Stripe’s Head of Startups, Hayley Hopwood, joins Georgie to unpack what the next era of commerce actually looks like and why founders need to rethink payments now, not later.
They start with something unexpected: vibe coding a household chore app in 20 minutes. But the conversation quickly moves into much bigger territory. From OpenAI’s arrival in Australia to agentic commerce and stablecoins, Hayley explains how AI is reshaping the final mile of every transaction and why payments are no longer just infrastructure, they are strategy.
They dive into frictionless checkout, tokenization, and the psychology of “one click” buying. Hayley shares why Australia will not build the next foundational LLM but can absolutely dominate in niche AI verticals like health, insurance, agriculture and education. She also unpacks why founders must build for global from day one, even if they are only selling locally, and how ignoring tax, currency and billing models early can quietly kill your scale later.
Plus: is B2B SaaS actually dead, what jobs will change first in the AI era, why mediocrity will not survive, and what founders should do in 2026 to stay ahead of the curve.
This is a masterclass in building durable infrastructure in a world moving at AI speed.
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Georgie Healy: Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit deel.com/dayone. That's D-E-E-L dot com slash day one.
Hayley Hopwood: The key that I give to founders when I meet them is think about your endgame. If you are thinking about going global, build for that. You don't have to not to solve for it, but build with that in mind. Because as you start scaling, you don't want to iterate and build upon what you've done as a Band-Aid solution.
Georgie Healy: Stablecoin as a currency, what makes it different from other currencies?
Hayley Hopwood: It basically moves really quickly. It's extremely safe. It's on its own rails. Stripe is obsessed with AI and stablecoin because they go hand in hand and it's democratizing the way in which the world does business. You don't have to chase VC dollars, even though they are there and readily available. There's a lot of other ways in which you can meet like-minded people with accelerators.
Georgie Healy: And Fly is really excited to launch a business, this one. It's really, it's really exciting.
Hayley Hopwood: It's loving what I'm saying.
Georgie Healy: Hello and welcome to In the Blink of AI. I'm Georgie Healey, and this week we have Hayley Hopwood. She heads up APAC for startups, SMB, and mid-market at the one and only Stripe. Gosh, every guest that comes on that has ever worked at Stripe seems to want to relive their glory days. She's in the thick of it now and an executive at their team, which is why I had to tell her and ask her about all the headline news around B2B SaaS and how we are navigating this fast-moving time in AI, especially for businesses and for startups. Look, I've got a whole page of spoilers in front of me. I'm only going to give you a few. Uh, one is that we talk about stablecoin, something that is not being talked about very much right now, and you're about to see more and more of that come out through this year. Heard it here first. Um, think about your endgame— her advice to Australian founders on building global infrastructure from day one. And finally, don't pigeonhole yourself into doing one thing now. I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to let you listen to the episode. Thank you, Hayley, for being on the show.
Hayley Hopwood: Hayley!
Georgie Healy: I've been looking forward to this for a very long time. Thank you for coming on In the Blink of AI. I'm glad we are not doing this late last year when I had a hideous flu that you would have taken back with you. I would love to start off the show. Tell us an AI hack or trick or tool that you like for our listeners.
Hayley Hopwood: Okay. I have 2 children and getting them to do chores is somewhat challenging. So I went on to Replit and built an app where you can assign tasks to each child, and when they do it, they can go in and click off what they've done. And it's a point— like, I've added a point system to it, um, and at the end of each week, that points, depending on how many points that you've got for the jobs that you've done, will convert into cash, and I put cash into their account. So I am a Vibe Coder.
Georgie Healy: You really are, and that is such a good one. I have the old-school star charts. My kids are a bit younger, 4 and 6. Yours are closer to 14, 16, I'm sure. But, but that is genius. It's like your own household app almost.
Hayley Hopwood: It is. And you can design it to be whatever color. It can make sounds. It can do— so your kids are actually the prime age. So get on. It's all English. Like, I felt like a coder by the end of it. I was very proud of myself. Took about 20 minutes. Like, it is so easy. It's unreal. So I'd encourage everyone to go on and and build something, like just be curious and—
Georgie Healy: Did you find joy doing it or was—
Hayley Hopwood: yeah. Because you can, you can see the coding occurring based on your— can you change it from blue to purple? Can you change it from pink to orange? And like you can do all of those sorts of things and it comes up as your household design. Like I didn't go into that too much detail, but you can actually design it to look and feel like your house.
