Stripe: The Internet's Most Undervalued Company

Stripe’s strategy, however, is focused on the long tail. It has millions of customers (including 1 million via Shopify) compared to ~3,500 for Adyen. It likely makes its margins on the long tail, while keeping prices low for big companies like Shopify for two reasons: 1) to keep Shopify away from competitors and 2) to collect the massive data from ... See more

Take companies through the entire journey, from incorporation to going public.

In a decade, Stripe has gone from accepting payments, which is now a commodity business, to providing an increasingly comprehensive suite of products that make it easy to start and run an online business.

Stripe is the most heavily online company of its competitors. In fact, its underdeveloped offline product is one of competitors’ main selling points against it. But it’s a good time to be very online. Square, which has a large point-of-sale business, actually saw a decline in Q2 payments volume, revenue, and profits.

Advise governments on how to leapfrog the banking system. Africa is a noticeably large hole in the map, and one that Sqaure’s Jack Dorsey was planning on physically inhabiting himself until his board stopped him.

Large customers and partners are an issue for Stripe right now because they have more negotiating power. By one estimate, even before the pandemic, Stripe was generating $350 million in revenue from Shopify alone. That gives Shopify a lot of power over Stripe. If Shopify leaves, that’s a material hit to Stripe’s revenue.

Understand the economics of any internet industry better than anyone in the world and suggest where budding entrepreneurs might build.

Provide access to increasingly large amounts of non-dilutive capital.

Because of Stripe, internet businesses barely have to worry about payments.

Make equity investments in businesses based on its data, a la Tencent.