SlidePay (YC W12) Tries To Be The “Android” of Payments

[vailripper]

Best of luck - this is exactly what we're looking for. Suggestion: It would be fantastic if we could port existing merchant accounts or (better yet) existing gateways. For example, we're currently using Braintree for web transactions, but would love to use your service for mobile. It would be great if we could continue using our vaulted cards on braintree, but use your service for frontend.

[charliepinto]

let's chat. my email is charlie[at]slidepay[dot]com.

[gt565k]

How is this different from Stripe?

https://stripe.com/us/help/pricing

It's interesting that the fees are the same for a transaction when a card isn't present 2.9% + 30 cents, but 2.5% + 10 cents per transaction when a card is present.

I wonder what Stripe's response to this will be.

[wmf]

With Stripe you type in the card number. With SlidePay you swipe the card.

[primigenus]

I don't get the analogy. SlidePay is the "Android" of payments versus Square as the "Apple" of payments, but the author then goes on to say SlidePay is like a white label version of Square. How is Android a white label version of iOS? How does the analogy help frame this service? Why not just explain what it is and how it's different directly?

[gkoberger]

With the iPhone, everything (device, software, services) are from Apple.

With Android, Google provides parts that different device manufacturers can use to augment their device. Manufacturers can use their own hardware and add whatever software they want to Android.

Not a great analogy, though -- especially since my initial impression was that it only worked on Android while Square was for iOS.

A better analogy would probably be "Stripe's API + Square's Hardware".

[pbreit]

The analogy is fine. If you're a handset manufacturer (samsung, htc, et al) you can white label android (which works kinda like iOS). Just as you can't use iOS, you can't use square in your own app.

[scorpion032]

I'd guess that they wanted to say "Stripe for Android"; but didnt want to mention Stripe, so ended up suggesting that.

[benologist]

The analogy makes sense if you look at AOL's news sites as cheap content farms.

[TomJoad]

This is great, I've been searching all over for a white-label Square. Others, like PayAnywhere, have fallen short.

[charliepinto]

let's chat about this. my email is charlie[at]slidepay[dot]com

[dlinder]

For others researching options for card-present transactions with an API, there's also http://getcardflight.com

They feature a Stripe integration of some sort.

[jessepollak]

I'm not sure about the technology or business, but I will say that I absolutely love the interactive sliding graphics on their landing page.

[martythemaniak]

I was just researching rolling my own payment system for an app using the Stripe API and a card reader. Looking forward to trying this out.

[boatbasin]

If you're looking to integrate a card reader and a Stripe account, you might want to check out CardFlight: https://getcardflight.com/connect-with-stripe

[hkmurakami]

well they sure chose one hell of a great name for this pivot to a service catering to physical cc readers. For that alone I am damn impressed right now. Great branding.

[mrjaeger]

One of the best teams out there, good luck guys!

[dw5ight]

sounds like a hell of pivot. best of luck guys!

[chourobin]

Best of luck guys!