Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

kalzumeus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 280 posts

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#231

Post by netcan »

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 true.

But what the comment is advocating for is systemic change/disruption. In that context, the whole complex (bank settlement, chargebacks, insolvency) are a single thing. There are always reasons for things being the way they are, but that doesn't mean that things can't change.

As the OP says, payments move bits around. There is no fundamental reason why this should represent such a big slice.

Besides technical challenges, and whether or not these can be overcome... I think the greater hurdle is entrenched structure and entrenched interests. Stripe is, at this point, a part of that. They have an overwhelming microeconomic interest in payments remaining a large "tax."

Imagine an imports "agent." Her job is to get your goods into country X and navigate the labyrinth of rules, chaos, fees and taxes on your behalf. The whole game costs Y. She earns a % of Y. She may have more, and more nuanced complaints about the labyrinth than anyone but... If Y becomes less, she will earn less.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#232

Post by phist_mcgee »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #228
phist_mcgee wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is common in Europe too. I guess the point from the retailers point of view is that they eliminate the risk of you driving off without paying. It's extra annoying on a motorbike where you only have a rough idea of what your fuel level is and you absolutely need to fill it to the brim (typically you only get 150-200 miles out of a tank). At least in a car you can wait until you have a quarter of a tank and the pu…

But why not have security cameras that record your face/license plate? People steal fuel here every so often, and you can be damned sure that the police will knock on your door asking about it within 24 hours.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#233

Post by bambax »

ve55 wrote: post #3

What a wonderful advertisement for working at Stripe. The impact of long-form well-written essays like this is huge, and fits perfectly with the theme of the essay itself about helping others succeed at scale. I like the personal notes included a ton, e.g. mentioning that he has struggled with depression personally, which I wouldn't have guessed, even if naively so. Being open and helpful with those topics helps a lo…

6,000 words is a bit long though. I wonder how many people read it through.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#234

Post by emodendroket »

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…

The rewards points are nice but the primary reason I use a credit card is that it's a convenient way to pay and if someone is somehow able to fraudulently use the card they're not directly debiting my bank account.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#235

Post by netcan »

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…

>>Please Stripe, work on reducing the costs to transact online by 1-2 orders of magnitude, where it should be.

I agree with the could and should. Payment costs could be a tiny fraction of current. It is a tax. I'm dubious of the who. Stripe is now a big player. They're have no interest in turning their $X00bn sector into a $Xbn sector.

Incidentally, I think the current economy harbours a lot of sectors that could be orders of magnitude smaller. This has always been a debate in the financial sectors. Today though, there are some (IMO) less ambiguous sectors/companies.

Does facebook actually need $70bn in revenue to operate facebook. Could it be done on $7bn? To me, it seems like an obvious yes. Quite a glaring inefficiency, IMO.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#236

Post by emodendroket »

ForHackernews wrote: post #230
markdown wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do all American gas stations make you fill up your own gas?

IIRC, Everywhere except Oregon and New Jersey, where it's illegal to fill your own gas tank and petrol stations still have an attendant.

Not quite. Some gas stations choose to have full service even when not legally required, and some municipalities require an attendant when the state they're in does not.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#237

Post by emodendroket »

phist_mcgee wrote: post #217
thaeli wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There was an explosion of people driving off without paying like ten years or so ago, when prices were very high, and they changed to the pay-first system. It used to work the way you described.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#238

Post by emodendroket »

phist_mcgee wrote: post #232
VBprogrammer wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is common in Europe too. I guess the point from the retailers point of view is that they eliminate the risk of you driving off without paying. It's extra annoying on a motorbike where you only have a rough idea of what your fuel level is and you absolutely need to fill it to the brim (typically you only get 150-200 miles out of a tank). At least in a car you can wait until you have a quarter of a tank and the pu…

But why not have security cameras that record your face/license plate? People steal fuel here every so often, and you can be damned sure that the police will knock on your door asking about it within 24 hours.

They have those too.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#239

Post by emodendroket »

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…

You can do that here but in the not-very-rare event of fraudulent use you have less protection and there's zero benefit beyond compensating for not being able to control your own spending. So I can't really see any reason why I'd use it.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#240

Post by names_are_hard »

_where wrote: post #218

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…

> But the greatest person that ever lived had a bad friend that got him killed. He wasn’t like, “sorry, I have dinner plans.”

Is this a reference to a well known figure? I'm trying to think about who this might be and I'm drawing a blank. Who was the greatest person that ever lived?

Post reply on HN