Thank you for sharing this. This is definitely among our marketplace existential threat as well. We have a few Stripe Connect clients account that got shutdown with zero visibility for us the platform account.
I am wondering if anyone has experience with exploring alternatives other than Stripe Connect. Our use case involves multiple payouts: buyer -> seller -> [us and referral person]. Especially if you involve multiple payment providers, how do you go about handling vault and card data. Stripe Connect and PayPal separately have their own vault features. Would it be annoying for the buyer to have to re-enter payment information several times to save cards on file.
What's the best action a Celcius account holder can do to mitigate risk? I am thinking of taking out a loan with them to at least withdraw out some cash at their expense.
I’d talk to a lawyer. Probably could file an emergency injunction to release your holdings. I assume the large holders are already doing this. They haven’t filed for bankruptcy so it seems something a judge would grant.
Can I ask about your experience implementing Stripe Connect Express, especially how did you choose that over Stripe Connect Standard? My understanding is you have to do more heavy lifting integration work, pay monthly fee per account, KYC, and are responsible for refunds for Express. Whereas a lot of that are taken care of in Standard.
I am going to be voted down into oblivion but it's okay. This is my throwaway account anyway. Here are my 3 pragmatic takes regarding this situation:
- If you are an engineer, your total comp is easily north of $200,000. At that pay scale compared to other careers, I expect (and I did) to burn through the night as needed. That's a lot of money for anyone to expect to have a comfortable work/life balance. I always compare myself with doctors residency, accountants, or labor jobs, who would do a lot more work for a lot less. Tech pay, benefit, and work/life balance are outrageously good in my opinion.
- I have worked at AirBnB, Stripe, and Robinhood. And between the 3, AirBnB actually has the chillest work culture. It's known to be "too much democratic debate vs work output". But your experience may be different.
- Most importantly: Just as much as you can quit the company whenever you like, companies can also lay you off whenever they want. My main takeaway is to take care of yourself. Don't buy into Airfam or company family. You do what's right for you and company does what's right for them. (I can't comment on the specifics if Airbnb layoff was the right business move).
> If you are an engineer, your total comp is easily north of $200,000. At that pay scale compared to other careers, I expect (and I did) to burn through the night as needed.
How are other careers relevant? You take the best offer you can get in the (SWE) market, and if avoiding burnout is a choice criterion for you, you avoid the corresponding companies. Many of them are willing to pay the same compensation or more with a reasonable work-life balance, especially once they realize that they also benefit from it one way or another.
One benefit of a free market is to help optimize resource allocations, and telling yourself "it could be worse" rather than asking "could it be better?" is counterproductive.
The US is mixed, and frankly leaning heavily to command-by-committee, same thing that caused the commies to fail. Our committee is the FOMC. Low rates increase valuations on anyone who promises 'the future'. High tech salaries are almost certainly a distortion of their meaningful value.
For me, it is less about the money and more about sort of an implied contract that exists at some companies and less so at others. That is, I'm willing to work extra hours to finish something or deal with a production emergency, with the understanding that:
- I get flexibility at other times to make up for it.
- It isn't super frequent or for very long.
- It is for a good reason.
I don't think even 300k or 400k (or whatever the going rate is for 20 YoE) would be enough for me to deal with regular death marches to help someone meet their OKRs for that quarter. I've happily worked until 3 AM a bunch of nights in a row on something that was important, but I've also busted my ass for things that could have been delivered later or not at all and it wouldn't have really mattered, and those ones are a real punch in the gut.
That's a lot of money ($200k) for anyone to expect to have a comfortable work/life balance.
This isn't true at all. In my last job (not tech) a "brutal" week might be 50 hrs and people were making double that, albeit in more senior roles (10+ years of experience).
200k is really not a lot of money. Nearly half if it taxed and when you factor things like housing costs and living expenses, it's not that much..
Engineers need to stop short selling themselves, you never see Lawyers going around and saying "they are making too much money".. My friend is an attorney and he charges 1,000$ just to write a single letter.
SWE is a high paying profession and rightly so because companies get to make millions off our backs.
You can't buy a home near work on $200k and send your kids to good schools in many places. Plenty of people make more than $200k and don't break their backs doing it, either.
I am wondering if anyone has experience with exploring alternatives other than Stripe Connect. Our use case involves multiple payouts: buyer -> seller -> [us and referral person]. Especially if you involve multiple payment providers, how do you go about handling vault and card data. Stripe Connect and PayPal separately have their own vault features. Would it be annoying for the buyer to have to re-enter payment information several times to save cards on file.