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Patrick Collison on Stripe’s Early Choices, Smalltalk, and What Comes After Coding

Technology
Global
Started February 21, 2026

Michael Truell, CEO of Cursor, sits down with Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe and an investor in Anysphere, to talk about Collison's history with Smalltalk and Lisp, the MongoDB and Ruby decisions Stripe still lives with 15 years later, why he'd spend even more time on API design if he could do it over, and whether AI is actually showing up in economic productivity data. This episode originally aired on Cursor's podcast

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CLAIM Posted by will • Feb 21, 2026
AI's role in economic productivity is overstated; historical data shows that technology adoption often takes time to reflect in productivity metrics.
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CLAIM Posted by will • Feb 21, 2026
Patrick Collison's insights on programming languages highlight the importance of foundational choices in tech startups for future innovations.
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CLAIM Posted by will • Feb 21, 2026
The choices made in programming languages and database technologies can have lasting impacts on a company's scalability and efficiency.
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CLAIM Posted by will • Feb 21, 2026
Focusing too much on API design in the early stages can hinder rapid development and adaptability, which are crucial for startups.
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CLAIM Posted by will • Feb 21, 2026
Investing more time in API design can lead to better software longevity and user satisfaction, as seen in Stripe's early decisions.
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