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What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

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Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#111

Post by megaremote »

foldr wrote: post #76
spudlyo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was optional, but it was definitely encouraged. A manager a level above my manager would rub his hands together and say things like "really looking forward to reading that shipped email!" whenever I told him about what I was working on. They also made it fun. One manager conspiratorially told me were two schools of thought around what made a great shipped email; copious footnotes or funny gifs, and jokingly told m…

> A manager a level above my manager would rub his hands together and say things like "really looking forward to reading that shipped email!" whenever I told him about what I was working on. That doesn't sound optional at all. From my point of view, making things fun isn't fun. Watching a comedy routine is fun. Writing one isn't.

There are things you have to do for work, such as showcases. You can make them fun, or you can not. Yes, it dos not compare to a comedy routine or watching Airplane. That isn't really the point.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#112

Post by alexcnwy »

xrd wrote: post #15

The most fascinating part of this article is the idea that Stripe is spending time thinking about unlocking potential in Internet businesses in Japan. A tough nut to crack. The revolution is happening in all these countries, but if Stripe can move the needle in Brazil and Japan and other places where entrepreneurship currently requires more grease/graft, that'll really be interesting.

I’m in Tokyo right now for work (my startup NumberBoost won an innovation competition with NTT Japan) and it’s so wild how simultaneously forward and backward things are here.

On the one hand, there are so many things they do here that make me feel like they’re in the future. On the other hand, every fifth person has a flip phone, the WiFi sucks, you can’t buy a travel SIM card at the mall, and there are CD/DVD stores everywhere.

I can’t help but feel part of their problem is how unwilling most local Japanese people I’ve met here are to break the rules.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#113

Post by alexcnwy »

alexcnwy wrote: post #112
xrd wrote: post #15

The most fascinating part of this article is the idea that Stripe is spending time thinking about unlocking potential in Internet businesses in Japan. A tough nut to crack. The revolution is happening in all these countries, but if Stripe can move the needle in Brazil and Japan and other places where entrepreneurship currently requires more grease/graft, that'll really be interesting.

I’m in Tokyo right now for work (my startup NumberBoost won an innovation competition with NTT Japan) and it’s so wild how simultaneously forward and backward things are here. On the one hand, there are so many things they do here that make me feel like they’re in the future. On the other hand, every fifth person has a flip phone, the WiFi sucks, you can’t buy a travel SIM card at the mall, and there are CD/DVD store…

For example good luck getting mayonnaise with your fries at any of the fast food chains here. They have mayonnaise and they put it on burgers but they “CANNOT” give (or sell) it to you in a separate container for your fries.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#114

Post by Silhouette »

ikeboy wrote: post #56
epa wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bank declines are 10-20% of total card volume, depending on industry.

Most of those are going to be straightforward insufficient funds or fraud though, I'd assume?

Sadly, your assumption is incorrect. Some of the time, as a merchant, you do get a specific indication of problems like insufficient funds or an expired card. The problem we're talking about here is all the other failures, where you just get some entirely unhelpful generic code that translates roughly to "declined, for reasons we're not going to tell you". From personal experience, this second group can often represent the much larger share of total failures.

When a generic code comes back, you don't get your money, but in a not insignificant number of cases, you do get an upset customer contacting you to ask why their payment didn't go through when their card should be fine and they've been using it with you for a year now and they just used it this morning at their local store with no problems. You can understand their frustration.

The reality is that most people don't realise how horribly unreliable the card payment infrastructure we rely on actually is. They can and will blame the merchant who declined their card if they don't know of any reason that it shouldn't have worked. Even if they don't blame the merchant explicitly, having their card declined causes a lot of people some embarrassment, and that is not a reaction you want associated with your store or service if neither you nor your customer has done anything wrong.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#115

Post by aboutruby »

retromario wrote: post #97
patio11 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many (tens of percent of engineering, etc); we are taking steps to materially increase the number.

I checked out the list of remote engineering jobs after reading your (fascinating) article but unfortunately they all seem to be restricted to North America. Is this a time zone issue or a legal issue? Are there plans to expand remote jobs to other regions (like Europe)?

