Stripe is so popular with developers because they are laser-focused on providing an excellent experience for the developers. This includes personally responding to every single HN post about Stripe I've ever seen.
- It is directly helpful to users and casts a good light on your company
- It makes the company look more human and composed of actual people, rather than automatons (think Google)
- It provides a way to clear up potential PR disasters, misunderstandings etc when the eventual user comes up with whatever conspiracy theory is en vogue that day (there's always one)
Sending out a "politician" type who specializes in speaking at length while saying nothing is worse than not doing anything, IMO.
(edited to add that I think Stripe handles this extremely well... they could be a model for others)
They haven't responded to any of my questions posted here. My email question was left unanswered as well.
I guess if you are building a service catered to customers from a very small asian country and currency which they say they support/accept, you are SOL.
I love Stripe's design and ease of API implementation but when they don't answer a simple question about a foreign exchange fee, I have no choice but to go with a local company who replies and even calls you to help you with setup and answering questions.