What prevents competitors from creating their own app that does this? If this takes off and Square charges X percent, I assume that Competitor Y will develop a similar app and charge X-z percent. I'm having a hard time seeing the barriers to entry for this particular approach.
I feel this myself and see it in others at work (large fortune 500 company)
The 3 paths that I've identified for myself are as follows:
1. Suck it up, stick with the job/career you've got. It pays well, there is "relative" job security and an upwards path. Enjoy your free time with your family, hobbies, etc.
2. Same as #1, except some part of your free time to bootstrap something that will give you financial freedom.
3. Throw caution to the wind and join a startup.
Per #1, it appears that some are able to partition their lives- e.g., they drag themselves through work to enable them and their families to live a certain lifestyle- I'm not sure this is sustainable longer term, but can be done if one adopts a certain mental attitude towards work. #3 isn't a good fit for me because I'm not ready to force my family to change their lifestyle to accommodate my wishes. So that leaves #2 for me.
Ideally, if I could sustain myself and my family at our current lifestyle or better through a side boot-strapped project, that'd be great. However, I wonder if I would be happier trading in my 1 boss for tens?, hundreds?, of customers of whatever it is that I would be selling or making, assuming that I could even get to that point. Even if my bootstrapped project is successful for a year or two, it is unlikely to succeed for a much longer term (10-20 years), whereas I could see myself easily employed in my current role over that longer time-frame.