Patrick Collison: Philosophies for Running Stripe, Hiring, Decision Making, and Reading

This episode first aired in May 2018. This is a Knowledge Project Podcast episode from the archive. -- Patrick Collison, CEO, and co-founder of Stripe shares wise insights on success, failure, management, decision making, learning and so much more. In this conversation, we cover the biggest (and most valuable) mistakes Patrick made in the early days of Stripe and how they helped him get better, the characteristics that Patrick looks for in a new hire to fit and contribute to the Stripe company culture, what compelled he and his brother to move forward with the early concept of Stripe, even though on paper it was doomed to fail from the start, the gaps Patrick saw in the market that dozens of other processing companies were missing — and how he capitalized on them, the lessons Patrick learned from scaling Stripe from two employees (he and his brother) to nearly 1,000 today, and so much more. -- Timecodes: 00:00 - Collison’s journey from dropping out to founding Stripe 09:58 - On Stripe’s culture 15:30 - Lessons learned from the early days of Stripe 21:51 - What Collison has learned from scaling Stripe 30:04 - On specialization vs generalization 37:48 - How Collison manages risk and large downsides 41:09 - On “thoughtful disagree-ness” 45:07 - How Collison has modified his decision making process 55:22 - The company culture's Collison admires 59:13 - What Collison learned from studying Koch Industries 1:00:57 - On Collison's reading habits 1:19:15 - Collison's smallest habits that make the biggest difference 01:21:55 - Mistakes Collison sees people make 01:24:39 - The future of online payments 01:37:00 - Success and Silicon Valley -- OUR FREE NEWSLETTER: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ 📈  OUR MOST POPULAR INTERVIEWS 🎬  The Full Story of Naval Ravikant:    • The Angel Philosopher Naval Ravikant on Re...   🎬  Bill Ackman - Getting Back Up:    • Bill Ackman: Dealing with Haters, My Large...   🎬  Secrets to Healthy Relationships with Esther Perel:    • Secrets to Healthy Relationships | Esther ...   🎙 Listen to the show  iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VyK52N... GET IN TOUCH 🌍 Our website - www.fs.blog JOIN OUR COMMUNITY https://fs.blog/membership/ ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE PROJECT Like the mentor you’ve always dreamed of having, The Knowledge Project shares timely yet timeless lessons for work and life. Past guests include Naval Ravikant, Daniel Kahneman, Jim Collins, Angela Duckworth, Seth Godin, Melanie Mitchell, & Esther Perel.