Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 147 posts

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#21

Post by preinheimer »

Aqua_Geek wrote: post #6
bbq wrote: post #2

Importantly they said within a year they will go public OR do a private market transaction to make employees liquid

That’s a LONG time (in total) for employees to wait for liquidity. Yes, they likely provided some opportunities for early employees to liquidate some of their holdings, but it’s got to suck to sit on that much funny money for so long.

They've had several options for employees to liquidate some of their holdings before now. They've generally only been open to current employees, but one a few years ago was also open to past employees.

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#22

Post by methodical »

rglover wrote: post #20
TekMol wrote: post #7

It's interesting that there is so much technology and third party business involved in the process of moving value. - Visa has a market cap of $463B - Mastercard $362B - PayPal $90B - Block $48B Could it theoretically all be automated?

Yes, with Bitcoin.

And by using Bitcoin to automate all these transactions you get a bunch of very cool features such as constantly being at risk of losing your life savings due to phishing, scamming, hacking, etc., etc., etc. unless you store a hard wallet in your intestines and memorize the recovery words (better hope you don't forget any or your life savings is gone!). The cool thing about all of this is that it's a feature of Bitcoin to be able to irreversibly lose your life savings, without any ability to recoup your losses.

All of this to say that Bitcoin is obviously the way forward for global transactions, despite the fact it processes transactions as slow as molasses and the only way to make it faster (Lightning Network) is to sacrifice the checks and balances that maxis praise as the hallmark of Bitcoin lol

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#23

Post by cschep »

rvz wrote: post #10

Maybe they should have IPO'd or directly listed in 2019 at the very peak when everyone else was rushing to the exit as I said before [0]. Of course this is also not in hindsight either. [1] Seems like they now don't want to wait anymore and just unload their shares into the market and especially onto retail investors. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32567217 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20993919

you know what they say.. hindsight is 2019.. :D

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#24

Post by darkerside »

TekMol wrote: post #14
timerol wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. (Channels patio11) As a society we have decided to delegate a bunch of responsibilities to the companies that move money. The most notable one is fraud protection. The companies that make this much money do so by pretending that a transfer of money is a clean, simple, and absolute thing. In reality it is messy, reversible, and fraud-prone. Being able to transfer $1B dollars as easily as you are able to transfer $…

I have been paying and being paid for decades now, and I have never involved a payment processor in a dispute I had with the other side. If arbitration is the reason these companies exists, it seems like bad deal. Maybe they sell an illusion?

Countering your own anecdata with my own, I have. To the tune of $5,000+.

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#25

Post by bgorman »

shawnz wrote: post #4
mguerville wrote: post #3

Interesting timing, wouldn't think it's optimal given macro conditions, but perhaps they don't want to wait however long it'll take to get back to the frothy markets

It's because the earliest RSUs they issued are expiring this year: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/stripes-early-stock-...

Wouldn't it be good for the company to let these RSUs expire? How does it benefit the company to make sure these exercise?

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#26

Post by Jakawao »

bgorman wrote: post #25
shawnz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the earliest RSUs they issued are expiring this year: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/stripes-early-stock-...

Wouldn't it be good for the company to let these RSUs expire? How does it benefit the company to make sure these exercise?

Employees tend to leave when a major portion of their compensation disappears.

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#27

Post by ball_of_lint »

bgorman wrote: post #25
shawnz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the earliest RSUs they issued are expiring this year: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/stripes-early-stock-...

Wouldn't it be good for the company to let these RSUs expire? How does it benefit the company to make sure these exercise?

Equity compensation and what it's valued at is a big factor in choosing to work at Stripe. If they start letting RSUs expire, it will make ~everyone value their equity significantly less; Stripe would likely have significant difficulties finding and retaining talent.

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#29

Post by [deleted] »

bgorman wrote: post #25
shawnz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the earliest RSUs they issued are expiring this year: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/stripes-early-stock-...

Wouldn't it be good for the company to let these RSUs expire? How does it benefit the company to make sure these exercise?

[deleted]

Re: Stripe sets one-year timetable to decide on going public

#30

Post by rglover »

methodical wrote: post #22
rglover wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, with Bitcoin.

And by using Bitcoin to automate all these transactions you get a bunch of very cool features such as constantly being at risk of losing your life savings due to phishing, scamming, hacking, etc., etc., etc. unless you store a hard wallet in your intestines and memorize the recovery words (better hope you don't forget any or your life savings is gone!). The cool thing about all of this is that it's a feature of Bitco…

> And by using Bitcoin to automate all these transactions you get a bunch of very cool features such as constantly being at risk of losing your life savings due to phishing, scamming, hacking, etc., etc.

All lies.

> unless you store a hard wallet in your intestines and memorize the recovery words (better hope you don't forget any or your life savings is gone!)

Lies. Just write them down and store them securely. You can memorize them if you like. It's also wise to store multiple physical copies in various locations to avoid this exact scenario.

> The cool thing about all of this is that it's a feature of Bitcoin to be able to irreversibly lose your life savings, without any ability to recoup your losses.

Yes, you can't be utterly careless (and I'm not sure what the argument is for wanting to be).

> the only way to make it faster (Lightning Network) is to sacrifice the checks and balances that maxis praise as the hallmark of Bitcoin

Yes, which makes sense for small transactions between trusted parties. Large transactions can and should be done on-chain (also with trusted parties).

--

I'll continue to listen to the signal [1], not the noise. What makes me happiest is that the people who deserve to win the most will win over the people who deserve it the least. It will be the greatest wealth transfer humanity has ever seen and it won't require any violence or coercion.

[1] https://twitter.com/LightningTipB0t/status/16150147987979919...

Post reply on HN