skrish

+1

I recently saw a demo of the "Aadhaar" project by Indian government in Nasscom Product Conclave event (in Bangalore). I was a skeptic & still am wary about security aspects of something at this scale by government.

But I was quite impressed by the progress & the use cases [1] themselves. They showed in real time, how a bank account authentication can be completed without bringing any other document.

Just IRIS scanner on a phone / tablet, that confirmed the identify of user by returning a photograph & other details. It was done in seconds with a 3G network. There were a few other use cases demonstrated and was pleasantly surprised to learn there are companies in valley that are building services on top of the API. [2]

[1] Overview of Aadhaar service: https://resident.uidai.net.in/aadhaar-services;jsessionid=B1...

[2] API: https://developer.uidai.gov.in/site/book/export/html/18

Very true.

I found a particular customer using it very smartly - to configure multiple gateways via system like ours (ChargeBee) - and splitting his payments across his Authorize.Net, PayPal Payflow & Stripe accounts.

The biggest fear you have with PayPal is getting access to support & being shutdown when there is sudden activity & also risk of "high risk" profile customers purchasing it. One way to mitigate risk is to route all address verified transactions via PayPal (by getting country info upfront before card entry).

He also does it very neatly by spreading transactions across gateways during peak sales. When he does promotions & is expecting volumes he makes Stripe as default & onboards customers.

I need to speak with the customer to learn & implement these as features on our product. :)

Amazing to see the journey of a a blogger & company I have admired for the past 15 years. His blog was one of those inspirations for me to want to start building my own business. Big fan of Trello here. Many congratulations.

Very interesting and much anticipated move. The title is slightly misleading. What they offer is an alternative to PayPal with recurring.

If you are running an eCommerce site that is built on an independent platform, it really does add more value to accept payments via Amazon just like PayPal as an alternate payment method.

Will be interesting to watch if they expand the service to a global market or keep it restricted to US only approach. PayPal's strength is in making it a global play, especially in markets where trust factor / dispute resolution is important.

Here is the tl;dr version of this.

Monthly Revenue report hides information about real health of subscription business, whereas MRR provides better insight.

Any recurring line item, discount and tax are included in MRR calculation, whereas one-time payments & credits are not.

I am not from Australia, but looking at Australia as a customer base. I came across this study recently and found it quite interesting. You may find this useful.

http://google-au.blogspot.in/2013/04/the-startup-economy-roa...

I used to stay in a paying guest accomodation during my first job. My roommate was a guy who had just joined ISRO - we graduated same year but from different colleges. And I also had a chance to interact closely with 2 other friends who were working with ISRO at that time (one was a senior in college).

His payscale started at Rs.8000 per month (in 2001 that was less than $200usd). He was a production engineer. He would be up for next revision of payscale & promotion pending a review in 4 years! He knew that.

I used to wonder what keeps them motivated and I used to constantly question them. One common thread you find based on these conversations is that they are extremely satisfied with work - each of them used to say that what they are working on is UNIQUE that nobody else in ISRO is responsible for. And buck stops with them. They knew that.

That sense of ownership and the way the employees connect to a much larger cause is something unbelievable at ISRO, in my perspective. I used to be in awe of every conversation about his superiors, the work and their perspective of the organization in general.

I think it is an interesting case study in organizational behavior and what keeps you motivated with factors other than just money.

Teaching is another profession I think requires similar mindset. ISRO somehow hires the right kind of people, the employees within the organization are not so flamboyant setting examples for new hires and helps them connect in a way it makes people see contribution to a bigger cause.

Just my observation from what I have seen from close quarters.

BTW, it is also given that he knew they get pension after retirement, medical benefits & all such taken care of for his entire life because he is part of the organization.

Would love to read if there are any case studies on this.

Exactly. This is exactly what Braintree was positioning itself against, offering a 'human touch' to every interaction and having a real person to review the details if you need to scale your business et al.

We can only hope PayPal learns something from Braintree & hopefully change them for better or they may end up like PayPal. Only time will tell.

