Stripe Press

Stripe Press grew from shipping one book to every Stripe customer. Stripe's president John loved the manuscript that became Elad Gil's High Growth Handbook and wanted every user to have it. Brie Wolfson had to source paper, find a printer, build a design language and sell physical products for the first time.

That infrastructure put the team about 80% of the way to a second book, so they ran a four-book experiment instead of stopping at one. Tyler Cowen was one of the first four authors. He and Patrick had long discussed a press, so the idea Brie thought was hers was already their strategy.

How I Write

Paying for invisible physical details made the books last and feel crafted. Stripe Press books use lay-flat binding, sewn with flexible threads instead of glued at the spine, which costs more. Their covers use stock colored all the way through rather than dyed on the surface.

Glue pulls pages back at the edges, and surface-dyed covers wear to white. With colored-through stock, corners can bend in a backpack and still look good. Brie uses these as her example of how much real detail exists in a product.

How I Write