Georgie Healy: So that's really special. I really love it. I kind of want to see the checklist and see if I can steal any things as well.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah. And I mean, it's little things like unpacking the dishwasher and taking the dog for a walk and all of those sorts of things that you can build it to however your household works.
Georgie Healy: I can think of at least 8 people I'm going to share that hack with after this. That is, that is genius. My hack, um, a little less scalable, but if you do have any kind of audio or audiovisual thing that you need editing. So for the podcast, in the past I'd get the transcript, I'd feed it into the LLM and say, where are some dull points or where are the best social promos? The problem is when you actually look and listen to the recording, no, I'm not removing that. That was one of the best parts of the show. Oh, I'm not using that. That's not really social promo because we were kind of sounding a bit flat there. But if you let Gemini listen to the recording, it actually is really good at being like, that's a great spot, that's a great spot. So—
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, that's amazing.
Georgie Healy: Yeah.
Hayley Hopwood: One thing that I'm in the midst of building is how do I prioritize my inbox and how do I associate that or send it to a task in Gmail and adequately add time in my calendar to complete that task from—
Georgie Healy: Based on the complexity of the email?
Hayley Hopwood: Yes. And Slack, but I haven't quite figured that out yet, but I'm very excited for when I do. I've given myself this week to solve for that.
Georgie Healy: Is that how you do that, Hayley? Is like, you know, I have this problem, I know it's gonna require deep thinking, like it's not just something I can do on the bus on the way home or something, and then you schedule it into the week?
Hayley Hopwood: Correct.
Georgie Healy: Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to do that more too.
Hayley Hopwood: It's hard because it is hard, any distractions, and there's so many other types of work that need to be done as well. So like, you do have to prioritize it.
Georgie Healy: I have, um, this, this calendar entry that I keep moving, which is learn windsurf, and I've had it since December last year. I'm like, I will learn windsurf at one of these points. I still don't even know what it is, but someone mentioned it once and I am going to learn it one of these days. But yeah, sometimes these tasks do take, you know, a big solid block of thinking.
Hayley Hopwood: I think one of the things that I'm leaning 2026 is sometimes you have to slow down in order to speed up.
Georgie Healy: Agree.
Hayley Hopwood: And this is one of them. So you do have to prioritize, like AI is moving so quickly and it's hard to stay on top of all of the things. But if you are not doing bits and pieces compounded over the course of the year, you'll just fall too far behind.
Georgie Healy: Agree.
Hayley Hopwood: So we do have to make sure that it's front and center.
Georgie Healy: Well, thank you for giving us a hack to make that critical thinking of what even should I use AI for? Really appreciate it. Well, it's probably more impactful than the first one.
Hayley Hopwood: And to be fair, the girls don't really care for my app too much. So it's kind of a fail.
Georgie Healy: Like, do they care for money?
Hayley Hopwood: Exactly.
Georgie Healy: Yeah, you're a very smart mother, I would say. Okay, so some really hot news very late last year was OpenAI came to Australia. Big deal for us. And Stripe were one of the only companies that managed to collaborate with OpenAI. You had the head of startups, Mac Manara, What's exciting about partnering with OpenAI as Stripe?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think they're a big global customer of ours. We're very like-minded in our philosophies around where this is going. Internet payment, digital payments, what, what that landscape looks like. And I think the opportunity for Australia is it's that next evolution of commerce. So it can be consumer commerce, it can be business commerce, like it can be a whole range of things that I think it's just unraveling that next frontier. So I think it's really exciting.
Georgie Healy: Yeah, it had a lot of buzz here. Where do you hope they will lean into and where Stripe can support?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think Stripe, we support LLMs, you know, across the globe. I think we— where we really help out and help solve deep problems for other businesses, so enterprise businesses or startups, is really around what is it that you're trying to achieve and how can an LLM help you do that? And then how do we embed payments into that? So it's monetizing and finalizing that last step of if you're a consumer, whatever you're looking for, can we attach that last mile, I call it, where it's that payment leg? So if you're looking for travel and you found a booking and you found accommodation, it's just like, how do I stitch it all up in, in one, on one screen rather than then going, oh yes, this is great, I'm going to then go and figure out how to pay for it. So it's, it's tying up that last mile.
Georgie Healy: Yeah, there is still a bit of friction, right, when we use these LLMs of like, we get so far and then it's like, now I have to go back into Google search and do that last bit.
Hayley Hopwood: And I think that there's a good reason for that. It's hard. Like, it's really challenging and there's compliance and there's risk and there's fraud. All of the things that we need to think deeply about need to be considered. So, It's easy to just give you information and, and make decisions based on that information, but it's another thing to actually feel comfortable paying.
