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by dotBen 2127 days ago
This, one of the biggest blinkers technically-inclined founders have is that they forget or ignore that so much is relationship driven.

Rules like Stripes (+ Wells Fargos) are not interpreted like code, everything is open to negotiation and degrees of freedom depending on the relationship established.
1 comments
Nasrudith 2126 days ago
Those blinkers are called "not being utterly insane". The whole model of disruption is seeing a stupid practice saying. "No we aren't doing that stupid shit." watch practicioners of the existing stupid froth at the mouth and then either succeed or fail.

Seriously that is why honor based lending died to banks centuries ago. Relationship driven is a fucking stupid way to do finance.

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dotBen 2126 days ago
Finance is totally relationship driven (and 'honor systems' isn't really a good example of it). My bank waives fees on everything because of my personal friendly relationship with my banker. They gave me preferred terms of my mortgage rate because of my formal relationship - it wasn't just the product of a formula at the end of the banker's computer screen.

I know they'll do all sorts of shit for me because of the hard (account age, $$) and soft (personal) relationship.

But my point is more broad - API agreements come to mind as an example, just because that is a space I've played in prior jobs. "But the API Ts&Cs say you can't do xx but they are doing xx". Yeah, they have a relationship and got a dispensation.

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michannne 2126 days ago
That's an ideal. At the end of the day these are human-run industries, relationships are a big part of that.
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