This guy inspired me. I'm just reading about Stripe a while ago and I don't know the founder is just 22! I'm 20, and I think I need to rush some things. I don't want to be late.
Late for what?
Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
71–80 of 91 posts
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#72Ok, stripe's wonderful, but... why is stripe wonderful? It's a payment service provider. An expensive payment service provider. They have an API. It's nicely written - but a nicely written API doesn't make a product. They're available in the US and Canada. OK, but there's a whole planet out there. So, yeah. What exactly is it that's so amazing about stripe? I work in eCommerce, run and developed a little platform tha…
> It's nicely written - but a nicely written API doesn't make a product. I believe you should revisit that assumption. Stripe is successful because of its API and UI. Likewise, Facebook and the iPhone largely succeeded because of their UI and API.
The Stripe API is really good...but it's not perfect. It still requires a huge amount of manual development that services like Recur.ly and Spreedly already implement.
Having implemented several Stripe sites, I found I preferred more of an automated recurring subscription management service, and then Stripe is just a gateway at that point.
That being said, I use Stripe extensively and love it.
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#73Ok, stripe's wonderful, but... why is stripe wonderful? It's a payment service provider. An expensive payment service provider. They have an API. It's nicely written - but a nicely written API doesn't make a product. They're available in the US and Canada. OK, but there's a whole planet out there. So, yeah. What exactly is it that's so amazing about stripe? I work in eCommerce, run and developed a little platform tha…
The easy of implementing it into any app is incredible. The dashboard is also very simple and easy to use. It eliminates needs for Gateways, scammy Paypal and other merchants.
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#74Ok, stripe's wonderful, but... why is stripe wonderful? It's a payment service provider. An expensive payment service provider. They have an API. It's nicely written - but a nicely written API doesn't make a product. They're available in the US and Canada. OK, but there's a whole planet out there. So, yeah. What exactly is it that's so amazing about stripe? I work in eCommerce, run and developed a little platform tha…
They were also the first (or one of the first) to (nearly) eliminate the approval process. You could go from registration form to accepting payments in hours rather than the old process of getting merchant service account and then payment gateway. Braintree, which was the "pro-developer" option has only recently followed suit and begun offering this "instant underwriting". http://pandodaily.com/2012/10/01/a-new-twist…
They also eliminated the need for merchant accounts which is a pretty big benefit compared to Braintree. One could also use Paypal but...
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#75That's it. I'm doing a startup after med school. ...so what's the policy on using investment money to pay back loans?
> ...so what's the policy on using investment money to pay back loans? It's a no-no unless you negotiate that up front. And likely you'll get a bunch of rejections as a result unless you can come up with a really good reason for that (I can think of a few).
I'm all ears, Jacques!
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...so what's the policy on using investment money to pay back loans? It's a no-no unless you negotiate that up front. And likely you'll get a bunch of rejections as a result unless you can come up with a really good reason for that (I can think of a few).
I'm all ears, Jacques!
In your inbox. hth :)
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were also the first (or one of the first) to (nearly) eliminate the approval process. You could go from registration form to accepting payments in hours rather than the old process of getting merchant service account and then payment gateway. Braintree, which was the "pro-developer" option has only recently followed suit and begun offering this "instant underwriting". http://pandodaily.com/2012/10/01/a-new-twist…
They also eliminated the need for merchant accounts which is a pretty big benefit compared to Braintree. One could also use Paypal but...
But CC bill had all that before, and before CC bill Ibill had it, and before Ibill DMR had it and so on.
In fact, if there is one Achilles heel in Stripe it is that they don't segregate their merchant accounts. In other words, as far as I understand their set-up, if they lose their merchant account the whole thing goes up in smoke.
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, if you don't mind me asking, do speak about your (and your brother's) upbringing. What was your childhood like? Did you parents teach you programming? Did you play with legos a lot? Write as if you were giving advice to future-fathers.
Please, let's all stop this cult of parenting, and cult of personality. Let's assume that Patrick and John had played with legos, and that their parents taught them programming. What would that teach us? That we should teach our kids Programming and let them play with legos? Certainly not. Much respect to John and Patrick, I hope that they continue to do impressive things and that a few years down the road they'll lo…
Yep. Cargo-cult parenting, that's got to be a new one. I'm quite surprised at how people will latch on to the parenting as something to imitate. I'm sure it can be a factor but you can't assume that you will get identical results by cloning the procedure. Nothing good can come of that.
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#79Wow, this guy is amazing. Read his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collison
I was born the same year as this guy . How do I reconcile myself to the fact that I may never achieve so much even in my entire life ? Is it a matter of lowering ones expectations ? If this is the kind of brilliance it takes to succeed in the start up world I'm quite discouraged.
One of Britain's richest people was a bum until he was 30 (and he did it all from scratch): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2h_GIP019c .. so you don't have to reconcile. Just be a late bloomer.
Re: Stripe's 22-Year-Old Irish-Born Founder Is Just Getting Started
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
They also eliminated the need for merchant accounts which is a pretty big benefit compared to Braintree. One could also use Paypal but...
But CC bill had all that before, and before CC bill Ibill had it, and before Ibill DMR had it and so on. In fact, if there is one Achilles heel in Stripe it is that they don't segregate their merchant accounts. In other words, as far as I understand their set-up, if they lose their merchant account the whole thing goes up in smoke.
You make it sound like the banking equivalent of running on a single Slicehost VPS, which I think does a disservice to the incredibly smart people running Stripe. I doubt there is any risk at all of "if they lose their merchant account the whole thing goes up in smoke".