Reinventing Goldman Sachs

Plus: Competition in Banking, Customer Germination, Affirm IPO

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Reinventing Goldman Sachs

Stripe is a company founded in 2010 in San Francisco. It builds software which allows companies to accept payments and manage their businesses online. Its mission is grand: “to increase the GDP of the internet.”

Goldman Sachs was founded much earlier, in 1869 to be exact, in New York City. It provides a wide range of financial services to companies, financial institutions, governments and more. Its mission is “to advance sustainable economic growth and financial opportunity across the globe.”

The two companies have a few things in common. They were both founded by immigrants from Europe. Their customers are typically businesses rather than consumers. [1] And, as their mission statements refl…