The founders of Stripe, Patrick and John Collison, started as young programmers without knowledge of banking deals, yet they succeeded in payment processing.

The relationship between co-founders, like John and me at Stripe, is crucial for the company's effectiveness, as we bring complementary skills and a shared commitment to the company's mission.

The founders of Stripe worked directly with their customers to implement their API, which created strong connections and allowed them to learn about customer needs and pain points effectively.

The first users of Stripe were mostly from the Y Combinator community or friends of those who had gone through YC, which helped us gain traction.

The first version of Stripe was built with basic tools and was enough to understand the product experience, allowing users to charge credit cards easily.

Some of the best founders, like Patrick and John Collison of Stripe, have focused solely on startups since they were young, making them exceptionally skilled at building successful companies. Starting a startup when you're young allows you to harness your highest energy and optimism, which is crucial for building a world-changing company.

The first version of Stripe was called 'slash depth payments' and lacked many features. It was so basic that even Twitch couldn't use it initially, but it was sufficient for early-stage startups to accept credit card payments.

We thought, why isn't there a straightforward payment solution like Slicehost for payments? This idea led us to build a prototype for Stripe in January 2010, which we launched to a few friends.

At Stripe, we focus on building roads for technology, enabling others to build their own solutions, rather than just creating products ourselves.