Stripe raises $18 million from Sequoia(bloomberg.com)
bloomberg.com
Stripe raises $18 million from Sequoia
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-09/stripe-said-to-get-funding-valuing-online-payment-startup-at-100-million.html
29 comments
We spent a not unsubstantial amount of time moaning about our inability to use you guys here in Canada, if that's any comfort.
Yup. And there are people working full-time on making it happen.
I am really excited. Thank you for all your hard work. Can't wait for it to break Canadian ground. I waited 1.5 years for Twilio.... please say its sooner then that.
Again. Great job.
I just wanted to add another voice to this (and i'll up vote it dont worry!)
We decided to go with paypal payments pro for our beta because stripe wasnt supported in Canada, as soon as you guys get here we'll make the switch however! Very excited you have people working on it!
We decided to go with paypal payments pro for our beta because stripe wasnt supported in Canada, as soon as you guys get here we'll make the switch however! Very excited you have people working on it!
Beanstream and Adaptive Payments here. Man, I dislike PayPal.
Please use the funding to expand to other countries!
Seriously please come to Australia!
I have a project ready to go (with the exception of billing). It is almost impossible for an Australian business to easily accept credit card payments in USD.
I have looked at Saasy.com but the lack of data portability makes it an unattractive option.
I have a project ready to go (with the exception of billing). It is almost impossible for an Australian business to easily accept credit card payments in USD.
I have looked at Saasy.com but the lack of data portability makes it an unattractive option.
PayPal really is the only solution unless you can get the one bank in Australia to let you open a USD account, you'll also need a modem to check your balance with them online.
This is a good thread http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/brows... about the complexities in setting it up in Australia and unfortunately I suspect Stripe will consider the risks outweigh the benefits of providing this sort of functionality in oz.
This is a good thread http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/brows... about the complexities in setting it up in Australia and unfortunately I suspect Stripe will consider the risks outweigh the benefits of providing this sort of functionality in oz.
> It is almost impossible for an Australian business to easily accept credit card payments in USD.
PayPal works just fine for that, although it's not so pleasant to integrate and manage.
PayPal works just fine for that, although it's not so pleasant to integrate and manage.
In Canada we're using CheddarGetter and paypal to accept USD, however as an Australian (Living in Canada....) i know exactly what you mean and have been through it before.
I seriously suggest you look at Paypal, if you want to make switching easy however, abstract the implementation as much as you can. We're using CheddarGetter to do the abstraction for us, its $79 / month for CheddarGetter...but any half decent programmer who i trust with our billing doesnt cost far from that per hour anyway. Its a cheap means of getting around some smelly situations!
I seriously suggest you look at Paypal, if you want to make switching easy however, abstract the implementation as much as you can. We're using CheddarGetter to do the abstraction for us, its $79 / month for CheddarGetter...but any half decent programmer who i trust with our billing doesnt cost far from that per hour anyway. Its a cheap means of getting around some smelly situations!
I'm sure Mexico will be down on the list just before Cuba but I'll wait for you guys.
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Agreed. Australia!
We need you in NL too! (desperately)
I second this. Recurring credit card payments are virtually impossible in the EU at the moment, and the existing options (e.g. PayPal) suck or are too expensive.
We're waiting for you in Malaysia :)
Just to chime in with the others regarding international support: hopefully the funding will help you expand in that way. I'm in the UK and would like to see some more viable alternatives to Paypal.
Great job. Stripe is one of the few valuations that doesn't seem out-of-this-world insane.
Get yourselves into Canada!
Get yourselves into Canada!
Don't forget to spend some of the money to lower your costs and then lower the fees. This field needs competition to make the old players uncompetitive and run them out of business.
Congrats pc/jc! Hope you guys do great things going forward.
I love their name and I especially love their (old?) logo: http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/resized/0012/7313/12...
I'm sure Deutsche Bank were less enamoured with it.
http://www.tt-orchestra.de/images/logo_deutschebank.png
http://www.tt-orchestra.de/images/logo_deutschebank.png
One thing that YC drills into you is to not settle for B or C class talent. You just have to look at Stripe's team overview to see how talented this company is: https://stripe.com/about
Stripe is a lesson on how to build a company from the ground up. Surrounding yourself with incredibly intelligent people tends to have an outcome like this (both product and valuation). Congrats guys!
Stripe is a lesson on how to build a company from the ground up. Surrounding yourself with incredibly intelligent people tends to have an outcome like this (both product and valuation). Congrats guys!
Am I the only one who finds the language "C class talent" really distasteful? I feel like it's worse than referring to your employees as "human resources".
I understand the importance of passing on people who are a close-but-in-the-end-imperfect fit for your organization. But using the concept of class and grading people from A to F just makes my skin crawl, and it makes me want to avoid any company or organization who things about people that way, YC included.
Am I the only one?