> Stripe is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Dublin, London, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, and more

That's probably the countries where they can hire remotely. It would seems in my experience with other companies that even if they don't advertise non-US remote roles (probably to prevent a large influx of applications from all over the world, most of which invalid due to no-offices there) they will accept candidates that are better than the US counterparts (but still US-based workers have an advantage).

Would love an answer from Stripe/patio11 though.

Also in the case of Stripe, it seems like they are making an engineering hub in Singapore: https://stripe.com/blog/singapore-eng-office

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#116

Post by opportune »

alexcnwy wrote: post #112
xrd wrote: post #15

The most fascinating part of this article is the idea that Stripe is spending time thinking about unlocking potential in Internet businesses in Japan. A tough nut to crack. The revolution is happening in all these countries, but if Stripe can move the needle in Brazil and Japan and other places where entrepreneurship currently requires more grease/graft, that'll really be interesting.

I’m in Tokyo right now for work (my startup NumberBoost won an innovation competition with NTT Japan) and it’s so wild how simultaneously forward and backward things are here. On the one hand, there are so many things they do here that make me feel like they’re in the future. On the other hand, every fifth person has a flip phone, the WiFi sucks, you can’t buy a travel SIM card at the mall, and there are CD/DVD store…

I noticed this too, a lot of Japanese society feels like it's stuck in the 90's. Even the little things like the graphics made for ads. Probably has something to do with having a conservative culture and the demographics/economic issues that began becoming a problem around then

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#117

Post by ztratar »

dvduval wrote: post #90

Definitely not my favorite credit card processor. For starters, I will not earn any money if I refer my customers to stripe. It's already a non-starter at that point.

I'm a Stripe employee & would like to know more about your POV here.

What other processors pay you for referring your customers, and whom are your customers?

Very curious. Since processing is a low-margin business, it's really rare to see referral bonuses, especially the type you're describing. If we do have room to open up a program like this, I could mention it internally.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#118

Post by jacques_chester »

spudlyo wrote: post #32

I left Stripe a little over 6 months ago to join an exciting startup with a number of my friends. What I miss most about working there is the culture of shipping. There are a number of 'shipped' email lists at Stripe where people can tout their accomplishments large and small. These lists are widely read and commented on, and folks put in a fair amount of effort making their "shipped" emails informative and entertain…

At work (Pivotal) there's a "Drumbeats" mailing list which I subscribe to. Various teams post there to describe what they're doing.

The company has grown so much larger since I joined that I have found the Drumbeats to be a godsend. It helps me feel connected to the breadth of what's going on, which would be physically impossible otherwise.

I guess a time will come when there are too many Drumbeat emails to keep up with (it sometimes feels that way -- I've gotten better at skimming). I don't know what I'll do then.

We also have a What We Learned This Week list. It's gone a bit quiet lately, which is a shame, because there were some amazing war stories posted.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#120

Post by thwarted »

foldr wrote: post #76
spudlyo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was optional, but it was definitely encouraged. A manager a level above my manager would rub his hands together and say things like "really looking forward to reading that shipped email!" whenever I told him about what I was working on. They also made it fun. One manager conspiratorially told me were two schools of thought around what made a great shipped email; copious footnotes or funny gifs, and jokingly told m…

> A manager a level above my manager would rub his hands together and say things like "really looking forward to reading that shipped email!" whenever I told him about what I was working on. That doesn't sound optional at all. From my point of view, making things fun isn't fun. Watching a comedy routine is fun. Writing one isn't.

This is so absolutist. You must have a boring life. Sometimes it's about making things fun, sometimes it's about making fun things, and sometimes it's about both.

Driving a car is fun. Building a custom hotrod isn't.

Going to the museum is fun. Learning to paint isn't.

Playing a video game is fun. Writing a video game isn't.

Going to a concert is fun. Playing a gig isn't.

Eating is fun. Gardening isn't.

Oh, wait, none of that is universally true.

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