In the first down market Stripe will no longer exist.  They are losing money at an incredible rate and no where near profitable.  They are losing money at a rate of about $100MM per year, and having to raise the same.<p>Perhaps they can make it to IPO, but even at a 3.5B valuation, they have to find profitability very quickly, a 3.5B market cap can turn into a $250M market cap very quickly, just ask GroupOn.<p>When you are losing more per year than you can book in revenue, this is not a good business, and certainly isn&#x27;t going to take over the market.<p>This is doubly true if Paypal is firing their CTO, who is in the end responsible for their situation, poor usability, and very poor APIs.  If Paypal wakes up and starts fixing their issues, they are closing the one and only thing that is giving companies like Stripe an opening.