When Stripe goes public they need to let customers participate in IPO just like Square did. That was awesome.
Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
221–230 of 463 posts
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
German checking in. One of the reasons why it’s hard to get us to use a CC is that many of us don’t have credit cards. And why would we? (Except for online payments and other fringe cases.) However, Stripe offers SEPA direct debit, which is usable with any European bank account and may work better for you. EDIT: This seems to have sparked some confusion. I'm not saying Germans don't do card payments, I was only speak…
I used to live in Poland (so just across the border from Germany) and now I'm a UK resident, and your question is really baffling, since in both of these countries people use (contactless) card payments for pretty much everything. Germany is definitely an outlier and your comment doesn't really explain why. Is this a cultural thing, regulatory issue, or maybe banks colluding to protect their interests?
Probably a cultural thing.
Debit card means you're responsible and take money out of low/zero interest checking account at the principal bank where we Germans hoard our money.
Credit card means you're on shaky financial ground, deal with credit card companies with their fine print, risk punitive overdraft charges, and have probably no idea if you have any money left.
Sadly, things are changing and many people seem to take on irresponsible loans (i.e. for anything except real estate).
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
We've noticed a few things -- - Enterprises pivoting -- brands going direct-to-consumer, malls pivoting to online business models (seriously), and other things like that. - SMBs going online: see this thread[0] from a French fruit seller, for example, or this thread[1] from a bar in Milwaukee. The restaurant down the street from where I used to live is now running a rapidly-growing online wine club. - Totally new sta…
We started https://do.delivery/ to offer an online ordering option to locked down businesses, using Stripe Connect. Now all I can think about is other ways to use Connect. Many established businesses have broader e-commerce needs but I’ve seen farmers offer vege boxes and meal packs to great local support. Many smaller businesses are wary of investing much to start.
What did you build the landing page with? Looks very nice.
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to live in Poland (so just across the border from Germany) and now I'm a UK resident, and your question is really baffling, since in both of these countries people use (contactless) card payments for pretty much everything. Germany is definitely an outlier and your comment doesn't really explain why. Is this a cultural thing, regulatory issue, or maybe banks colluding to protect their interests?
Swede here. Really baffling for me too. My kids have pretty much never even seen cash. I use the nationwide app Swish to send money to people using their phone number (almost every Swede is connected since it's pushed by all big banks) and only use contactless credit card. How come Germany is so cash positive? Personally I think Sweden has gone a bit far, where some old people have been put in a weird spot where they…
Germans tend to take on very low levels of debt (speaking broadly). There are lots of hypotheses about the psychology behind it: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-31369185
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#225I'm very happy with Stripe and for their success, but I plan on switching all my payments to go through PayPal again. I did some math and PayPal offers a better deal for Canadian businesses after Stripe bumps me off of their grandfathered conversion fees in a couple months. I love the slick interface, but it's simply not worth the thousands per year I'll be saving with the switch. For me the main selling point for an…
I've worked for FreshBooks and three other invoicing or payment related companies, and I have lots of friends that work at Shopify or run online stores. Billing through PayPal is playing with fire. They can and do freeze accounts and it can take months to get the issue resolved. It will probably be fine, of course, but I've seen it happen and personally, if I were in a high margin business, I'd stick to Stripe. Espec…
What about Braintree?
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate like I'm 5? Just very high level for those of us who only know "they charge a flat fee and a percent which makes microtransactions hard". What are the strategies/thoughts in the industry? Holding and batching payments on a per-user basis? Trying to get agreements so you can batch payments on a per-processor or per-network agreement? Hourly? Daily? Weekly?
> Just very high level for those of us who only know "they charge a flat fee and a percent which makes microtransactions hard". That's pretty much the story :-). And so the questions are then whether we subsidize the transactions, batch them (as you say, though that makes refunds and statement descriptors tricky), get card networks to change their policies, or somehow shift how the payments are made (e.g. encouraging…
I'm honestly a bit surprised credit card companies haven't been more open to the option of lowering the cost of microtransactions, since that seems to be what the Internet's moving towards as a whole.
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you're not. I was very happy with Stripe for a few years. As my business grew and I looked at where I could cut costs, I asked around and Braintree's model was going to save me 1% per transaction. At my volume that was going to add up to thousands of dollars in savings a month over Stripe. I went back to Stripe to see if they'd be willing to match Braintree's pricing, because I was happy with them over the years…
This is at larger volumes right? Base level of both seems to be 2.9% + 30 cents
Yes
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Swede here. Really baffling for me too. My kids have pretty much never even seen cash. I use the nationwide app Swish to send money to people using their phone number (almost every Swede is connected since it's pushed by all big banks) and only use contactless credit card. How come Germany is so cash positive? Personally I think Sweden has gone a bit far, where some old people have been put in a weird spot where they…
Having many currency crashes going back to post ww1 probably is one of the causes - and maybe a more healthy if cynical view of government.
Currency crashes favor debtors, don't they?
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you're not. I was very happy with Stripe for a few years. As my business grew and I looked at where I could cut costs, I asked around and Braintree's model was going to save me 1% per transaction. At my volume that was going to add up to thousands of dollars in savings a month over Stripe. I went back to Stripe to see if they'd be willing to match Braintree's pricing, because I was happy with them over the years…
Right up to when your account gets frozen PayPal looks fantastic.
I use Braintree, money gets transferred directly to my bank, skips Paypal, but yea I agree with you I would NEVER have my income in a Paypal account for even 1 second.
Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great feedback... thank you. In case it's useful, some context on them: On (1), we started an FX team this year. (There are a lot of legal complexities here around how the funds move, who has title to what at which moment, and so on.) But we're investing significantly in improving it and it should get better soon. On (2), the core issue is card network pricing rules -- by design, they discriminate on the basis of whe…
Isn't FX a done deal based on how TransferWise is able to do it. Maybe you guys can collaborate with them and make payouts in any currency possible atleast in countries where there are no Forex restrictions like Hong Kong.
Please no. TransferWise is terrible at customer support and internet is full of horror stories of people founds being frozen. The are the new incarnation of good ole’ paypal. You will get your account frozen the moment you wire more than$1,500 as per my own experience with 3 different businesses giving them a chance.
I hope Stripe which is amazing will never have anything to do with TransferFraud.