1 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:05,960 Speaker 1: One of the most valuable tech startups that's still private 2 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:08,720 Speaker 1: is Stripe. It was started about a decade ago by 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: two brothers, both of them dropped out of college to 4 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:14,160 Speaker 1: start the company. The company is reimagining the way people 5 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: make their payments and had a chance to sit down 6 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:19,240 Speaker 1: with one of the founders, John Collison, in his offices 7 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:20,120 Speaker 1: in New York City. 8 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 2: So tell me what Stripe actually is. 9 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:28,320 Speaker 3: So Stripe makes it easy for businesses to accept payments online. 10 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 4: We got the idea. 11 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 3: When we actually had started our own internet business and 12 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:34,839 Speaker 3: we found this so much stuff is getting better, you know, 13 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,400 Speaker 3: the tech is getting better at programming, language, is cloud hosting. 14 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:39,640 Speaker 3: But when it actually comes to running a business and 15 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 3: taking payment from people all over the world, that was 16 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 3: something that was really challenging. And so today, if you're 17 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 3: setting up a business online, if you decided that you 18 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:51,200 Speaker 3: wanted to, you know, start a media company and charge subscriptions, 19 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 3: you know, twenty dollars a month to access all the 20 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,360 Speaker 3: back catalog, how do you actually go and do that 21 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 3: and take people's you know, credit card details or bank 22 00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 3: account details. 23 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 4: Stripe provides the infant structure to do So. 24 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 2: Where did the name Stripe come from? 25 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 4: We okay. 26 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 3: Stripe was originally called slashtev slash payments like with the 27 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:11,399 Speaker 3: you know, forward slashes in there, which was kind of 28 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:16,960 Speaker 3: a wry software engineering joke, and you can imagine it 29 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,959 Speaker 3: just like baffled everyone. You know, people in the flang 30 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 3: industry thought we were some kind of dodgy fraud thing, 31 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:24,160 Speaker 3: and so okay, it was clear that this would work. 32 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:25,960 Speaker 4: So we went through the entire. 33 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 3: Company went through a renaming exercise where you tried to 34 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 3: come up with, you know, the best names we could 35 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,480 Speaker 3: and find out domain names were available. You know, we 36 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 3: consider the name paid Demon for a while. Again, you know, 37 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:38,400 Speaker 3: we attracted a bad names for some reason, but we 38 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:39,559 Speaker 3: settled on Stripe. 39 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: Before you started the company, how did people get this 40 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: service in? Otherwise, there was business being done long before Stripe, 41 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: So how did people deal with this problem? 42 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 4: The most common way is people went to banks. 43 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 3: You would go to Bank of America or Chase or 44 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 3: someone like that, and you would get a merchant account 45 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 3: from them. But you can kind of imagine banks didn't 46 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 3: really understand internet companies that well, this is much more 47 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 3: about providing the software to plug into your website. They're 48 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:08,240 Speaker 3: not in the software business. And honestly it was a 49 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 3: bit of a hobby. It's a sideline from them. You 50 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 3: won't hear when you hear a bank ceo talk about 51 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 3: their business. This will never be front and center as 52 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:16,239 Speaker 3: something they really care about. And so there was no 53 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 3: one who really specialized in making life easy for internet businesses. 54 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: So your company was started, was doing business with a 55 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:25,360 Speaker 1: lot of entrepreneurial companies, but then you started doing business 56 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: with Fortune five hundred, Fortune one hundred, Fortune fifty companies. 57 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:29,519 Speaker 2: Was that a transition? 58 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:31,120 Speaker 1: You have to wear a coat and tie when you 59 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:33,640 Speaker 1: go see the CEOs of Fortune fifty companies, And how 60 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 1: did that work? 61 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 4: You might. 62 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 3: Association, you know, a Fortune one hundred company, but like 63 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 3: the tech is a bit out of date and the 64 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 3: user experienced a little bit clunky. If you talk to 65 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 3: people inside those businesses, that's obviously not what they want. 66 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,080 Speaker 3: And so what we found is large companies coming to 67 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 3: us because they want to offer a really compelling user 68 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 3: experience that's as good as all the tech guys might do. 69 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 3: And so you know we're talking to Forward about you know, 70 00:02:58,040 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 3: they obviously want to make it where you can just 71 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:01,680 Speaker 3: buy a car online. You know, you don't have to 72 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 3: necessarily go through the dealership. You know, we're working with Hurts. 