The Collison brothers and $1.75B online payments startup Stripe | Hacker News Reader

The Collison brothers and $1.75B online payments startup Stripe

ft.com

133 pointsfragmented26 comments

“We were the first people to work on Stripe, and chronologically that’s interesting but so much of the great work that we do now, we’re a piece of it but we’re not the most important piece of it,”

This is amazing. A huge part of my job right now is too find people who make me feel this way - but it's remarkably impressive to find it put so perfectly by the founders of a company like Stripe.

That simple sentiment might be why working for them was so cool and why, as just one proof point, PC is now a part-time partner at YC.

For company culture at that. I can see why.

"... he thinks about hiring and company culture better than anyone else I know." Via http://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-kat-yuri-patrick-and-eli...

Very European of them.

Looks like you're getting downvoted hard. However, I know the point you're trying to make.

I don't get it and I'm dying to know. Is his comment drive-by envy or a drive-by compliment?

My take was there were many Americans applauding their modesty and humility. Yet being from Europe (Ireland in particular) one is taught from a young age not to get a big head etc. So this comment was "This sort of humility and sharing or deflecting the praise is quite normal in Europe"

As an extremely vigorous opponent of personality cults, it makes me incredibly happy to see these two embrace such an excellent philosophy.

Homo sapiens are primates, and we tend to form status hierarchies regardless of which era or environment we are in. The problem with status hierarchies is that they lend authority to a person, instead of an idea.

This is why you can see, for example, SpaceX absolutely demolishing the aerospace industry with minuscule resources compared to the incumbents. SpaceX focuses on ideas to improve aerospace technology, whereas the incumbents focus on maximizing profits for the executives and investors. They do not allow any experimentation with their product for fear of altering a working platform. This fear leads to stagnation, loss of talent, and the present decline.

For technological innovation to progress, ideas must take absolute precedence over people. Only through the rational and empirical vetting of ideas will we be able to improve the state of the art. Not through appeals to authority.

No word on equity distribution though. You can call me the least important junior assistant developer as long as I get my 5-10% :).

Whoa, 5-10%? In what scenario?

5% does seem a little high. I think Sam Altman called for a minimum of 10% (so the allocation is equal to x such that x us equal to or greater than 0.10) to go to the first ten hires. Perhaps, this would be a scenario where the first hire would get half of the allocation (so the allocation to the first employee is equal to x such that x is equal to or greater than 0.05).

However, I'd argue the first hire isn't "the least important junior assistant developer" no matter what label you put on them. Other than a first (or maybe second but that's stretching it) hire, I fail to see where someone would get five to ten percent.

I find it funny that the Stripe founders have inspired and influenced people by retracting from the cult-of-the-founder image that causes people to be inspired and influenced by you. It's true that these guys aren't the most important piece of the Stripe puzzle, but there's a reason FT chose to interview the founders and no one else. The first guys are the most inspiring. And these guys tastefully make sure they don't get too self-indulgent with that fact, making them pretty awesome people. Really a great article, and these guys seem like humble, awesome people that can do successful work on a billion dollar problem without tooting any horns about it.

If you're looking for more inspirational founder articles, FT ran one on on Sean Parker a while back shortly after the Social Network came out -- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/8383ab06-45e3-11e0-acd8-00144.... Sean's a bit more indulgent than these two. Then again he co-founded Napster and was a major influence in Facebook, and it's bit hard to be humble when you stuntin' on a Jumbotron (which is why the Stripe founders are so awesome for being able to do that). In the end, he's still a massive problem-solver and an entrepreneurial inspiration. I'd recommend it.

+1 for the 'Ye reference.

Interesting to read that they used Smalltalk for Auctomatic, their first company.

Yeah. Wasnt DabbleDB smalltalk too? Picked up steam there for a little while.

Nearly every week I lament the disappearance of dabbledb from the internet.

Does everyone else have an FT subscription? I'm hitting a paywall...

No paywall for me, but does this link work maybe? This has gotten me around paywalls before.

https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...

Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me.

Maybe the paywall is because I'm not in the US (Australia).

Odd, none for me from the Netherlands. Sorry I can't help.

>In another corner, white mattresses are propped up against the wall ready for use by employees who need a place to stay when they are visiting San Francisco<

Mostly this happens in early stage startups but continuing it at a level when your company is $1.75B is absolutely phenomenal. The effect of this type of culture is what attracts talented people and makes sticking around worth it.

I would personally kill to be part of an organization which brews a culture like this.

Just read this after reading a short essay on the damage a narcissistic person can have on the culture of a small company.

These fellas are a breath of fresh air. Here's to hoping these nice guys do not finish last.

An article touting that these two young guys are worth $1.75B and then shows pictures of their home address, WTF journalist? Seems way unnecessarily inviting.

They're trying to take some of the heat off of Dorian Nakamoto, maybe.

I love everything about this company... These guys are huge influences of mine on both how humble they are, and where they came from to be where they are now.

pc's hair is fierce fluffy these days

Reply on news.ycombinator.com