Stripe Is No Longer the Darling of Silicon Valley

The last few months have laid out Stripe’s dirty laundry for the first time. As a reporter who has for years tried to find the cracks in the company’s shiny facade, I more than welcome a balanced conversation about Stripe and its prospects. 

For so long, questioning Stripe’s valuation was the equivalent of a crime in Silicon Valley. As one of my editors, Martin Peers, put it in a recent tweet, “A lot of people really are sensitive to any suggestion that Stripe isn’t the greatest company ever built.” He’s right—they are. But that’s changing. 

Stripe is no longer the most highly valued U.S. startup (SpaceX is). And its reputation isn’t bulletproof, as our reporting on Stripe’s $500 million cash burn shows. Ceding the crown as Silicon Valley darling is part of the natural evolution for any startup turning into a large company, a process during which employee loyalty usually erodes and the pool of naysayers firing shots across the bow expands.