It looks like Rakesh Agrawal was right, Paypal really is washed out.
Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
41–50 of 62 posts
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#42How is it that so many seemingly incredible people come out of PayPal, and PayPal still sucks so much? The all-star list is insane, it keeps growing, and yet PayPal still that can't seem to do anything new.
PayPal and eBay are hugely vulnerable. They've underinvested in infrastructure, their technology is old, and they've become slow and bureaucratic. Worst of all, their ideas are stale and the user experience is dreadful. PayPal's fat margins aren't justified by the service they provide, only by the lack of alternatives. But new alternatives are launching much faster than eBay can respond. Square has become a well-run,…
I am awaiting the announcement of SquareCash or CryptoStripe - where you have a walled currency garden where those participating in the Square or Stripe ecosystem can start generating CompanyCredits with which to spend within the ecosystem.
How would the valuation to user actually function?
Would one allot some % of their transactions to Square (above both fee and margins) into the pool. Then they earn various mechanisms to increase their pool share (including buy some/debting some from square) and then be able to use all of it as in-system credit? Where goods and services were exempt from taxation due to there being no "actual US currency transacted"?
It would be very interesting to see if such a system results in the truth that labor-resource is the true vector of tax - not money. Unless that is already established and I am just ignorant....
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#43It's interesting that according to the FT article mentioned [0] the license is for Europe - and they're talking with UK payments companies. I'm not sure about the rest of Europe, but in the UK I don't imagine a lot of interest - payments are easy by bank transfer. Paying to other European countries isn't great via the banks, I imagine most people use something like Paypal now. But I don't think international payments…
> Paying to other European countries isn't great via the banks
How so? With SEPA[1] it's both easy (European wide bank account number) and free (might not be the case if both accounts use different currencies though, but in euros it's free).
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#44How is it that so many seemingly incredible people come out of PayPal, and PayPal still sucks so much? The all-star list is insane, it keeps growing, and yet PayPal still that can't seem to do anything new.
Yes paypal 'sucks'. But the problem is not that it sucks. The problem is to do better . And it is quite possible that anybody that has ever tried to do better ended up with something that sucked even more than paypal. Combating fraud is hard, at scale with half the worlds petty criminals seeing you as the obstacle between them and their victims you're in for a rough ride. I wouldn't judge them too harshly. (Even if I…
True, combating fraud is very hard! And PayPal has used a very clever strategy there.
PayPal is changing now, a LOT. After David Marcus and Bill Scott, things are now in motion for the better! I'm sure in an year or two, we'll see PayPal in a much different way than what it is now.
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a problem with most large companies. Once you reach a certain size, you encounter problems with scaling. Paypal is such a big company the only way they and other companies like them innovate is by acquiring other companies and teams because it's cheaper and easier. The amount of friction within a company like Paypal I would imagine is quite high. Not even those at the top of companies like these can change th…
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6455951 I wonder what ended up happening inside PayPal since this post.
Original Poster from the linked thread, Same thing, different day. Most talented people I know have left or "left" (including myself to found my own company), there is a lot of internal Game of thrones. Some of us saw this coming (based on publicly disclosed stock unloading by David)
Now that DM is gone, I am very bearish on PayPal. Good news is he can now openly mentor and advice entrepreneurs in the space.
Shower thoughts: Maybe I should write a full blog post with all the spicy stuff! (with GOT memes)
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6455951 I wonder what ended up happening inside PayPal since this post.
Original Poster from the linked thread, Same thing, different day. Most talented people I know have left or "left" (including myself to found my own company), there is a lot of internal Game of thrones. Some of us saw this coming (based on publicly disclosed stock unloading by David) Now that DM is gone, I am very bearish on PayPal. Good news is he can now openly mentor and advice entrepreneurs in the space. Shower t…
So why did he give up? What do you think of Bill Scott BTW? What about Braintree?
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#47How is it that so many seemingly incredible people come out of PayPal, and PayPal still sucks so much? The all-star list is insane, it keeps growing, and yet PayPal still that can't seem to do anything new.
PayPal and eBay are hugely vulnerable. They've underinvested in infrastructure, their technology is old, and they've become slow and bureaucratic. Worst of all, their ideas are stale and the user experience is dreadful. PayPal's fat margins aren't justified by the service they provide, only by the lack of alternatives. But new alternatives are launching much faster than eBay can respond. Square has become a well-run,…
I agree with most of this post, except square and paypal play in pretty separate parts of the payments ecosystem. Square isn't at all competitive with PayPal's core business atm.
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Original Poster from the linked thread, Same thing, different day. Most talented people I know have left or "left" (including myself to found my own company), there is a lot of internal Game of thrones. Some of us saw this coming (based on publicly disclosed stock unloading by David) Now that DM is gone, I am very bearish on PayPal. Good news is he can now openly mentor and advice entrepreneurs in the space. Shower t…
So why did he give up? What do you think of Bill Scott BTW? What about Braintree?
One can only speculate. I would refer you to his statement, seems like he is more interested in "getting shit done" than getting drained by bureaucracy.
As for Bill Scott, its a 2 edged sword. I think he runs a good ship, and great guy if you are part of his team or enjoy his patronage or benefit his goals/vision. Him and his team understand technology, appreciate doing what they do. They are one of the forward looking tech teams at PP. But, it comes with usual red herrings though.
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I think Ebay will die by a thousand cuts. There won't be one grand disruption (except maybe Amazon or Alibaba), but there will be many small vertical disruptions, like Etsy. The real question is why Facebook is poaching from EBay and not vice versa.
Because they are failing to understand the importance of having smart people on board. I did an internship over there few months back. People are generally not motivated. They have below par hiring practices, especially in engineering.
As you were posting this ...
Another Exec Is Leaving PayPal: Senior Engineering Director
April Chang Goes To Eventbrite
Re: Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
So why did he give up? What do you think of Bill Scott BTW? What about Braintree?
One can only speculate. I would refer you to his statement, seems like he is more interested in "getting shit done" than getting drained by bureaucracy. As for Bill Scott, its a 2 edged sword. I think he runs a good ship, and great guy if you are part of his team or enjoy his patronage or benefit his goals/vision. Him and his team understand technology, appreciate doing what they do. They are one of the forward looki…
One can only speculate. I would refer you to his statement, seems like he is more interested in "getting shit done" than getting drained by bureaucracy.
I know, but why couldn't he fix it? That is the real question.