73 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:08,519 Speaker 3: They want to modernize the car rental experience, like why 74 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 3: can't you have everything within the Hurtz app and have 75 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 3: that be the payment experience rather than having to wait 76 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 3: in line at the car rental counter. You know, Amazon 77 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 3: similarly making it easy for people all around the world 78 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 3: to pay urban outfitters. They want to make it easy 79 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:23,639 Speaker 3: to you know, buy something online a return store or 80 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 3: vice versa. And so we found all these large companies 81 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,720 Speaker 3: tended to almost kind of look at the startups and 82 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 3: what they're doing and say, we want to be able 83 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 3: to deliver that caliber of customer experience. And so I 84 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 3: think our foundations in the tech world and the startup 85 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 3: world we are actually quite useful as we went to 86 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 3: go talk to the large companies. 87 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 1: Now, there's a phrase in the Silicon Valley world called unicorn, 88 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: which means a giganic companies come from nowhere, got it 89 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: a lot of value. I guess you were about the 90 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: biggest unicorn out there because one time you raise money 91 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: at evaluation of about ninety some billion dollars more recently 92 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,720 Speaker 1: a little bit lower than that, but ninety billion dollars valuation. 93 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: Many times people would say, if company's worth ninety billion, 94 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: now maybe less than that, want not take a public 95 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:08,600 Speaker 1: You're a privately owned company. 96 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:09,960 Speaker 2: Why have you not taken in public? 97 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:13,160 Speaker 4: I get the sense that. 98 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 3: Some tech companies, maybe a lot of tech companies, go 99 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 3: public a bit too early. And what I mean by 100 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,839 Speaker 3: that is in Strip's case, I mean we still see 101 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:29,760 Speaker 3: tons of opportunity to change and. 102 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 4: Grow the business quite a lot. 103 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:34,840 Speaker 3: We're still constantly inventing new products and developing new business lines, 104 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,279 Speaker 3: and also you can do that in the public markets. 105 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 4: But I think culturally we have ended up. 106 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:42,719 Speaker 3: You know, you look at analysts following public companies and 107 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 3: obsessing over guidance and what will be this quarter and 108 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 3: things like that. 109 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 4: Culturally we've ended up. 110 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 3: I think in a bit more of a world where 111 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 3: public companies are suited for the extract stage of the 112 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,479 Speaker 3: sigmoid curve rather than the expand stage. And Stripe is 113 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 3: still growing very quickly reinvesting in new products. I don't 114 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 3: think it's actually better in terms of how you can 115 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 3: compensation employees, where you can give a better instrument for 116 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 3: employee compensation and attracting the top talent as a private 117 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 3: company because a public company one, it's an instrument that 118 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 3: everyone else has access to. You know, a public company stock, 119 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 3: you can just buy it in the public markets if 120 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 3: you want. 121 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 4: There's no rarity to us. 122 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 3: But also you see various public companies that go through 123 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:24,919 Speaker 3: a kind of hype cycle and then spend you know, 124 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 3: a long period of time with you know flat or 125 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:30,800 Speaker 3: evaluation going down, whereas I think as a you know, 126 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,040 Speaker 3: a private company or less likely to run into that. 127 00:05:33,279 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 1: So you had a CFO who retired and when she 128 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: did so you became her successor acting CFO. What was 129 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:42,640 Speaker 1: that like to be the CFO as well as the president. 130 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, well, luckily now we have a real CFO, a 131 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 3: fellow named Stephen Thomlinson who joined last year. But as 132 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:53,600 Speaker 3: your reference, for the best part of a year, I 133 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 3: was our interim CFO. 134 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 4: It's actually very useful experience. 