I&#x27;m delighted that this essay exists. Jessica helped out in so many different ways during the early days of Stripe that I can barely remember half of them.<p>(John and I became interested in startups in large part as a result of reading Founders at Work. And then, because John and I were immigrants without credit history, our residence of the Bay Area started with Jessica helping to convince a landlord to rent a place to us. Once the company was underway, whenever John and I had a major decision to make, figuring things out generally involved biking over to Jessica&#x27;s and PG&#x27;s place for an invariably clarifying discussion.<p>I recall one particular decision that John and I had been debating for weeks. We just couldn&#x27;t decide. Jessica&#x27;s response, when asked, was immediate and adamant. We were surprised but trusted her. John and I often remark at how differently (and, I&#x27;m confident, worse) things would have ended up had Jessica not convinced us to make that call.)