How I Built This with Guy Raz

Stripe: Patrick and John Collison

May 7, 2018

Brothers Patrick and John Collison, founders of Stripe, discuss building a software company for seamless online payments. They share insights on entrepreneurship, overcoming challenges, and the evolution of payment systems. The podcast also features a story of turning a grandma's cookie recipe into a successful business.

41:40

Episode guests

Patrick Collison

John Collison

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Quick takeaways

Stripe revolutionized online payments with a developer-oriented service, while G-Mama Cookies grew from a family recipe tribute to a successful business venture.

Deep dives

Building Stripe: Two Brothers from Ireland Revolutionize Online Payments

Two brothers from Ireland, Patrick and John Collison, founded Stripe, a revolutionary online payment system. With a vision to simplify online payments for businesses, Stripe provided a developer-oriented service that resonated with customers like Lyft and Shopify. Their success was a combination of intense application, hard work, and some luck, leading to a valuation of almost $10 billion. Through close partnerships with banks and industry experts, Stripe overcame challenges in regulation and competition, disrupting the online payment sector.

Growth Is a Relentless Journey

01:36

Introduction

5min

The Birth of Stripe: From Childhood Coding to Financial Innovation

18min

Overcoming Challenges and Securing Investments

7min

The Evolution of Payments in Internet Businesses

11min

From Startup Challenges to Cookie Success

10min

Closing Remarks, KiwiCo and Viator Sponsorship

2min

Brothers Patrick and John Collison founded and sold their first company before they turned 20. They created software to help eBay users manage inventory online, which set them on a path to help make e-commerce frictionless. Today, John and Patrick are the founders of Stripe, a software company that uses just a few lines of code to power the payment system of companies like Lyft, Warby Parker and Target. Plus, for our postscript "How You Built That," how Robert Armstrong turned his grandma's cookie recipe into "G Mommas," buttery, bite-sized pecan-chocolate-chip cookies that are now sold in stores across the Southeast U.S. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.