Can you drop me a line at [email protected] with more info and your account email? I'll take a look. And yes, that bot has to go—many improvements coming on that front!
Looks like they really upped their production quality with this release! Excite to see their team is still at it.
Also pumped to see them officially releasing a Chrome extension to send to reMarkable. Long overdue. It doesn't look like it's out yet, so here's a link to the unofficial version I made last year (used by over 700 other reMarkable owners):
This is fantastic. I started Stripe's support team, built out our version of an internal tools team, and have since advised a bunch of mid-range startups on how to scale operations. Every company I've talked to is trying to figure out how to improve response times, but really lacks visibility into when load is coming in -- and especially any visibility into when it will come in.
The technical solution to modeling this out and providing more advanced forecasting is super interesting, and the product itself looks delightful to use (more than the spreadsheets our early support team used to be buried in navigating, at least :)
If it's helpful context, Home has been around for two years and People (its precursor) was made in 2014. We now have a team helping shepherd it along -- you're right that an staple is curating so it doesn't become bloated. We intend to continue to share updates as we learn more, so hopefully others can learn from what works (and doesn't!) as well.
Good question! HR system on the backend is the source of truth for people, their teams, and the org structure; we normalize that into an API, which Home functionality and other internal tools integrate against.
We don't think of Home that way, but there is an element of helping people know each other. We intentionally haven't built any liking, following, or even posts on Home. Home excels at taking information Stripes produce elsewhere -- in code, documents, and so on -- and surfacing that up through common interfaces to improve access for all; on the people side, Home excels at helping folks learn about others they might not have otherwise met (we're a distributed company and so it's not as easy as seeing someone in the hall). This part of the post attempts to speak to that:
> Home can’t paint the complete picture of the person behind the page, but it helps break the ice. Outside Home, we encourage people to meet in person—one of our more structured approaches involves a chat bot that helps schedule lunches among Stripes who are least likely to know each other (more than 5,000 lunches have been facilitated since it was set up!).
We regularly discuss this :) I'm not sure yet how valuable open sourcing it will be in the long run. Part of what makes Home work well for us is how tied it is to how we actually work day-to-day -- that regularly changes as we grow and learn. As an open source project, we'd feel a commitment to keep it working for the existing user base, which might perversely hold back progress on Home and be a net negative for the community as Stripe itself tries new ways to operate.
For now, we intend to continue sharing the lessons we learn from Home and similar tools so that others can benefit from that, and to keep open sourcing it in the back of our head as we design the underlying APIs and infrastructure so we have optionality if it makes sense down the line.
While we include a new bank account when you incorporate through Atlas, you can update your Stripe account to use a different bank account—like your personal account—if you prefer. That said, using a checking account over a personal bank account might make more sense for your business; you'd want to get advice on this to decide the best setup for you.
Not a bad question! We see the biggest need in non-US markets, especially for banking, but think it's great if Atlas ends up helping US entrepreneurs too!
Nope, we don't have any requirements like that in place. That said, the Atlas beta is focused on companies based in emerging markets; so it's more conducive to someone who doesn't currently live in the US, regardless of if they're a US citizen, for example.
Atlas is suited for entrepreneurs anywhere in the world, including in African countries. You can apply here: https://stripe.com/atlas
The tax requirements will vary for each company. At a minimum, you'll need to pay US federal income taxes on your US income, and pay the Delaware Franchise Tax each year. Since we know this is a nuanced topic, we've partnered with PwC to give you guidance from a US perspective when you are invited to Atlas.
Great question! I've learned a lot about this as I've gotten to hear from entrepreneurs that tried to setup in their own country, but ultimately came to the US. The video on our site gives some glimpse into the problems these entrepreneurs run into: https://stripe.com/atlas#stories
The gist is that certain countries have a better business and banking infrastructure than others for entrepreneurs looking to establish a global company. This isn't necessarily specific to the US—and we'll be expanding Atlas to more countries—but the US is a solid starting point, based on what many entrepreneurs in emerging markets already do.
For example, incorporating in a place like Delaware allows companies to issue stock to employees, makes it easy to raise money from global investors, and provides the stability of clear corporate rules and case law. (Most Fortune 500 companies are established in Delaware). Getting started with a US incorporation also makes many more services accessible to you, that might not be available if you incorporated in your own country with less support for new businesses.
It's a personal decision, for sure, but if you're in a country where you're finding your business constrained by the lack of particular banking infrastructure or access to business services, we think Atlas can help.
Being able to move Stripe accounts between countries more effortlessly would make a lot of sense. There are a couple technical aspects we have to think through, but I'd like to see more support for it myself. In the meantime, maybe we can do something faster to help out with your current setup -- want to drop me a line at [email protected] with more details? (Would love to hear any other feedback you have too!)