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What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

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Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#211

Post by andrea_sdl »

ptman wrote: post #210
mchusma wrote: post #122

I mean this in the most constructive way possible. As a stripe customer for 6 years, I effectively only care about reducing transaction costs. Period. Stripe's core business is being a part of a "credit card sales tax" that is substantial. Much of this is the fault of Visa/Mastercard/Amex, but that is the problem-space they exist in. Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. If they want to "mak…

Adyen is probably cheaper, but maybe not enough to matter: https://www.adyen.com/pricing

Adyen has also high requirements for companies in terms of volumes, so it's an alternative but available only to a subset of companies

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#212

Post by mam2 »

billclerico wrote: post #177
singhrac wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another phrasing of what jackdeansmith says, but this is not right: > Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. Payments is taking on a short term risk that the (slow) transaction between a customer's bank and a vendor's bank will not settle, because of (a) fraud, (b) chargeback-like issues, (c) insolvency. This isn't exactly right, but overally its not quite 0 risk without crypto, which…

One thing that often gets overlooked with respect to payments is consumer preference (and this is actually the primary driver of cost). Why do credit cards cost 2-3% to process? Because of expensive rewards programs given to the consumers who use the card. Why are there expensive rewards programs? Because consumers like them! And they insist on paying with a credit card because of them. Except in edge cases, merchant…

Its 2% in europe too where theres no real reward programs.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#213

Post by wolfgke »

billclerico wrote: post #177
singhrac wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another phrasing of what jackdeansmith says, but this is not right: > Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. Payments is taking on a short term risk that the (slow) transaction between a customer's bank and a vendor's bank will not settle, because of (a) fraud, (b) chargeback-like issues, (c) insolvency. This isn't exactly right, but overally its not quite 0 risk without crypto, which…

One thing that often gets overlooked with respect to payments is consumer preference (and this is actually the primary driver of cost). Why do credit cards cost 2-3% to process? Because of expensive rewards programs given to the consumers who use the card. Why are there expensive rewards programs? Because consumers like them! And they insist on paying with a credit card because of them. Except in edge cases, merchant…

> Why are there expensive rewards programs? Because consumers like them! And they insist on paying with a credit card because of them.

That is very US-centric - for example, this all does not hold in Germany (many people are actually still cautious of credit cards there).

> Payment costs won't materially decrease unless someone invents a form of payment that consumers prefer which doesn't have these cost burdens.

In the EU, there is: SEPA direct debit.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#214

Post by reader_mode »

hakfoo wrote: post #198
singhrac wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another phrasing of what jackdeansmith says, but this is not right: > Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. Payments is taking on a short term risk that the (slow) transaction between a customer's bank and a vendor's bank will not settle, because of (a) fraud, (b) chargeback-like issues, (c) insolvency. This isn't exactly right, but overally its not quite 0 risk without crypto, which…

Couldn't much of this be scaled back if we removed some of the layers and intermediaries? If we had a single state-run bank (even if it were just as the fulfillment "back end" behind different consumer-facing servicing organizations), then a transfer would occur on a single ledger in a matter of milliseconds, rather than waiting for the East Podunk Bank, Trust, and Pork Cannery to pull a batched update file over a T-…

Your basic assumption is that you only have one government involved - and that's ignoring all the technical issues.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#215

Post by skrebbel »

singhrac wrote: post #132
mchusma wrote: post #122

I mean this in the most constructive way possible. As a stripe customer for 6 years, I effectively only care about reducing transaction costs. Period. Stripe's core business is being a part of a "credit card sales tax" that is substantial. Much of this is the fault of Visa/Mastercard/Amex, but that is the problem-space they exist in. Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. If they want to "mak…

This is another phrasing of what jackdeansmith says, but this is not right: > Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. Payments is taking on a short term risk that the (slow) transaction between a customer's bank and a vendor's bank will not settle, because of (a) fraud, (b) chargeback-like issues, (c) insolvency. This isn't exactly right, but overally its not quite 0 risk without crypto, which…

This is just credit card stockholm syndrome. Nearly all the risk you mention is because of the insane and greedy design of credit cards.

In most of Europe, people pay with debit cards and the money goes straight off their bank accounts. If there's insufficient funds, there's no purchase. If the network fails, there's no purchase. If your bank goes bust 5ms before your purchase would clear, there's no purchase. I'm no banker and I'm sure there's some risk somewhere, but it's really not very much.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#216

Post by eigenvector »

arcticbull wrote: post #195
digianarchist wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies like GoCardless exist for this reason. Problem is that fraud is still a thing and cash payments over the internet aren’t possible.

Interac Online in Canada offers this, for Canadian merchants with Canadian customers. It’s basically cash over the internet. Makes sense you wouldn't have tried this if you weren’t :) [1] [1] https://www.interac.ca/en/consumers/products/interac-debit/e...

