Blitzscaling 11: Patrick Collison on Hiring at Stripe and the Role of a Product-Focused CEO

This is session 11 of Technology-enabled Blitzscaling, a Stanford University class taught by Reid Hoffman, John Lilly, Allen Blue, and Chris Yeh. This class features John Lilly interviewing Patrick Collison, the Co-Founder of Stripe.

[@blakeandersen8162]

always appreciate a man i don't need to put on 1.25 speed

[@kb9851]

Out of pure habbit I started the video at 2x speed. Had to lower it back to 1x instantly.

[@SeatTimeClips]

He's a quick talker! Give that man a Guinness.

[@jackvial5591]

That’s standard Irish speed

[@MeMe-dw1sm]

@@jackvial5591 sure is ☺️

[@17teacmrocks]

lol I had to check if I still had it on

[@o-henry]

IMO the MVP of this conversation was the interviewer (didn't know he used to be the CEO of Mozilla). There were a couple moments where an insight was only revealed due to the great questions by John. Thanks!

[@weeksy_j]

"Just being ok taking a really long time to hire people." ~ great quote.

[@vikramadhiman3874]

Do I want this person and the 50 people who I think they will hire? Because even if they won't literally hire 50 people, they will be so influential in determining the self selection of those 50 people - you are really picking this giant approval branch of your future organization. ~Super quote.

[@bernardmomanyinyagaka1051]

It blows me away how analytical Patrick can be, very insightful:)

[@Patrickmwai87]

vipi buda

[@williampatrickfagan7590]

Irish are not stupid. The brothers won Irish Young scientist of the year aged 17 and 15. Both millionaires before they left secondary school.

[@lucasmastermind]

MIT Math

[@3monsterbeast]

what a great name, Blitzscale! and congrats to Stripe, awesome work!

[@bigdlamz]

I find these interviews so valuable :)

[@CaptainPlanet007]

After watching this, there’s no doubt at why Stripe is currently value at $100bill.

[@lemarz8006]

They also will most likely go public this year

[@engineerepixlele2845]

Patrick is a genius

[@freddiewadling2090]

"Brownian motion through the problem space", how beautifully put... What a remarkable young human !

[@homergonzalez6786]

As a BD professional it was refreshing to hear a coder/tech CEO mention the value of having those people who can bring the right relationships/interpersonal skills to bear at the right time. Great to hear Patrick give Billy Alvarado (CBO) his due in Stripe's early success (WellsFargo deal) that they've spring-boarded off of.

[@mohamedould-chikh9231]

Great work from the interviewer who kept calm and tried to drive the conversation to make sure we get the best out of this different galaxy 👏

[@TheLcp23show]

reid hoffman is awesome

[@akshaychintalapati8406]

@@TheLcp23show that's not Reid Hoffman actually, he's John Lilly

[@user-bm9yj7gr9y]

A bit disrespectful towards one of the hardest working, best-habits, smartest and most talented homo sapiens who has ever lived Just hear what he's saying and learn something like the rest of us

[@jamesbroad4277]

Master wielder of the English language. Entertaining use of diverse and appropriate words with well-recounted stories and a healthy dose of self-deprecation to bolster his sense of modesty.

[@roguesherlock]

Very insightful. Thank you!

[@greyreynyn]

i could listen to him talk about things forever dude he should teach

[@k3ithl1m]

"Everybody's building empires, but we're building roads." Damn

[@axk2079]

its cars, not empires..

[@nally1164]

@@axk2079 a case where the mistake resulted in a great discovery?

[@axk2079]

@@nally1164 on second read, quite possibly

[@RippedMr]

Theae reviews are great, love tonsee regular reviews of this list, what gets in what drops off

[@ashraynselani]

Being picky has many positives, I know now…! Great insights, thanks.

[@djcardwellai]

Not totally sure what that guy said but I think I solved the problem on the chalkboard behind him.

[@AG-hl1ni]

When Stripe goes public it will be massive.

[@nikkingannguyen7949]

I believe so too. Sadly they don't have a plan to go public yet

[@AG-hl1ni]

@@nikkingannguyen7949 oh I beg to differ :)

[@nikolakrivokapic4962]

$PSTH

[@alrightjudgeme]

Driving while listening to this, realised that I’m suddenly driving really slowly

[@longtimenosee1951]

3,709 employees today, incredible :)

[@benzflynn]

1:30 Paying their college tuition from iPhone apps ? Patrick is gilding the lily a bit there. In fact, both Collisons had full non-repayable scholarships to MIT, awarded on the merits of their achievements up to then: Patrick was Ireland's Young Scientist winner in 2005 and John was top Irish final exams student the following year.