135 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,039 Speaker 3: Where I think all founders should be a CFO of 136 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 3: their own businesses for you know, a period, because it 137 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 3: really lets you get a quite hands on sense of 138 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 3: the business. But you know, that was during twenty twenty three, 139 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,600 Speaker 3: which was a funny time where you know, we did 140 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,120 Speaker 3: this kind of large fundraise in the beginning of the year. 141 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,919 Speaker 3: It was a quite large, you know, private market fundraise, 142 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 3: and it was a weird time. Like you remember the 143 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 3: start of twenty twenty three, everyone was nervous. Everyone's hiding 144 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 3: under their desks. They didn't want to invest money, and 145 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:30,599 Speaker 3: so I think we had to kind of draw people 146 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 3: out and be willing to make investments. And then that 147 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 3: was a year where we also had to kind of 148 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 3: tighten up a loss on kind of expenses and things 149 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:40,400 Speaker 3: like that, because everyone is battling down the hatches a 150 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 3: bit for a recession. The recession didn't end up coming, 151 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:44,359 Speaker 3: but I think that was useful prep regardless. 152 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: So you had a point at some point where you 153 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: had to say, lay off some employees. 154 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:49,560 Speaker 2: Was that difficult to do well? 155 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:52,000 Speaker 3: Of course, I think in particular because you know, the 156 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,279 Speaker 3: company's fault at some level where we had been trying 157 00:06:55,320 --> 00:07:00,120 Speaker 3: to project forward how many people we'd need and and 158 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:03,839 Speaker 3: you know at something that we've gotten that wrong, especially 159 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 3: as it looked like things were looking kind of quite 160 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:07,120 Speaker 3: a bit weaker for twenty three and twenty four. 161 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 4: So this was in twenty twenty two. But you have 162 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 4: a whole bunch of people who are very good and yes. 163 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 3: Just like it's not the right kind of structure for 164 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 3: the company to have them, and so of course it's 165 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 3: going to be hard. 166 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 1: Now, sometimes the companies in Silicon Valley, they're seen as 167 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: having postpone an IPO if they wait four years, five years, 168 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: six years, ten years, waiting fourteen years is a long time. 169 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: Is something like an IPO ever on your horizon, or 170 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:33,800 Speaker 1: it's just something you don't even think about or don't 171 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: talk about. 172 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, look, presumably at some stage, but. 173 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 3: I think the kind of broad narrative gets very transaction focused, 174 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 3: because that's like the interesting media moment or something like that. 175 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 3: If you were to look at Amazing inside of Stripe, 176 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,120 Speaker 3: you can probably imagine themb it is. We're very focused 177 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 3: on is the product working well for customers, How is 178 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:54,840 Speaker 3: new customer growth growing? 179 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 4: How are kind of. 180 00:07:55,480 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 3: The fundamental financials of revenue growth and even for the business. 181 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:02,240 Speaker 3: We don't spend a lot of time on kind of 182 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 3: transactions and kind of those. 183 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: So when you get some professional investors, and many of 184 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 1: them are among the leading venture capital firms in the 185 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: United States, like Sequoia for example, at some point venture 186 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: capitalists say, well, this is a great product. 187 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 2: You're doing a great job. 188 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:19,520 Speaker 1: We'll give you more money, but we would like to 189 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,120 Speaker 1: actually get our money back at some point. You don't 190 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: get any pressure from them saying after ten years or 191 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: so you should get public or get our money back. 192 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,360 Speaker 3: I mean all of our venture investors kind of own 193 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 3: a stake in the company that is compounding and continue 194 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 3: to appreciation intrinsic value. And so I think that is 195 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:42,679 Speaker 3: the business they're in. That's what they're excited about. And 196 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 3: you have to remember, you know, someone like a Sequoia. 197 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 3: I don't think it's an open question as to whether 198 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:49,560 Speaker 3: Sequoia is a good venture investor. I think that they're 199 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 3: not worried about having to prove themselves to okay. 200 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:53,640 Speaker 4: I think that's a known thing. 