[deleted]
Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
71–80 of 191 posts
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#72"We're the exact opposite of Apple in this regard. People will buy fewer iPhones today if they know what the new one will do. But people are probably more likely to buy Stripe today if they know that the future Stripe will be even better" Will you keep your old iPhone if you knew what the new version will do?
He's referencing that if you're looking to purchase a new iPhone right at this very minute, no matter if you already have a phone, that purchase decision can be influenced if there's information about a newer product that hasn't been released.
I buy a phone about every 5 years. Will I wait a year if I find out that the new phone has a different chip in it that does something amazing? Absolutely! I'll wait, not give Apple any money this year, and give them money next year.
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#73I think that people underestimate what this feels like for the Plaid founder and potentially for Patrick too. For Plaid you've spent your life building this business. Presumably there are many happy customers and you're working really hard to define the space and provide service. One morning you flip on your laptop and see a headline that one of your customers (and competitors) launched a new service that directly co…
Plaid is a huge company with a CEO who is presumably a professional adult. Making sarcastic, whiny commends on Twitter should be beneath him. He just sounds like a child throwing a tantrum because a company decided to compete with him.
Not saying he shouldn't feel bad, or threatened, or upset -- those are perfectly valid feelings to have -- but airing those feelings like that is unprofessional and, frankly, pretty lame.
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#74Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
CEOs are literally paid to deal with these emotions constructively. In this case, that would have looked like welcoming a competitor to the space and being ready to win on execution, because ideas are free.
Yeesh, I'm glad he didn't say that. What a vapid soundbite. I don't mean that to reflect on you, you worded it exactly as a CEO would. "We welcome competition", what a joke!
A lot of CEOs say this platitude. They are initially worried, but it often turns out to be good news because it accelerates or is a sign of a growing market.
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
CEOs are literally paid to deal with these emotions constructively. In this case, that would have looked like welcoming a competitor to the space and being ready to win on execution, because ideas are free.
"NBA players are literally paid to entertain us. They should just absorb the verbal abuse." "Waiters are literally paid..." Or we could be humans?
Where did you get "verbal abuse" from? We're talking about competition, so a far closer analogy would be an NBA player having to play a a game against one of their friends. Should they not have to do that in exchange for their salary?
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeesh, I'm glad he didn't say that. What a vapid soundbite. I don't mean that to reflect on you, you worded it exactly as a CEO would. "We welcome competition", what a joke!
What would you say? Making it personal I don't think helps anyone.
I get the CEO speak, but I think rchaud is saying "no one welcomes competition - everyone wants a monopoly and to make as much money as possible". So saying otherwise sounds like garbage.
People only "want competition" in the manner of controlled opposition, where they know they can beat someone.
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
CEOs are literally paid to deal with these emotions constructively. In this case, that would have looked like welcoming a competitor to the space and being ready to win on execution, because ideas are free.
"NBA players are literally paid to entertain us. They should just absorb the verbal abuse." "Waiters are literally paid..." Or we could be humans?
What’s the analogy here exactly? Non-coordinated competition is akin to verbal abuse?
Isn’t there a much more obvious NBA analogy here, which would actually make the CEO-empathy pleas appear even more ridiculous?
Were you attempting the move “X=Bad to me, Y=Bad to you, Bad=Bad, therefore X=Y”?
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#79I think that people underestimate what this feels like for the Plaid founder and potentially for Patrick too. For Plaid you've spent your life building this business. Presumably there are many happy customers and you're working really hard to define the space and provide service. One morning you flip on your laptop and see a headline that one of your customers (and competitors) launched a new service that directly co…
> As the founder of "attacked" company not only do you see the competition coming from a customer but from another "friendly" company in your space. Yesterday you were friends, today you're enemies. Doesn't matter who you are, this comes as a shock and it stings. Some time back, Steve Jobs felt the same way about Apple employees being offered positions at other companies, so he sent an email to his "friends". The res…
Ok, the truth on the Jobs one is significantly more nuanced. Not everything is public. I don’t think it was a friendly thing haha.
Re: Stripe responds to the Financial Connections/Plaid kerfuffle
#80> Maybe we should have explicitly reached out to them to discuss this upcoming launch so that they could privately express any concerns they had. A thousand times no. Companies privately discussing launches with each other to avoid stepping on each other's toes is bad for the consumer. In addition, it may actually cross the line into illegal market allocation. I am glad that Stripe developed and released a product th…
This is a good point. I don’t think companies can have gentleman’s agreements to not compete with each other.