I know this isn’t the usual blind fare of TC & PIP but I’m curious about the tech industry overall. How much merit do folks think there might be to his claims? For the most part, a large amount of what he’s claiming is likely smart (better executed) strategy but would love to hear from employees. Also how is the 4 day workweek working out for you guys @ Bolt? Stripe folks, what is the culture like? Have you ever been encouraged to mob boss Bolt? lol #tech https://twitter.com/theryanking/status/1485784823641755648?s=21 Blind Tax : TC - 320K, YOE - 7 total | 3.5 in Product
That was a fascinating post. As someone who’s not part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem, it always felt like a posh club that was hard to get into. The funny thing is, the dude is from Stanford which I assumed was part of the Stanford/YC/Sequoia/a16z cartel. So it seems like there are cartels within cartels. Reminds me of a GoT quote: —— The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace." ———
Hell has many circles. I keep hearing about “white privilege”, but when I was just starting out this so called privilege failed to make itself known. I’ve experienced enough rejection for a lifetime. Being white was apparently not enough, and unknowable degrees of whiteness were only hinted at. I was white but from a foreign country, without a college degree, and had a thick accent. I did not know people, I hadn’t gone to an elite school, and my high school diploma was in a language no one could understand. I was 19: too young. Never had a “real” job before that: too inexperienced. And so on. There are too many filters in life, just like there are too many people. Gatekeepers will gatekeep, and the Bolt CEO was apparently kept from some gates but allowed in others. That’s just life. He should stop writing sob stories and focus on crushing it like the Silicon Valley tech bro he wants to be.
Well said Stripe.
There was another HN post that blew up claiming the same stuff about stripe and Patrick. Where there's smoke there's fire as the saying goes
Or it was the same guy and he didn’t get the traction he wanted on HN so he did it on Twitter too.
He def got traction, I think the stripe founders commented on the thread prob just wanted to go more public once he got into decacorn status with Bolt and more people knew who he was
Kekw
I hate Startup/VC/Elitist schools (ie stanford) culture so much. It just screams kids who got bullied in high school and think theyre the shit now
Well, sure, but some of us did an ms or PhD there. Totally different culture as a foreign student trying to survive the different culture and no $ to our name
That twitter thread just sounds like free market capitalism, which he even admits. The Bolt guy sounds like someone w privilege complaining about not getting more of what he wants, i.e. Life.
You say “free market capitalism” as if that makes it alright. But I’ll bite - what he’s talking about (if we take it at the face value) is basically cartel agreement of large VC funds, the whole “let’s not compete in a “modern payments processor” space”, a textbook free market failure.
Totally agree with the Bolt CEO! This is the same approach they use internally and has resulted in a skewed white-privileged-male view of the world. They are almost zero internationally, their products outside the basic APIs are cratering and it’s a cultural shit-show.. Bolt itself is a over-valued $14Bn firm but Fast is a nothing shell and Stripe acquires many firms/ products like Radar that go nowhere
Basically vc firms force their funded companies to sign up for stripe and pay a 3 percent tax.
I'm sorry but what in the non-sensical world is this shit "skewed white-privileged-male view of the world"? Why y'all always gotta try so hard to bring race into it?
I'm sitting here imagining Patrick and John as Peaky Blinders during the next fireside chat.
Portal to #crazyideas!
What he is saying is correct. Stripe also killed a sequoia funding round in finix. They are super paranoid about competition, which is understandable because to this day I don't understand what their moat is. You can read this analysis of adyen, and it's v similar to stripe as a business. https://brosef.substack.com/p/4-why-adyens-valuation-is-too-demanding
VC basics - you cannot invest in a competitor. Sequoia just fcked up in their due diligence process
people in our lounge have said they’ve seen calling in of offers over at HN, lol. You should see the internal scrambling when patrick sees something he doesn’t like on twitter. Probably not like what the bolt guy is describing, but they do “collude,” personally I’m not against that generally, except that people believe HN is neutral
This explains why that Stripe engineer got fired for calling Elon Musk a little shit on Twitter
Elon musk is a stripe investor
🍿
Same! :)