Skyler's $400K Payment Exit

A story about how someone named Skyler took the podcast's "Stripe for Vice" idea and built a payment processing business for companies that traditional processors wouldn't work with.

"I took their Stripe for Vice idea and looked at Stripe's terms of service to see what they wouldn't allow - get rich quick schemes, cannabis, mugshot publications, and pay-to-remove websites. That became my prospecting list.

I reached out to payment providers like Galileo and Synapse, but they said no. Called new fintech companies, they also said no. Finally found a small Canadian bank I'd used before that agreed to work with me for a monthly fee.

Started getting online dispensaries and cannabis companies as clients. One dispensary that was really profitable asked me to come on board. The business grew to $400,000 a month in less than 60 days.

I moved into a nice condo in Vancouver, flew first class to Turks and Caicos, spent $13,000 a night at hotels. But then things went south - the company we were buying product from, a publicly listed company, was run by crooked gangsters. They started harassing me and my family.

I ended up meeting them with a bag of cash, told them to leave my family alone, and left the business forever. Traded my money for peace of mind."