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I certainly understand the idiom, but it's probably useful to remember it in context. You never know when you may need to know the approximate weight of a gorilla, and relying on a faulty idiom may just bring you into harm's way :>
It's also not easy for big companies to change course, add features, iterate, or experiment. PayPal can't simply decide to shift its focus toward consumers, nor would they want to. This reminds me of an outstanding article I read some time ago which advised: "Attack your competitors' strengths , not their weaknesses." In other words, WePay might have failed if their goal was (for example) just to provide better custo…
Taking an example from the article, when Richard Branson joined the airline industry and took on British Airlines his main leverage was better customer service. They installed seat-back televisions in their planes and focused on hiring attractive and friendly stewardesses. Their product wasn't all that different from British Airlines, but they packaged it in a better way.
I think it would have been interesting to see if WePay was in the merchant-oriented business and see if they could have beaten paypal at their own game. It might sound crazy, but I think with the right marketing and company mantra it could be done.
Something I'd be very interested to hear about is how WePay is going to handle fraud. Fraud and abuse prevention is a huge part of what PayPal does and I would guess the major reason behind their atrocious customer service and the issues with groups like the Flux foundation. It seems like every other week on Reddit there is someone who says they have disease X or is raising money for disease X and would you please Pa…
Interview with Max Levchin in "Founders at Work" is a good read in this context. After long part about fraud and prevention of it:
Linvgston: So is PayPal in a sense a security company?
Levchin: I think a good way to describe PayPal is: a security company
pretending to be a financial services company.
So the company's core expertise, by definition, has to be in this
ability to judge risk.
Livingston: What did you do that your competitors couldn't?
Levchin: The really complicated part is figuring out the risk.Apropos, but not directly pertinent information: male Gorillas range in weight from around 200-400lbs. The Wikipedia entry on Gorillas says they've reached around 600lbs but those were very obese Gorillas in captivity. I certainly understand the idiom, but it's probably useful to remember it in context. You never know when you may need to know the approximate weight of a gorilla, and relying on a faulty idiom may jus…
I posted this as a comment on the blog, but it kind of disappeared... so whatever. I mentioned that sometimes the 800 pound gorilla isn't as slow or bureaucratic as you would think. With PostageApp, we have several large competitors (SendGrid and MailChimp) and they are frighteningly good at pivoting and offering new and exciting features. I'm having a really fun time watching the developments of all the players in o…
SendGrid and MailChimp might be large competitors relative to the size of PostageApp, but the scale difference is orders of magnitude less than the scale difference between WePay and PayPal. I counted 18 people on the "team" page of SendGrid, and MailChimp's website lists them as having about 70 people working for them. I haven't been able to find exact numbers of employees at PayPal, but I know it's easily into the…
There are other, much larger companies such as Exact Target, Eloqua, and Constant Contact, but they serve a different market and are not directly in competition with us.
Wasn't a completely accurate comparison, but just an anecdotal way for me to explain that not all competitors are slow. :)
Something I'd be very interested to hear about is how WePay is going to handle fraud. Fraud and abuse prevention is a huge part of what PayPal does and I would guess the major reason behind their atrocious customer service and the issues with groups like the Flux foundation. It seems like every other week on Reddit there is someone who says they have disease X or is raising money for disease X and would you please Pa…
> Fraud and abuse prevention is a huge part of what PayPal > does Interview with Max Levchin in "Founders at Work" is a good read in this context. After long part about fraud and prevention of it: Linvgston: So is PayPal in a sense a security company? Levchin: I think a good way to describe PayPal is: a security company pretending to be a financial services company. So the company's core expertise, by definition, has…
Seeing as how Mr. Levchin has actually invested in WePay I'm assuming that they are have some strategy for fraud prevention.
I hope I'm not alone, but it's impossible for me to differentiate what you do versus as something already provided by PayPal. PayPal was revolutionary, but WePay seems something that PayPal already provides. Borland (with their IDEs and Quattro) taking on Microsoft is akin to a little-guy taking on a 800lb gorilla. I fail to see the parallel here.
In time WePay may evolve to be revolutionary. Remember once upon a time all paypal was a peer-2-peer money transfer service.