John and Patrick Collison on Stripe's Growth, Agent Commerce, and the Future of Software

April 28, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

John and Patrick Collison discuss Stripe's recent growth data, the infrastructure demands of agentic commerce, and shifts in software economics, drawing directly from Stripe's payment processing trends and customer observations.

Stripe's Growth and Real Economy Signals

Stripe processed over a trillion dollars in payments last year, growing 34% as businesses on the platform expanded. The Collisons emphasize that Stripe's data shows the real economy in good shape despite market volatility, with forward-looking indicators strong. New business cohorts reveal a phase transition: 2025 sign-ups are both more numerous and higher-performing per business than prior years, with median performance improving alongside volume. Early 2026 data suggests potential acceleration. They contrast this with legacy providers, where slowdowns appear; innovative projects from incumbents often launch on Stripe for speed, global reach, stablecoin support, and AI integration. Patrick notes a reasonable chance that Q1 2026 could retrospectively mark the "first quarter of the singularity," based on these cohort trajectories translating AI advances into economic activity.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Future Payments Vision** - Teaser on platforms needing billions of TPS for agentic commerce uniting AI and stablecoins
2 (00:53) **Stripe Growth Stats** - Processed $1T+ payments, 34% YoY growth, strongest 2025 business cohort
3 (02:10) **Announcements Overview** - Employee tender offer and annual letter highlighting economy trends
4 (03:00) **Real Economy Insights** - Stripe data shows robust economy despite market volatility
5 (05:07) **Agentic Commerce Today vs Future** - Agents use Stripe cards now but web not agent-ready; future needs high-throughput blockchains
6 (07:24) **2025 Cohort Acceleration** - More businesses starting, performing better per-business than prior years
7 (09:31) **AI Value in Practice** - Surveys claim low ROI but no reversals on AI tools like customer service or code gen

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

This interview with Stripe cofounders John and Patrick Collison originally aired on TBPN. They discuss Stripe's 34% growth and new employee tender offer, how agent commerce and stablecoins may require high-throughput blockchains built for millions of transactions per second, and why the economics of software are shifting from mass-produced products to bespoke, on-demand systems cooked fresh at the moment of use.

Resources:

Follow TBPN on Twitter: https://x.com/tbpn

Follow Patrick Collison on Twitter: https://x.com/patrickc

Follow John Collison on Twitter: https://x.com/collision

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