201 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: So I think at the peak of the tech I 202 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,199 Speaker 1: won't say bubble, but the frenzy on tech companies, your 203 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,839 Speaker 1: company was valued I thought around ninety five billion or 204 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: something like that. So ninety five billion dollars for a 205 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,559 Speaker 1: startup is pretty impressive. But then they melt down the 206 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: tech world occurred. I think your last valuation was probably 207 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: something closer to sixty billion, So is that depressing when 208 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,200 Speaker 1: you're from ninety five to sixty or sixty is still 209 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:19,840 Speaker 1: very high, and where people upset or you say, this 210 00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: is just the tech world and it'll go back up. 211 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 4: Yeah. 212 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:28,559 Speaker 3: Look, people have a funny relationship to prices. Where first off, 213 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:32,160 Speaker 3: in the entirety of the public market space, you had 214 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,080 Speaker 3: a lot of enthusiasm in twenty twenty one, especially for 215 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:37,520 Speaker 3: things like you know, SaaS and fintech and things like that. 216 00:09:37,559 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 3: If you look at companies in a similar space to 217 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:45,079 Speaker 3: Stripe but that are public vius, you know, Shopify or 218 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:47,120 Speaker 3: Square or anyone like that, they also had kind of 219 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 3: much higher valuations in twenty twenty one. Then those came 220 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:53,080 Speaker 3: down because interest rates changed, the environment change, and so 221 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:54,240 Speaker 3: of course. 222 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:55,480 Speaker 4: That should flow through to valuations. 223 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:58,719 Speaker 3: But we find in the private market world people get 224 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:00,920 Speaker 3: very funny about you and I see other companies trying 225 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:02,520 Speaker 3: to preserve evaluation. 226 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 4: That doesn't make sense anymore. 227 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 3: Like prices are based on you know, you're at the 228 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 3: midpoint of supply and demand, and they're kind of the 229 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:13,600 Speaker 3: imputed value of all the future cash flows. But I 230 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 3: don't think it serves anyone to be in denial about 231 00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 3: lot of prices. 232 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:18,720 Speaker 1: Okay, so let's suppose somebody came to work at your 233 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:21,120 Speaker 1: company the very beginning. They don't own as much as 234 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: you do, but presumably they own some and they're not 235 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,120 Speaker 1: going to be maybe as wealthy as you and your 236 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: brother might be, but they might say, I'd like to 237 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:31,040 Speaker 1: sell some stock. I don't have as much reserves as 238 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:33,480 Speaker 1: other people. How do they get to sell their stock 239 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:35,640 Speaker 1: if you're not going public? You buy their stock back 240 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:36,040 Speaker 1: from them. 241 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, So what we've done twice now is tender offers 242 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:46,000 Speaker 3: where we match together you know, investors, and you know, 243 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 3: sometimes they also use the kind of company's own cash 244 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 3: that it generates, and you know, do a buyback program 245 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 3: for people at the opportunity to sell their shares. And 246 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 3: so we did that last year, we did that this 247 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:56,319 Speaker 3: year again. I think we'll probably do it again in 248 00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:56,720 Speaker 3: the future. 249 00:10:57,280 --> 00:10:59,559 Speaker 1: So let's suppost somebody's watching this and says, this is 250 00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:00,559 Speaker 1: a very't man. 251 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 2: I've heard of Stripe. It's a great company. 252 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 1: Evaluation might be sixty seventy eighty billion, whatever the next 253 00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:08,320 Speaker 1: roound round might be, I'd like to invest in it. 254 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: How does somebody invest in Stripe other than going through 255 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 1: the venture firms you already have. 256 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 4: I mean, they don't. 257 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,680 Speaker 3: In some cases, they might have exposure because they're you know, 258 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:21,440 Speaker 3: a shareholder in you know, some entity that owns a 259 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,680 Speaker 3: stake and strike and so you know, Fidelsy owns some 260 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:26,640 Speaker 3: shares and Stripe, and so maybe people have looked through 261 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,559 Speaker 3: exposure based on that. But remember also we are not 262 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 3: The business does not do kind of primary equity raiss anymore. 263 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:38,720 Speaker 3: The business generates cash, and so the only shares the 264 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:41,040 Speaker 3: trade hands are just in the secondary markets where we want. 265 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:41,960 Speaker 4: To give employees liquidly. 