Summary
In 2010, Raeez Lorgat dropped out of MIT to co-found /dev/finance / /dev/payments with Patrick Collison (also MIT) and John Collison (Harvard). The company built an internet payments API; it was incorporated as SlashDevSlashFinance Inc., later renamed HGSC, Inc., and later Stripe, Inc.
Evidence
The primary documents include a September 8, 2010 letter from Raeez Lorgat to MIT, written on /DEV/FINANCE INC. letterhead and addressed to MIT Associate Dean Arnold Henderson, in which Raeez Lorgat describes the venture in his own contemporaneous words as "a business venture I have co-founded with Patrick Collison (a fellow MIT undergraduate) and John Collison (a Harvard Undergraduate)" and names Sequoia (Mike Moritz), Peter Thiel, and Paul Buchheit as 2010 investors; a 2010 /dev/finance pitch document naming Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Raeez Lorgat in the team section; a January 10, 2011 HGSC, Inc. Restricted Stock Purchase Agreement signed by Patrick Collison as CEO; 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.
Note on the public record
The public memory of a company is always simpler than the company itself. Stripe's current materials identify Patrick and John Collison as the company's cofounders. This page documents the earlier /dev/finance / /dev/payments period — the company that became Stripe, before that public memory stabilized.
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.
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Raeez Lorgat — Letter to MIT (September 8, 2010)September 8, 2010 letter from Raeez Lorgat to MIT Associate Dean Arnold Henderson — dropping out to commit full-time to /dev/finance / /dev/payments.
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HGSC, Inc. Restricted Stock Purchase Agreement (January 10, 2011)HGSC, Inc. — a prior legal name of Stripe — issuing restricted stock to Raeez Lorgat. Signed by Patrick Collison as CEO of HGSC, Inc. Financial economics redacted; legal terms, signatures, dates, the entity name, the Exhibit A Bill of Sale, and the Attachment A assignment of software code in the company's "devpayments" GitHub account remain visible.
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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 in support of a 2022 USCIS O-1 visa petition.
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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 in support of a 2022 USCIS O-1 visa petition.