21–30 of 87 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stripe has a feature explicitly designed to support this scenario. https://stripe.com/connect
Nice! That looks like just what I need. Either it didn't exist when I last researched the issue, or I somehow missed it. Thanks!
My idea for paying for open source code would be to auto-scan your codebase, find all open source projects, let you set a donation amount ($5, $10, $100, $1000) per month, and it would auto-donate to every project. Then give you a nice tax writeoff summary for the non-profits. Obviously many details to work out, but I could see a company willing to pay $500 per month if it was easy to donate to all the tools and proj…
I wrote an app that had a similar idea based on GitHub stars. It was a crummy MVP. I gave out $1 to 100 different open source authors. Not one of them passed it along and made a donation to someone else. That was disappointing, really.
I had an idea for a competitor in the Patreon space a couple of years ago, but with a twist that I feel would have made "patrons" much more comfortable with the whole thing. I even registered a domain, started on some coding, and consulted with some designers. But it quickly became apparent that financial gateways (credit cards, Paypal, etc) are hostile to the idea of allowing me to charge customer A, keep a cut, and…
Here's my experience so far:
Adyen.
Overwhelmingly hostile to startups. All telephone numbers get routed to support. So if you call sales, someone in support answers. The individual who answers the phone also has very basic knowledge of their product line.
Each office that I contacted (US, Europe/London and Europe/Amsterdam. All gave differing reasons why I was not suited. Where it last ended, because I wasn't doing $1m a month. I was not a suitable candidate for their services. Even though someone in the London office did mention I could email my business plan in, although there was no chain of custody and who knows who would be looking at it or when they would come back to me. I think they were really saying that to make me feel better.
So really. How can I get to $1m/month, if I cannot start?
Braintree.
Had good response with braintree, was about to pull the trigger. But then their marketplace solution has been superseded by paypal's new offering of marketplaces.
Paypal.
Called their business team and been forwarded to partnerships. Can't get a hold of their partnership team as they don't have an email or telephone number. 14 days has passed by and all I'm looking for is a simple yes or no. I have filled in their contact form (3 weeks ago) here: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/partner-program/contac... But never hear anything back.
Stripe.
Even though this was my initial provider to go with. It's currently a non-starter and I am leery to approach them. With no actual phone number to contact them on and previous email exchanges being less than steller and not having someone who actually could understand the business model. Note: Shopify is doing the same for heavens sake (yes I am frustrated lol).
Additionally, I am not in the US, so there is also the extra hurdle of having to go through stripe atlas. But again, not really wanting to forward my business plan into the void.
If Stripe had a phone number that I can call, I would investigate that possibility. Can't really understand when I can call lots of other finance companies. I can't get hold of Stripe directly.
Worldpay.
Didn't understand my business model. Even though they promote themselves as being able to deliver complex solutions. It was determined that they could not support my marketplace.
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Finally, if anyone is reading this and is from an acquirer in the US or perhaps from the companies mentioned above. Or perhaps a partner of stripe-atlas so I don't have to wait two weeks/direct contact. Please let me know. My forecast is that there will be a tipping point in the first year where I will be doing $5m a month.
The sad part here. The development of the platform/marketplace. This was the easy part. The difficult part, is finding someone high-up enough the ladder to see that they will be on-boarding a company who their closest competitor is now doing $100m a year. Where that competitor is tiny in the overall competitive space.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stripe has a feature explicitly designed to support this scenario. https://stripe.com/connect
Nice! That looks like just what I need. Either it didn't exist when I last researched the issue, or I somehow missed it. Thanks!
We're in the process of integrating connect and when we started, it is was not a full-blown product yet.
Kinda surprised they picked that name considering Drip [1] has been around for a while. [1] https://www.drip.com/
Yeah, the name is all kinds of weird. If I give someone money through Drip am I Dripper? Sounds gross.
This analogy isn't getting any better.
As the article mentions, there are many players in this area and time will tell how Kickstarter leverages their brand to succeed, especially as it is an invitation list only (for now). Some interesting thoughts from Perry Chen (Kickstarter Co-founder and Chairman): “If you look at a lot of companies, it’s COO, CMO, blah, blah, blah,” Chen said. “But look at a museum. You might have a CEO or director, but then you mig…
I haven't read the article, but the branding absolutely sucks. When trying to generate income, Drip, is hardly the connotation I'd want. They should have gone with Flood or Tide. Something big and powerful MADE of Drips. I get what they were going for, but it seems like a tone deaf misfire. EDIT: And, as u/aronarduino pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the name is already taken (and the TLD drip.com) by a well est…
Drip is also UK slang for a boring, unimpressive person :|
My idea for paying for open source code would be to auto-scan your codebase, find all open source projects, let you set a donation amount ($5, $10, $100, $1000) per month, and it would auto-donate to every project. Then give you a nice tax writeoff summary for the non-profits. Obviously many details to work out, but I could see a company willing to pay $500 per month if it was easy to donate to all the tools and proj…
I wrote an app that had a similar idea based on GitHub stars. It was a crummy MVP. I gave out $1 to 100 different open source authors. Not one of them passed it along and made a donation to someone else. That was disappointing, really.