Invest Like The Best
Episode 178 Growing the Internet Economy
Invest Like The Best

Episode 178: Growing the Internet Economy

Invest Like The Best

Episode 178

Growing the Internet Economy

John Collison is the co-founder of the digital payments company Stripe. We discuss conglomerates, the power of writing, and why board members are like Pokémon characters.

[00:01:30] – (First question) – Interest in industrial conglomerates

[00:09:10] – Their thinking on acquisitions vs starting new companies

[00:11:42] – How the payment landscape looked when Stripe was started

[00:15:55] – View on the internet economy

[00:20:09] – Exciting possibilities for the future of the internet economy

[00:22:11] – The forces of size vs speed among startups

[00:26:53] – Driving reasons why employees choose Stripe starting with clear communication

[00:28:55] – Tips for better internal communications

[00:30:09] – The importance of rigor in Stripe’s corporate culture

[00:32:15] – Investors and investing styles that are most intriguing to him

[00:36:02] – Teaching vs experiencing business lessons

[00:37:56] – Lessons from going to market with new ideas

[00:50:58] – Allowing teams to explore new ideas at Stripe

[00:44:11] – Best startup companies to study to understand the history of this space

[00:48:43] – Infrastructures of internet businesses that are missing

[00:52:03] – Does general accounting practices need to change to capture the true value of a company like Stripe

[01:01:53] – Shared playbooks in Silicon Valley

[01:02:02] – The transition to the no code movement

[01:08:22] – Other businesses that pique his interest outside of software

[01:10:21] – Future trends that excite him

[01:11:10] – First memory when he felt like he was participating in the tech economy

[01:12:46] – The role of board members

[01:15:48] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

[01:18:49] – Advice for young people

Growing the Internet Economy

Introduction

Patrick
Oh gosh. That's interesting place to start. Well, I think, look, most of the technologists I know are really interested in studying the history of technology because you want to not just be a one-hit wonder. You want to not just have one product that works and then passes by, but you want to be able to serve multiple ways. I think all the kind of people have been talking recently about how much of the S&P 500 is now made up of the Googles, Facebook, Microsoft, companies like that. I think if you look at all those companies, what's impressive about them, is how they've managed to surf multiple waves and have multiple successful independent lines of business and so: Facebook making the move to mobile successfully, integrating acquisitions successfully. Microsoft missing the jump to international browsers initially, but now having many, I think it's six or seven independent, the dollar revenue businesses. And so most of the technologists I know are really interested in this topic. What I find interesting to look at is how it tends to be different outside of technology and the different dynamics you get in conglomerates and kind of enduring businesses in other industries, because we're kind of used to the particular way in which technology likes to do it, when you talk to investors and they'll often be following successful companies like TransDigm in aerospace or Danaher the industrial conglomerate, LVMH in the luxury business, the Louis Vuitton in some way, the champagne brand and things like that. What I have found interesting in looking at these, first off, as you probably know from these, there are tons of really spectacularly successful companies that have grown as high rates for years and years and years outside of technology.

Domino's Pizza is another one that people like to talk about because it's actually grown more impressively than all the technology companies. And that sounds incredibly obvious to say, but sometimes you have to remind people in Silicon Valley that this is the case and the way they tend to do that is somewhat different to what happens in technology. And in particular, you got a lot of these. If you look at single industry conglomerates, the classic conglomerates are maybe the Berkshire Hathaway (very famous for just having so many different intellectual hobbies of Warren Buffett's under one corporate structure); RJR Nabisco is probably the classic multi-industry conglomerate (what is a cigarette manufacturer and literally a cookie maker of Oreos under one corporation?); but if you just have stop for a second to ask kind of the single industry conglomerates, like LVMH or TransDigm or something like that, it's actually pretty interesting.

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