[@realballer6106]

Not to be rude or anything, you didn’t receive their financial aid statements 😂

[@benzflynn]

@@realballer6106 Nor did *you* see their App Store statements

[@user-bm9yj7gr9y]

Patrick is funny.

[@tomiokiji3792]

I agree that a CEO should prolong starting the hiring process as long as she can until it makes sense to do so, however I totally disagree with the notion that he should keep candidates in the pool for years until she feels its right to do so. Potential hires lose interest and are often looking for work elsewhere

[@Ruairoquai]

as long as he can*

[@gz6963]

This is a very old comment. But I think they meant that they're willing to wait a long time for someone they want to finally agree to work with them.

[@elninomile]

How about those pupils? Modafinil - the thrill

[@sanketpatil2154]

Usually I watch videos at 2x speed but this is the first video I am watching at 0.75 speed. 😂

[@OleksiiSidorov]

Linus Tech Tips knows so much about Stripe 😮

[@naveentripathi1833]

This is the first video of my life where I had to keep the playback speed less than normal all the time.

[@8perhaps]

What is that 7 pages long paper they were talking about?

[@bladeknight777]

+刘航成 Satoshi White paper on the original idea for the bitcoin and blockchain

[@8perhaps]

+bladeknight777 thanks

[@normantang6924]

49:30

[@nikeshsolanki829]

Did anyone else click on this video to see if that was Fourier analysis on the board?

[@paulabernathy8049]

What was the book he mentioned?

[@designyourlifenow]

The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop

[@pejpm]

It’s weird how his accent is still pretty obviously Irish, but he says ‘startup’ in an American accent.

[@inthedms82]

He sounds quite American tbh

[@fonorcennell131]

He sounds ridiculously american, theres only a tiny hint of an irish accent

[@hudhastings1]

This guy needs a joint

[@OhMaDayzz]

Where in the video does he talk about being a 'Fallibilist'?

[@4rjohny5]

I think he's a Philibiblist. Philia = love and biblist = books, lover of books. :)

[@wasupgaming]

@@4rjohny5 nah

[@sergicheishvili6082]

Amazing interview really 10/10 but am I the only one who lowered the speed of the video to be able to listen carefully?

[@sleepywolf1533]

Tfue: Before They Were Famous

[@lemarz8006]

more like jonesy

[@tlonghorns187]

Patrick Collison - extremely smart, extremely well spoken - playback speed 0.75 recommended.

[@AdityaVG10]

I had to read captions as well to properly understand what he is saying.

[@Mojo16011973]

man I feel so dumb

[@jimbeam4736]

After that video, I´m back to meme jokes in video games...

[@jamie_ar]

The cadence of his voice is so similar to Elon Musk its crazy.

[@IanBpa]

Thought the same thing. Stimulants, or just similar brain?

[@voshwarthen1906]

@@IanBpa Most likely just a combination of ADHD and a high-IQ. People with ADHD think way faster than most people. Ben Shapiro does the same thing!

[@user-bm9yj7gr9y]

​@@voshwarthen1906I love how you would group two of the most impactful inventors with a loud obnoxious demogogue Obviously Shapiro is smart too, but in terms of benefit to society, it's obvious who wins

[@DanielKoss]

11.16

[@cocoarecords]

@Joey Hamdan they are bots that will use your accounts info to hack you care

[@Conorscorner]

Richard Hendrix ladies and gentlemen.

[@thomaschery]

He didn’t know what a yak shave was

[@qualehdialmedillu7264]

29:22

[@siobhanahbois]

Did anyone find his tweet about park?

[@swyxTV]

only one I can find twitter.com/patrickc/status/553311166923939840?s=20

[@gz6963]

I think they were talking about Xerox PARC, not Park, if that helps your searches

[@LawrenceHe]

He looks like Linus tech tips

[@MegaJw99]

Stripe runs on Ritalin!!

[@pelckarol]

Based on current valuation they gave 1 billion dollars or more to each of the first 10 employees (soon might be worth 2-3b each). Edit: Based on Forbes list with 490 new billionaires this year, they compensation plan has created over 2% of the new billionaires globally.

[@samihsghier9320]

95 billion dollars later

[@nikitadiaconunichita]

"If you could be just be Epsilon better" is that really something people say. This use of calculus?!?!? just WTF people?!

[@snippletrap]

Epsilon is used when testing software that uses floating point values.