As a business they have done great. So, Congratulations to the entire team at Braintree.

Sorry if it feels that way. I reviewed the blog and didn't correct it, because that is what our support lead feels about our devs, just from his perspective. But I see your point. Thanks for the feedback.

Is that a wrong usage of the term? Honest question as I am not a native speaker & I thought it was a expression that indicates we chose who should work on this dropping existing items to start working on it.

Great points. Somedays I do tend to wonder what makes founders stick through rough times and as you rightly pointed out having been through life experiences where they stick it out is a definite advantage. You tend to see through the period instead of knee jerk reactions.

I come from a family where both my grand parents & uncles used to run a small restaurant as a family business, starting all the way from the bottom. And they used to do it together for 35+ years through various family situations, sticking together. I just can't complain having seen what they went through and accomplished.

For a lot of people out there that is just life. Only in software startup world we plan for compatibility in lots of different ways. Example, there are lot of people who want to know the plan for an 'exit' even before starting up. Not wrong. Just different.

Nice to see fellow Chennaite launch something on HN. Congratulations on launching.

The results specific to universities or colleges are nicely formatted.

It would help if you have an example typewritten in the box to help get me started. I was initially looking at a blank screen not sure what I need to search for, considering that I wasn't exactly looking & was seeing it through Show HN.

What is the intent of the site? I mean who is your target customer and how would they find studenture in the first place?

Can you explain what you mean by verifying? Do you mean reconciliation of invoices?

That is right. But you need to reduce friction in signup to allow user to explore app.

So a better way could be Signup => Allow them in but say that email confirmation is required for next login => Send email confirmation => Allow login only with confirmation.

Isn't one time pricing, a road lot of business have gone to get some cash upfront & went back on their word?

We need to remember, in SaaS it is the "service" that you pay for not just the "software".

It is okay to be skeptical when someone says, I will support you forever when there is an ongoing cost somewhere.

All those keyboard short cuts & everything is cool. We have tried so many of them but it is hard to find one which every member of your team like something.

It really is impressive.

It is fair game to register whenever possible with your real id and when required with anonymity.

Unnecessarily placing orders leading them to believe you are a genuine is customer would be immoral though.

I had a hilarious incident when a new user signed-up & responded to my welcome mail saying, she is part of a stealth startup & needs guidance with choosing payment gateways. Silly part was her rapportive profile clearly showed her linkedin profile, that she joined competitor as product manager just a few months back. We had a hearty laugh & let it go.

Genuine question, as I want to learn from this (as I run similar service). If you were to launch one such critical service, what would you do differently to assure your customers that you really care & won't screw them behind their back? Definitive answer is: first of all don't screw your customers. But how do you make sure you convey, you won't?

The part I liked about the article is the use of characters Jane & Joe to narrate a story and help you identify with the characters.

Submitted it for this audience to look at another way to make a regular "<<n>> tips to..." story interesting.

Congratulations Venky & team.

Is it a choice between catering to payments infrastructure for businesses vs. peer to peer transfer for Stripe for world domination?

I agree with all your points.

However, I disagree with - "The average Indian may not be corrupt". We are corrupt beyond what we choose to acknowledge.

It depends on whether you call only the bribe taker as corrupt or both.

In my opinion you should consider both and that would mean that average Indian is corrupt. There is not an instance when you cannot get a simple task done without corruption.

Thankfully now, birth and death certificates in cities are partially digitized - and there is no 'need' to bribe and get it.

Consider this example, when I went to the corporation office to get the birth certificate of my son, another delighted father of a kid who was there for same reason was insisting that the clerk should take the Rs.100 out of his generosity and happiness of getting it so quickly!

Of course I wouldn't pay, but what do you think is the expectation from the clerk when he serves me next? Who is the corrupt person here?

As a side note, that particular thread has some excellent comments about chargebacks, risk detection etc.,

Gem of a discussion on that thread apart from the scathing attack.

Awesome news for Australian startups - eWay, pin.net.au and now BraintreePayments.

