71–80 of 292 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they just did something better than everyone else Wow, HN's ability to dismiss and diminish major accomplishments continues to astound me.
You think saying "a really amazing case of a business [that executed] better than everyone else" is dismissive and diminishing?
I know the Collisons are brilliant founders and I have long admired Stripe (I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code) but it's kind of unfortunate how founder lore really minimizes employees. Stripe has 4,000 people working there, this article mentions only two other employees in passing (the CPO and CFO). Surely many others were brilliant contributors to Stripe's becoming a $95B uni…
It's far easier to tell the story of a handful of people than of thousands. The only successful approach to the latter is selecting some at random and telling their stories - but that still leaves most people out. I think it's an interesting and hard problem to tell a comprehensive story about a large group, but I'm not really sure if it can be done. Even Howard Zinn focused on (usually unsuccessful) opposition leaders more than the everyman in his narrative! In any event, I'd love to see someone succeed at making such a narrative, not necessarily about Stripe, but about anything really.
I know the Collisons are brilliant founders and I have long admired Stripe (I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code) but it's kind of unfortunate how founder lore really minimizes employees. Stripe has 4,000 people working there, this article mentions only two other employees in passing (the CPO and CFO). Surely many others were brilliant contributors to Stripe's becoming a $95B uni…
For the last five years, I’ve requested an Elixir client.
I wish they would either build one or greatly improve the docs for people who aren’t using one of their first party API client libraries. It’s not like Stripe lacks the resources.
In fact an argument could be made that ignoring all but the most popular handful of languages runs counter to their goal of increasing the GDP of the internet. Increased friction for adopting new and productive languages means fewer do and devs remain in a slightly more ossified ecosystem.
I know the Collisons are brilliant founders and I have long admired Stripe (I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code) but it's kind of unfortunate how founder lore really minimizes employees. Stripe has 4,000 people working there, this article mentions only two other employees in passing (the CPO and CFO). Surely many others were brilliant contributors to Stripe's becoming a $95B uni…
>it's kind of unfortunate how founder lore really minimizes employees It's far easier to tell the story of a handful of people than of thousands. The only successful approach to the latter is selecting some at random and telling their stories - but that still leaves most people out. I think it's an interesting and hard problem to tell a comprehensive story about a large group, but I'm not really sure if it can be don…
Admittedly the absurdity of the headline is what triggered the initial thought for me, but the article lived up to the headline in this case.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still don't understand what Paddle offers to SaaS. As a dev I thought maybe easier integration. But it doesn't seem all that different from Stripe Invoice.
They handle paying vat and sales tax for you. Your customers purchase from them. You make a single b2b invoice to paddle. That said their API is very basic and their UX is not on par with what you can. A lot of operations are not possible (eg. Letting users change their billing details, such as company or personal, vat number, etc) They also won't migrate your credit card data if you're too small. www.getrevin.com lo…
I know the Collisons are brilliant founders and I have long admired Stripe (I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code) but it's kind of unfortunate how founder lore really minimizes employees. Stripe has 4,000 people working there, this article mentions only two other employees in passing (the CPO and CFO). Surely many others were brilliant contributors to Stripe's becoming a $95B uni…
It's a really amazing case of a business going into a crowded space and building a solution to what anyone would have called a thoroughly-solved problem and still managed to disrupt it. They didn't really "invent" anything or make a new market, they just did something better than everyone else. And, I think, got incredibly lucky with entering the market at the exact right time.
> they just did something better than everyone else Wow, HN's ability to dismiss and diminish major accomplishments continues to astound me.
I also found this to be a somewhat shallow analysis, considering their sustained success over a decade.
I know the Collisons are brilliant founders and I have long admired Stripe (I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code) but it's kind of unfortunate how founder lore really minimizes employees. Stripe has 4,000 people working there, this article mentions only two other employees in passing (the CPO and CFO). Surely many others were brilliant contributors to Stripe's becoming a $95B uni…
> I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code For the last five years, I’ve requested an Elixir client. I wish they would either build one or greatly improve the docs for people who aren’t using one of their first party API client libraries. It’s not like Stripe lacks the resources. In fact an argument could be made that ignoring all but the most popular handful of languages runs counte…
Paddle as a lot of restrictions on what to sell and what not.
> Wordlessly offered a credit card reader, Collison says he’d rather pay cash. Wonder why. Competitors’ device? Privacy concerns?
wonder if it's privacy concerns like Zuck taping over his webcam
It could also be some petty competitive instinct to stiff his competitors even a few cents or dollars in revenue.