[@shivangraisurana9955]

Bitcoins in 2017 will become huge af 😂😂😂😂

[@Patrickmwai87]

2021 $40k

[@louie4426]

sort of

[@hyun8519]

wow this one is no rocket scientist

[@robertpirsig5011]

Nope, a computer scientist

[@tamere6568]

PSTH!!!!! Go public will bill ackman bruh

[@net-dilkurslari4851]

other video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYOQZ3qOpcpkp9U

[@scoobydee3954]

I talk like that after a few grams of speed

[@michaeladams4999]

Hello

[@ltsiros]

This guy talks at 1.25x speed

[@CaptainPlanet007]

Wow!! I can’t understand this guy.

[@newtonpermetersquared]

He talks like Elon Musk

[@silenusmeduseon8814]

“He walked in with a book made of paper... which is always very exciting.” Er? Seriously - it’s the “very” that made this extra .. or even, “super”, sad. Now imagine this chap existing behind-&-within what I”m goin to call a ‘Spartan School Shield’.

[@nalo6310]

ㄆ

[@Styyy]

Bitcoin is FUTURE

[@nicholasrivas6872]

$PSTH

[@Steve-sz4bh]

How did that work out for you 🤣🤣🤣

[@Johnny2Feathers]

Same old answers to the same old questions ...

[@TheBigFella]

Host interrupting too often

[@ebensam3653]

The nervous certification socioeconomically worry because daffodil plausibly spot round a curly texture. draconian, glamorous cornet

[@yusufhamza3760]

The cute roast acceptably settle because shirt admittedly stare up a fresh jump. exultant, beautiful australia

[@wwpark]

Such a bizarre mix of Irish and American accent. As the Irish is so nice, the American tang ruins it.

[@davidkang5264]

The black-and-white soda gergely suppose because father-in-law technologically zoom than a needy ceramic. evanescent, somber tuna

[@lililovelylili]

Definitely needs work.done on presentation skills. I doubt that audience understood more than 20% of that talk

[@MFKaradayiEnglish]

You obviously don't know how people are at Stanford, aka the Nerd Nation. I can assure you that not only they got what he was saying but they probably asked him tons of questions at the end. And these students are in CS on top of that. They don't even need to focus to get the point. I am from a Biology department and during my first year at Stanford, I attended several talks similar to that one and every single time, I left the room feeling the dumbest ever. I was totally lost and confused. Realizing it wasn't the case for my friends and other students, it was even more frustrating. It definitely took me at least a year to get used to such intellectually stimulating environment. They just never stop talking about Science, Tech and stuff. It's mindblowing... and sometimes, quite annoying (for people like me who come from a more modest intellectual environment and lack the confidence to simply ask questions).

[@tatianahawaii13]

@@MFKaradayiEnglish ask questions please. Don’t hesitate

[@xBrOwNeDoG]

how the hell did this company get so big?? what has this company got that paypal doesnt?

[@IDuGiI]

31:45 :)

[@bertlammens4392]

Because paypal managed themselves terrible and left innovation on the table :)

[@gergemini2993]

Elon Musk was an early investor.....

[@taoalexis]

The guys from stripe are innundating the internet, they're not actually infiltrating the real business world. If they were, they wouldn't be in a room this small. You tube is really cheap and they're making sure that they're creating daily content on the net in the hopes of fooling the world they're more important than they really are.

[@santa55monica]

For me the answer is simple, stripe have much better and simple to use APIs

[@barneystinston9224]

The grateful gratis modem histopathologically whisper because booklet virtually zip beyond a uncovered seed. undesirable, even excellent excited beast

[@YouMustBeMadReplyingToMe]

fucking bot

[@A2Kaid]

It's a Paypal clone with some other bells and whistles.

[@adavila78]

Hahaha not at all buddy, PayPal sucks for a developer compared to stripe, stripe is miles ahead of PayPal when it comes to billing, technology and flexibility to implement any billing solution you might need

[@A2Kaid]

@@adavila78 “for a developer” for most customers PayPal is adequate hence it has been growing a ton.

[@omerozdemir1395]

i had multiple companies and paypal sucked for every one of them. paypal is no different than traditional card processers. their fraud management is absolute nightmare.

[@kona9865]

Blah blah blah I’m a genius

[@omspayne5830]

Ko Na stop hating on people who create jobs for your like!

[@aminerachid464]

Blabla Airbnb blabla Facebook blabla bla Dropbox. Learn to talk man.

[@razorrazor9238]

Blabla Blabla Blabla. Learn to set up a 95billion dollar business man :)

[@aminerachid464]

@@razorrazor9238 Doesn't change the fact he doesn't know how to talk

[@aminesouley8252]

@@aminerachid464 no your brain is not just wired to understand people like that , for those who have that brain , he perfectly articulate

[@aminerachid464]

@@aminesouley8252 Well tell your stupid brain to learn grammar before commenting!