In most APAC countries, one underlying theme is the yearly or monthly fee. Will be interesting to know what BraintreePayments charges in Australia.

For reference look at this: http://www.eway.com.au/pricing/

BTW, WorldPay is another popular option among Australian companies as we get enquiries for that too, however I believe pin.net.au and BraintreePayments would be game changers, hopefully to disrupt in this market.

Stripe isn't an option if you are not incorporated in US or Canada - as of now. And unless you make substantial revenue (couple of million dollars+), none of the other processors in US would underwrite for the business that exists elsewhere.

PayPal offers only PayPal standard in APAC and the recurring billing checkout page is too long that drop offs are high.

Not necessarily an ideal option, but you can go with 2Checkout.com - one of the recurring options available. If you need a better API and simpler way to integrate with 2Checkout.com along with multiple payment gateway options down the line, you can use ChargeBee.

When you start scaling, you can incorporate outside India and can start using multiple payment gateway options via our solution.

Disclosure: I am one of the founders of ChargeBee.

* Balance work hours - 7:30am to 4pm. Play with kid in beach for an hour, sleep for an hour and get back to work till 11pm.

Today is the first day in this schedule & time to go home. :)

We use Freshdesk. We need to pay for 3 instead of 4 of us, as first agent is free. For a SAAS startup that is just getting started this fits our needs perfectly - support tickets that are captured via mail and listens to conversations on twitter, facebook and converts into tickets. Saves plenty of time. All the other features you mentioned are all covered - like knowledge base, feature requests etc.,

Disclosure: We are friends of Freshdesk team - Zoho alumni network. :)

Thanks. Glad to help.

Shoot me an email before you signup with 2Checkout - I have a $49 coupon code I can share.

@sathishmanohar, Hello from Chenna!. :)

It is this specific case that we are solving for Indian startups along with a global billing solution at ChargeBee.

Regardless of whether you need ChargeBee or not, shoot me an email (in profile) and will be happy to share the options available.

Specific to your question: Without SSN even after incorporation in Delaware it is a struggle to get a merchant account. I have helped a few businesses in India get merchant account there and it is from my experience. I incorporated ChargeBee in Delaware, but thankfully I have SSN. Without revenue not many merchant account providers that claim to do this won't touch you; that is just reality.

My suggestion to startups is: use the easiest available options to get started - we do it with PayPal, 2Checkout etc., I know it is not anywhere near what you can do with Stripe or a BraintreePayments, but you can do with the available options, build traction and focus on the hardest problem - which is getting attention of your customers and get some early adopters. In the meantime, we can help you started with other options and seamlessly switch over for new signups. You will save $1k USD initially plus all the additional paper work, franchisee tax (even incorporating in October will entitle you to pay $440 USD in tax in March next year - delay it by couple of months you save that as well).

But, if you do want to go ahead with incorporation here are couple of blogs: Girish of Freshdesk wrote about this and I wrote a followup on payments as well.

You can read those here:

http://blog.freshdesk.com/how-to-incorporate-a-us-corporatio...

http://blog.chargebee.com/payment-integration-options-for-st...

We are also working with couple of Indian banks and in turn with Reserve Bank of India to solve it well. We should have something soon to avoid all this round about way of incorporating outside to do something straightforward.

Depends on how complex your product and pricing model is. Zuora is slightly enterprisey customers and priced accordingly and they charge setup fee, customization fee etc.,

If you are looking for simpler products focused on small & medium businesses there are plenty of options available as well.

Of course if you are in North America you have Stripe as your first bet and for bit more sophisticated billing plus more options to do promotions, automated notifications, HTML emails, customer support portal, more complex metered billing, grandfathering of price plans (happens!), multi-gateway support etc., you should consider using a billing solution.

Disclosure: I am one a co-founder of http://www.ChargeBee.com, another Subscription Billing solution focused on small businesses.

Shameless plug: If you are looking for options to use payment gateway for credit card + bank transfers for recurring to save $$s per transaction you should try our solution (launching the ACH part very soon).