
Stripe subsidiary plans to open office in Baltimore - gk1
https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2019/07/29/san-francisco-tech-firm-picks-locust-point-for-200.html
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throwaway63535
Does anyone understand why it's through a subsidiary / what that means? I
can't seem to find any info about "Stripe Helm."

Is this some sort of optimization to open what's actually an outsourced
support office but still get to to use the Stripe brand in news stories?

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leetrout
Is it common to be able to borrow money directly from a state like this?

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anbop
The perpetual debt of the US federal and state governments makes some people
forget that governments can actually be in the black. Governments like Norway,
Singapore, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia run huge sovereign wealth funds that lend,
for debt or equity, huge amounts of money to all kinds of companies.

~~~
asimilator
> Norway, Singapore, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia

Tiny or oil wealthy or both tiny and oil wealthy. Not great examples for your
point.

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rat9988
What is the problem with the examples?

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Cilvic
It's easier to spend less than you make if you make a lot from effortless
resource mining.

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mlinksva
Also today Square plans to move its St Louis office downtown and double
headcount there
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20556142](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20556142)

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jrochkind1
> Helm will provide technical support services to software users of Stripe,

Hm, anyone know what this is? Are these just call center jobs?

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simonebrunozzi
I think tech firms have an opportunity to do good things when selecting a new
office in a new city or state. Let me explain.

200 jobs means roughly 300-350 people (some are singles, some are couples,
some have kids) that will be directly affected by Stripe opening these offices
in Baltimore.

On average, 100 people with relatively high salaries (as it is the case for
Stripe employees) "drive" 30 to 50 other jobs (services, etc). This means that
this single move by Stripe has the capacity to influence 500-600 people in
total. Not a small number.

In cases like this, I wish they would consider partnering with a local
architect firm and/or construction firm, plus an investment firm, to repurpose
a neglected area, or even build from scratch, using sound and proven
architectural guidelines (a good example:
[https://nightingalehousing.org/](https://nightingalehousing.org/) in
Melbourne). This way they could offer both office and housing to their
employees, and push for sustainable architecture.

Heck, with a larger workforce, they could even be as bold as designing a new
town altogether. Some great architects and designers have already shared
what's the best way to do it. TL;DR: it's not about cars, it's about people.
[0] [1] etc.

I would love to chat with people interested with this idea, and share the
little I've learned in my own free time.

[0]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL_RYm8zs28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL_RYm8zs28)
(Jan Gehl is one of the most amazing architects of our time, please try to
find time to watch at least some of it, you will thank me later)

[1]: [https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/an-introduction-to-
christophe...](https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/an-introduction-to-christopher-
alexanders-pattern-language/2012/12/10)

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peterwwillis
A good idea, but in Baltimore you don't have to build from scratch. There are
over 16,000 vacant homes and 40,000 vacant properties in Baltimore, many
in/near chronically neglected black communities.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-launches-a-
pu...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-launches-a-push-to-
demolish-vacant-
buildings/2019/03/21/df19e41e-4a9c-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.296e9381d7aa)

I can't remember the name, but I've always thought that company that pays for
you to become a trained computer programmer in exchange for a cut of your
salary would work well in these areas. If they offered a tiered model,
starting with basic business computer skills and working up to more technical
jobs, in a few years they could fill dozens of offices with support
technicians and programmers from local communities.

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simonebrunozzi
One of the companies that offers that model is Lambda School.

You might be right for Baltimore, but perhaps this could be a good idea for
other places.

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jugg1es
I live in Baltimore. Is this on hacker news because of Trump? Baltimore is
great. It has rats, sure, but I just went to a synchronized swimming
exhibition at a public pool in Druid Hill park (of Dru Hill fame) that
involved a segment about allergies with a man dressed as Gluten in a bread
costume doing coordinated swim moves with others dressed in pollen costumes.
It's a weird place. Come visit.

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alexmlamb
I lived in Baltimore for a few years in college. There are definitely some
nice things about it, like the aquarium, and a decent choice of restaurants
(however this should come with the caveat that the inner harbor has lots of
police standing around, so its level of safety is not that organic). It also
has a good selection of sports teams for a city its size.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate)

It still has one of the highest crime rates in the US, so I don't think
criticism of the city is necessarily ill-informed.

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matthewdgreen
I don’t know when you went to college, but this is pretty out of date now.
Baltimore has developed enormously in just the past ten years (and it was the
pits, relatively speaking, fifteen years ago). The Inner Harbor is nice to
visit but it’s like Times Square in NY, only tourists go there. There has been
massive development everywhere, but particularly in Harbor East, Locust Point,
and up north in places like Remington and Hampden. It’s worth visiting again
just to see how rapidly things have changed, and how many new restaurants have
opened.

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openredbull
It's interesting to me that the article title names a "San Francisco tech
firm" rather than "Stripe". I guess though it may be a ubiquitous name in the
YC community, Stripe is not a household name.

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paxys
I don't think it will ever be a household name, at least unless it launches a
consumer product.

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smnrchrds
Alternatively, it can get really really big. PwC and British Petroleum do not
have any consumer products that I know of, yet they are household names all
the same.

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umanwizard
Really? I would be surprised if more than 10% of Americans have heard of PwC.

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MegaButts
I am an American and I had to look up PwC. That said, you can be a household
name outside of America.

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cheese4242
This article seems out of place. A tech company opening a new office is rarely
news worthy (except in the case of FAANG). Am I right to assume this is being
posted as a "counter" to recent comments made by Trump regarding Baltimore?

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gk1
As mentioned in another comment, I posted this because it’s interesting and
encouraging as a Baltimore resident.

