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The invoices stood out to me. Here's a view of what payments for services, which is 50% of the US economy, looks like: Payer ====> Giant Corp | SMB / Sole Prop
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Recipient:
Giant 25% 25%
Corp
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SMB / 25% 25%
Sole Prop
75% of payments will involve a party where signals like SOC 2 compliance, having 5 or more W2s, business licenses, business insurance, etc. are meaningless. Like they are an absolute fairy tale.The invoice cited looks like SMB to SMB. But it could just as well be part of a Giant Corp to SMB chain. An entity that checks the boxes is the one that gets paid, but you know, the people who do the work don't get any value from the compliance fairy tale. They're just going to do the payment and do whatever it is the platform (Mercury) asks for and that's that. Mercury is taking a big bet and it is paying off. Another POV is that those stupid SOC 2 startups are selling a holistic experience that basically provides no more value than a Markdown template you can find on GitHub for SOC 2. Guess how I know. Another POV is that regardless of what US policy is or where it is going, there are programmers in Russia, and for the right price, someone is willing to pay them to do something, and before a certain date, it doesn't look like a problem, and then after a date, it is, and some intellectually honest, sincere, peace loving people seem to be unbothered by this. |