[logshipper]

I see comments talking about Stripe's "PR", not just in this thread, but also the one from a couple days ago [1]. I agree that Stripe's hiring practices, based on the information available, certainly warrant criticism.

But I also think it is important to distinguish between Stripe the product and Stripe the company (and subsequently its hiring practices). Based on what I've heard, developers love Stripe, and they are popular in YC too for obvious reasons. PG's essays have often mentioned the Collisons [2], and Patrick Collison is admired (presumably) universally for his smarts [3]. All the above mentioned praise stems primarily from two things:

a) Stripe having a well-functioning product

b) The Collisons being incredibly smart and driven individuals

Both of these factors in conjunction imply that Stripe will be heavily admired. The love for Stripe is therefore a manifestation of that implication, and I dont think there is some PR machine working tirelessly to polish the Stripe brand.

It is a fallacy to extrapolate the sentiment surrounding product and founders to assume that Stripe will automatically be a "good" company.

Needless to say, my heart goes out to those who had offers rescinded. As others have mentioned, an offer can set in motion events that are seemingly irreversible. I hope Stripe uses this as an opportunity to reflect on their hiring systems and fix them to be more waterproof.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29387264 [2] http://paulgraham.com/ds.html [3] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stripe-ceo-patrick-col...

Edit: fixed grammar