How Stripe Reached $65bn

From a small startup in Dublin to a unicorn San Francisco

In partnership with

A Leap from Dublin to San Francisco

This week we spotlight Stripe, a startup transforming online payments. Valued at over $65 billion, Stripe is simplifying payment processing for businesses worldwide.

Growth Story of Stripe

How Stripe Found Success

Stripe, founded by two Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, started with a simple mission: to simplify online payments. Founded in 2010, the founders decided to move their headquarters to San Francisco in 2011 allowing it to tap into the larger U.S. market and a more established tech ecosystem.

Now valued at over $65 billion, the payment platform serves millions of businesses in over 120 countries, including major companies like Amazon, Google, and Shopify.

The Story of Scale

From its early days, Stripe focused on building a robust infrastructure that could handle payments across different currencies and countries. The Collison brothers had a focus on product iteration - focusing on one core product which was their payment platform until it had been perfected.

“We knew that if we could get payments right for small businesses, the rest would follow. Simplicity and reliability were our key metrics.”

Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe

Their goal was to remove the complexity from online transactions, allowing businesses to focus on growth rather than the technicalities of payment processing.

Moving To Silicon Valley

“Silicon Valley is where the brightest minds and deepest pockets converge, making it the ideal place for Stripe to tap into the resources necessary for rapid expansion and innovation.”

Moving to San Francisco positioned Stripe to access top-tier talent and investors. By 2014, only 3 years later since their start, Stripe was valued at $1.75 billion after raising $70 million in a Series C round.

The shift to Silicon Valley was not just about location, it was about accessing talent and investors. Stripe's valuation skyrocketed, particularly after a significant funding round in 2021, where they raised $600 million, valuing the company at $95 billion and making Stripe one of the most valuable private companies globally.

Building their team with U.S. talent

Patrick Collison focused on the importance of hiring the right people early on, even if it meant taking longer to find them. The move to the U.S. allowed them to hire talent focused specifically on developing their product for Silicon Valley.

“We use time horizons as a competitive advantage. If you're operating on a five-year, seven-year time horizon and you have an advantage to your competitors that are operating quarter to quarter”

It took Stripe two years to hire its first seven employees. Although VC funding in Europe remains significantly behind the U.S. in size, the talent pool for Europe has grown substantially. Relocating to the U.S. in order to access a larger market of investors shows the importance of the early decisions made by the founders to build their startup from 0 to $65 billion.

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Have feedback or a startup suggestion? 🚀

You can reach out to us at www.findandscale.com

See you next week,
Odin & Hari