Interac Online appears to have been deprecated by most major Canadian banks in favour of Visa Debit. My understanding is the Visa Debit cards issued by banks like TD and Scotia are dual-mode: transactions will be processed through the Interac network when possible, with the lower Interac fees applying, and through the Visa network otherwise.

I don't know if the merchant fees for Visa Debit are any different to using a Visa credit card.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#217

Post by phist_mcgee »

thaeli wrote: post #180
billclerico wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that often gets overlooked with respect to payments is consumer preference (and this is actually the primary driver of cost). Why do credit cards cost 2-3% to process? Because of expensive rewards programs given to the consumers who use the card. Why are there expensive rewards programs? Because consumers like them! And they insist on paying with a credit card because of them. Except in edge cases, merchant…

At many American gas stations, (I don't know how applicable this is in other countries) there is a lower "cash" price because the station doesn't have to pay credit card fees on the transaction. It's less convenient, because you have to park, go to the cashier, give them cash, go back to your car, fill up, go back to the cashier, get your change, and then go - versus put credit card in pump, fill up, go. It's ultimat…

I personally never understood the America style of paying for petrol first, and then presumably getting a refund at the end? As an Australian, I remember filling up in the US and the whole system baffled me (especially because the US bowsers did not accept my Australian Mastercard). Here, we just pull up, fill up, pay, and then leave.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#218

Post by _where »

This is a great read, but for the feedback, I stopped here: “I cannot say this enough: pick your peer group wisely because you’re giving them write access to both your conscious thoughts and your entire worldview.”

I’ve heard this, but here there’s an ulterior motive, which may not benefit. Stripe benefits from startups, and if you hangout with successful professionals and mentors and people that don’t bring you down, that will probably make the startup community successful and that in turn will help Stripe grow.

But would you ignore your family member that needs your time and attention? How about your friend that seems to be tanking? If Warren Buffett were to have serious health problems, I seriously doubt Bill Gates would be like “whatever- I don’t have time for that.” He’s going to be there. Because that’s what you do. Sure, there are times when you need your space, and friends change, or tend to abuse. Maybe you need to withdraw some, get off of social media. But, being a fair weather friend or family member just because someone else is not on their A game or never was is B.S.

I’m not discounting the advice; if you’re only goal is to have what is generally perceived to be worldly success, having only peers that boost you is a way to do it. But the greatest person that ever lived had a bad friend that got him killed. He wasn’t like, “sorry, I have dinner plans.”

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#219

Post by webmaven »

borroka wrote: post #158
pc wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two somewhat separate issues, I think. (1) The practical reality that a lot of people will have a suboptimal experience until we (both "we Stripe" and "we the industry") figure out more scalable ways to assess people. We'll do the best we can to identify promising people but a lot of people will get something somewhat functionally equivalent to a form rejection. You could argue that this is merely a priorit…

"The practical reality that a lot of people will have a suboptimal experience until we (both "we Stripe" and "we the industry") figure out more scalable ways to assess people." It is not inevitable and there are company that do recruiting better and other worse. For example, asking for a cover letter at Stripe and then ghosting people liberally even after multiple rounds of interview does not sound tremendously good…

> I understand that working with recruiters is hard (who ever said: I know a recruiter who is a genius? Or even the lesser: I know that recruiter, they are brilliant), but respecting candidates should be a priority of any organization.

Generally speaking, the same sort of superlatives used for high IQ aren't used to describe high EQ, but we probably should.

I have interacted with a few recruiters (not at Stripe, I've never applied there) who were off-the-charts in their ability to make people feel comfortable and at ease, occasionally even in the face of truly horrendous processes and systems failures.

Also, it's an interesting signal when you get ghosted by the hiring manager (bosses boss of the team lead I would have been reporting to) and the recruiter re-initiates communication to apologize and get things back on track.

I still never got that job, but that was basically because "Remote OK" really meant "Remote OK in theory because we like the idea of paying a lower salary, but in practice it's only 'OK' for overqualified candidates that we can't convince to relocate, or maybe a relative of ours", and definitely not the recruiter's fault (it turns out that the hiring manager wasn't a good fit for the organization. Go figure.).

I did get some really good chocolate chip cookies as a consolation prize, though.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#220

Post by daveoc64 »

skrebbel wrote: post #215
singhrac wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another phrasing of what jackdeansmith says, but this is not right: > Payments are transferring bits, and should be effectively free. Payments is taking on a short term risk that the (slow) transaction between a customer's bank and a vendor's bank will not settle, because of (a) fraud, (b) chargeback-like issues, (c) insolvency. This isn't exactly right, but overally its not quite 0 risk without crypto, which…

This is just credit card stockholm syndrome. Nearly all the risk you mention is because of the insane and greedy design of credit cards. In most of Europe, people pay with debit cards and the money goes straight off their bank accounts. If there's insufficient funds, there's no purchase. If the network fails, there's no purchase. If your bank goes bust 5ms before your purchase would clear, there's no purchase. I'm no…

Fraud is still possible with debit cards.

Chargebacks are also still possible. Disputing them is expensive.

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