Imagine that they DIDN'T hire more people when they grew by 3x. See how much people complain about the grind at AWS. People are extraordinarily overworked. We'd be reading "Why I left Stripe" posts and calling out the CEOs for not scaling up properly.
Stripe was already known (in my circles at least) for being a ~grinder~ long hours type place. Not neccesarily because they're understaffed but because it was a work work work culture.
That's what I've seen (from the outside, with some friends who work at Stripe) as well - it's the old investment banking / management consulting work culture, i.e. your job is your life.
“Do you care to know why I'm in this chair with you all? I mean, why I earn the big bucks?
I'm here for one reason and one reason alone. I'm here to guess what the music might do a week, a month, a year from now. That's it. Nothing more. And standing here tonight, I'm afraid that I don't hear - a - thing. Just... silence.”
-John Tuld, Margin Call