Lots of great points, and I love the fact that there is a full transcript. Personally, reading the transcript, noting the important parts, then listening for other contextual cues in which the point was made adds another dimension to these podcasts.
Just as an example from this podcast, the points about Recurring Payment pricing strategies were extremely helpful. It immediately struck with me because:
(a) Recurring Payments are awesome! (profit wise)
(b) They are Hell to setup for anyone outside the US
US companies have awesome companies like Stripe, Braintree, etc... as a Singapore Pte Ltd, the only 2 choices were Paypal or WorldPay. We chose the latter, and while their Customer Service was good, the technical details absolutely sucked.
Anyway, the point is that Patrick being in Japan and facing the same issues (he uses Recurly + Paypal), was a good personal reminder for the issues facing a small startup.
Maybe a profit opportunity? Well, at least it would make a good blog post.
My company is based in the UK, and FastSpring has so far been working very well for our recurring billing.
I think you're only very limited if you're selling subscription products with such low margins that paying 6% or so to a reseller is a significant problem. A good reseller like FastSpring makes recurring billing much easier by handling tax, invoices, cancelled cards, PCI compliance, and by simplifying your accounting as you only have one customer (them).
Just as an example from this podcast, the points about Recurring Payment pricing strategies were extremely helpful. It immediately struck with me because:
(a) Recurring Payments are awesome! (profit wise) (b) They are Hell to setup for anyone outside the US
US companies have awesome companies like Stripe, Braintree, etc... as a Singapore Pte Ltd, the only 2 choices were Paypal or WorldPay. We chose the latter, and while their Customer Service was good, the technical details absolutely sucked.
Anyway, the point is that Patrick being in Japan and facing the same issues (he uses Recurly + Paypal), was a good personal reminder for the issues facing a small startup.
Maybe a profit opportunity? Well, at least it would make a good blog post.