266 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:44,560 Speaker 3: But you haven't sold his shares and I've you know, 267 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 3: showed sold shares at some point in the past and 268 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 3: you know, the tender offer or something like that, but 269 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 3: certainly we're not. 270 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:51,880 Speaker 4: We're along the company now. 271 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:54,760 Speaker 1: You are the co founder and president. Who is the 272 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:56,679 Speaker 1: other co founder and CEO? 273 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,400 Speaker 3: So our CEO and my co founder is my brother Patrick. 274 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:04,040 Speaker 3: So we've been working together for a long time. We 275 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 3: started the business fourteen years ago, and we actually started 276 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 3: a business together previously. That was part of how we 277 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:10,960 Speaker 3: got the idea for Stripe. 278 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:14,160 Speaker 1: You've heard the phrase sibling rivalry, So do you have 279 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:16,720 Speaker 1: a sibling rivalry with your brother as a year older brother. 280 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:17,840 Speaker 4: He's my older brother. 281 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 3: No, it's nice, you know, it mightn't work that well 282 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,439 Speaker 3: if we were particularly rivalrous. 283 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,400 Speaker 4: I actually think it's quite valuable for us. 284 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:29,920 Speaker 3: Look, everyone's co founders relationships are different. View of co 285 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 3: founders at Carlisle in our case, in Silicon Valley broadly, 286 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,000 Speaker 3: co founder relationships can be. 287 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 4: Unstable inherently. 288 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:45,720 Speaker 3: You know, you look at all of the large companies 289 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:50,959 Speaker 3: you know, Apple, Microsoft, Google, you know, pick your example, and. 290 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:52,160 Speaker 4: You know Facebook. 291 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 3: In a lot of cases the original co founding team 292 00:12:56,960 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 3: did not stick together. And again in Stripe's case, we 293 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,559 Speaker 3: get really excited about this idea of growing the GDP 294 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,400 Speaker 3: of the Internet, expanding the Internet economy, and fourteen years in, 295 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:09,200 Speaker 3: we actually like we now are at the you know, 296 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 3: the table stakes part. We feel like we've done some 297 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:13,880 Speaker 3: good groundwork, but we can do some really interesting stuff 298 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 3: over the next ten or twenty years. 299 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,359 Speaker 4: I think that's much more fun. 300 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 3: And you have much more opportunity to work on it 301 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 3: with a long term perspective. If you have very trusting 302 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,000 Speaker 3: co founder relationships, it makes us, I think, more stable, 303 00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:30,520 Speaker 3: more enjoyable, So you're more likely to stick at doing this, 304 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:33,959 Speaker 3: and so I feel pretty fortunate for the relationship that Patrika. 305 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,800 Speaker 1: Let's talk about your background and how this came about, 306 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:38,360 Speaker 1: so I can tell prem er accent. 307 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 2: You're not from New York City exactly. Yeah, so originally 308 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 2: you're from where. 309 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:44,640 Speaker 3: I'm from, Ireland, and I grew up there and then 310 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 3: I ended up coming to the United States for college. 311 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:50,400 Speaker 1: You grow up in Ireland, Limerick, I assume you did 312 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:53,160 Speaker 1: okay in school what you got into Harvard, which is 313 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: probably not that easy to do from Ireland. So why 314 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:57,680 Speaker 1: did you go to Harvard and why did you drop 315 00:13:57,720 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 1: out of Harvard? 316 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 4: I went to Harvard's I don't know. At that time. 317 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 4: I just had some wonderlust. I wanted to get out 318 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 4: and explore the world. 319 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:08,600 Speaker 3: As you say, I was pretty academic, like, I liked school, 320 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:13,680 Speaker 3: I liked studying, and I just really wanted to get 321 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:16,240 Speaker 3: out to somewhere else. And I think that's sometimes for 322 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 3: people who grew up somewhere kind of small, in a 323 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:24,000 Speaker 3: small community. That's a common sentiment. And so that's why 324 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,600 Speaker 3: I ended up at Harvard. We actually started stripe when 325 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:29,880 Speaker 3: we were in college, so I was at Harvard, Patrick 326 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:31,160 Speaker 3: was down the road at MIT. 327 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:33,520 Speaker 4: We had been talking about this idea. 328 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,480 Speaker 3: And again this was two thousand and nine, where there 329 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,360 Speaker 3: were a huge number of Internet businesses. But if you 330 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:42,240 Speaker 3: talk to any internet entrepreneur again, they would tell you 331 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:45,320 Speaker 3: that this was their biggest frustration. But we were, you know, 332 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 3: nineteen and twenty one at the time, we were not 333 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:50,720 Speaker 3: experienced in the industry. 