The Social Radars - Patrick & John Collison, Co-Founders of Stripe
发布时间:2023-11-14 14:00:00
原节目
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在这一集的“社交雷达”中,杰西卡·利文斯顿和卡罗琳·利维采访了Stripe的联合创始人帕特里克·科里森和约翰·科里森,深入探讨了他们从青少年Lisp程序员到构建全球支付处理巨头的历程。
对话首先怀旧地回顾了帕特里克早期与保罗·格雷厄姆的相遇,揭示了一系列复杂的Lisp相关问题是如何促成他16岁时在波士顿与格雷厄姆见面的。这次会面,以格雷厄姆最初的慌乱和随后的晚餐邀请为标志,将帕特里克介绍给了Y Combinator生态系统和年轻的亚伦·斯沃茨。 约翰与保罗·格雷厄姆的初次互动也引发了一句眉毛评论,至今仍困扰着他。
科里森兄弟随后讲述了他们在Automatic公司的经历,他们加入该公司是因为他们构建了一个更好的eBay替代品,名为Shapa,这导致他们参与了Bozo,一个YC资助的具有类似概念的公司。这一时期将他们带入了旧金山的创业圈,包括现在著名的罗比·沃克、丹尼尔·格罗斯和Justin.tv团队。他们在Automatic的经历也让他们意识到了在线支付令人沮丧的现实,这为最终成为Stripe的奠定了基础。
他们讨论了他们参与的一个维基百科应用程序,在那里他们发现通过应用商店将产品货币化是多么容易,这非常发人深省。 他们开玩笑说,与所有事情都在线上相比,在iPhone中构建离线LM风格的应用程序有多么容易。
约翰讨论了他穿着条纹衬衫和过膝袜作为无人陪伴的未成年人旅行的经历,这引发了对最初的YC批次的进一步讨论。 对话转向Y Combinator的早期,突出了最初几批的独特魅力和人才密度,在这些批次中,内在动机和对建立创业公司的真正热情超过了资格证书的诱惑。
讨论的重点是Stripe的起源,最初名为“/dev/payments”。 约翰谈到了他的母亲鼓励他去上4年学,他原本也计划如此,直到几个月后他们开始开发Stripe。 他们描述了他们如何认识到支付处理领域的空白,受到像Slicehost这样简化服务器管理的服务兴起的启发。 他们将Stripe设想为“支付的Slicehost”,为开发人员提供低级别的API,从而提供控制和易于设置的功能。
Stripe对开发人员的友好性和卓越文档的重视是讨论的重点,这源于对赋能程序员和解决软件开发中更广泛的瓶颈问题的承诺。 他们分享了一些轶事,说明公司如何做出商业决策而不管实施情况如何,这进一步激励了他们。 科里森兄弟承认运气在他们的成功中发挥的作用。 他们强调,选择问题和追求这一愿景是他们成功的关键。
他们分享了母亲的故事,讲述了汤米在很小的时候就被诊断出患有脑瘫。家人被告知汤米永远无法走路。但他们的母亲没有放弃。医生们被证明是错误的。他现在在科技领域取得了成功,可以行走和骑自行车。他们提到他们的父母是如何支持他们的旅程的。这个故事展示了他们如何能够坚持不懈。
利文斯顿问兄弟俩是否会争吵。 他们提到他们在行动上是一致的,并且避免争吵,因为这被认为对业务不利。 他们会辩论问题,但不会争吵。 他们还谈到,如果员工发现他们在争吵,情况会很糟糕。
对话结束时反思了Stripe的旅程以及兄弟俩对公司未来的愿景。 他们对 Y Combinator 给予的支持表示感谢,并重申了他们对 Stripe 的承诺。 他们还提到了 Ark 作为 Stripe 的一个独立项目。 利文斯顿注意到他们是多么令人印象深刻。
In this episode of "Social Radars," Jessica Livingston and Carolyn Levy interview Patrick and John Collison, the co-founders of Stripe, diving into their journey from teenage Lisp programmers to building a global payment processing powerhouse.
The conversation begins with a nostalgic look back to Patrick's early encounters with Paul Graham, revealing how a series of sophisticated Lisp-related questions led to a meeting with Graham in Boston when Patrick was just 16. This meeting, marked by Graham's initial fluster and subsequent dinner invitation, introduced Patrick to the Y Combinator ecosystem and a young Aaron Swartz. John’s initial interaction with Paul Graham also leads to an eyebrow comment that haunts him to this day.
The Collison brothers then recount their experiences with Automatic, a company they joined after building a better eBay alternative called Shapa, which led to their involvement with Bozo, a YC-funded company with a similar concept. This period introduced them to the startup scene in San Francisco, including now-prominent figures like Robbie Walker, Daniel Gross, and the Justin.tv crew. Their time with Automatic also exposed them to the frustrating realities of online payments, planting the seed for what would eventually become Stripe.
They discuss their involvement with a Wikipedia app where they discovered how easy it was to monetize a product on the app store which was very thought-provoking. They joke about how easy it would be to build offline LM style apps in the iPhone in comparison to everything being online.
John’s discussion of traveling as an unaccompanied minor wearing striped shirts and knee socks led to further discussion about the original YC batches. The conversation shifts towards the early days of Y Combinator, highlighting the unique magic and density of talent in the initial batches, where intrinsic motivation and a genuine passion for building startups outweighed the allure of credentials.
The discussion focuses on Stripe's origins, initially named "/dev/payments." John talks about his mother encouraging him to go to school for 4 years, where he planned on it until they started working on Stripe a couple of months later. They describe recognizing a void in the payment processing landscape, inspired by the emergence of services like Slicehost, which simplified server management. They envisioned Stripe as "Slicehost for payments," providing developers with a low-level API that offered control and ease of setup.
Stripe's emphasis on developer-friendliness and exceptional documentation is discussed, stemming from a commitment to empowering programmers and addressing the broader issue of bottlenecks in software development. They share anecdotes about how companies would make business decisions regardless of the implementation which motivated them even further. The Collison brothers acknowledge the role of luck in their success. They emphasize that choosing the problem and pursuing this vision were the keys to their success.
Their mother’s story is shared about how Tommy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age. The family was told Tommy would never walk. But their mother did not give up. The doctors proved to be wrong. He is now successful in tech and can walk and bike. They note how their parents were supportive of their journey. This story showcases how they can persevere.
Livingston asks if the brothers argue. They mention how they are consistent in their actions and that they avoid arguing as it is seen as bad for the business. They will debate issues, but they do not bicker. They also talk about how it would be viewed as bad if employees found out that they were fighting.
The conversation closes with reflections on Stripe's journey and the brothers' vision for the company's future. They express gratitude for the support they received from Y Combinator and reaffirm their commitment to Stripe. They also mention Ark as a separate project to Stripe. Livingston notes how impressive they are.