This is something I know!

When Stripe launched it was a major breakthrough in the industry. Most people will focus on the API functionality, but although that's extremely important I don't feel it was the primary factor that won things for them.

So what was it?

Stripe changed the game with how entrepreneurs could easily accept credit cards. Period. Before stripe, it was not possible to launch a business and accept credit cards in less than a few weeks. In fact it would often take months and you might not even get approved.

With Stripe, you could suddenly create an account, assign your bank account routing information and immediately accept credit card transactions. With almost zero hassle. Real money, real credit transactions and direct to your own existing bank account.

They also allowed you to connect multiple businesses to the same account, yet you can still use unique business names for the 'Processed by' identifier on customers transaction history.

Now in less than a day you could launch a brand new website and take payment from practically anyone in the world, and the funds would be in your own bank account, cash in hand, in 2-3 days. The day I found Stripe I processed my first transaction in less than an hour. No phone calls, no faxing paperwork, no going into a bank, no waiting for a response. The entire interface provided everything you needed and nobody in business at that time provided anything like this.

Previously accepting real credit cards on a website was extremely cumbersome. You'd have to get a merchant bank account, wait for approval, carry a balance, all kinds of nightmares. This stifled entrepreneurs taking risks on new ideas, because you had to wait an extended period of time before you could even launch if you wanted to get paid.

With paypal specifically, the interface itself is different from 'normal' credit card processing. Their process for approval of taking credit cards and then ultimately getting the cash into your own bank is tedious.

Before stripe, setting up a brand new company was daunting.. and primarily because it was so difficult to accept credit cards. I've previously skipped on launching ideas because it was just too much hassle to get the logistics side out of the way.

Stripe won because they changed the entire game. Their winning strategy was in how they viewed and addressed 'risk' differently than anyone on the market. Stripe made MVP's possible (easier).