From beginning to finish, launching a startup is a complex and laborious endeavor. Everyday is an adventure, and problems will arise quickly.
How will you find solutions? By sourcing quick tips from founders who’re facing the same challenges as you. To offer assistance along your journey, the Founder Institute has gathered our expansive network of entrepreneurs to solve the problems you encounter each day.
In this installment of Ask an Expert, Founder Institute graduates address a question asked by a Medellín, Columbia Founder Institute Graduate,
What is your favorite payment method (Paypal, Skrill, Alipay...)? And why?....I use Paypal and I like it, but unfortunately it does not work well for several Latin American countries.
In a poll of 27 Founder Institute graduates, we’ve discovered that Stripe and Paypal, are two favorite payment platforms among a small international cluster of FI grads.
Stripe
Defined by Crunchbase as a, “A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enable businesses to accept and manage online payments,” Stripe has been praised for it’s competitive fees, easy integration, back end user management, and the fact that it doesn't require users to have a preexisting account.
“Our developers recommended it. We were initially using Amazon Web Payments, and may go back to it, because we like how trustworthy that seemed. Stripe has been an easy integration, but not the easiest to prove trust to our users through as its less well-known on the consumer side.”
- Reva Minkoff, Founder of DigitalGroundUp, an interactive technology platform that helps its users learn digital marketing through its interactive software. (Chicago Graduate)
“For my company we use Stripe. We’ve never used Stripe to pay for services in other countries. We only use Stripe for receivables. The only time I have used a service to pay people internationally is through Odesk. I'm not sure what service they use... I use venmo to pay other people, primarily because of ease of use.”
- Justin Maddox, Founder of CrowdTrust, which facilitates the sharing of fact based realtime data through the cloud between crowdfunding platforms. (Washington DC Graduate)
"It's developer friendly. The provided API is simpler to use than the one provided by other service. You can nearly manage everything from it. The ecosystem is growing and you can find a lot of third-parties services resolving different kind of problems such as European VAT."
- Christophe Philemotte, founder of PullReview, a software that helps Rails developers to be more productive and confident in their code by providing them fast and automated code reviews. (Brussels Graduate)
“We use Stripe. We don't use it for non-US currencies, so far no need. We use Stripe because it purely API based and can be integrated well. Our developer/co-founder did extensive search on different payments. Only issue we see is that we can't take a cc number if a customer wants to give us over phone. That can be managed if it is really required. Another issue is obviously you would have to build the entire subscription model, manage refunds etc.”
- Srinivas Penumaka, Founder of ReadyPulse, an enterprise software platform using patented tech to surface high quality, authorized social content from brand ambassadors. (Seattle Graduate)
Paypal
Most internationally known, Paypal is used by businesses to accept most forms of payment, in any location, whether you're online or offline. Founders prefer this service due to its international presence, and ability to pay employees, then store revenue before sending to the bank.
“Living in the UK and Greece, this is the only method that guarantees secure transaction and limits our worries. It is excellent especially if you are using a public computer and/or you are abroad. Just love the simplicity and service.”
- Lia Zorzou, Founder of Girapp Innvoations Ltd, a last minute event discovery service for everyone, everywhere. (Athens Graduate)
“Well, with Paypal, you can both pay and receive money from any parties (family, friends, suppliers, clients, consultants, you name it). Take the time to read on Paypal's website their wide array of service: you'll be surprised.”
- Yrina Janvier, founder of Zafè, an eCommerce selling ethical accessories to help haitian women earn a living by selling the handmade item they produce. (Montreal Graduate)
"I am in favor of new competitors in this market. But in this case, entrepreneurs must select the most known payment method among its users. I still consider Paypal as the dominant payment method in Latin America."
- Ignacio Bermeo, founder of ContratosApp, a mobile platform that allows instant generation , signature and contract management in an accessible language and using cloud technology. (Mexico City Graduate)
"We looked at different payment systems and decided that Paypal would be the easiest for our manual invoicing mode at this time. We may go with Stripe or PaySimple if we have larger volume of payments."
- Alexey Dmitriyev, founder of EdgeRocket, a web application that provides a new and better way for companies to provide online learning resources for their employees.
Balanced
This payment system allows marketplaces to charge cards, escrow funds, deposit via ACH direct. Though not as widely known as other payment software, this grad had to switch from mainstream options due to pricing requirements.
"We use Balanced API for payments through Wembli. We started with Paypal but they were imposing a $500 payment limit per transaction and that didn't work for us."
- Kim Walpole, Co-Founder & CEO Wembli, a web app for event-goers to plan an outing to concerts, sporting events and theater with their friends without getting stuck with the bill. (San Diego Graduate)
MangoPay
This payment app is specifically developed for marketplaces, crowdfunding platforms and collaborative consumption platforms which can accept third-party payments. Graduates who live internationally recommend this application.
“We find that Stripe works well for simple payments on Talentina. To enable 3rd party payments in Europe, we recommend MangoPay, as Stripe supports this only in the US and Balanced is not yet available here. MangoPay follows strict Know-Your-Customer (KYC) rules, so it's a rather big implementation compared to Stripe.
Adriaan Walpot, Founder at Talentina, a social marketplace that overcomes the lack of transparency in the 1-to-1 coaching market, to magnify the exposure and trust that talented Coaches with Clients can achieve. (Brussels Graduate)
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