Developing Global Infrastructure for Online Commerce with Will Gaybrick, CFO at Stripe

Nov 27, 2018

Will Gaybrick, Stripe CFO and former Thrive Capital partner with roots as a developer and founder, discusses building global payments infrastructure. He talks about Stripe’s developer-first API approach. He covers expanding internationally, virtualizing money rails, balancing startups and enterprises, reliability lessons from outages, and how to run effective board meetings.

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INSIGHT

Stripe Virtualizes Money Like Cloud Providers Virtualize Compute

Stripe is infrastructure for online commerce that virtualizes money movement and money storage, analogous to AWS virtualizing compute and storage.
Will Gaybrick frames Stripe's compute as payment rails and storage as bank accounts, enabling apps like marketplaces and billing atop that layer.

ADVICE

Make Developers The Canonical Customer

Prioritize developers by being transparent, backwards compatible, and giving predictable change notices.
Will Gaybrick emphasizes simple pricing, clear costs, and API stability so a two-person startup can scale to enterprise without rewriting integrations.

ADVICE

Design APIs For Future Payment Methods

Build APIs with right abstractions so new payment methods in other countries require no extra code.
Will Gaybrick stresses backwards compatibility and predictable APIs to minimize customer integration work when expanding globally.

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Will gives an inside look at Stripe, one of the most valuable venture-backed startups in the U.S. In this episode, he talks about Stripe’s developer-first ethos, how the company is expanding into international markets, and how to run a great board meeting.

Will is the CFO at Stripe, where he leads Stripe’s financial operations, including economic strategy, business forecasting, financial planning and analysis, and treasury duties. Prior to Stripe, Will was a general partner at Thrive Capital, where he worked closely with internet businesses across all stages and geographies, particularly within software and e-commerce. He's also worked as a software developer and company founder. Will holds degrees in mathematics from Harvard University and law from Yale.

1:10 Tell us about your background and what led you to join Stripe as CFO4:35 What made Stripe an interesting company to join and where do you think the company is headed?7:33 What was it like to join a team with two well-known founders?9:45 How does the API business model drive value for the company?12:17 How has the team built the business to focus on the developer and make sure the developer feels well served?14:13 Do you have any stories where something in the developer community didn’t go quite as planned? How do you get ahead of issues so they don’t become bigger issues down the line?16:12 What are some tactics to drive loyalty with developers?17:02 How do you balance working with customers of all sizes, ranging from startups to big companies? What challenges does that create?20:50 How does the company think about capturing the global market?21:58 What tactics does the company use to spur international growth?27:27 What are concerns for a CFO of a company that has achieved high valuations? How do you manage investor expectations?30:50 What book do you recommend to founders and executives of high growth companies?32:19 What makes for a really great board meeting?34:30 Who is a mentor that has helped you in your career and how might others think about how they can recruit a mentor?

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