Georgie Healy: Agree, agree. I'm thrilled to be partnered with Stripe for today's episode. Did you know that Stripe Startups offers early-stage venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits? Expert insights, and a focused community of builders. We love builders on In the Blink of AI. Apply today at dayone.fm/stripe. One of my favorite topics is shopping. What— when you get to that final payment screen, right, which I'm at very often, too often some would say, if, if I'm not using Stripe, what's disappointing about that to you when you're like, this is very much low-hanging fruit that Stripe would've solved for you.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think, and I think consumers probably subconsciously think about this all of the time, and it's something that we obsess over, and it's like how many clicks to pay, like paying that last mile, going back to that last mile, it's like, it's the least fun part, right? So let's make it as seamless as we possibly can. You know what you are going to be paying for, you've checked your cart. I want my address to be, I want you to know who I am. I want my address to be defaulted in with the option of changing it should I I want it to be delivered to the office or somewhere else, but I want it to be de-set. I don't want to have to fill out that form factor, or I don't want to have fat thumbs on the bus where I'm filling out my credit card details. Like, I want it to be mobile optimized. There's a whole bunch of things that subconsciously we all want, but if you're not in the pay— if you're not a payments nerd, you might not obsess over. But when it works, it's just like, wow, what a great experience. So I think to cut out those steps and to have things tokenized for security and one-click checkout, I think, is, is really important. And it's what I look for when I'm checking out. If I have to get off the couch and to get my credit card to put in my details—
Georgie Healy: You're so relatable. You're so relatable. I'm like, ah, I don't need it.
Hayley Hopwood: Exactly. So I think that that's what, you know, merchants are after, is that ease of checkout. And I think that that's something that Stripe obsesses over.
Georgie Healy: It also reminds me of, um, I'm not sure if you've been in a scenario where I really want to pay for something, but I'm on bus and I'm like, I don't actually want to type, like get my card out, type in the— like there's a privacy aspect of being on the go and just being able to very quickly.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think it's, it's meeting consumers where they are as well. So a couple of years ago we realized, and we called it snacking, where people aren't double screening and sitting in front of the TV. We're all still doing that, yeah, me wrong. But people are also, if there's a, if there's a sale, or if you're thinking about Black Friday or the lead into an event like Mother's Day or Father's Day, you can do that public transport. So can we make that, you know, everything embedded and all you have to do is a one-click checkout? People will do that. And we've noticed that like a lot of people will shop that way, like just to get from A to B. It's transit's boring. It's like, how do I— I'll go on to that shoe sale and buy a pair of shoes. And it's really important to be able to click that button as you're hopping off the bus. You're not going to do it if it's, if it's a janky experience.
Georgie Healy: None of us will think about payment checkout the same way again now that we know that. And just quickly, you mentioned tokenization. What does that mean?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, so if you're familiar with a brand and you've set up your identity and what have you, you can actually store your credit card details with that, or you can store it in your digital wallet. And that just basically means it's a secure way to do a transaction that doesn't expose your credit card details or your credentials. And Yeah, it's brilliant. It's a safe way of and a fast way of checking out.
Georgie Healy: Love it. I loved this article that you were quoted in a number of times around Australia's $3 trillion with a, with a T digital opportunity. First of all, what was that when you wrote that? What were you thinking of with that opportunity?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think it's, it is the size of the market. And if I think about like digital payments, it's not just domestic payments for Australia. A lot of Stripe Australian businesses will go global at some point, whether that's through Asia or expanding into other markets like the UK and the US. I think that, you know, I think it's something like 25% of our Australian businesses do transact globally. So I think the world is your oyster when you think about things like that. So I think it's, it really depends on, like, I look at it in the sense that it depends on what businesses are wanting to achieve and how they're wanting to scale. And it is just the world is your oyster, but you just have to be a subject matter expert in whatever it is that you're building.
Georgie Healy: We're really bullish on Australia and Australian founders on this show, but what industries do you time and time again see here that you think outperform or outachieve?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think for AI, the things that I've been seeing in the last 12 to 18 months is, you know, Australia's not going to build the next big global LLM. It's just not our jam. We're a small economy. We don't have a lot of people in comparison to the likes of India and China and the US. So I think where Australia really wins is going niche. So we do really well in health. We do really well in education. We do really well in insurance and agriculture. So I think it's that subject matter domain that Australian founders have that that I'm extremely bullish about.
