books website?
What can happen is they look into things more closely and see they are doing donations perhaps without a clear exempt entity (ie, not setup as a charity) or any number of things.
Anyways, to say that stripe should be shut down and is the "Gestapo" seems a bit misplaced. The crimes and methods of the Gestapo were truly horrific if you pay attention to WWII history - I'm still having trouble connecting stripe's behavior to the Gestapo.
We don’t know. We also have only his selection of a subset of the emails.
His description seems very clearly a bookstore. He even names a book.
The rejection is very vague. Maybe he got more detail later. It would be helpful if for example it’s a non exempt entity, they specifically told him that so he could decide to remedy or appeal if they were incorrect.
His description seems very clearly a bookstore. He even names a book.
The rejection is very vague. Maybe he got more detail later. It would be helpful if for example it’s a non exempt entity, they specifically told him that so he could decide to remedy or appeal if they were incorrect.
It was another site that used Stripe as a payment processor for used books that donated the proceeds into the church. The site changed because after several years of this kind of behavior from Stripe and elsewhere, I dissolved the LLC that formed it. It is a kind of religious discrimination.(unless you buy Stripe's weird crowd sourcing explanation and if you do, I've got a swamp I'd like to sell you to build a house on)
I am quite cognizant of what the Gestapo did. They discriminated slowly but surely on the basis of the religious identify of people who were Jewish. Our church was Messianic Jewish as was indicated on the site. Some of our members had, in fact, relatives in the Holocaust.
I am quite cognizant of what the Gestapo did. They discriminated slowly but surely on the basis of the religious identify of people who were Jewish. Our church was Messianic Jewish as was indicated on the site. Some of our members had, in fact, relatives in the Holocaust.
If they had said it isn't worth doing business with you say, four years ago, your point might persuade me.
As to my communication style, you are entitled to your opinion. I won't cut your credit card off because you voiced it.
As to my communication style, you are entitled to your opinion. I won't cut your credit card off because you voiced it.
An ounce of tact would help you so much. It's not that you're wrong, it's that you know how you're being and you don't do anything to help yourself and still expect a better outcome.
So let me get this straight--if I freeze your bank account on the basis on what you believe and blow some kind of smoke about why I actually froze the account--you are going to be extremely tactful in that situation?
Given the absurdity of the situation, I was tactful.
Given the absurdity of the situation, I was tactful.
They probably thought you were crowdfunding when they went onto the website and it said "Money. We always need money. Right now our funding goal is $50,000."
Stripe is the processor here: https://givebutter.com/blog/free-fundraising-sites
I fail to see how they might have gotten confused. They clearly allow fundraising or else they wouldn't be a partner with givebutter.
I fail to see how they might have gotten confused. They clearly allow fundraising or else they wouldn't be a partner with givebutter.
These fundraising platforms use Stripe Connect. It’s not a apples-to-apples comparison, because individual fundraisers are essentially their own Stripe accounts. What seems to be forbidden is fundraising under a single Stripe account for disparate purposes.
Well I am glad you mentioned that, because my old site used donorbox which then WENT into stripe, so it was apples to apples.
As other have said here, Stripe was one of those things that just made sense. As a web developer I was tired of jumping through the many hoops of authorize.net or praying that people would complete the purchase path on PayPal. When Stripe came out I (apparently) jumped immediately on it and haven't looked back. It is the only payment solutions provider I offer my clients or use on my own projects.
But the larger impact it has had on me is that it gave me that much more faith in HN as a source of emerging technology solutions. I still comb through batch announcements or check out Show HNs to see what's coming, because I feel like there's a good chance another Stripe is launching today. And it's just as cool that Patrick Collison still is involved in HN. Thanks pc and the rest of you all at Stripe!