Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#51

Post by l5870uoo9y » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 5:52 PM UTC

> Nine months after our public launch in 2021, we surpassed $1M in ARR and never looked back.

Stripe is buying a lucrative business, but more importantly it is buying the complex knowhow of running an international tax-compliant merchant of record. They can then integrate this into their product. I switched to LemonSqueezy primarily out of concern for EU-wide tax ramifications (EU strikes again). Is there a reason to choose LemonSqueezy over Stripe if you are located in the US? There hasn't been a single VAT-compliance case to my knowledge and the need for MoR is unclear.

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#52

Post by mattboardman » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 5:53 PM UTC

383toast wrote: post #47

marrone12 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice for start ups to have liquidity events.

also nice for customers to have less choice and presumably worse pricing?

Devil's advocate: more acquisitions creates more incentive to launch a start-up. More startups create more competition.

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#53

Post by __natty__ » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:00 PM UTC

mmckelvy wrote: post #31

Is there a version of Lemon Squeezy for SaaS companies?

LemonSqueezy itself or Paddle. Both are merchants of records. At least paddle (maybe LS too) allows reverse invoice which is important for some home grown startup saas as they simplify taxes to single customer (paddle), one invoice and one tax jurisdiction usually.

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#54

Post by supportengineer » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:01 PM UTC

Instead of calling Stripe directly, customers call Lemon Squeezy directly - it’s an abstraction layer around the Stripe API.

What’s the barrier to entry for starting up a similar business?

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#55

Post by fragmede » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:02 PM UTC

com wrote: post #39

th3w3bmast3r wrote: post #12

I am always nervous about acquisition. Only time will tell if this is going to be good or bad.

Based on prior experience: almost certainly bad.

Which experience specific to Stripe is that?

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#56

Post by johneth » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:02 PM UTC

l5870uoo9y wrote: post #51

> Nine months after our public launch in 2021, we surpassed $1M in ARR and never looked back. Stripe is buying a lucrative business, but more importantly it is buying the complex knowhow of running an international tax-compliant merchant of record. They can then integrate this into their product. I switched to LemonSqueezy primarily out of concern for EU-wide tax ramifications (EU strikes again). Is there a reason to…

> Is there a reason to choose LemonSqueezy over Stripe if you are located in the US? There hasn't been a single VAT-compliance case to my knowledge and the need for MoR is unclear.

It's not just the EU that charges VAT (or VAT-like taxes).

Most countries (and in the US's case, subregions within) charge some form of sales tax that's a pain to manage yourself if you're not a huge operation.

Always good to comply with tax laws (if not for the obviously good moral/ethical reasons, then definitely for legal reasons!)

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#57

Post by com » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:03 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #55

com wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on prior experience: almost certainly bad.

Which experience specific to Stripe is that?

Every single product company acquisition, ever.

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#58

Post by paxys » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:07 PM UTC

mattboardman wrote: post #52

383toast wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also nice for customers to have less choice and presumably worse pricing?

Devil's advocate: more acquisitions creates more incentive to launch a start-up. More startups create more competition.

It's not a simple "acquisitions are good" or "acquisitions are bad" discussion. There is an ideal amount of M&A activity in an economy which is more than "no startup ever gets acquired" and less than "every startup is bought out by big tech". In recent years we have been closer to the first extreme, and very few startups have had exits of any kind.

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#59

Post by mrguyorama » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:08 PM UTC

mattboardman wrote: post #52

383toast wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also nice for customers to have less choice and presumably worse pricing?

Devil's advocate: more acquisitions creates more incentive to launch a start-up. More startups create more competition.

A startup made for the purpose of acquisition was never a competitor. If you are willing to sell to the big player in your industry you are not competing, you are an opportunist. A startup that wants to compete will run very differently from a startup that wants to be purchased.

A big whale company that gobbles up some of the fifty startups that only have like 2% of the market total is not a competitive market at all.

Re: Stripe acquires Lemon Squeezy

#60

Post by gaadd33 » Fri, Jul 26, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

mbStavola wrote: post #36

Merchant of Record is a cool feature to have-- Stripe Tax works well but the pricing structure is horrible. Paying a flat fee for dedicated tax handling would be considerably better! Now if only we could somehow get MoR for marketplaces...

Does Avalara handle MoR? I know they handle complex taxation in the US for the alcohol industry pretty well but I don't know their other features.