Georgie Healy: Yeah, I'm so excited. In the news today, um, one of our previous guests, Neera, who are in the energy space, is like Australia's next unicorn. It's very close to your point on that. That sounds like a very Australian thing to solve. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's brilliant. Uh, where do you think in AI payments Australia as a nation could be ahead of the game, and where do we kind of lag or, you know, take us a while to get our head around?
Hayley Hopwood: I think we're— I don't think we're ahead or behind. I think that regulation globally is still trying to figure all of this out. And how do we, you know, how do we solve for like agent payments and all of those things? It's not just as simple as flicking it on and enabling it. There's a lot of compliance and responsibility, quite frankly, that needs to go into what it is that we're trying to achieve. So I think that we're all sort of noodling through what that looks like, and Australia is, is doing the same. So I don't think we're behind in or ahead of, of that curve. I think that, you know, we start to see agentic commerce bubbling to the surface more. It was more of a hot topic mid-last year, and we've started to see bits and pieces rolling out. And I think the one thing is good to note is it's not just going to be there one day. Like, businesses are going to have to think really deeply about what it is that they're wanting to present, how they're wanting to present it, and what compliance and risk filters and fraud filters that they're going to embed in that. And it's not just a set and forget. It's— we really have to give it deep thought at a business level of, of what we're trying to achieve with agentic commerce.
Georgie Healy: It's a great point about last year. It was buzzword. I'm curious on the ground because I just see the headlines, right? I see people talking about risks and fear, but also excitement. But you're a bit closer to it. Are you feeling that people are more excited to have agentic solutions, or are they kind of still like, I heard some scary stuff, I'm not ready yet, I'll wait till that client does it first?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think there's two ways of looking at it from consumers. So Australians tend to be early adopters. So you see that high energy, yes, I wanna give this a crack, what can I buy? Like make it happen faster. So I think that that will drive behavior for businesses. And I see it in twofolds within businesses. I see some businesses wanting, like all businesses are curious, some are sitting back and, and waiting as you sort of suggested, I don't wanna be the first cab off the rank. I just want to figure out, like see how it works in, in real life in, and in the wild. And then we've got others who are just like, no, this is the future. I'm wanting to get on top of this sooner rather than later because I'm going to, you know, capture the domain because not all of my competitors will be there at that particular point in time if they're going to be laggards. And they're the ones that we're really working deeply with and can see that vision and the excitement that it's bringing. But it does come down to like, what are we building and how, and how are we doing this in a compliant and regulatory manner?
Georgie Healy: Are we ready?
Hayley Hopwood: I think, I think that some larger businesses are ready and they're ready to do the work.
Georgie Healy: Great.
Hayley Hopwood: And I think over time it'll become easier. So sort of for SMBs and some mid-market, we'll get to a point where it will be easier to adopt because all of those rules will be really defined and easy. But at the moment it's not out of the box. So you have to have a CEO who's prepared to be out of the box as well to play in this space. But it's very, very exciting.
Georgie Healy: That is exciting, but it requires someone that really is taking the bull by the horns and really investing the energy.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah.
Georgie Healy: By 2026, we'll see businesses adopting it. I think so. Whoa, hot take. I love it. Stripe was one of the earliest companies in 2025 to adopt AI agents for transactions. We talked about how we should be perhaps supporting businesses, but what do you think is a misconception about agents? Either from the consumer or from the business that you keep hearing time and time again? It's kind of missing the point.
Hayley Hopwood: I think from a consumer, it's probably uncertainty. Like, what happens? Like, how does the transact— like, am I paying a computer to make a transaction on my behalf? So it's probably more of an education piece. And as I sort of said before, like, we're early adopters. So I think people will just take that risk. From a business perspective, I think it's the misconception, like at a very high level is, oh, I'll just turn it on and it'll work. Like there is still due diligence and responsibility that needs to evolve over time. Same as your payment infrastructure works today, like fraud, you know, changes and it evolves and it becomes more complex. The same thing is going to happen with an AI agent. So it's just always iterating and improving on your modeling. So it's great. Set and forget. Yeah. Yeah.
Georgie Healy: I mean, AI in general, I feel like, is that right? Like, I remember the early days of Vibe Coding. It was so like full of friction and needed an API key and it was so hard. And then, and they kind of just got better and more reliable and easier to use. But you don't want to wait too long, right?
