What I learned from the FinTech Club’s Trek to PayPal
The Haas FinTech Club’s first major trek of 2018 was to the headquarters of one of Silicon Valley’s favorite companies, PayPal. Every year MBAs flock to the original home of the so called “PayPal mafia”, whose members have helped to create some of the most influential technology companies in the Valley. Today, on a crisp February morning, 25 full time and evening weekend MBAs from Haas were able to pay homage (pun intended).
My main takeaway from the trek is that PayPal is everywhere and its reach has extended to many more day-to-day tools than we realize. PayPal is now available in 200 countries and 100 currencies. Last year alone it processed over $450bn of money flows!! Whether through Venmo, Xoom or the core PayPal platform, I was struck by the different ways PayPal is delivering on its mission to democratize financial services, and empower people and businesses to join and thrive in the global economy.
The trek started with a introduction to PayPal origins some 20 years ago. This was followed by a brief demo of a new service designed to enable small (convenience store-type) business owners accept mobile payments using PayPal software on existing PoS systems. Our PayPal guru then explained another new offering, this time aimed at larger businesses, that allowed the detailed tracking and analysis of cash flows recorded through PayPal enabled PoS systems. This cash flow information could then be used as a form of credit history for business owners requesting working capital advances or loans from PayPal, the repayments for which would be automatically deducted based on cash flows recorded through the PayPal PoS. Impressive stuff.
After discussing Xoom, a service that allows individuals to send money, reload phones and pay bills in over 70 countries across the world at very low cost and Venmo, a favorite for all us Haas MBAs needing to pay friends for dinner, cinema tickets or HaasBoats, we ended our conversation discussing Braintree, another PayPal service. Braintree provides friction free payment solutions for developers, small business and larger enterprises through providing the “rails” that allow the seamless integration of backend payment processing and the front end user interface (e.g. think of paying for your Uber).
Towards the end of the trek, the Q&A focussed on probably the most (over)used phrase of 2017 / 2018 — Blockchain. Without lifting the lid on specifics, it’s clear that PayPal’s secretive innovation department are taking Blockchain seriously. They are currently working on multiple proof-of-concept ideas, one of which may include cryptocurrency (albeit for PayPal staff only).
PayPal are constantly looking for bright MBAs and accept applications year round. Spots for summer internships may all be filled but we were assured that the PayPal team do reply to every single application it receives so check out this link and apply away!
Any questions, please reach out to Bosun Adebaki (bosun_adebaki@mba.berkeley.edu), Haas FinTech Club Co-President.
