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Stripe acquires Clerky

clerky.com

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Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#41

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

benatkin wrote: post #17
hibikir wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing just payments is a really low margin industry, and the larger the contract you are after, the lower the margins. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to try to sign up startups, as their growth is your growth. And to win in the startup market, you don't win by lowest costs, but by how much generic work you can save them. Cut their headaches, and they'll be happy giving you a wider cut. Thus, a million little acqu…

AI is making it a low-moat industry too. It's a lot quicker to build some API docs, a behavior tracking JavaScript library, and some fraud detection, with LLMs.

> some fraud detection

Fraud detection is really, really, really, really hard so I would probably stick with someone like Stripe for this, as they have so much data that they can do a really good job.

And fundamentally, the moat for Stripe isn't just the front-end APIs, it's all the work that they do (and there's a lot) in connecting together financial infrastructure. Even if you could wave a magic wand and generate all the code Stripe has (which you can't, currently) then you'd still need to build out all the partnerships, which is a lot of work.

Disclaimer: former Stripe (though only a tourist), still hold some of their shares.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#42

Post by theowaway213456 »

ksec wrote: post #38

Clerky: We help startups and attorneys get legal paperwork done. I wish all smaller startup that is being acquired by big fish would start their blog by stating what they do first. So that hopefully we get a little bit of context of what is being sold and what it might add in the future. Every single time I had to click around and look at what they do and what are their competitors to help understand the company.

It's the second sentence of the blog post.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#43

Post by andunie »

ksec wrote: post #38

Clerky: We help startups and attorneys get legal paperwork done. I wish all smaller startup that is being acquired by big fish would start their blog by stating what they do first. So that hopefully we get a little bit of context of what is being sold and what it might add in the future. Every single time I had to click around and look at what they do and what are their competitors to help understand the company.

Thank you, yes. I wish that too. I had never heard of this Clerky before now.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#44

Post by andunie »

Stripe and Clerky are two companies that wouldn't exist of it wasn't for the existence of draconian government regulations.

Imagine how much capital and work hours society would be saving.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#45

Post by echelon »

theowaway213456 wrote: post #42
ksec wrote: post #38

Clerky: We help startups and attorneys get legal paperwork done. I wish all smaller startup that is being acquired by big fish would start their blog by stating what they do first. So that hopefully we get a little bit of context of what is being sold and what it might add in the future. Every single time I had to click around and look at what they do and what are their competitors to help understand the company.

It's the second sentence of the blog post.

When faced with a wall of text, I make a decision to either find the homepage (which I did this time) or click back to the HN discussion.

I've been bitten far too many times by low info density wall of text.

I think this is many people's algorithm.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#46

Post by lbriner »

andunie wrote: post #44

Stripe and Clerky are two companies that wouldn't exist of it wasn't for the existence of draconian government regulations. Imagine how much capital and work hours society would be saving.

That's not true. We will always have laws and to someone without the training, the legal side is best left to professionals.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#47

Post by apercu »

I feel like I am repeating myself a lot lately, but I think that the "middle class" of software/tech companies is being eroded as fast as the middle classes of North American societies. The oligarchs just buy everything since they can no longer innovate.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#48

Post by ElProlactin »

rattray wrote: post #36
HPMOR wrote: post #4

Clerky is great, Stripe is really buying all of the great product companies. I feel like with Clerky and Stripe Atlas they, Stripe now controls all of the early incorporation infrastructure now. This feels deeply problematic.

I've used https://delawareinc.com/ to incorporate several companies over the years, and always had a good experience. Their website looks pretty old-school but it works well and their service is very prompt. So I wouldn't Stripe controls all of the early incorporation infrastructure – just the flashy stuff (which I'm sure is great too). (disclaimer: former Stripe employee)

Yeah, it's not even close. Stripe Atlas is a very small part of the market. It doesn't mean the product isn't good but every year, over a million new businesses that are formed and of those that are incorporated, I'd guess that a very small fragment are incorporated through Stripe Atlas.

Re: Stripe acquires Clerky

#49

Post by ElProlactin »

brianwawok wrote: post #7
georgel wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> controls all of the early incorporation infrastructure You don't need to rely on Stripe to do anything. There are other payment gateways, and you can file things yourself (or hire someone). Do they make things very easy and accessible for a smaller fee than doing it yourself, yes.

In fact Atlas and their push to be a C-Corp is a bad play for us small timers

A C corporation can still make a lot of sense for a small business depending on the nature of the business and the interests and needs of the owners.

C corps can offer a lot of advantages in terms of shareholder and employee benefits, particularly around healthcare, and QSBS is a huge benefit for qualified businesses and owners who might one day sell the business.

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