Hayley Hopwood: No, I think it's— I mean, it's moving at the— it's the fastest moving thing I've ever seen in my whole career. Like, it's just every, every day you wake up to something that's it's just slightly nuanced, new, or improved, which is wonderful. It's a great time to be alive. But yeah, I think you have a responsibility to stay on top of it as well.
Georgie Healy: Someone told me it was like eating an elephant, but for breakfast every morning.
Hayley Hopwood: It's just so overwhelming.
Georgie Healy: Like, you just gotta kind of chunk your way through it. Yeah, delicious. Um, so I think the agent piece is well documented, but what do you think we're still sleeping on? What are people not focusing on, and where is the kind of some low-hanging fruit that we should be kind of paying more attention to in the ecosystem?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I, I think that like Stripe is obsessed with AI and stablecoin because they go hand in hand and it's democratizing sort of the way in which the world does business. And I think that that's probably something it's really hard to get your head around. So maybe not sleeping on, but I think we're still at that early stages of what it can actually mean for businesses and consumers. So that's probably what I would say. It's like, how do we tie a bow around this to make it really fast, really safe, and available to the masses?
Georgie Healy: I do see Stripe in the headlines around stablecoins. Where in the journey are you as a business with stablecoins, and what should happen in short to midterm?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think stablecoin, We're looking at the regulatory requirements globally of where we can play and what we're going to be doing. So I think it's a really exciting time for sort of new rails to really, you know, sort of democratize the way in which money globally moves. So if you think about countries, and I've just come back from 2 years in Africa that, you know, don't have the same level of banking infrastructure or they don't have a strong currency, You know, stablecoin is something that can really be beneficial to a consumer, but also to a business. And, you know, a stablecoin is basically pegged to, you know, a government-backed currency. So, you know, instead of using naira in Nigeria, you can use USD in a stablecoin. So it becomes really compelling for— Yeah. Individuals who are transacting in different countries and trying to save money and, and so on and so forth, but also for businesses who are looking to do remittance globally.
Georgie Healy: And for the listeners who haven't been, you know, closely watching stablecoin as a currency, what makes it different from other currencies? Just high level.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, it, it, it basically moves really quickly. It's, it's settlement. It's extremely safe. It's on its own rails. And it is like a stablecoin is pegged to government-backed currency. So you get to choose whether it be USD, AUD, Euro, Pounds. So you, it's at your disposal. So it's just a faster, more cost-effective way of doing business globally. And it takes out some of that FX exposure that businesses have been seeing for decades.
Georgie Healy: Sounds like the kind of Venn diagram overlap of Dogecoin and stablecoin isn't quite overlapping very much then. It sounds like very different demographics of people then.
Hayley Hopwood: They are.
Georgie Healy: Yeah.
Hayley Hopwood: You know, there's a world for, you know, both crypto and stablecoin, but I think where business and security and I think assurance, it's stablecoin is something that we're really, really passionate about.
Georgie Healy: Probably a very uneducated question. Can you, use it as an investment asset class or not really?
Hayley Hopwood: Well, yes, you can. I mean, you can store it and you can, yeah, you can use it as if it's normal money. So if, you know, in Australia the US is, you know, much more stronger, you might want to trade in US, you might want to do all of your business in USD and stablecoin will enable that.
Georgie Healy: Fascinating. Do you think Australia's likely to adopt stablecoin? What would make it appealing here, do you think?
Hayley Hopwood: I think I think it will. I think we're looking at all of the regulatory requirements to get it across the line. Like, I think we're almost there and I think it'll be adopted by a lot of businesses, particularly the ones that are wanting to go global.
Georgie Healy: Love when guests talk about things that are coming up because then I can say, see, if you listen to the show, you would've known this was coming. You'd be really rich by now. Are there any risks to stablecoin that, you know, you would want to highlight?
Hayley Hopwood: I don't think that there's risks associated with it, but I think, you know, the secondary tier of industries will probably be the high risk. You know, it's not for all businesses just yet. So I think that there'll be businesses that will need to sort of wait and see. But like, I think the opportunity is very heavily skewed towards sort of global marketplaces, the travel industry, you know, businesses that have, you know, payroll in multiple currencies, like non-for-profits, like those sorts of businesses will be the ones the first early adopters because they'll see true value in it.
Georgie Healy: Okay. In startup land, it is a bit of a murky time right now that there are so many headlines around B2B SaaS from, you know, early-stage startups all the way to capital markets. People are really worried about even industry verticals being disrupted by AI and LLMs even. Just fundamentally high level, if you're a startup right now, how can you be focusing on fundraising and what should startups be really doubling down on right now?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think it goes back— if you're in Australia, I think it goes back to that niche market and to all founders. It's like, what are you solving for? I think it's really important to, you know, build a moat around that and to really just index all of your energy on solving something that's complex and difficult. Might not even be complex and difficult.
