Live data from Hacker News

The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

forbes.com

261–270 of 292 posts

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#261
post #218
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Senior engineers would make NFL wages That is an absurd exaggeration, unless by "senior engineers" you are including people who do a lot more than "just" engineering, e.g. build companies, build products, etc. The reason NFL wages are so high is not just that they bring in a lot of money, it's that the players are to a large extent irreplaceable. If you take the, say, 500 most talented players in the US at a give…

> If you take the, say, 500 most talented players in the US at a given time, you can't just replace them with the next 500 most talented players and get the same outcome I genuinely believe that a league made of the 500-1000 rank players would be just as (or at least almost as) entertaining as one with the top 500 players. Relative rank is what matters and it's why NCAA March Madness is so popular despite being made…

> I genuinely believe that a league made of the 500-1000 rank players would be just as (or at least almost as) entertaining as one with the top 500 players.

This is a popular enough theory that it's been tested multiple times. In the successful cases, the rival league still ended up trying to poach the top players and ended up merging with the other top league. In the less successful cases, the league went out of business.

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#262
post #238
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Or you can grab some torches and sharp objects and hold them to his throat and change the terms of the negotiation. Do all of your employees at From Day One own a portion of the company? Why shouldn't they "hold sharp objects to your throat", as the founder, to get a better deal than what they agreed to? If not, why not?

If they believe they’ve exhausted all other avenues for positive change, and if I personally have subverted and taken over roles best left to a democratic government, then of course they should. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. If they grow weary of the existing power structure and have not been given the ability to meaningfully participate in the institutions that govern the…

You're re-contexualizing an Abraham Lincoln quote about the government to justify threatening the life of a private citizen. If you have an issue with the government not doing what you feel is its job, then maybe you should petition the government instead of advocating for some bizarre lynch mob (that, ironically, would be put down swiftly by the very government you should be petitioning). That's how "exhausting all other avenues" actually works.

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#263
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair: all laws are legal fictions enforced by the pointy end of a stick. Could just as easily end up with totalitarianism.

Now you’re getting it. So when a small group of people has seized control of the laws it’s time to resort to the pointy end of the stick. The laws are there to protect the people from those who seek to enslave them not the other way around.

[deleted]

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#264
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair: all laws are legal fictions enforced by the pointy end of a stick. Could just as easily end up with totalitarianism.

Now you’re getting it. So when a small group of people has seized control of the laws it’s time to resort to the pointy end of the stick. The laws are there to protect the people from those who seek to enslave them not the other way around.

>it’s time to resort to the pointy end of the stick.

Are you planning to commit an act of political violence? Do you have weapons?

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a wealth-sharing problem as well. I don't know much about stripe, but think of Bezos as a pretty good example - to a O(n) rounding he has 100 billion dollars and 1 million employees. Why is he getting 100,000 from each employee? I used to work for Amazon. I did not give Jeff Bezos $100,000. In fact, I actually made money out of the deal.

By its nature, you get more value out of an employee than you pay in wages. Otherwise, there would be no point to hiring anyone.

On average that is true, but certainly employees who make minimum wage contribute a higher percentage of their salary than someone who earns 6 digits, to the point that the weapon who earns 6 digits may actually come out ahead depending on how many employees there are

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#266
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the financial fallout of not having an experienced leader at the helm. Sure, it would coast for awhile without a leader, and I'm sure someone will try to explain to me how it could be run completely democratically, but eventually a competitor with a competent leader would eat their lunch.

I know one or two democratic countries that are doing OK despite being democratic. Democracy doesn't have to be leaderless: we have a good few hundred years of experience in running entities many times more complex than a company using democratic processes, appointing leaders by vote etc.

I don't want the companies providing essential goods and services to run as inefficiently as governments do. It would be disastrous.

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#267
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the solution to "uneven tax structure" always to raise taxes? can we just lower income tax to same as capital taxes instead? Thats real money in your pocket.

Because most of the time when there's an "uneven tax structure" it's because one special interest group got themselves a tax break. Specific penalty taxes are quite rare.

relatively, all payroll taxes are tax penalties, and also income taxes relative to capital taxes

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#268
post #262
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they believe they’ve exhausted all other avenues for positive change, and if I personally have subverted and taken over roles best left to a democratic government, then of course they should. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. If they grow weary of the existing power structure and have not been given the ability to meaningfully participate in the institutions that govern the…

You're re-contexualizing an Abraham Lincoln quote about the government to justify threatening the life of a private citizen. If you have an issue with the government not doing what you feel is its job, then maybe you should petition the government instead of advocating for some bizarre lynch mob (that, ironically, would be put down swiftly by the very government you should be petitioning). That's how "exhausting all…

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it."

Pretty sure the owner of the largest pile of wealth ever assembled and the top political newspaper in the country fits well within the framework of this country's institutions.

There's nothing bizarre about a mob coming for the assholes who hoard all the wealth and consign the masses to subsistence level existence. In fact this dynamic is probably the most enduring concept in human history.

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#269
post #268
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're re-contexualizing an Abraham Lincoln quote about the government to justify threatening the life of a private citizen. If you have an issue with the government not doing what you feel is its job, then maybe you should petition the government instead of advocating for some bizarre lynch mob (that, ironically, would be put down swiftly by the very government you should be petitioning). That's how "exhausting all…

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it." Pretty sure the owner of the largest pile of wealth ever assembled and the top political newspaper in the country fits well within the framework of this country's institutions. There's nothing bizarre about a mob coming for the assholes who hoard all the wealth and consign the masses to subsistence level existence. In fact this dynamic is pr…

[deleted]

Re: The Collison Brothers Built Stripe into a $95B Unicorn

#270
post #268
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're re-contexualizing an Abraham Lincoln quote about the government to justify threatening the life of a private citizen. If you have an issue with the government not doing what you feel is its job, then maybe you should petition the government instead of advocating for some bizarre lynch mob (that, ironically, would be put down swiftly by the very government you should be petitioning). That's how "exhausting all…

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it." Pretty sure the owner of the largest pile of wealth ever assembled and the top political newspaper in the country fits well within the framework of this country's institutions. There's nothing bizarre about a mob coming for the assholes who hoard all the wealth and consign the masses to subsistence level existence. In fact this dynamic is pr…

Is this how you really feel about the Fortune 500 companies that participate in your From Day One conferences? That their leaders should be lynched?
Post reply on HN