Summary
In 2009–2011, Raeez Lorgat was part of the early /dev/finance team with Patrick Collison and John Collison. /dev/finance inc. built /dev/payments — an internet payments API product — and was later renamed Stripe.
Evidence
The primary documents include a 2010 /dev/finance pitch document naming Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Raeez Lorgat in the team section; a March 7, 2022 letter from Patrick Collison saying he invited Raeez to join the venture that later became Stripe; and an August 2, 2022 letter from Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst (Stripe's earliest institutional investor) describing Raeez as having dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison.
Clarification
About Stripe's current public leadership pages
Stripe's current public newsroom and leadership pages identify Patrick Collison as Co-founder and CEO and John Collison as Co-founder and President. This is correct and not in dispute. This page documents Raeez Lorgat's earlier /dev/finance founding-team role through primary evidence. It is not a claim that Stripe's current press page lists him as an executive cofounder.
Evidence table
| Claim | Best evidence | What it establishes | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raeez was on the /dev/finance team | 2010 /dev/finance pitch document | Team section includes Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Raeez Lorgat, each with substantive biography | Self-hosted historical document; SHA-256 hash published |
| /dev/payments was the product | 2010 pitch document | Document describes /dev/payments as /dev/finance inc.'s "flagship product" and lists ~12 early merchants | Historical naming predates Stripe brand |
| Patrick invited Raeez into the venture | Patrick Collison 2022 USCIS letter | On Stripe corporate letterhead, signed by Patrick as CEO of Stripe: "I invited him to join us in working on the then new business venture which would later come to be called Stripe"; "When he joined Stripe in 2010" | Immigration support letter, not a Stripe press release. Submitted under penalty of perjury |
| General Catalyst was approached by Raeez | Hemant Taneja 2022 USCIS letter | On General Catalyst letterhead, signed by Hemant: "After he dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison, he reached out to me for investment in their new company. It is no exaggeration that without Raeez Lorgat, General Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe today"; describes responsibilities including fundraising, documentation, customer/investor communication, and software | Immigration support letter; named third-party testimony under penalty of perjury |
| Public Stripe pages list Patrick and John as cofounders | Stripe newsroom (stripe.com/newsroom) | Establishes why a reader may see what appears to be a public-record mismatch with this page's claim | Not a complete historical roster; describes current executive leadership |
| Entity chain /dev/finance → SlashDevSlashFinance → Stripe | Commercial corporate-records databases (PitchBook) | Stripe's prior legal names are catalogued in standard corporate records | Third-party corroboration; available via commercial subscriptions |
Primary documents
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/dev/finance inc. — Original pitch document (2010)The original /dev/finance pitch document for /dev/payments, "payment processing for developers." The team section names Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Raeez Lorgat. Lists ~12 early merchant customers including Posterous, Simperium (Simplenote), inDinero, and MockingBird.HTML transcript · Markdown transcript · Original PDF · SHA-256
9f1eba02f9ea635e048c335d9370391f29b230edcd692dc62f4ed819c1942f02 -
Patrick Collison — USCIS O-1 support letter (March 7, 2022)On Stripe corporate letterhead (510 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94103), signed by Patrick Collison as Co-founder and CEO of Stripe. States that Patrick met Raeez at MIT, invited him to join the then-new business venture that would later come to be called Stripe, that Raeez joined Stripe in 2010, and that Patrick worked very closely with him. Submitted under penalty of perjury to USCIS.HTML transcript · Markdown transcript · Original PDF · SHA-256
3e9f0c4ff7ca8ff72b2b86b2a181b376263cd4d9a8159e785c176ad7f52cec2d -
Hemant Taneja — USCIS O-1 support letter (August 2, 2022)On General Catalyst letterhead, signed by Hemant Taneja. States that Raeez dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison, that Raeez reached out to Hemant for investment in their new company, and that without Raeez Lorgat, General Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe. Describes Raeez's founding-team responsibilities. Submitted under penalty of perjury to USCIS.HTML transcript · Markdown transcript · Original PDF · SHA-256
40868a31da581f626288e25b01468470c62c7a9b34a79a90912aefc1a1bf83fa
Scope of claims
What this page claims
Raeez Lorgat was part of the early /dev/finance team with Patrick Collison and John Collison starting in 2009. /dev/finance inc. — legally registered in Delaware as SlashDevSlashFinance inc. — built /dev/payments, which was renamed Stripe in 2010. The team renaming took place at the Ramona Street office, with the name "Stripe" proposed by Greg Brockman (independently documented as Stripe's first CTO). Primary documents support describing Raeez as founding-team and, in third-party investor testimony, cofounder.
What this page does not claim
This page does not claim that Stripe's current newsroom or leadership pages list Raeez Lorgat as one of Stripe's public executive cofounders. Stripe's public leadership today is Patrick Collison (Co-founder and CEO) and John Collison (Co-founder and President). This page concerns the earlier /dev/finance / Stripe founding history and Raeez Lorgat's role in it.
How to verify independently
- Email Patrick Collison or Hemant Taneja directly. Both are publicly reachable; both signed letters under penalty of perjury and are available to confirm or qualify them in 2026.
- Search commercial corporate-records databases (PitchBook, LinkedIn Sales Navigator) for Stripe's prior legal names. Public records list precursors including "/dev/payments" and "SlashDevSlashFinance" preceding the Stripe rename.
- Verify minor planet 23122 Lorgat at the Minor Planet Center catalog. Lincoln Laboratory's naming follows from the 2007 Intel ISEF Computer Science Grand Award.
- Society for Science archives Intel ISEF results; 2007 records confirm the Computer Science Grand Award.
- Each primary document above has a published SHA-256 hash; the originals on this site can be byte-checked against the hashes published here.
Plain-text and Markdown packets
For automated diligence agents or for printing: a single-file plain-text dossier is available at /raeez-lorgat-diligence-packet.txt and as Markdown at /raeez-lorgat-diligence-packet.md. An extended LLM-readable summary is at /llms-full.txt.