211–220 of 253 posts
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I don't even understand what this thread is about anymore. The claim of mine that you're trying to rebut is "dealflow is a thing". If you want to argue that it isn't, be my guest, but I'm not going to sign up to hash it out with you.
ok? I and may other angel investors are proof you're obviously wrong so...
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ok? I and may other angel investors are proof you're obviously wrong so...
Because you managed to get a couple of YC companies to take your money?
Your words, you should own them.
I only want more smart people I know to have the chance to be angel investors in these companies and to be able to access secondary markets to buy and sell these shares.
What's wrong with that?
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Because you managed to get a couple of YC companies to take your money?
You said "The companies you want to invest in don't want your money." Your words, you should own them. I only want more smart people I know to have the chance to be angel investors in these companies and to be able to access secondary markets to buy and sell these shares. What's wrong with that?
I'm glad you have friends at other startups that want to work with you. That's not something you're going to be able to say about a random person.
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Almost as if there's a lot to innovate in a "dumb pipe" a payment processor naturally is.
Can probably build it in a weekend.
What can go wrong... (/s just in case as well)
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Stripe doesn’t power money transfers, just commerce. So 100% of stripe volume is economic activity.
If I buy something worth 17$ from an SMB's website, and the SMB buys their ingredients from their merchants via stripe for 10$, then those suppliers get a bill for 8$, then that's still only 17$ of GDP, but 35$ of stripe transactions.
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The cost of that liquidity is missing out on realizing future growth though. It's fairly safe to assume that as there isn't an IPO yet the investors want to hold rather than cash in returns. They probably believe there's more growth potential, and that the board are the right people to deliver it.
If you bought Stripe at a 95b valuation in 2021 your returns are barely keeping up with the SP500 after this latest round. Not exactly an elite capital growth machine.
This feels rich. Compare: Adyen: $29.408B right now at Yahoo Finance. PayPal: $41.51B right now. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ADYEN.AS/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PYPL/
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/24/paypal-stock-stripe-acquisit...
This feels rich. Compare: Adyen: $29.408B right now at Yahoo Finance. PayPal: $41.51B right now. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ADYEN.AS/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PYPL/
PayPal is steadily decreasing in share of web payments, with the one redeeming part of their business being Venmo, which appears to be crushing Cash App. Adyen competes primarily on price with no feature differentiation, and doesn't have the same ease-of-use. Working at several large companies in payments areas who were Stripe customers, I'll sum up what the competition looks like by paraphrasing one of the executive…
I pay mostly with credit card (debit really but entering the number etc). When paying with PayPal, I need to click through several screens to even be able to enter my details. They almost always show a login screen, then I have to find the small text at the bottom that says I dont want one. Then by default they want my SEPA details, which Im not going to give them, before allowing me to select Credit Card. Even then I still have to double check that the "Create PayPal Account" checkbox is unchecked before paying.
Stripe immediately shows you a form and doesn't ask any questions.
1.6 percent of global GDP blows my mind.
Well, it's not exactly a fair comparison, since they're comparing a volume number with GDP, which is total value produced in a year. Volume numbers are usually much bigger than production numbers, since money moves around a lot. If I pay a restaurant $200 for dinner and my three friends each venmo me $50 for their share, then the exchanged volume was $350, but only $200 worth of value was generated.