What is an example of a direct Stripe competitor that has been recently funded?
I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies.
Competitors that do end up popping up are usually being funded by outsiders or smaller firms as mentioned.
just because a startup is doing something payment related does not mean “direct competitor to Stripe”
and one of the two I saw hooks into Stripe as part of the service. the other was doing something internationally and also was not directly competitive.
> Swipe: A billing and payments solution for Indian small and medium-sized businesses. [...] As my colleague Alex Wilhelm put it, Swipe is Stripe, with a W.
Stripe's messaging seems focused on infra for the "internet".
I think Swipe is more niche ie: focused on Indian SMBs who may have a very different workflow. Swipe is focusing on WhatsApp powered payments. (See: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/swipe-2).
Though, you'd think they would compete for the same customers over time.
Also: Steal is Steel with an A, Rob is Rub with an O, and ShopLyft is Shoplift with a Y.
Why PayPal for it when you can just Swipe it?
In the same vein, BooKing.com is BooQueen.com with a penis. That kind of majestic insubordination can get you a €400 fine and a few weeks of jail time in the Netherlands where their headquarters are located, but I wonder what problems they had with the harsher Lèse-majesté laws in Thailand because of their name.
>With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years imprisonment for each count, it has been described as the "world's harshest lèse majesté law" and "possibly the strictest criminal-defamation law anywhere"; its enforcement "has been in the interest of the palace". [...] Even attempting to commit lèse-majesté, making sarcastic comments about the King's pet, and failure to rebuke an offense have been prosecuted as lèse-majesté. [...] The courts seem not to recognise the principle of granting defendants the benefit of the doubt. [...] The longest recorded sentence was in 2021: 87 years imprisonment, reduced to 43 years because the defendant pleaded guilty.
Not sure which rounds you are talking about but both Airbnb and Coinbase had hard time getting funding after YC. Airbnb because it was a crazy idea and with Coinbase lot of VCs didn’t understand or avoided crypto back in in 2012.
Only later, after they got their first investors and became more successful, lot of other firms flocked to them.
I think the gist of the argument is correct though - there are a few main horses like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart that get funded by a swarm of SV insiders including YC and marquee VCs and then those same insiders have a strong incentive to block investment in direct competitors to those companies.
Competitors that do end up popping up are usually being funded by outsiders or smaller firms as mentioned.