Often, news media has been filled with discussions about disruptors. Disruptors embark on a pioneering journey to bring novel solutions to problems. Or at least they find ways to do an existing thing significantly better or cheaper than before. CNBC publishes a list of top 50 disruptors based on the recent performance from private (often startup) companies. Almost all of the companies listed in the Top-50 list for June 2020 are NOT small. They have been in existence for at least 3+ years and have shown significant growth in business. Alongside such businesses also have raised significant funds to fuel their growth.
At the top of the list is Stripe that started in 2010 and has shown steady growth over the years. Stripe attacked the payments problem with cheaper and better solution. Stripe came to market after 16 years of the founding of Amazon and eBay. Stripe came to market after nearly 50 years of the founding of credit card companies. What Stripe enabled is the web2.0 API version of payments APIs and related JavaScript code for powering payments for eCommerce companies.
Stripe has simplified API, improved security, sped up onboarding, and enabled richer reporting. Bulk of the work that Stripe automated were often less understood pieces of the plumbing (and hence were likely ignored by many companies). Fifteen years, in 2005-2008, I led the efforts to streamline payments within Microsoft. I led the teams to create a driver model to expand global reach of payments for various Microsoft businesses, including Xbox Live, Office Live, et al. The system we created had APIs – decently documented, well tested, with reporting and integration support. The system was constrained in only serving the Microsoft businesses and never went out to broader audience. Any discussion on expanding outside met with the resistance that the revenue model was not attractive for Microsoft. In contrast, there was a huge growing market for such service outside. I (and we in my team) did not take it out. What a loss! Looking back it was a big missed opportunity. I am excited for what Stripe has done.
Recently I was using Stripe to register my new business. Stripe collected data using a simple user interface, handled the backend workflow smoothly and got my business registered. Not just that, Stripe also had a marketplace of related apps for me to consider and use for the business. Kudos to Stripe team for striking gold! Yes, they have been great disruptors.
In the coming days I will look into other businesses in the top-50 disruptor list. In particular there are several businesses, whose services I had used. For example, coursera.com gives me a lot of online classes, DoorDash delivers meals, etc.
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