334 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:51,720 Speaker 4: And I think what's interesting is. 335 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:56,840 Speaker 3: Stripe is obviously regulated financial services firm. It was probably 336 00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:59,840 Speaker 3: helpful that we had no idea of what it would 337 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 3: because you know, it's actually pretty complex to build something 338 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:03,600 Speaker 3: like Strip. 339 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 4: But we gradually got into it. 340 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:07,920 Speaker 2: All right, So you did one year at Harvard and 341 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 2: you dropped down. 342 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: Yeah, and did you say to your parents, I'm going 343 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:12,840 Speaker 1: to be the next Bill Gates from Mark Zuckerberg or 344 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: they didn't say anything about the importance of going and 345 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:16,240 Speaker 1: getting your degree. 346 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 3: Quite the opposite of what I said to my mom, 347 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 3: who I was leaving Ireland for colleges. You know, she said, okay, 348 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,040 Speaker 3: because Patrick had dropped out previously. She said to me, 349 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 3: you know, if you're going, you're going for four years. 350 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 3: You got to do the whole thing. 351 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,200 Speaker 4: I said, yes, absolutely, I'm going four years. I will graduate. 352 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:32,880 Speaker 3: And that was about two months before we started writing 353 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 3: the code for Strip. 354 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: So where did you get your initial money to get 355 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: the company started? 356 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:38,960 Speaker 4: So we did like a lot of people. 357 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 3: We did, you know, a little bit of kind of 358 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,840 Speaker 3: friends and family fundraising from anyone we could get connected to. 359 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 3: And then the very first investors were Paul Graham, Sam Altman, 360 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 3: and then Peter Teel. 361 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:52,680 Speaker 2: Okay, so they came in early. 362 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:55,160 Speaker 1: At that point, you had no revenue, You had nothing 363 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 1: but an idea. 364 00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:59,160 Speaker 3: We had a few customers, and so I guess we 365 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,440 Speaker 3: had a little bit of revenue, but minimal wouldn't be 366 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 3: impressive to you, right. 367 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:05,880 Speaker 1: So you get the company off the ground, and at 368 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:08,360 Speaker 1: what point do you get some enough customers to go 369 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: to a professional venture capital firm and say. 370 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 2: We have a real business here. 371 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:14,920 Speaker 3: I think with the early stage investors, they're very much 372 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 3: focused on the found and team, the product, things like that. 373 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 3: And so when you look at those early early investors 374 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:22,160 Speaker 3: to Stripe, I think basically what they looked at is 375 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:25,280 Speaker 3: they saw the product. We might have had, you know, 376 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:27,680 Speaker 3: fifty customers at the time or something. We are quite 377 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 3: compelling demo showing how quickly you could get started accepting payments. 378 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 3: And this is still like if I want to sell 379 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 3: someone on Stripe today, I just showed them, you know, 380 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:38,040 Speaker 3: you go to Stripe dot com, You log on and 381 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:40,000 Speaker 3: you can be set up to start accepting payments from 382 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,000 Speaker 3: customers all around the world in a matter of five minutes. 383 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 3: You know, that's kind of the demo now, and it 384 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,000 Speaker 3: was the demo back then. And then we would encourage 385 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 3: investors to talk to any kind of tech entrepreneurs they 386 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,960 Speaker 3: know and just ask them how the experience of dealing 387 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:57,240 Speaker 3: with payments was. And so, you know, we talked to investor, 388 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 3: we'd show them the product whatever, and then they would 389 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,800 Speaker 3: maybe go call on their portfolio companies and you know, say, 390 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:04,719 Speaker 3: you know, hey, do you guys have any problems accepting payments? 391 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:06,400 Speaker 3: They have to hold the phone away from their ear. 392 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 3: They got so much yelling at the other end about 393 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,160 Speaker 3: how crummy the existing providers were. But I think that's 394 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:13,560 Speaker 3: really what they were underwriting in the airly investments was 395 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 3: just this seems like a good idea, This product seems good, 396 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:18,879 Speaker 3: and it seems like it's addressing a real problem that 397 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 3: people have. 398 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,880 Speaker 1: Many companies struggle with a couple issues like ESG DEI 399 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:25,320 Speaker 1: let's talk about that. Yeah, do you care about ESG 400 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,399 Speaker 1: at stripe? But is that a major focus or not 401 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:28,560 Speaker 1: your major focus? 