111–120 of 295 posts
I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20
They are getting sued by TD Bank for this very reason: > The bank said in the court filings that the interface "dupes" consumers into believing they are entering personal information into TD Bank's trusted platform. > "In reality, however, consumers are unwittingly giving their login credentials to the defendant, who takes the information, stores it on its servers, and uses it to mine consumers' bank records for valu…
These investors have reputations to protect. This type of thing would certainly come out in diligence:
"How do you gain access to the customer's account data with their bank?"
"We impersonate their bank."
"Do you tell them you do this?"
"No."
"Ok, that's probably fine."
How in the hell does this conversation pass muster?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's almost like startups have non technical workers that also have an equity stake in the companies they work for. This comment strikes me as almost entirely out of touch. No one expects these results, most people never see a startup they work for successfully exit let alone to the tune of billions. "Being in the right place at the right time" sure it's partly that but if you think you're getting there without some…
Everyone works hard, and yes some work harder than others. And no one is saying that tech workers randomly won the lottery and should shut up and just be grateful. But to imagine that suddenly having the fruits of your labor yield 10-100x the wealth that others in life can ever hope to produce, and think that it's just your hard work and not a function of having been blessed both with good talents and an environment…
Most people in startups are not lucky (relatively to others in the US economy of similar job positions) they actually generally make less than people in established companies and if they don't have a favorable exit are almost always numerically worse off than those who chose the stable path.
The reason I see people typically working in startups is more impact, freedom, the ability to quickly level up etc, but unless your company exits and you get paid from that exit no dice.
I've had friends who's shares were worth less than they paid for them when their company had an exit.
I continue to work in startups because I really find satisfaction in it, (right now trying to get my own off the ground) but I would triple my total compensation as an employee in most cases if I went to go work for one of the big players and that compensation is a real tangible thing not anywhere close of a gamble. It's actually somewhat of a problem right now in how do founders attract good talent for that reason.
I think you simply have an inaccurate picture of the majority of startups and the types of money in them.
I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20
Yes, awhile back my bank account was decoupled from Venmo for reasons unknown. I unwittingly used Plaid to sign into my bank account instead of the usual wait a couple days procedure. No indication whatsoever - only found out because I saw an article, probably on here, about this company and their basically fraudulent practices.
It is still called a "merger" if one company is buying out another company. Don't we normally call that an acquisition?
There is no legal process of an "acquisition". When somebody says acquisition they really mean reverse triangular merger. See https://witnesseth.typepad.com/blog/reverse-triangular-merge...
Lawyers refer to the field as "mergers and acquisitions" or "M&A" for short. A good bit of what good M&A lawyers do is navigate the various operational, strategic, tax, and other factors to find an optimal structure. Often, buyer and seller won't agree, as because stock and asset purchase carry different tax implications, and have to negotiate structure as part of a broader deal with potentially offsetting concessions.
Usage of "acquisition" and "merger" varies between lawyers, managers, and finance people. But it also varies among lawyers, and between states' laws. I'd recommend you just say "M&A". And try to stay out of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are getting sued by TD Bank for this very reason: > The bank said in the court filings that the interface "dupes" consumers into believing they are entering personal information into TD Bank's trusted platform. > "In reality, however, consumers are unwittingly giving their login credentials to the defendant, who takes the information, stores it on its servers, and uses it to mine consumers' bank records for valu…
I am sure I will be called naive, but this is shocking to me. I assumed that Plaid was integrating with the banks and not doing this sort of thing because of the people associated with Plaid. Their seed round included Spark Capital and Google Ventures. Their most recent round included Mary Meeker and Andreessen Horowitz. [1] These investors have reputations to protect. This type of thing would certainly come out in d…
That Visa isn't fighting this should validate that the government's antitrust enforcement has been lax. For a merger valued in billions of dollars, hiring even the best lawyers for a long fight would have been a rounding error. The only way this happens is for Visa's lawyers to think that the government would likely win.
It is strange that they're not fighting it harder. I wonder if Plaid identified a better exit strategy? Or if Visa is having some buyer's remorse over the $5 billion price tag and saw this as an easy out?
[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1334726/downl...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also, giving your credentials to any third party, including Plaid, voids the warranty at many financial institutions. If your account gets hacked and your money stolen, you may find out that the zero liability policy no longer applies to you. The trouble is, giving someone your account number also makes it not the bank's problem what they do with that number, even if it was clearly unauthorized by you. There's no g…
Yeah, banks could have done oauth2 years ago but it never happened.
It blows me away our legal system can prevent this but not a tech social media plutocracy?
I’ve some friends that works there, so I’m hesitant to say this, because I’m sorry for them, but Plaid is a terrible company. Their main product scrapes financial data from unsuspecting users that simply think they’re making a bank transfer and not signing away the privacy and security of their banking, 401k and trading information. https://twitter.com/seanieb/status/1298871471645761537?s=20