(2009-04-02) Kopelman Paypal Startup Nothing To Lose

Josh Kopelman thinks that a big advantage PayPal had over EBay's payment-system was that, being a Start Up, they had nothing to lose, compared to the already-publicly-held EBay. For example, when PayPal first launched, it was pretty clear that their product violated the operating rules for Visa, Mastercard and American Express - and violated banking regulations is more than 40 different states. PayPal's bet was that they could ultimate resolve these issues after their product had won in the marketplace. (And that if they didn't win in the marketplace, the legal risks didn't matter). And they were right.