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Samwers Clone Stripe

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Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#51

Post by rmoriz »

dmarinoc wrote: post #46
rmoriz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only gap is, that Recurly and Spreedly were not able to tell the EU founders that their service is available and working perfectly fine with European payment gateways. They all have JS and REST-APIs and a lot more: - http://recurly.com/ - http://spreedly.com/

Nope. Although Recurly could be technically used in Europe, it generates invalid invoices (at least here in Spain). We are switching away from it, and personally, I do not recommend it anymore.

well. you could do your own invoicing if you're not satisfied with the pdf they generate. Stripe and Paymill don't do invoicing, too.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#52

Post by aristidb »

eddie_the_head wrote: post #44
lacerus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct debit and instant wire transfer are very big in Germany. Many places, especially supermarkets, do not even accept any credit cards but only debit cards. Our checking accounts have evolved very differently to the US - nobody has been using cheques here for years, even before the internet is was all debit and wires.

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.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#53

Post by tomblomfield »

mmcnickle wrote: post #33
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…

The founders don't have the local knowledge and contacts to get through the regulatory hoops involved in launching a new payment gateway in dozens of countries. I think there was an article on HN where someone was talking about how these kinds of startups (the ones with difficult regulatory barriers) are the only ones that you should consider cloning in other countries for this very reason.

AFAIK - The founders are from Europe and originally tried to set up Stripe in Ireland. They couldn't find a European bank willing to work with them.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#54

Post by itsprofitbaron »

mbesto wrote: post #48
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…

Groupon took your advice and (in my opinion) has contributed to their poor numbers. The problem is that when an established US company looks to expand, those countries tend to put a premium on expansion there. For example, if Groupon expands to the UK, sales people will ask for more money up front and put a premium on "acting faster". Oh, and pretty much what everyone else mentioned... It's extremely difficult for an…

Groupon makes more revenue outside North America than it does within it (in Q2: $308MM for international; $260MM for N.A. on a total customer base of 38MM users)

Groupon already has a presence in the UK, its international expansion particularly in europe was helped via an acquistion of another Samwer Brothers company MyCityDeal.de which became Groupon.co.uk, Groupon.de etc.

The reason Groupon is only growing 31% in Europe compared to in North America's growth of 66% is for several reasons including the fact that their deals are more expensive compared to their North American offers (this is confirmed by both Apple & Groupon in both of their earnings calls), the merchants aren't getting the same value from Groupon in Europe as North America which is because of the underlying fact they want higher prices AND finally because half the stuff that Groupon does in North America doesn't even exist/is in its early stages here; Deal personalization = early stages, Groupon's mobile offerings = not as advanced/early stages, its deal bank (searchable, unused Groupon deals) is at the same stage as well.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#55

Post by mhd »

eddie_the_head wrote: post #44
lacerus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct debit and instant wire transfer are very big in Germany. Many places, especially supermarkets, do not even accept any credit cards but only debit cards. Our checking accounts have evolved very differently to the US - nobody has been using cheques here for years, even before the internet is was all debit and wires.

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.

Money transfers within the EU have to cost the same as transfers within the countries themselves, by law (for transactions smaller than 50k Euro). And we're talking mostly direct bank transfers here, not something like Western Union.

In Germany, your ATM card is basically always a direct debit card that gets accepted anywhere (causes the shops lower fees than credit cards), so that takes care of one part of the Visa/MasterCard angle, and for online transactions direct debit rules the game, taking care of the other half. Services like paypal use direct debit a lot in the background.

(So the only "missing" part is credit card debt, usually you can't accrue that much debt on your direct debit account)

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#56

Post by herval »

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…

Paypal's biggest problem on it's entire history was related to expanding internationally too fast. You open a door to larger profits, but also open a huge window for frauds of all sorts. Not to mention the regulations, that differ A LOT in different countries (just as a quick example, crediting dollars in an account in Brazil is forbidden - there's no "support" for this kind of transaction, so you have to go through a conversion process that is not only bureaucratic, but also VERY error prone and time consuming...)

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#57

Post by white_devil »

rmoriz wrote: post #16
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…

because nothing works like a credit card. e.g. the popular direct debit payments can be charged back very easily + you just have to search for an valid account number (= fraud). The only payment method that works with recurring and more or less "final/instant" transactions is credit card. So there is no alternative for SaaS or in-app-payments to credit cards (or some direct debit risk mitigation business like paypal)

the popular direct debit payments can be charged back very easily + you just have to search for an valid account number (= fraud).

This sounds highly doubtful. Care to explain?

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#58

Post by arkitaip »

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 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 because there's no way you can split so few people across so many countries when you're still developing the foundations of your business.

Instead of the typical startup organization that all but guarantees that you will expand too slowly to other markets, startups should look into more flexible forms of organization that allows them to set up partnering organizations in other markets. Imagine if your startup from day 0 has co-founders that are solely responsible for offshore markets development, pr and marketing. These co-founders would be an interface between your business and a specific country or region that actively engages with his market so that customers knows what is happening and what your startup's plans are for their market.

What you pay in equity and title you get back in a vibrant presence and a highly skilled and competent person that can guide you through each country's customs, laws and regulations, and bureaucracy.

Re: Samwers Clone Stripe

#60

Post by _delirium »

mhd wrote: post #55
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.

Money transfers within the EU have to cost the same as transfers within the countries themselves, by law (for transactions smaller than 50k Euro). And we're talking mostly direct bank transfers here, not something like Western Union. In Germany, your ATM card is basically always a direct debit card that gets accepted anywhere (causes the shops lower fees than credit cards), so that takes care of one part of the Visa/…

As a minor correction, the EU law on fees only applies to Euro-denominated accounts. I was somewhat unpleasantly surprised that I was charged significantly higher fees when I transferred some money from a EUR account in a Eurozone country to a DKK account in Denmark, since that case doesn't fall within the regulation.

Within the Eurozone, however, it's quite nice.

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