I don't know Patrick, but he has personally jumped in here on HN where appropriate, publicly given out his own email address to handle issues, etc., and continued to do so even after Stripe achieved a $1b+ valuation. While most of their billionaire Silicon Valley contemporaries are very hard people to root for, I am rooting for these guys. They seem like genuinely good people whose success is well deserved, and so far they have not let it go to their heads.
Patrick is awesome! He asked me to have lunch after I tweeted feature suggestions about Stripe. Indeed, which founder of a billion dollar company does that (or has time for that)?
Another time, I had trouble getting the Stripe code to work and Stripe's former CTO Greg Brockman debugged my PHP code (!) to fix it for me. I'm not making this up.
The CEO wants to have lunch with me (a nobody) and the CTO debugs my code.
It's one of the few VC-backed companies I really root for.
Stripe has a great product, great service, solid business model (it can't get more simple than % on transactions really), great engineering (their USP is/was their API) and it seems they really support small and medium business owners (and bootstrappers especially).
My only hope is anyone who will acquire them (and I think this will happen soon) keeps the product at this level.
My hope is they will not be acquired and will keep this stand-alone as a true alternative rather than be eaten and then to lose all their advantages. Acquisitions of companies like this usually spell the end of the line. Here's to hoping Stripe will IPO and will go on to acquire who could now potentially acquire them.
Card issuers (VISA, MC), Amazon, Microsoft, major banks, Ebay, Paypal, Due, Payline, Paysquare. A leveraged buy-out would enable many more potential takers.
Google, dozens of international companies (eg Softbank or SAP), Walmart, Target, Costco, IBM, Oracle, and numerous others.
Basically, several dozen companies are serious potential buyers. And that's before getting into the secondary list, which includes companies like Intel, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc.
I interviewed with Stripe early this year, and whilst sadly we couldn't go forward due to the fact that I'm British and was too late for an H1B - it was one of the most pleasant interviews I have ever had.
Why do you think Stripe will get acquired (and soon)?
I personally think it'll stay a standalone company because its founders already have plenty of money (from Auctomatic and presumably from taking money off the table during Stripe's funding rounds) and seem intensely motivated to change the world by having a pivotal role in increasing the GDP of the internet (as stated in the article).
That, coupled with its (both the company and its founders) integrity, culture, and care & empathy for people (employees, investors, customers, partners, underserved and underestimated people and markets, and really almost anyone) seems to indicate to me that its core values and objectives will be best served and achieved as an independent entity.
Raise 100M, 20M is set aside for salaries/bonuses. As long as the numbers work and people believe you, investors like people who want lots of money, because they know they are going to work their asses off to make a profit.
I agree on every single point. I've been amazed reading threads on here where Patrick jumps in and offers his help. I've never met them, but Patrick and John seem like wonderful people. I'll always root for them!
So far I didn't use their service, but I fondly remember their security CTFs, which were lots of fun, and very well run. Still hoping for another incarnation of those...