I understand the importance of passing on people who are a close-but-in-the-end-imperfect fit for your organization. But using the concept of class and grading people from A to F just makes my skin crawl, and it makes me want to avoid any company or organization who things about people that way, YC included.
Am I the only one?
I would find it unpleasant to be called "C-class talent," but I'd also find it unpleasant to get a C. In both cases, that would prompt me to either step up my game or reconsider my priorities.
People are unequal, and in a business context, that means some people are worth less than others. You can grade them on a curve, but that just means we'll all learn that a "B" means you're a failure, and that really good companies are only recruiting among As and A+s. Differences in ability can't be fixed through semantics.
People are unequal, and in a business context, that means some people are worth less than others. You can grade them on a curve, but that just means we'll all learn that a "B" means you're a failure, and that really good companies are only recruiting among As and A+s. Differences in ability can't be fixed through semantics.
On the other hand we've have noticed people branded as C-class talent kicking ass of A and A+s too, haven't we?
I think it's fine as long as you don't think people are born ABC. You have to draw the line, and you have to be able to recognize talent - and the lack of such.
I think you're spot on.
A fun game is to ask the person using this kind of language whether they consider themselves an A, B, or C player.
A fun game is to ask the person using this kind of language whether they consider themselves an A, B, or C player.
I feel the same. I think the original concept also came from what kind of GPA a person got in university, which makes it even more distasteful.
Ah is that what it is. It makes no sense in other parts of the world.
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I am used to it. It is a terminology shortcut to qualify people's actions. You'll find that from a lot people coming from universities. They tend to compare themselves a lot and use statistical horizontal comparisons. If not from HR, it is mostly to imply they are part of the A group.
I did have a look, but didn't see anything out of ordinary there.
Surely the team must be great to be doing so well, and best of luck and kudos to them! But what exactly am I supposed to be seeing on that overview page? Which part triggered your "A class" detector?
Surely the team must be great to be doing so well, and best of luck and kudos to them! But what exactly am I supposed to be seeing on that overview page? Which part triggered your "A class" detector?
From my experience running a startup this isnt necessarily true.
I hired what you would call B/C class talent because i loved their work ethic. Simply put, they get shit done and follow the guidelines while some A class people try to write the perfect solution which takes more time (planning overhead etc). Of course you need A class talent for certain positions, but certainly not all, not even in engineering.
Also if you are bootstrapping on a rather low budget, attracting A class talent isnt the easiest thing todo anyway.
I hired what you would call B/C class talent because i loved their work ethic. Simply put, they get shit done and follow the guidelines while some A class people try to write the perfect solution which takes more time (planning overhead etc). Of course you need A class talent for certain positions, but certainly not all, not even in engineering.
Also if you are bootstrapping on a rather low budget, attracting A class talent isnt the easiest thing todo anyway.
I know what you mean, but don't think of this as the outcome. Funding is just the beginning, most of the really hard work remains to be done.
Of course, it's a means to an end. I meant that the team they have built is inherently valuable, and because of the team they have an amazing product.
Awesome product, brilliant people, answered all my emails in less than 15 minutes...
I so much want to become a customer that I'm seriously considering incorporating ShiningPanda LLC (or C-Corp) somewhere in the United States for this sole purpose. And probably dissolving ShiningPanda SAS (French equivalent, more or less, of a C-Corp) to reduce the costs, as SAS are pretty expensive to keep around, and it would become largely pointless.
Do someone have experience with such an endeavor? The part that I can't seem to figure out is how to pay foreign people, living abroad, from an American company. All the while avoiding double taxation.
If someone have references toward a good lawyer / accountant / tax lawyer to figure out all that... My email is alexis dot tabary at shiningpanda dot com
I so much want to become a customer that I'm seriously considering incorporating ShiningPanda LLC (or C-Corp) somewhere in the United States for this sole purpose. And probably dissolving ShiningPanda SAS (French equivalent, more or less, of a C-Corp) to reduce the costs, as SAS are pretty expensive to keep around, and it would become largely pointless.
Do someone have experience with such an endeavor? The part that I can't seem to figure out is how to pay foreign people, living abroad, from an American company. All the while avoiding double taxation.
If someone have references toward a good lawyer / accountant / tax lawyer to figure out all that... My email is alexis dot tabary at shiningpanda dot com
Congrats guys!
There's a lot to like about Stripe, but my absolute favorite under-appreciated thing is their name and domain name.
Hard to quantify just how much it helped, but I seriously doubt they would have had quite this trajectory with a name like Chargerly.com or even possibly Stripe.io.
There's a lot to like about Stripe, but my absolute favorite under-appreciated thing is their name and domain name.
Hard to quantify just how much it helped, but I seriously doubt they would have had quite this trajectory with a name like Chargerly.com or even possibly Stripe.io.