Georgie Healy: It's just something somebody else hasn't thought of.
Hayley Hopwood: But I think that that's probably the differentiator that you need to call out now. I think it's a competitive market that we have. So, you know, being able to differentiate is, is probably key at the moment.
Georgie Healy: Now, these moats, I remember in the past a moat was, you know, just being in a specific industry because LLMs will never copy that. Are there any that you are kind of bullish on? Like, are there any industries or anything where you're like, I would be surprised if AI came after that?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think workflows are probably the first thing that I would think about. Like, how do we automate and improve workflows and remove human error from them and help them be more efficient, faster, more productive? So I think that that's like having something that is around your workflow is key at the moment. We're seeing a lot of success, particularly in health, but not only in health, we're seeing it in insurance and education as well. So how do we streamline that and how do we create create, I guess, a better and more unique experience than what's there today.
Georgie Healy: Yeah, incredible. I didn't have the grades to get into law school, but I'm feeling very vindicated now because legal tech seems to be disrupted. But, uh, you know, heavily so. Heavily so. See, University of Queensland, I don't need you anymore anyway. Um, look, do you think B2B SaaS is dead though, Hayley?
Hayley Hopwood: No, and I think it's a topic that gets thrown around in the media a lot. Um, I think it's evolving, and I I think it needs to evolve. So I think the traditional way we used to think about SaaS, and, and remember, that was like revolutionary 10 to 15 years ago, right? So I think that we'll always see it, and it'll iterate, and it'll become better, and it'll solve more problems, and it will— I, I guess it'll evolve into something better and brighter than what it is today. The ones that don't adopt that kind of mindset yet might not be as successful, but SaaS as we know it will continue to evolve and improve over time.
Georgie Healy: Okay, the model isn't dead though.
Hayley Hopwood: Oh no, not at all.
Georgie Healy: What about actually monetizing quickly? This is something that you're such an expert in. How do, how do startups monetize quickly and how do they scale quickly?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think once they've got their niche in mind and they know what problem that they're solving for. I think the, the key that I give to founders when I meet them is think about your endgame. If you are thinking about going global, like build for that. You don't have to solve for it, but build with that in mind because as you scale— and I see this all of the time and it goes back to my point of slowing down to speed up— as you start scaling, you don't want to iterate and build upon what you've done as a Band-Aid solution. So when I think about monetization, it's like build the infrastructure that you need to go global, even if you don't go global for the first 18 months, 2 years, however long it takes you. But what if you've got that foundational infrastructure that's built? You can iterate upon that really, really quickly. So all of a sudden you want to be in 4 different countries. How do you think about tax? It's like, oh goodness, I hadn't thought about tax at all 4 months ago. But you built that foundational layer that someone like Stripe will be able to go, okay, I can help you with your tax problems. And this is like, we can just build upon what you're, the infrastructure that you have today. So I think my strongest advice is think about where you go, where you're wanting to go. Don't pigeonhole yourself into, I just need to do this one thing now. Because that one thing will turn into another thing that'll turn into another thing. It's just like, you know, have your holistic plan really established and, and work towards that. It'll save you a lot more time in the long run.
Georgie Healy: Especially important for Australian startups, right? Because the market just— it can't compare to the US. So yeah, you can get to become a big fish and then, and then—
Hayley Hopwood: Exactly. And then all of a sudden you're moving your mindset away from your core business to solve problems that you hadn't have thought about. And I guess that's like, I love finding founders early so you can help them think about the things that they're not actually thinking about because they don't know how, because they don't know that they're a thing.
Georgie Healy: Yes.
Hayley Hopwood: So I think that that's one. Yeah, one thing that I'm quite passionate about.
Georgie Healy: The tax seems so obvious when you say it, but wouldn't have occurred to me.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, exactly. And it's other things like, you know, how are you going to present? Are you going to present in Australian dollars or would you prefer to present in local currency? And how are you going to remit those funds? Like all of those things that you're just like, oh, I don't know.
Georgie Healy: Oh yeah. What? Wait, which currency do you— Yes.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah. Whatever currency that you're in, that you're in, we have the ability to switch it over to that local currency. So it's just all of those little little things that become paper cuts if you're not building with the right technology in the first instance.
