Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#61

Post by pm » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

fbelzile wrote: post #55

I'm very happy with Stripe and for their success, but I plan on switching all my payments to go through PayPal again. I did some math and PayPal offers a better deal for Canadian businesses after Stripe bumps me off of their grandfathered conversion fees in a couple months. I love the slick interface, but it's simply not worth the thousands per year I'll be saving with the switch. For me the main selling point for an…

If you're doing enough business they'll usually cut your fees if you ask (according to a friend who did just that).

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#62

Post by xenocratus » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

abhorrence wrote: post #32

pm_me_ur_fullzz wrote: post #28

I want a bot that translates these advertisements to the equivalent phrasing used in public equity markets "Someone bought 1,000,000 shares of a company at a price of $20 in a secondary offering. Company's marketcap is now $36B" Private equity market lingo is dumb. Many companies don't state the valuation after a round and the ones that do deliberately do it for clout. It is confusing and counterintuitive because peo…

Down rounds are also bad news for previous investors (and other shareholders, like employees) due to how liquidation preferences typically work.

This article was an eye-opener for me on how that works:

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/04/08/w...

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#63

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

kashura wrote: post #58

If they are so successful, why do they need to continuously raise money?

Because they're aiming to be even more successful. $36B is still a tenth of Visa, and I think Stripe believes they can eventually become an equally important part of the financial ecosystem.

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#64

Post by malandrew » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

tlrobinson wrote: post #39

JaakkoP wrote: post #10

I love the quote from John Collison: "This is digital migration in a very compressed period of time, for both businesses and customers," Collison adds. "My mom recently asked me if I'd heard of 'this Instacart thing.' Yeah mom, I have."

Sadly, it’s also likely one of the largest and fastest transfers of wealth from small businesses to large corporations. As Amazon hires 100,000+ workers how many small businesses are shuttering for good? Stripe is one of the “good” tech companies in this respect by helping to level the playing field for smaller businesses, but it’s not going to be enough.

I don't understand this idolization of small over large (or vice versa for others). The thing that matters most is that businesses best satisfy their customers, whether they are small or large.

There's no benefit to having a small business that provides inferior products or inferior service relative to a large company.

I buy from small companies all the time and many of those that I do will likely survive because they provide better goods and services than any large company.

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#65

Post by pc » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:32 PM UTC

inform880 wrote: post #49

pc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:-). True.

On the API docs, there's plenty of code examples and a caching feature which is awesome, but I wish the docs at https://stripe.com/docs/development could be cached like the API docs.

Working on this!

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#66

Post by xrendan » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

Znafon wrote: post #56

lisper wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO it is time to start promulgating the idea that electronic money transfer should be considered a basic human right just like free cash transactions have been since the invention of money. It already is that way in many advanced countries where electronic money transfer is a service provided by the government. It is only in the U.S. where a private monopolistic cartel is allowed to impose a private tax on all reta…

In what countries can you do free electronic transactions?

Canada if you want to pay the Interac (our debit system).

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#67

Post by nihil75 » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:34 PM UTC

kashura wrote: post #58

If they are so successful, why do they need to continuously raise money?

How true.. it's the 'debt economy' - raise, spend, grow, pick up the tab later/never.

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#68

Post by lisper » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

Znafon wrote: post #56

lisper wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO it is time to start promulgating the idea that electronic money transfer should be considered a basic human right just like free cash transactions have been since the invention of money. It already is that way in many advanced countries where electronic money transfer is a service provided by the government. It is only in the U.S. where a private monopolistic cartel is allowed to impose a private tax on all reta…

In what countries can you do free electronic transactions?

U.K. and South Korea are the two that I know of but there are probably others. (According to the sibling comment, Canada is on the list too.)

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#69

Post by nickjj » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

fbelzile wrote: post #55

I'm very happy with Stripe and for their success, but I plan on switching all my payments to go through PayPal again. I did some math and PayPal offers a better deal for Canadian businesses after Stripe bumps me off of their grandfathered conversion fees in a couple months. I love the slick interface, but it's simply not worth the thousands per year I'll be saving with the switch. For me the main selling point for an…

Are you planning to go through PayPal directly or Braintree?

One thing I notice is, I get much less fraudulent payments through PayPal, and when I do get them it's handled automatically (and most of the time they end up being not fraud because PayPal investigated it and released the funds). 100% hands free, $0 in fees.

With Stripe, not only do I get more fraudulent payments but you need to pay $15 as a dispute fee through Stripe when you lose the case and pretty much all fraud causes through Stripe will be lost (because it's actual fraud). It also takes like 20 minutes to fill out the forms, create fax-compatible sized screenshots and a lot of other boilerplate information if you plan to contest the dispute.

It's a shame Stripe doesn't offer the Radar service (helps detect and prevent fraud) with custom rules as part of their normal service. You can only get it if you pay insurance fees, which are added fees on top of the normal amount.

Combine that with the new Stripe SCA compatible APIs and sketchy docs and yeah I'm in the same boat as you. Stripe is no longer an immediate "of course I'm going to use Stripe" decision. Braintree is looking pretty good at this point.

Re: Stripe raises $600M at nearly $36B valuation

#70

Post by lisper » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 3:37 PM UTC

jakear wrote: post #54

lisper wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO it is time to start promulgating the idea that electronic money transfer should be considered a basic human right just like free cash transactions have been since the invention of money. It already is that way in many advanced countries where electronic money transfer is a service provided by the government. It is only in the U.S. where a private monopolistic cartel is allowed to impose a private tax on all reta…

The U.S loves its private monopolistic cartels imposing a private tax on all XXX. I don't think this is changing any time soon. We don't even have public healthcare.

Every journey begins with a single step.