Stripe Names Will Gaybrick as their First CFO

Payment platform Stripe announced that they have appointed Will Gaybrick as their first Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

He was a General Partner at Thrive Capital, one of the venture investors of Stripe that invested US$ 30 million back in December 2014.

Mr. Gaybrick has a BA in Mathematics from Harvard University and later he joined the Yale Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor (JD). He is currently a member of the New York Bar Association.

Most CFOs in the payment industry hold a background in business and it appeared “unusual.” However, Stripe’s CEO, Patrick Collison defended the appointment by saying that they were looking for someone who has vast knowledge regarding Stripe’s products.

Although Will Gaybrick’s academic background is in mathematics and law, he did work as a Software Engineer for three companies during 2008-11 and worked as an Analyst for The Blackstone Group, which is an American multinational private equity, investment banking, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in New York City.

Hence, picking someone with both software engineering and financial experience seemed to be the key to his appointment. “It’s much more operationally key just because [as a company, we] are moving so much money every day,” said Patrick Collison, the CEO.

Stripe currently employs 15 people and the role of the CFO would be a difficult one to play, but his experience at Thrive Capital as a General Partner would come handy as he would be well familiar with Stripe’s products and would help the team to expand its operation.

Over the last few years, most payment companies hired a CFO right before initiating an IPO. But, Patrick Collison gave no weight to the idea. “There’s a pattern of a CFO joining tech companies to chaperone through the IPO process and this is not that,” he said.

“I hope some day in the future we are working with Will through whatever liquidity mechanism or mechanisms the company pursues. But that’s absolutely not the focus today. That’s years out in the future,” he added.

Earlier in July, Stripe was valued at $5 billion when they secured a large investment from Visa.