402 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:34,600 Speaker 3: There are a number of mission oriented cause and ideas 403 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:39,040 Speaker 3: that we care about. You know, firstly the overall mission 404 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 3: of Stripe, where we're broadening access to entrepreneurship and making 405 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,200 Speaker 3: kind of global e commerce easier. And so there is 406 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:48,480 Speaker 3: a real social good that we care about at Stripe. 407 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 3: And then there are other things we care about. We 408 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,800 Speaker 3: have this part of the business called Stripe Climate where 409 00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:57,080 Speaker 3: we're funding carbon removal technologies and offering that to our customers, 410 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 3: and we can go into that. However, I think think 411 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,440 Speaker 3: curious what you think just the whole ESG movement has 412 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 3: gotten into a very kind of check boxy exercise and 413 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,119 Speaker 3: you know, an excuse for people to focus on things 414 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 3: other than being good fiduciaries for their shareholders and ended 415 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 3: up with a loss of lawful Basically. 416 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:16,119 Speaker 2: What about the EI. 417 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,480 Speaker 1: Are you all a bunch of white tech engineers who 418 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:20,919 Speaker 1: are all man or not? 419 00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 3: The case that's similarly here, I think the if you 420 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 3: were to kind of go walk the hallways and Stripe 421 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,800 Speaker 3: and meet people, it's a very diverse group of people 422 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 3: who kind of make up the constituency that is Stripe. 423 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,879 Speaker 3: But the public debate about that has gotten kind of funny. 424 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: Now you're pretty well known in the tech world. So 425 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:41,840 Speaker 1: if you walk down the streets in New York City 426 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: where we are today, I don't know whether people recognize you. 427 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:47,120 Speaker 1: But if you go into a restaurant in Silicon Valley, 428 00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: I assume everybody comes up and says, here's my resume 429 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,440 Speaker 1: or something like that. Can you go in Silicon Valley 430 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 1: and not be bothered by people trying to get something 431 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:54,760 Speaker 1: from you? 432 00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:59,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still fine actually, because I remember, we sell 433 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:02,240 Speaker 3: to businesses. You know, we're not on you know, TV 434 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,560 Speaker 3: all the time, and people just I think, aren't that 435 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,040 Speaker 3: interested in the payments industry, which we like it. 436 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:11,040 Speaker 4: You know, it's nice to be in a boring part 437 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:11,640 Speaker 4: of the industry. 438 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: How old are you now, I'm thirty three, thirty three, Okay, 439 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,440 Speaker 1: well pretty young. So let's suppose when you're forty three, 440 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:19,280 Speaker 1: fifty three, or sixty three, what. 441 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:19,720 Speaker 2: Do you want to be? 442 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,600 Speaker 1: You want to be a wealthy entrepreneur, build another company, 443 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: be a great philanthropist, art collector. What is your ambition 444 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:28,400 Speaker 1: ten twenty thirty years from now? 445 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 3: Well, first off, I'd be very happy running stripe. I 446 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 3: expect to be running Stripe twenty years from now, because again, 447 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 3: this is just the kind of problem that has returns 448 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:48,000 Speaker 3: to time spent on the problem. And the payments industry 449 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 3: is actually changing quite a bit at this very moment 450 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:55,120 Speaker 3: in time, where we're seeing, for example, more global heterogeneity 451 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 3: in payment systems, like you know, fifteen years ago everyone 452 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:00,600 Speaker 3: maybe just paid online with the credit cards, is now 453 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:02,919 Speaker 3: every different country has a different unit. 454 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 4: You' see the growth of. 455 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 3: Upi in India or alipay, and we chat in China 456 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:08,240 Speaker 3: and things like this, and so you need something like 457 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,960 Speaker 3: stripe to miss all these together. And we're just very 458 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,640 Speaker 3: early in the digitization of commerce broadly. And so again 459 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,879 Speaker 3: this is to me a very fulfilling, satisfying problem that 460 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,159 Speaker 3: I'd very happily be working on in twenty years. However, 461 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,359 Speaker 3: we're also kind of getting more interested in philanthropy and 462 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,560 Speaker 3: I think trying to learn about that and do us 463 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:28,439 Speaker 3: in a more bottoms up way. And so we have 464 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:30,480 Speaker 3: a biomedical institute that we helped the star at ARC, 465 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:33,400 Speaker 3: and there's various other kind of projects that were back. 466 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:36,120 Speaker 2: So is Bill gatespin after you to sign the giving pledge. 