Sooooo. A company started in 2007 and sold in 2013 for $800 million. I feel like the author is a little lost in the trees and not seeing the forest. Stripe came along much later and by most accounts was valued at $500 million at their last round. Now, Braintree had reasons for why it couldn't get all the way to IPO so there were some challenges. However, I would take a guess that less than 1% of all startups have an $800 mil + exit after 6 years. And now there's another one right behind them (Stripe).