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Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

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Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#271

Post by ummonk »

dang wrote: post #59
dvt wrote: post #16

> The reality… if you stand in their way, they will do more than compete with you head on. Flushed face They will use every power move imaginable. Blocking you from capital, media, talent. And funding competitors just to get back at you. Pretty sure this is how business is done. I don't really get people getting into business and then complaining when it gets real. You think Stripe got to be a billion-dollar company…

I've only ever heard of tens of thousands of views. Maybe it breaks 100k sometimes. I mean, we don't track who clicks on what links, but we do track HN page views and you can't click on what you don't see. So, millions of views from an HN post is off by two orders of magnitude. Unfortunately! (or maybe fortunately)

Wow, I would have assumed it's significantly higher than tens of thousands of views, given how often websites get hugged to death. I guess people really skimp out on hosting plans.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#272

Post by jeffwhitlock »

greatjack613 wrote: post #216
dang wrote: post #184

His claims about HN are false. Short version: his post was 2+ hours later than Stripe's, not an hour earlier, and fell in rank because users flagged it, not because moderators did anything (which I suppose is what his mafia/mob language was intended to imply). The longer version is going to involve a tedious barrage of links, but I want this to be something that people can check for themselves if they care to. Quotin…

Honestly the fact you felt the need to try to answer up the claims by throwing dirt at one single point that they made makes it clearer to me then ever that the claims are true. Everyone knows that the best pr strategy when your being attacked by someone who's claims appear true to anyone who has their eyes open is to keep quiet and let it pass, instead you blew this up. I now believe them. Congratulations.

This logic is very strange to me...

"Someone can disprove specific claims with hard evidence, but because they did so, the original claim must be accurate."

I don't think "everyone knows" that if a post making baseless claims about you is going viral, and you have concrete proof to dismiss some of the claims, that you should just "keep quiet."

Perhaps in some cases, perhaps not in others.

In this case, the integrity of this forum was called into question, and I think a transparent response is warranted and effective.

But... to each their own.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#273

Post by wglb »

vmception wrote: post #91
sailingparrot wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can someone confirm? Hover over the dates in the links. Stripe's post [1]: 17:41 UTC Bolt's [2]: 20:08 UTC Considering this is the only thing he claimed to have "proof" on, and it turns out not only to be false but to be the actual opposite, this is really damning for the rest of his claims. If that was such a traumatizing event, how can one not think of checking the timestamp once in 4 years to at least know if yo…

Can we check internet archive? The database entries could be modified easily Not to entertain the conspiracy, I’ve just done it before so it comes to mind

The database entries could be modified easily

A strange an unfounded accusation.

I collected both of these stories when they came in:

  * 16869290 2018-04-25 21:25:32 Stripe announcement
  * 16870692 2018-04-25 21:33:27 Bolt announcement
This is immune to any database fiddling. These files are on my own server.

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#275

Post by squeaky-clean »

jyriand wrote: post #226
Graffur wrote: post #207

I actually came across Bolt's founders twitter the other day. He was promoting how he saves time by being efficient. Funnily enough all the comments were along the lines of "you forgot time to actually live your life". I clicked through to his profile and found Bolt. I went to the homepage but I wasn't able to tell what exactly it was. From this post I understand it to be a Stripe competitor. I think Stripe will be v…

What's even more confusing is that https://bolt.eu is an Uber-like service in Europe. Too many bolts.

>https://blog.unity.com/news/bolt-visual-scripting-is-now-inc...

Bolt is also the visual programming language which the Unity game engine acquired in 2020. When I saw the HN title, my first thought was "Why does a video game scripting tool founder care about Stripe and YC?"

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#276

Post by infamia »

dang wrote: post #249
infamia wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have a fixed mindset, have chosen a side in a debate, and actively participate in a story where you have a vested self-interest, you cease to become what this community loves about you -- the impartial gardener of HN. At this point, you've become a YC defender and have abandoned your post as someone who could serve as a balanced arbiter. Surely, there are other people at YC who could comment on such matters…

I appreciate your comment! but I really don't think that's the right conclusion. I've been doing this for years—people know what to expect from me. I'd rather be up front about the fact that I care about HN and YC, and don't like to let false accusations go unanswered. To some extent it's a temperament thing. Past experiences (long before HN) have conditioned me to be a bit passionate in this department, and with a c…

Thank you for your thoughtful comment and the links. Very helpful! Three thoughts in response:

- The appearance of unfairness is arguably at least as important as actual fairness from a community perspective. If you're being fair, but no one thinks believes it, the community suffers as though it were true. During this story, people were openly questioning your motives (even though the original story was apparently not factual) because they perceived unfairness.

- Choosing not to engage on certain topics and leaving that to other people in no way prevents you from connecting and engaging with the community naturally. Not engaging throws cold water doubt (unfounded though they may be) before it has an opportunity to smolder.

- There are lots of new community members, who could easily get the wrong idea. They don't know you like many (like myself) who have seen how you interact with the community, and in whom you've built up a large reservoir of trust.

The role you play in this community is very special and incredibly important to me and many others. Thank you so much!

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#277

Post by nkmnz »

joshstrange wrote: post #256
bmc415 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just curious - why are you moving away from stripe?

Pricing and pricing only. The flat fee is one of the biggest killers. $0.30/per makes it near impossible to offer certain features and 2.9% is decently high (and that's before you turn on any other services). Instead I'm able to get ~2% (varies by card, some are higher, some are lower, but I'm just paying the interchange fee + a small percent to the processor) and zero flat fee on the transaction. EDIT: Just to expan…

Insightful. Would you mind talking about where you move your payment processing?

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#279

Post by joshstrange »

nkmnz wrote: post #277
joshstrange wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pricing and pricing only. The flat fee is one of the biggest killers. $0.30/per makes it near impossible to offer certain features and 2.9% is decently high (and that's before you turn on any other services). Instead I'm able to get ~2% (varies by card, some are higher, some are lower, but I'm just paying the interchange fee + a small percent to the processor) and zero flat fee on the transaction. EDIT: Just to expan…

Insightful. Would you mind talking about where you move your payment processing?

CardConnect [0] is what I'm going to use. They aren't as flashy as Stripe but they support everything I need:

* JS/Web tokenization (via iframe + postmessage)

* iOS/Android SDK to work with an array of in-person readers

* Apple and Google Pay support

* And then all the API endpoints to charge a card, create a customer, etc that you would expect

[0] https://cardconnect.com/

Re: Bolt founder on Stripe/YC

#280

Post by yaseer »

"i'm glad we're finally talking about this because the first time i met patrick collison he said "hey, nice to meet you, tell me about your startup" and then halfway through my pitch he waved over his guy silently and they busted my knee caps with a tire iron.

...his guys were paul graham and roelof"

https://twitter.com/nealkhosla/status/1486024266252390400

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