💳 Stripe

Take the Collison brothers, Patrick and John. As teenagers, the two founded Auctomatic, an auction-management system for power sellers on eBay. They brought the idea to Y Combinator in the winter of 2007 and raised a small seed round from investors including Chris Sacca and Paul Buchheit. Ten months after incorporating, Auctomatic was acquired by a

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At YC we use the term "Collison installation" for the technique they invented. More diffident founders ask "Will you try our beta?" and if the answer is yes, they say "Great, we'll send you a link." But the Collison brothers weren't going to wait. When anyone agreed to try Stripe they'd say "Right then, give me your laptop" and set them up on the s... See more

Stripe: high energy, sound judgment, small teams, and low ego creates magic.

One thing that distinguishes Stripe is that it’s an incredibly deep-thinking culture . It’s a written culture really focused on getting to the right answer.

That deep thinking and speed are combined with a substantial amount of user focus and user empathy. And finally, Stripe is a humble and low-entitlement culture .

Internally, our first Operating Principle is “Users First”. Some companies are technology-first:  they do some R&D, invent interesting tech, and figure out how to commercialize it. That’s a very  viable and successful approach for many companies. But Stripe is lucky enough to serve  millions of smart, discerning, and demanding bu... See more