467 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,359 Speaker 4: I have not talked to himbout it really. 468 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:40,119 Speaker 2: I'm sure after this interview he'll be calling you. 469 00:20:40,359 --> 00:20:42,320 Speaker 4: We're doing a bunch of givings, so we're already on 470 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:42,880 Speaker 4: the program. 471 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: So sometimes people that are entrepreneurs say, I have one 472 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 1: great idea, but actually I'm really smart. 473 00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,120 Speaker 2: I can have two great ideas. So I have one 474 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 2: great idea. 475 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,880 Speaker 1: Now I'm going to start another company because I'm also 476 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: so smart, I can think of another great thing. So 477 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 1: is that a burning ambition to start another company or 478 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,000 Speaker 1: this one is? Basically this is going to be a 479 00:20:59,040 --> 00:20:59,679 Speaker 1: life's passion. 480 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 4: You know, it's hard enough to have one good idea. 481 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 3: And you know, Charlie Munger had the you know, great 482 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 3: quote about you know, taking a simple idea and taking 483 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:13,080 Speaker 3: it really seriously. I think maybe people don't take the 484 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:18,000 Speaker 3: core idea seriously enough. Where the idea behind Stripe is 485 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,040 Speaker 3: we think that there could be more internet commerce, more 486 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 3: successful internet companies created, if we lowered the cost of 487 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:27,639 Speaker 3: doing so, if we made it easier to do so. 488 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:30,440 Speaker 3: And we're taking that core idea really, really seriously. 489 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,800 Speaker 1: So if somebody is watching this and they want to 490 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,080 Speaker 1: take away from this interview something about Stripe, and you 491 00:21:37,119 --> 00:21:39,560 Speaker 1: could summarize in a paragraph or two what you would 492 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: want somebody to know about Stripe, What would it be, 493 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:44,440 Speaker 1: How would you summarize what somebody should know when you'd 494 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 1: like somebody to know about Stripe. 495 00:21:46,359 --> 00:21:51,159 Speaker 3: One could be this idea of you know, taking an 496 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:54,280 Speaker 3: idea and taking it seriously. And again we started with 497 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 3: we want to make it easy for Internet businesses to 498 00:21:57,560 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 3: accept money, and we just kind of kept running with that. 499 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,439 Speaker 4: Good thing maybe is that within the look. 500 00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:10,199 Speaker 3: I think Silicon Valley entrepreneurs tend to try to in retrospect, 501 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:15,439 Speaker 3: go back and tidy up the story and make it 502 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:19,880 Speaker 3: seem like they had everything figured out on day one, 503 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:24,959 Speaker 3: and you know, our mission we set out, you know, 504 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,920 Speaker 3: go solve you know xy Z. I think the way 505 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:33,040 Speaker 3: it tends to actually happen is that there's. 506 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:33,840 Speaker 4: A bit of experimenting. 507 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 3: You don't know where it's going to go, but the 508 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 3: domain teaches you as you go if you're paying attention. 509 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,639 Speaker 3: And so with Stripe, we never thought that there'd be 510 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,399 Speaker 3: as much of an opportunity to be a global payments 511 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:47,560 Speaker 3: infrastructure as we did, but we got to learn from 512 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,240 Speaker 3: our customers. Similarly, we never thought large businesses would use 513 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 3: Stripe like some of the companies I mentioned, like Amazon 514 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 3: and Hurts and those folks using us on day one 515 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:56,719 Speaker 3: of the business We never thought that would happen, but 516 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,679 Speaker 3: we noticed that larger and larger businesses were reaching out 517 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 3: to us sudden, you know, needed the services or the 518 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:02,320 Speaker 3: business on on Stripe. 519 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:02,680 Speaker 4: We're growing. 520 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:04,920 Speaker 3: We also have companies like door Dash and instacars who 521 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 3: started with very small companies and obviously are now very 522 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,640 Speaker 3: successful public companies. 523 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,720 Speaker 4: And so I think the thing that maybe people. 524 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:16,280 Speaker 3: Underrate is being in a domain teaches you about that 525 00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 3: domain if you're willing to pay attention, and a lot 526 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,879 Speaker 3: of business success can come from listening to what the 527 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:22,840 Speaker 3: market is trying to tell you. 528 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,840 Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. 529 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:30,800 Speaker 1: You can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, 530 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:31,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen