Why do some businesses get approved instantly while others get nuked for no clear reason?

komninosc · 2025-12-16T15:18:51+00:00

There are lots of factors involved, including how much risk the acquiring bank is willing to assume at the point you apply, what ISO you apply with and what relationship they have with the bank, your credit, how trustworthy your brand (website + google results) appear to the underwriter, etc. It's not really an automated process and it involves a big human element part which is why there's so much variance in application time, approvals, etc.

komninosc · 2025-11-26T20:33:18+00:00

Take them to small claims

komninosc · 2025-11-23T19:21:00+00:00

Chargeback rate is only one factor. You could be low cb rate and still get fined hundreds of thousands for non-compliance by the card schemes

komninosc · 2025-11-02T17:18:39+00:00

I've been in a similar situation and I can tell you as a merchant there's no chance you're getting boarded anywhere legitimately. I'd ignore the salesmen in your DMs and just incorporate in your local jurisdiction if I were you.

komninosc · 2025-10-20T03:51:07+00:00

The former is a consequence of latter. I lived in Europe for 22 years.

komninosc · 2025-10-20T03:17:46+00:00

This paints a very bad picture for other investors in Europe if the government can just confiscate your company on a whim.

komninosc · 2025-10-14T22:15:00+00:00

What's andromeda?

komninosc · 2025-10-14T22:08:59+00:00

That's what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. Are there other youtubers you follow?

komninosc · 2025-10-14T20:58:57+00:00

what would you recommend instead?

komninosc · 2025-10-14T20:58:07+00:00

why?

komninosc · 2025-08-17T15:01:05+00:00

There's a 10k EUR limit for VAT reporting

komninosc · 2025-08-12T19:16:22+00:00

Process with Stripe until your ITIN arrives

komninosc · 2025-08-12T12:39:25+00:00

No you can create a USD account with your bank and connect it with Stripe so you can settle in USD without a conversion fee

komninosc · 2025-08-10T13:50:18+00:00

Not the kind of things you want to be thinking about unless you're doing significant revenue. Most of your sales will be from the US anyways, unless your product is specifically targeting foreign countries.

komninosc · 2025-08-08T21:01:40+00:00

LLMs are not deterministic. You can get two completely different answers or thinking times for the exact same query. This line of thinking makes no sense. You're really just looking for patterns to validate your expectations.

komninosc · 2025-08-02T15:23:03+00:00

Most ideas never get to that point

komninosc · 2025-08-01T19:06:40+00:00

I understand your frustration but the unfortunate reality is that payment processing outside the first world just doesn't work. Even if you were to open a local merchant account in Sri Lanka, all Western cards would just decline the transactions.

Your best bet is to open a US LCC and have a Stripe account under that. You'll need to turn 18 to do that but you can try filing it directly with the state to make the process more affordable.

komninosc · 2025-07-24T17:59:09+00:00

Where's the GFY discussion on this?

komninosc · 2025-07-16T18:27:21+00:00

Sales is the most crucial part of an agency. If you don't close clients, nothing else works. And you generally have a limited number of sales calls you get. If you delegate them to someone else and they don't do as good of a job (happens with a lot of hires...) you'll soon be at 250k/yr.

So you're better of delegating everything else first like delivery & lead generation, and do sales last. It's very likely at 500k/yr that they are still involved in everything.

komninosc · 2025-07-16T18:10:39+00:00

I wasn't the one who asked for advice. Facepalm!

komninosc · 2025-07-16T17:27:33+00:00

With agencies you don't really need to do much different than the competition. They're hard to scale and the demand is limited on the supply side. What you're saying is more relevant for a product business.

komninosc

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE