Payment intermediary businesses like Stripe and Adyen suffer from margin compression because they lack pricing power and operate in a commoditized market where clients force competitive bidding.

“The thing to remember about all these businesses, Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, is that they're middleman businesses, which by definition means that they don't have pricing power. They actually have to reflect the prevalent pricing power of the incumbent sponsors of their technology.”

A founder should not be deterred by their background or lack of VC backing when building a disruptive company.

“People don't start banks and if they do start a bank, they are probably a billionaire. When I started talking to people about I'm going to start a bank, you know, I could see people thinking I was totally crazy. I hadn't raised a penny.”

Stablecoins in the payment sector represent an unknown factor, similar to the role of AI in SaaS, where traditional players may ultimately adopt the technology.

“And the dynamic between stablecoins or crypto in general and payment companies to me kind of seems similar. Wise is also interesting because it seems like a bet with a lot of counter-cyclical properties.”