The Problem We Were Actually Solving
My initial instinct was to try and resolve the issue with Stripe by providing additional documentation or information about my users. I thought that by explaining the nature of my business and the countries where I was seeing growth, I could convince Stripe to lift the restrictions. However, after numerous back-and-forth emails and calls, it became clear that this approach would not work. I was faced with a choice: either restrict access to my product for a significant portion of my user base or find an alternative payment solution that would allow me to continue servicing them.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
I attempted to use alternative payment gateways, such as Dwolla and Paystack, but these solutions had their own set of limitations. Dwolla, for instance, has a limited set of supported countries, and Paystack's fees were prohibitively high for my use case. I also explored the option of using a payment processor that was not as well-known as Stripe, but these solutions lacked the necessary infrastructure to support the scaling needs of my business.
The Architecture Decision
After months of research and experimentation, I decided to build my own payment processing system from scratch. This decision was not taken lightly, as it required significant investment in both time and resources. However, I was convinced that this was the only way I could ensure seamless, global payments for my users. I chose to use the Bolt On-Ramp API, which provided a scalable and reliable way to process payments, and built a custom integration with my SaaS.
What The Numbers Said After
The results were nothing short of remarkable. After integrating the custom payment processing system, I saw a significant increase in revenue from countries that were previously restricted. In fact, growth from these regions more than made up for the initial investment I made in building the system. My overall churn rate also decreased, as users were no longer experiencing friction when trying to pay their subscriptions.
What I Would Do Differently
Looking back, I would have explored alternative payment solutions more aggressively before deciding to build my own payment processing system. However, in hindsight, I'm glad I took the risk. Building my own system allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of my users' needs and to create a more seamless payment experience for them. It also gave me a level of control and flexibility that I wouldn't have had with third-party solutions.
The fee savings at 10k MRR versus Stripe are significant enough to change your runway calculation. Here is the infrastructure: https://payhip.com/ref/dev10
Top comments (0)