Square seems to do ok ($2Bn valuation) not owning square.com (their domain is http://squareup.com)
http://www.square.com/ seems to go to Squareup.com now. They're probably working on acquiring it.
My point is mostly just about the name though. Square is an amazing name. Imagine if they had been called Skware or Swipify?
I think you're better off being called Square and having Squareup.com for a while than settling for Swipify.com.
That is what Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Square, and many others have done.
Bad: Poor name + poor domain.
Good: Great name + poor domain.
Best: Great name + great domain (Stripe).
My point is mostly just about the name though. Square is an amazing name. Imagine if they had been called Skware or Swipify?
I think you're better off being called Square and having Squareup.com for a while than settling for Swipify.com.
That is what Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Square, and many others have done.
Bad: Poor name + poor domain.
Good: Great name + poor domain.
Best: Great name + great domain (Stripe).
I have to agree with this.
We started out as bfffr (name and domain) and quickly changed to Buffer (domain bufferapp.com).
It's tempting with things like Forrst and Dribbble around though :) (I still love both these startups)
We started out as bfffr (name and domain) and quickly changed to Buffer (domain bufferapp.com).
It's tempting with things like Forrst and Dribbble around though :) (I still love both these startups)
I love stripe. I got everything setup and accepting payments this morning for a side project in less than 20 minutes before I had to leave for work... It's such a joy to use.
First reaction: "Good, maybe now they will expand to Canada!"
:)
Congrats gang. I'm sure it's only partially a manpower issue with international expansion - dealing with institutions only moves so quickly.
:)
Congrats gang. I'm sure it's only partially a manpower issue with international expansion - dealing with institutions only moves so quickly.
$18 million - Wow! Congrats to the Stripe team!
This definitely draws a line in the sand for the online payment provider process. Looks like Paypal has been served.
Disclaimer: my business is a huge Paypal user, but we've been actively looking at Stripe and put in our plans for 2012 to begin to transition to them. Exciting times!
This definitely draws a line in the sand for the online payment provider process. Looks like Paypal has been served.
Disclaimer: my business is a huge Paypal user, but we've been actively looking at Stripe and put in our plans for 2012 to begin to transition to them. Exciting times!
Actually, Authorize.net has a lot more to fear from Stripe. Can't wait to switch!
I've always been extremely bullish on Stripe, so it's good to see this reaffirm my beliefs. Any investor would be crazy not to get in on this.
Proud to see more Irish founders succeeding in the US, and as I know they'll be reading here: good job guys, keep it up.
Proud to see more Irish founders succeeding in the US, and as I know they'll be reading here: good job guys, keep it up.
Congrats guys! I just want to say that I love Stripe. You are really changing the game. I love that you are focusing on developers.
I wonder what might happen down the road when users make mistakes that put themselves in PCI compliance violation (like posting a form to their server with input names, thus sending the card info). What kinds of effects could this have on the business, their image, and the customers?
I wonder what might happen down the road when users make mistakes that put themselves in PCI compliance violation (like posting a form to their server with input names, thus sending the card info). What kinds of effects could this have on the business, their image, and the customers?
Stripe is a great example of proper developer experience joy. Good job guys!
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The $100 million valuation doesn't seem too high to me. Especially considering the huge potential market.
Woo! Go Stripe! We use them on CloudContacts and love it.
this is good news. i hope stripe uses this opportunity and expands to europe asap.
congrats to the stripe folks!
congrats to the stripe folks!
We've been using them since they were /dev/payments...best decision of our lives.
Thanks to Stripe, I think that we'll start seeing a lot more weekend/hobby projects that charge for their service.
(And I think that's a good thing.)
(And I think that's a good thing.)
Quite likely. I think Sequoia's bet goes hand in hand with the trend as of late of 'democratizing' programming and CS education (Stanford online classes, Udacity, Codeacademy and others). More and better programming means more projects and more demand for payment platforms like Stripe.
I can only hope your service comes to Australia soon. If you ever need Australian beta testers please let me know.
Congratulations guys, great work on Stripe and awesome + superb customer service
Someone pls come to India. There is a serious need for good payment processor out here. Anybody who comes up with even half-decent solution wins 75% of mkt-share by default without any sales/mktg/BDM efforts.
If only stripe was around a couple of years ago, we wouldn't have found ourselves locked down with BOA. Having to pay $500 termination fee sucks.
Good job, guys! Congrats!
Please, come to Europe soon!
I'm about to use Strip for an upcoming project due to the wonderful things I've heard about it on HN. I'm looking forward to giving it a go!
Is Techcrunch pissed they didn't break this story?
I hope you guys are considering offering payments for marketplaces now as well. Congrats!
Such a great service, it puts Auth.net to shame. Well done guys, congrats.
Congratulations to the Stripe team!
wow nice :)
So, thanks. We're pretty excited about the next few years.