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Samwers Clone Stripe

paymill.de

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Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#101

Post by dcaranda »

JCB_K wrote: post #37
Gring wrote: post #28

I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…

Funny that all 3 companies you mention are money-related, which is a tough nut to crack in most countries. There's so many rules and regulations which all differ from country to country that I think it's quite understandable for companies like these to focus on 1 country first. BTW, obviously all startups handle money in some way, but for these 3 it's a bit more complicated, as they're providing financial services to…

the regulatory environment variations between countries is a great point

to address the point more generally, the IFC (private investment arm of the World Bank) does a report ranking the ease of doing business across countries: http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#102

Post by wulczer »

_stephan wrote: post #96
wulczer wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ouch, that's a big minus from the point of view of an European company - not having to look for another app to generate invoices or futz around with generating your own was nice. The specific issue with Recurly that we had is that they silently changed their platform to perform VIES validation on all VAT numbers. While this makes sense for transactions with entities from outside of the merchant's country, validating…

Interesting. What are you replacing Recurly with?

Still evaluating. But we definitely don't want to stay there.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#103

Post by oskarth »

Gring wrote: post #28

I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…

I would say 43 million dollars is quite cheap to get a whole continent. It is not unlikely that it would've been more dangerous and more costly to do it themselves.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#104

Post by silvestrov »

aristidb wrote: post #52
eddie_the_head wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the wiring rates low, relative to other countries around Germany or otherwise? How are wire rates for wiring money from say the UK? Who are the primary wire transfer companies in use in Germany? Thank you for your time.

For individuals, wires are free. Businesses pay a few cents per wire. However, wires need about 2 days to process. That's the rates _from_ Germany to any EU country. So I wouldn't pay for a wire to France, but I don't know what a French person would pay to wire to me. The regulations only say that EU wires need to have the same price as national wires.

However, wires need about 2 days to process

This is how you pay: the bank earn the interest rate for those two days.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#105

Post by mmahemoff »

Gring wrote: post #28

I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…

Startups are motivated to change the world. Regulators are motivated to keep the world stable.

Note I didn't say regulators are motivated to not change te world. Many individuals performing regulation are well-intentioned and want to improve society, but their primary objective is to keep risk levels low.

On an individual level, startup founders have huge financial upside if their plans succeed. The regulator won't even see a bonus for that. No-one's going to say "well done on letting those guys launch here, here's a bonus for your efforts". The main financial incentive for the regulator is a safe retirement plan, and that only happens if nothing hits the fan.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#106

Post by moe »

rmoriz wrote: post #27
tzaman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but the problem is you still need a gateway, whereas with Stripe/Paymill, everything is included. Luckily, Braintree now supports EU as well.

You want a local, independent gateway and acquirer anyway (same jurisdiction, language, support…) which both Spreedly.com and Recurly.com support with http://www.WireCard.com/ In bad circumstances you don't want to lose all your payment infrastructure e.g. if paymill or stripe go out of business/have issues. That's why dealing with 2 parties may look odd but in the end it is worth the effort. If you have problems pay…

If you have problems paying the 50-100$ monthly fee, then your business is the problem.

Why should a scrappy startup pay an extra 50-100$ when it doesn't have to?

Why should a scrappy startup deal with the horrible paperwork of payment gateways on top of the horrible integration, when it doesn't have to?

You make no sense.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#107

Post by lobster_johnson »

aristidb wrote: post #2

That's a bit bizarre, because one would expect a German clone to support the payment variants that are far more popular than credit cards in Germany. EDIT: The biggest payment variant I was thinking of is direct debit (German: Lastschrift), which is highly convenient. However, wiring the money before getting the goods is also surprisingly popular here. Many people just don't have credit cards. (I do, but I also use s…

Does the German direct-debit system work with online payments?

We have the same direct-debit system in Norway, called BankAxept, which is managed by a consortium of banks; banks typically issue cards with both Visa and BankAxept built in. However, BankAxept does not work with online payments.

A new system, BankAxess, has been launched for online payments, but it has not been widely implemented yet, so most online stores offer payment by Visa/Mastercard. Visa/MC's fees are somewhat exuberant, so most stores also offer COD and payment by wire transfer as alternative options.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#108

Post by arkitaip »

GFischer wrote: post #83
arkitaip wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The challenges that finance related startups face on a global market are complicated and costly but to me the underlying problem is how startups are organized in the first place. You have a small team, often located in the valley or major US city, that expects to spend years working on developing their business model, product and infrastructure. Even if they are fabulously funded all efforts seem to be US centric bec…

You need to have found a viable business model, AND convince someone to partner with you, instead of cloning you - though it sounds reasonable that they would if you already have the infrastructure set up. That said, it is an interesting idea, I know of at least one startup founder that's trying to do just that.

Finding a co-founder is indeed challenging and I can see how an offshore co-founder must seem like an insurmountable challenge but I believe it's possible. There are countless of bright and driven people who are hungry for a cause, more meaning in their life or just being part of something grand. You can find and recruit these people but you should primarily focus on great ideas and passion and not equity, money, etc. Also, tech entrepreneurs are so savvy and global these days that you can expect to find them on all kinds of communities such as HN and use filter them out based on documented past experiences (e.g. Github, Stack Overflow), recommendations (LinkedIn) or their online presence (blogs, twitter). Challenging but not impossible and destined to become easier as our community, business and recruting online tools improve.

Ultimately it is a question of persuasion, to rally up interest and support for your cause and we've been doing this as long as we've been walking upright.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#109

Post by mmahemoff »

charlesdm wrote: post #62
rmoriz wrote: post #5

Looks like they're a PHP shop and only offer PHP client libs yet. Seems they didn't even understand the message Stripe has in kinds of developer focus. Also: Why would I use a payment service of the biggest copy cat company in the country ? To deliver them my revenue numbers on a silver plate so they can decide if they should "enter my market"? They don't even openly publish the upcoming fees and just want you to "ve…

I want European credit card billing _NOW_. Sadly, the only support german companies it seems. :-(

They have operations across Europe. Pretty likely they'll have plans to roll out everywhere soon.

What I'd like to know is which consumers are supported, and what's the experience like, e.g. for American consumers paying through this.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#110

Post by robk »

Gring wrote: post #28

I don't get it. Why do US net startups very often make the same mistake of not expanding into the whole world quickly? It took eBay something like 4 years to go to Germany, by which time there was a local clone there that proved to be uncatchable. The expensive result was that eBay had to buy the clone (Alando) for 43 million dollars to become relevant. Kickstarter is still US-only. Stripe as well. So are countless o…

To their credit, Fab.com is one of the few companies to have thought of international expansion somewhat early in their lifetime (~12 months). They've acquired in the UK and Germany to date. It may have helped that the CEO has lived in Germany before however and had more of an international perspective than the typical US-born founder.
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