Competition and capitalism

The news in Fintech today was that Stripe released Financial Connections which is effectively an APi service to connect to financial institutions. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is exactly what Plaid does. I don’t think this was a crazy surprise that Stripe would indeed one day stray into Plaid’s world.

What is interesting was this tweet reply from Zach Perret (CEO of Plaid) who accused the PM at Stripe unethically probing into Plaid in order to copy what they were doing.

https://twitter.com/jay_ssh/status/1521884840991330306?s=20&t=pkbKjyqvtiIbSDbZZJxLGw

Business is the ultimate competition. Capitalism is the league that allows businesses to compete.

There are certain truths to business. One of them is that if you’re doing something right, someone is likely going to copy you. We’ve seen that happen many times over the years at Secfi.

If Zach’s accusations are indeed true, then this is just another instance of capitalism at work. It’s unethical for sure. No one should be taking interviews at a company or asking for a RFP just to copy it. But it happens, a lot.

I’ve had many competitors reach out over the years pretending to interview me for a role, or looking to partner, etc. all just prying for more information. Often times they are blunt and ask to see a contract right away. Other times they are a bit more clever and will ask for a demo or a proposal.

It’s good to keep your guard up. Competitors are watching.