Stripe succeeded because it addressed a known problem in credit card payment integration that many developers faced, but no one attempted to solve it due to perceived difficulties.

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 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.

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.

We realized that businesses were increasingly building complicated transaction-oriented services, which is where Stripe's tools and APIs come into play.

Stripe's moat lies in its deep understanding of the payment domain and a culture that prioritizes solving the problems they claim to address.

Stripe never formally went through Y Combinator, but YC invested in us, which helped us connect with a community of entrepreneurs.