Can agents buy from your product? Three questions that tell you. Plus: Nate's Library MCP.
What I took away from my conversation with Emily Sands, Stripe’s Head of Data & AI.
TL;DR
- Decisions about agent access to products are made through fraud, pricing, and onboarding processes.
- Stripe's Radar product initially focused on payment fraud but struggled with users consuming free credits or services without payment.
- Distinguishing good users from abusive ones is critical for determining which customers a company can afford to serve.
- A company's fraud rules are essentially distribution decisions.
- The acquisition of OpenRouter connects task costs to earnings, though accurate token counting doesn't guarantee efficient spending.
- Knowing costs does not automatically determine pricing; understanding value and user behavior is also essential.