Georgie Healy: So funny you say that. I am friends with a lot of creators now, and sometimes they get pitched to do certain gigs and opportunities, and if it's not in the right currency, sometimes they genuinely think it's a fake opportunity. They don't respond to the email.
Hayley Hopwood: Or if you've got someone who, like, you know, gets presented with New Zealand dollars and it's like, well, I don't actually know how much this is in pounds. This is adding another step. Correct.
Georgie Healy: And it's making it more complex and too hard basket, and it makes you look less credible as an inbound opportunity.
Hayley Hopwood: Well, and it doesn't feel like you might be promoting whatever you're selling as Australian, but you don't necessarily have to. It can be agnostic, and it feels like you're buying a local product. So it's like, you know, how do I think locally but act globally? Like, it's taking those nuances into consideration. But as an early-stage founder, you're not necessarily thinking like that because there's just so much to think about. So it's like, like, how do I do the bare minimum today to make sure that I'm going to be protected in the future? Otherwise, these big gnarly things become problems that I am going to have to solve for, or I'm not going to scale.
Georgie Healy: It could have been avoided.
Hayley Hopwood: And it could have been avoided. So if I think about that from Heidi Health, a merchant that we worked with, or an AI business that we worked with very early on, it was like they built that infrastructure to support, which was very much a domestic business at the time. And then all of a sudden, they're just like, well, we're wanting to scale this and, and take it global, you know, which is completely 15x their business. But, you know, they're in over 100 countries now. So because of that infrastructure, it allowed them to move extremely quickly in enabling those other kind of— those other countries.
Georgie Healy: Blackbird said they're growing faster than Canva, which is just—
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, it's phenomenal.
Georgie Healy: It's phenomenal.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, it's such a good business.
Georgie Healy: It's funny you bring them up because Tom— I— sorry, Dr. Thomas Kelly. Yes, he has a big fan of his. Can you tell? Yet to your point, 15x their growth launched in 116 countries, but they said they integrated Stripe in a couple of days.
Hayley Hopwood: To go globally. Yes, that, that would have happened. And potentially if you've built the right foundational layer, what I've been talking about, it doesn't take that long. Um, but knowing what you can enable down the track is very, very, very easy to do. If they hadn't have done that and they'd only sold for domestic, they would have had to have built all of that in flight, which, you know how much they have on their plate. It's like, okay, that's a project.
Georgie Healy: And it's solving the medical industry.
Hayley Hopwood: Exactly. So yeah, it's like us.
Georgie Healy: We'll just add it to our list. I heard they even managed to translate an indigenous Māori language on the platform. Like, that's stuff that you really need to focus on. But tax, you kind of don't want to be putting your whole attention to it, right?
Hayley Hopwood: It's not their core business.
Georgie Healy: No.
Hayley Hopwood: I think, you know, with, with what he was like, he had his vision, he knew what he wanted to achieve. And I think we were just able to enable that really quickly with the way that we went about solving his integration for payment, what he was trying to do for payments. So all of a sudden, if you want to become a subscription business or if you're wanting to do usage-based modeling, which a lot of LLMs do, so all of those sorts of things, like if you've got that infrastructure set, it's easier to turn it on in flight and to start monetizing payments. So a lot of startups will say, I, I just want a free model. Like I just want to test and make sure that this is going to work and to get adoption. And that's the priority, but doesn't mean that— and you still have to integrate something, integrate the right thing. So when you are wanting to set up a model that could be complex, like think about Netflix where you have your, you know, one-time user or your family plan, or if you're wanting high def, all of those, and then you have a 7-day or a 1-month free period, like that doesn't just magically happen. You have to make and create those sort of billing boxes to enable them and timecode it. There's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into that. But if you've enabled the infrastructure at that infancy layer, it becomes really easier to do.
Georgie Healy: I can hear the founders listening with the cogs turning. We are at our rapid-fire part of the episode. Are you ready?
Hayley Hopwood: I am ready.
Georgie Healy: What's one headline that you think will be negative but inevitable this year?
Hayley Hopwood: We're hearing this headline now is around, you know, is AI going to kill Australian jobs? I don't think it's a negative. I think people are really concerned about that. I think it'll evolve. So I think that, you know, the status quo will change and the bar will raise. So jobs will feel and look a little different, but I think that that's probably something that's going to be inevitable.
Georgie Healy: What job role won't survive in the industry in the next 2 years due to AI?
