Kelly Hook

financial comms @stripe | BoD @NCstate | ex-small biz owner (acquired)

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

@elvy276 @stripe Many incredible candidates so far and the application is still open!

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

Communications meets entrepreneurship at @stripe. Come join us!

[Ollie Rickman @ollierickman]

https://t.co/E8r6vzQ53y

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

@benspringwater 11/10 EQ from Sarah. Love it.

[Jeff Weinstein @jeff_weinstein]

Very excited to share (a preview of) @stripe projects:

A new way for you—and your agents—to programmatically provision and manage the internet’s best developer services, right from the CLI.

https://t.co/mOSaKMEqf2 to sign up for early access.

Demo ⤵️

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

@MindaugasLT @stripe Thanks, Mindaugas! 🙌 on deck crew is running strong over here with @sarthakgh and @maxnuss

[Kevin Yien @kevinyien]

as someone who previously loved working at square and now loves working at stripe, i wanted to share my perspective for those impacted by the news today (and mention that we are hiring across all functions)

square’s purpose is economic empowerment. it always resonated with me. another ex-square who joined stripe told me “if that purpose fired you up, you should join stripe because we’re *actually* doing it”. having seen the inside, i couldn’t agree more.

square was always very design-centric. i met some of the best designers of my career at square. stripe takes craft and beauty to another level. we’re not perfect at it. but we crave it, we chase it, we push for more (even when it’s convenient to settle). this belief stems from patrick all the way down, which makes a huge difference. having the ceo use your product during all hands and file bugs sends a message.

fundamentally, they are very different companies. square builds products. stripe builds infrastructure. both are valuable! and both are increasingly expanding their footprints.

having not been at square for several years, i don’t know what their plans are but hope they succeed. knowing what is happening at stripe, i’m obviously very bullish (and placing the ultimate bet with my time).

if you were impacted, don’t hesitate to reach out. whether it’s stripe or somewhere else, i’m happy to help folks make the transition.

dm me if you want to catch up

https://t.co/tTlnxORJcD

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

Re-reading The Tail End to get jazzed for Super Bowl weekend.

https://t.co/NBVzENzCaW @waitbutwhy

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

@sammcallister You've made it!

[Ben Springwater @benspringwater]

I love that the best design in the world is being spearheaded by an economic infrastructure company.

More than any other company, Stripe seems committed to excellence in *every* aspect of its business and operations. There are no pockets of good-enough.

It calls to mind the Lyndon Johnson line, "If you do everything, you'll win." Though I suspect the animating force is not just competitive but spiritual.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Stripe's new frontpage shows the scope of their ambition. A ticker for percent of global GDP! This is not a gimmick. Patrick and John have always thought in these terms.

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

When your colleagues are impeccably good at what they do @tamarawinter 👑

[Tamara Winter @tamarawinter]

1/ Today @stripepress is releasing the first two mini-documentaries in a series we’re calling Tacit.

They’re vignettes of craftspeople who provide a pretty compelling answer to the question, “after AI, does mastery still matter?”

This episode features Christophe Laudamiel, master perfumer at Osmo. Christophe is the creator or co-creator of dozens of scents, most notably, Polo Blue by Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie Fierce, and Tom Ford Amber Absolute.

We spent a week with Christophe, following him from his office, to his home (which too, looks suspiciously like an office), observing him as he built fragrances essentially from scratch, isolated problematic notes (TIL: certain fragrance notes, when put together, can produce an unfortunate ‘wet dog’ smell), and even discovered new molecules.

Christophe is an archetype of individual we’re obsessed with: *he’s* obsessed with mastery for its own sake. For the past 30 years he’s been at the forefront of perfumery, and now he wonders if and how computers can augment his craft.

[Patrick Collison @patrickc]

Stripe City: https://t.co/IlCs2DWqDv.

[Emily Sands @emilygsands]

We’re livestreaming Black Friday / Cyber Monday data all weekend from Stripe City, an interactive physical model celebrating the booming sector of the internet economy that runs on @stripe.

We’re opening up data that’s normally only visible internally like total payment volume, cross-border transactions, agentic activity, and more.

When I checked at 9:36 am PT, we had already surpassed last year’s total payment volume for Black Friday.

Visit the city, and be sure to stop by the AI district while you’re there: https://t.co/rtNh0OvkKM

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

NBD 💪. Excited we're adding this role at Stripe!

[Ernie Tedeschi @ernietedeschi]

Some professional news.

Excited to start today as chief economist at @Stripe. Looking forward to working with & learning from the brilliant people there to produce data-centered insights and research.

[Simon Taylor @sytaylor]

BREAKING: Stripe just made their second major crypto acquisition. Wow! 😮

After spending $1.1bn on Bridge, they just bought Privy for an undisclosed sum)

Most people missed what this combination actually means.

Here's the play that's about to change everything:

- Bridge ($1.1bn) = Stablecoin Infrastructure Stripe can now process stablecoin payments like any other transaction.
- Privy (just acquired) = Wallet-as-a-Service Makes wallet creation, balance management, and transaction signing as simple as an API call.

The combination is lethal:

- Bridge handles the stablecoin rails
- Privy handles the wallet complexity
- Stripe keeps its reputation for simplifying complexity for developers

What this enables:

- Any marketplace can offer "crypto" wallets to users
- Any fintech can add stablecoin accounts
- Any platform can settle globally in seconds
- All through APIs developers already trust.

The real insight:

Stripe is going beyond payments.

They're building infrastructure for every business to become use crypto rails without the complexity.

Without the technical headaches.

The dial-up era of crypto integration just ended

[NC State University @NCState]

Today, alumnus Kevin Howell gave his first public address in Talley Student Union as NC State’s chancellor-elect. 🐺🐾👏

Howell will be NC State’s 15th chancellor and the third NC State alumnus to serve in the role. 🔗 https://t.co/4c1w8Yarpy

[Kelly Hook @KellyHook]

Couldn't have gone to a better person. Go Pack!

[NC State University @NCState]

Kevin Howell has been named chancellor of North Carolina State University, @UNC_System President Peter Hans announced today. Howell, an NC State alum, is currently the chief external affairs officer at UNC Health. He will assume his duties on May 5, 2025. https://t.co/gFSykDlYfE

[David @DavidSHolz]

Midjourney sold to the largest number of unique countries of any merchant on Stripe in 2024! Stripe celebrated by sending us this beautiful CRT screen with a retro animated map of our subscriptions around the world. Thanks @stripe! We couldn't have done it without you <3

[John Collison @collision]

We just published Stripe's annual letter with a bunch of details on what drove 38% payment volume growth in 2024 including enterprise adoption, the AI economy, Vertical SaaS, and more. (Plus some discussion of upcoming trends like stablecoins.)

[Stripe @stripe]

We built a machine to track Black Friday/Cyber Monday on Stripe.

Explore real-time data all weekend: https://t.co/67Jw9zaOpQ.