if I am honest with myself I have never been truly objective about Stripe specifically, for three reasons. First, Stripe is a foundational business for my business. The then-startup launched the Subscription API (what later became Stripe Billing) in late 2011; Stratechery was predicated on that feature existing.
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We've never lacked for ideas in marketing we've been constrained by resources you only have so much budget so much time so many people with AI as sort of an accelerant every idea fear that you have suddenly becomes possible.
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The banks were making so much money that they didn't need to change. And the customers had no other choice. It was a very stable but deeply inefficient equilibrium that only existed because there was no technology and no capital to disrupt it.
David Vélez — Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
The banks in Brazil at the time were making 50% return on equity. They had the highest banking fees in the world. They had interest rates on credit cards of 300% a year. And they were serving customers terribly. So the opportunity was enormous.
David Vélez — Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy