Sherali👩🏻‍💻

Head of ML & Data Platform @NotionHQ, ex @Stripe, ex @Twitter. Love dogs, puns & podcasts. Opinions my own.

[Ivan Zhao @ivanhzhao]

Last week, @NotionHQ passed 100M users!

I found the photo I took after we reached 1000 users.

And I still recall the day when we passed 1M in 2020 right before covid.

I feel grateful, introspective. Looking back, there's so much learning, yet much remains unchanged...

1/n

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

Anyone in my follow graph who’s still at Twitter? Looks like your Stripe integration is broken - you are setting the wrong country while onboarding accounts. Users are reaching out to us about not getting paid.
@tjdharamsi @shivamkhare95 @ConsulPooja @YileiQian

[Stripe @stripe]

We’re building a new feature for Stripe Radar. 📡

You’ll soon be able to use natural language to create complex fraud prevention rules.

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

This team ❤️ #lovewhoyouworkedwith

[John Collison @collision]

Singaporean businesses can now accept payments directly through @WhatsApp, powered by @Stripe Checkout: https://t.co/Yf67pFhmQq

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

I routinely get surprised when i see folks compare a non-payments central company’s payments offering with Stripe.More often than not,they use Stripe under the hood & mark up their cost to their customers.Gumroad included. You migrate to Stripe or not,you are still paying Stripe!

[Daniel Vassallo @dvassallo]

Just hit $100K revenue on Gumroad as Q1 comes to an end.

If I move to Stripe I could save about $10K in fees next quarter. But here's why I'm staying on Gumroad:

1. PPP

$18,340 of my sales came from turning on PPP (purchasing power parity) pricing on Feb 1.

Yes, maybe some of these sales would have happened anyway at full price, but I'm sure this helped increase revenue. And yes, I could implement this on top of Stripe, but it's more work.

2. PayPal

$18,850 of my sales came from PayPal. Stripe doesn't support PayPal.

Yes, most customers would have likely chosen to use a credit card, but there are countries where almost everyone uses PayPal and I'm sure I would have lost sales without PayPal support. And yes, I could implement PayPal support along Stripe, but it's more work.

3. Affiliates

$5,370 of my sales came from affiliates. It's only 5% of my sales, and about 50% goes to my affiliates, so I doubt I would bother to implement a solution on top of Stripe. But it's an extra $2,416 in profit I wouldn't have received.

4. Discover

$999 of my sales came from Gumroad Discover. Gumroad ranks my products high on Discover since they sell well. Even if I keep my Gumroad landing page alive, it would lose its ranking from Discover if I start selling on Stripe.

5. Google

$14,727 of my sales came from Google. Gumroad's landing page ranks exceptionally well on Google. Yes, over time I would likely be able to rank well too, but it's more work.

6. Gumroad Accounts

Most importantly, $71,889 of my sales (71%+) came from people with an existing Gumroad account. Many of these would have likely had their credit card already saved, and were able to purchase my products with one click. No need to go find the wallet. They were also likely already familiar with Gumroad, and familiarity is a plus in sales.

--

All that "merchant of record" stuff I keep hearing about doesn't matter to me. The real reason is that I'm very convinced I'd make less money next quarter if I moved off Gumroad. It's easy to lose $10K when you combine all the things I mentioned above.

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

Forgot to mention that this position is for Canada (Toronto preferred but open to other locations as well).

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

Hey folks, hot off the press : there’s an opening for a Tech Lead / Staff Software Engineer within my group. Please reach out if you / anyone you know is interested in applying.

https://t.co/e0J4yATg7B

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

TIL - Persians have their own version of Jalebi! They call it “Zulbia”😍

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

Nature is healing 😀

[Stripe @stripe]

Introducing 🆕 iOS widgets.

Track key business metrics right from your lock screen.

https://t.co/SOZ9jhzcsd

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

@realGeorgeHotz “It took me a few weeks to understand this”. followed by gibberish that shows you still have a long way to go. 😆

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

@realGeorgeHotz Ever met a kid who learnt a new thing at school who keeps repeating it every 10 mins? That’s what is going on with elmo and view counts in this Space 🎙😂

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

@krishna_kamath @foaddabiri @amdev @ShaodanZ Can someone look into spammy dms for me? This is today. See new ones every couple of days.

[Kyle Laplante @kyle_laplante]

Ex-tweeps, Apple infra team is basically twitter infra team from 5 years ago, so come join us.

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

I’ll take a break from Twitter for a bit. For tweeps reaching out via DMs, pls keep ‘em coming and if possible, drop me your linkedin/email/number in there. I’ll rely on email notifs for your DMs and we can continue thereon on those other mediums. Good luck, rooting for y’all!🍀

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

For those who survived, you are no less amazing! And your responsibilities only grow bigger. Hope that you carry forth a new era where Twitter, the product, the service is bigger, better than ever before. The road is not gonna be easy but hopefully it is worth it. Good luck!🍀❤️

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

Sad to be seeing my home timeline full of parting tweets from some of the most incredible people I knew.
I can’t wait to see where all you go and spread your amazingness next.
My only hope is that the terms of severance are amicable. Cheers to you all🥂
#LoveWhoYouWorkedWith ❤️

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

@jaseemabid @Twitter @stripe Hey Jaseem, did not know your partner is at Stripe. Would love to get in touch. Hope she is doing ok. And good luck to you too. Keep that smiling face and positive attitude no matter what 🍀

[Sherali👩🏻‍💻 @sherali]

Wearing this hoodie proudly in solidarity with all the tweeps awaiting their decision tomorrow. You were all amazing.

No matter what happens tomorrow, your worth doesn’t change.

#LoveWhoYouWorkedWith ❤️