hey_ya_23

Its really not about scale. I can process 1 or 1million JSON messages with the same effort. Now also support 25 other message formats? Doesnt scale the same way.

I can support a trillion of US/Canadian/European transactions with mostly the same effort.

>> Yes, and if it doesn't need even close to one FTE to do this for 5-10 countries, why the hell would you suddenly need 15 to do it for 100?

Because things dont scale linearly? I mean I can support JSON messages in 5min. Another five minutes and I can support XML. So I should be able to support all the historical mainframe message formats in 5 minutes each right? No...

>> So what have people done? SWEs jet out of the office at 5, many are running startups on the side, some are consulting on the side.

I'm not the GP poster but that sounds like a good deal. So collect a paycheck, nod during the corporate circle-jerk of design meetings for weeks while working on your own startup and side consulting?

Can all the US mom-and-pop websites collecting payments from US consumers please explain how they would proceed to effortlessly collect payments in Africa? The Middle East? Pakistan?

This is an honest question, because I'm starting to seriously question my beliefs (I honestly though it was difficult.)

>> 90% of our transactions were USA, about 8% were Canada. And the other 2% was from Singapore. Never ran into any problem with these.

And I once ran a python script on my local computer and had no scaling issues. I dont know what all these people are talking about nginx, load-blanancers, blah! heck, I just used python -m simpleserver and Viola! it worked! See -- everyone can run a global business right from their macbook with 0 FTEs! I did it! (Please dont mind I picked the easiest script and conveniently based my business in places where Stripe works!)

I can also do payments myself in "7 or 8 countries". If you can do payments in 100 countries by yourself, please please let me know how!

I think a lot of technologists confuse deploying code with actually handling transactions, charge-backs, local tax rates, etc. Also, just because you are small enough to ignore local tax laws does not mean everyone is.

Move fast and break things is all fun and games until you get charged for tax avoidance.

Five years ago, it was difficult to comply with tax laws in every US state, county, and jurisdiction (now there are services) -- can you imagine doing this globally?