Hayley Hopwood: To my earlier point, I think it's more around they won't not exist, they will feel different. So if you're a frontline manager of like 7, like a team in go-to-market of 7 people, you might also have a team of 30 agents. And that will feel very different, and your productivity will look very different, and how you speak to your agents as opposed to speaking to a human again will be very different. So I think that that will change, and it'll change how we need to be managers, like frontline managers, like how, how does that look and feel. So I don't know if it'll dissolve completely. Maybe it's something that it's over time it may or may not. I don't, I don't know. But I think it'll definitely change the way that we think about our roles. In addition to that, I think that the mediocre will not exist. So, if you're just cruising in your role, like, I don't think that— and you're not curious about AI, I think it'll be difficult to sustain. Like, the bar will raise, people will require more of an individual, and those high achievers will be the ones that sort of carry us into that next generation of what employment looks like.
Georgie Healy: I know our listeners are very AI evangelists, if anything, on the spectrum. But do tell your friends and like your loved ones to try and upskill in AI, right, Hayley? Because I just, I really would hate for people to kind of not at least dip their toe in a little bit because I think it will be very disruptive in future.
Hayley Hopwood: Yes, I encourage everyone to play with all of the tools and do all of the things.
Georgie Healy: And it could be fun, right?
Hayley Hopwood: It's hilarious. Who thought that I could build an app? I thought I was a superhero after doing that. It's like I could conquer the world and it was all in English. So it's literally you're just prompting.
Georgie Healy: English is the new coding language and this is what the engineers are saying. It's not just us. Very inspiring. I'm really happy for you and I feel the exact same way when I build something. Last part of the show, the last question. I'm giving you 30 seconds to tell listeners what they should do to be on top of their 2026 business payments?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I think it probably, particularly for founders, it's think about your endgame, think about what you're wanting to achieve and how you're going to scale your business. And it's understanding the niche that you're in and the problems that you're solving for. I think there's a lot of capital out there, but the bar is high. So it's like, what do investors want from their startups and their founders. And I, and I think it is still the passion. All of the things still are the same. So it's the passion, it's the drive, it's the moat, it's all of the things. But it's like you have to be very, very sharp and buttoned up with how you're presenting because AI can do these presentations now. So how are you different from AI and how are you going to stand out and above? of your competitors. So I think that that's probably paramount. From a payments infrastructure, I think we've talked about that. It's like if you are going to go global, think about it. You don't have to think too deeply, but think about how you're building today to enable that so you can run fast in the future, because it will happen if you are wanting to scale. You know, we are small here, and majority of businesses do want to promote themselves abroad. So I would So I would keep that in the back of your mind.
Georgie Healy: Where can the listeners find you, follow you, ask you more questions around going to market and globally scaling?
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, I, um, yeah, I think LinkedIn. And then for our startup program that we have at Stripe, Stripe for Startups, I think it's stripe/startups. I think you'll be able to find—
Georgie Healy: It's in the show notes, guys. You'll find it. You'll find it.
Hayley Hopwood: Yeah, and I think that goes through, like, we offer credits and yeah, we offer accelerator sort of programs and like, you know, build days where people can, founders can come in and make sure that they're doing best practice integrations and those sorts of things. So there is a community out there. I think the one thing again for founders is you don't have to chase VC dollars even though they are there and they're readily available. There's a lot of other ways in which you can meet like-minded people with accelerators and—
Georgie Healy: Fly is really excited to launch a business, this one. It's really, it's really exciting.
Hayley Hopwood: It's loving what I'm saying.
Georgie Healy: You must have like dry shampoo that smells good.
Hayley Hopwood: But yeah, I think that, um, yeah, there's plenty of ways to get yourself out there and be heard through accelerator programs, startup community hubs, those types of things where I think it's really valuable to hang out. Like, being a founder can be really lonely, so I think it's really important that hang out with like-minded people and you can— you might be in different industries, but you still— you might still have the same problem. And, you know, two heads are better than one.
Georgie Healy: Couldn't agree more. You'll see me in a WeWork near you in Sydney. Thank you so much, Hayley. This has been such a pleasure. Thank you for coming on the show.
Hayley Hopwood: No, thank you for having me. It's been a blast.
Georgie Healy: Thank you for listening to In the Blink of AI. You can check out the show notes for anything discussed in this week's episode, and we will be back next week. This podcast was produced by Day One with music by Dan Hansen and visual artwork by Sophie Tyrell. If you loved the episode, please tell your mates, and I love AI news. Please share your thoughts and suggestions to georginarosehealy@gmail.com.
