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Blitzscaling 11: Patrick Collison on Hiring at Stripe and the Role of a Product-Focused CEO
@ Greylock
11/05/15
Takeaways
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
I think it's much better to directly share everything without filtering for public consumption, especially since Stripe is still evolving week-to-week and month-to-month.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The founding story of Stripe isn't dramatic; my brother John and I started building iPhone apps together while in school, which helped us pay our college tuition.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We realized it was surprisingly easy to make money from iPhone apps, but we wondered why we never charged for anything online, discovering that accepting payments on the Internet was a hassle.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
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.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
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.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
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.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
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.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
I believe that surrounding yourself with people doing interesting things is crucial, as they will talk about what they find interesting, which is a good signal for success.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Stripe never formally went through Y Combinator, but YC invested in us, which helped us connect with a community of entrepreneurs.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Starting a company with my brother has been beneficial because we have a strong foundational relationship, allowing us to resolve differences effectively.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Many successful co-founders have strong relationships that help them persist through challenges, unlike many companies that face insurmountable disagreements.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
I read a lot of history because it allows me to learn from past ideas and avoid reinventing the wheel, which is often overlooked in technology.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The original vision of technology was about empowering humans, but much of today's technology focuses on basic functionality or entertainment, losing that original ambition.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
I think there's a systematic undervaluing of tools and their impact, as it's harder to perceive their benefits compared to direct actions.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
At Stripe, we focus on building roads for technology, enabling others to build their own solutions, rather than just creating products ourselves.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We are conventionally organized at Stripe, as standard organizational structures have proven effective in creating successful companies.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
It's important to trust established organizational mechanisms rather than trying to reinvent how people collaborate, as they have been effective historically.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We conduct laptop interviews at Stripe, focusing on practical coding skills in the environment candidates are familiar with, which has proven effective for hiring.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Stripe's success in hiring good developers may be attributed to our focus on building tools for developers, creating a natural affinity for our company. I learned to be okay with taking a really long time to hire people, which means being painfully persistent in the process.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
It took me six months to hire the first two people at Stripe, and even after that, we hired only one person every three months for a while.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
When hiring the best people, you can either filter by expressed interest first or look for the good candidates and then convert them to expressed interest; the latter is more effective.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Investing in people who might take a long time to hire is crucial when you're early in a company's history.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
In early-stage company recruiting, you have to be way more persistent and accept that it will take longer than what seems reasonable.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
You have to imagine the potential future organization that a candidate will help build, not just whether you want to hire them now.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The belief is that as you reach a critical mass, more people will see it as viable to work for a startup, which can take time.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The market for online transactions was tiny when we started, with only about 2% of consumer spending happening through the Internet.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We realized that businesses were increasingly building complicated transaction-oriented services, which is where Stripe's tools and APIs come into play.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We had to manually set up accounts in the early days, which worked well because it reduced friction for users.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Hiring a business development person early on was crucial, as they helped us establish important relationships with banks.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
When building for developers, you can directly ask them what they want, as they are often vocal about their preferences.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The CEO should be integratively involved in micro product decisions, as their long-term vision is crucial for the company's direction.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We prioritize listening to those with good judgment and those likely to become significant players in the industry.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
We built an integration with Alipay because we recognized its potential, even if businesses initially didn't see its relevance.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
You can't judge decisions solely by their outcomes; instead, you should evaluate them based on their expected value.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Even if the probability of success with Bitcoin is low, its potential significance is large enough to warrant attention.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The role of the engineering manager at Stripe involves significant responsibilities beyond just product decisions, including staffing, execution, and operations.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
At Stripe, we don't have a separate product organization, which allows for closer involvement in product decisions by both the engineering manager and myself.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Engineers at Stripe have strong instincts for building the right products, especially since we primarily build for other engineers.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
As a fast-growing startup, product innovation can slow down despite having more people, which can be surprising.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The challenge of maintaining product innovation while scaling involves balancing reliability and the need for new features, which requires hiring and training many people.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Stripe has a commitment to maintaining the functionality of all released API versions, ensuring that they work reliably over time.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The transition from a small team to a larger organization requires formal communication and explicit strategies to ensure alignment and clarity.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
The name 'Stripe' was chosen after a lengthy process of brainstorming and searching for available domain names, ultimately defaulting to it when no better options emerged.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
Transitioning from a developer to a manager is challenging, and I miss coding, but it's important to recognize that many people at Stripe are also transitioning to management roles.
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Patrick Collison
11/05/15
@ Greylock
As CEO, my role focuses on strategy, culture, and selecting senior management, while product decisions can be more flexible depending on the company.