And it's not a PR-designed-totally-artificial-image like Sheryl Sandberg. But they seem to be the real deal.
Wish you guys the best!
the best marketing doesn't feel like marketing. of course it helps that the marketing is backed by a genuinely great product and competent team. but at one time, Google used to be that way and if Stripe ever loses customer trust, their branding will ring just as hollow as Googles "don't be evil" does today.
They both have 'natural born PR' instincts so it's both disingenuous and honest at the same time.
Patrick is open, and way over-intellectual in many circumstances, I see that quite a lot in the Valley where nobody respects anyone else unless they are sure if their IQ/chops. And so you see a lot of overt displays of slightly off topic, overly specific, quixotic communication style, like an professor thinking faster than they can speak. And it's on purpose.
His brother is a more natural corporate communicator.
I'm not saying anything against them, but they are definitely putting on a display.
Without knowing a single thing about their upbringing or personal heritage, I would wager that it's a learned trait ie 'it's their upbringing'.
17 year old kids don't sell their companies alone, usually, their parents are behind the scenes.
Microsoft's 1st important sale to IBM was related to the fact his mother was a colleague of IBM board members, i.e. 'elite networks'.
no it isn’t. I met one of them, he was super nice. and I’m a very critical person.
chill out. sometimes it just is what it looks like.
They've invested in stellar[1] in 2014, a blockchain network that facilitate to move money more easily. And then stopped bitcoin support in 2018[2]. Then no news. I'm wondering if the efforts were only pushed by @gdb[3], then when he left (now openAI's CTO), they've somehow lost interest ? I'm really curious about what they think internally.
[1] https://stripe.com/blog/stellar
[2] https://stripe.com/blog/ending-bitcoin-support
[3] https://twitter.com/search?q=bitcoin%20OR%20stellar(from%3Ag...
I spent a chunk of the Christmas period figuring out international B2B and B2C invoicing requirements, the rules for cross-border VAT/GST/BTW (UK [pre- and post-Brexit]/Australia/Netherlands/EU) sales tax, and when sales tax may be reclaimed on "invalid" invoices.
It was a surprisingly engrossing endeavor. There is a satisfying underlying logical consistency (from the point of view of a non-accountant). I even toyed with codifying the rules in a machine-executable form...
After doing some work and some digging on Stripe (despite I knew the company quite well already), I completely agree that there's still a ton of opportunities for them to expand.
It's actually hard to select a single expansion opportunity, as there are too many to pick from. Well, as said, a nice holiday project.
p.s. if you're willing to help me with some ideas, email me ($my_hn_name at gmail) and I'll happily share the document with you, as long as you can promise to be nice and not share it elsewhere.
edit: not sure why the downvotes?
I'd be interested in reviewing your doc! Sent you an email.
> It's not really an either-or situation. They can be genuine, but also heavily trained and coached by PR professionals. It's a misconception that all PR initiatives are attempts to mislead or lie to people. The best PR work is completely transparent.
I’m not casting stones or claiming anyone is being disingenuous. They are both nice people and good at PR.
It's a misconception that all PR initiatives are attempts to mislead or lie to people. The best PR work is completely transparent.
FastSpring is the same, and even more expensive with expensive currency conversion if you're in EURO
People who care about status see "intern" as a low-status label, and well below their "CEO" high-status label.
The fact that he spent time with an intern indicates that he doesn't care particularly about the status of these labels. In many cases this is called "being nice".
I worked at a company with a CEO that did something similar and asked interns to come to his desk to chat, which I did. This practice didn't exactly shield him from being cast as an out of touch billionaire when he ran for President.
It's the collection of anecdotes like that, the absence of counter-anecdotes, and little things like Patrick still sometimes commenting on HN that paint a fuller picture. Such a person could still potentially be hiding a darker side, but I think it decreases the probability.