We launched the prototype in January 2010, and it took off by word of mouth, even before a public launch, surprising us as it was just an API for charging credit cards.

Our decision to enter the credit card market was driven by the strong economics of credit cards, as most Americans primarily spend using them.

I think the credit card project exemplifies our long-term vision, as its success will take time to manifest in the market.

As we evolved, we expanded our product offerings to include credit verification and bank payment infrastructure, allowing for seamless financial transactions and identity verification.

Our initial idea was to use credit card data to help investors make better investment decisions, and now we also work with companies, not just investors.

When I started Alibaba, banks were skeptical about our payment system, claiming it would never work, but I knew that without a payment solution, e-commerce would not succeed.

We prefer to build products in-house but decided to acquire X1 to quickly enter the credit card space and offer a competitive product.

Brex pivoted from a VR hardware headset idea to a credit card for startups, achieving product-market fit quickly and raising hundreds of millions in just two years.

The market for online transactions was tiny when we started, with only about 2% of consumer spending happening through the Internet.