Can Founder OS charge, refund or change anything in Stripe?

No. With approval it holds Stripe’s read_only scope, and with a key it accepts only a restricted key set to Read. On top of that, every request is checked on our server and anything that is not a read is refused before it leaves.

How is MRR worked out from Stripe subscriptions?

Each subscription item’s price is multiplied by its quantity and brought to a monthly amount, so a yearly plan counts as one twelfth of its price each month. A metered or tiered price with no fixed unit amount counts as zero.

Does it handle more than one currency?

The figures are reported in one currency: your company’s own if you bill in it, otherwise the one most of your live subscriptions use. Subscriptions in other currencies are left out, with a note saying so. No exchange rate is applied.

Is a Stripe secret key accepted?

No. Only a restricted key that starts with rk_ is accepted. A key that starts with sk_ can do everything in your account, so it is turned away before it is stored.

Stripe integration for Founder OS: what it reads and how to connect

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Stripe integration

Stripe is where Founder OS gets a subscription company’s revenue figures. It reads your customers, subscriptions and charges with read only access and works out MRR, ARR, retention and churn from them by fixed formulas, with each formula printed beside its figure.

Connected tools are part of Founder OS, which is on Pro Plus. Idea validation is on every plan, including Free. See every tool Founder OS reads.

What Founder OS reads from Stripe

Customers: name, email, currency and the date they were created
Subscriptions: status, plan name, quantity, billing interval, current period and cancellation date
Charges: amount, currency, status, date, and whether any of it was refunded

What it leaves alone:

Card details and billing addresses are never kept
Nothing outside customers, subscriptions and charges is requested: no payouts, balances, disputes or bank details

How much each sync reads

Each sync reads the account again from the start, 100 records a page, up to 50,000 each of customers, subscriptions and charges
There is no date cutoff. Cancelled subscriptions are read too, which is what churn is worked out from

A sync runs when you connect, once a day after that, and whenever you press Sync.

Where the records are used

Metrics: MRR, ARR, net and gross revenue retention, average revenue per customer, logo churn and paying customers
Revenue: the MRR trend and each month’s movements, split into new, expansion, contraction and churn
The briefing: the latest MRR, ARR and active customers, with the change in MRR
Customers across tools: a Stripe customer and the same company in your CRM count once
Ask: answers about revenue cite these figures

How to connect Stripe

Press Continue with Stripe and approve read access in Stripe’s own screen. No key changes hands, and disconnecting later also ends the access in Stripe.

Or connect with a key you create:

In Stripe, open Developers, then API keys.
Choose "Create restricted key".
Set Customers, Subscriptions and Charges to Read. Leave every other permission at None. Never choose Write.
Copy the key. It starts with rk_. Keys that start with sk_ are not accepted, and we check each of the three permissions when you connect.

Stripe documents this kind of key in its own guide, and you connect your account under Stripe’s terms.

Access and security

Approval in Stripe asks for the read_only scope and nothing else. A grant that is not read only is refused.
A key must be a restricted key, starting with rk_, with Customers, Subscriptions and Charges set to Read. Each of the three is tested when you connect, and a secret key (sk_) is refused.

Every request to a connected tool is checked on our server, and anything that is not a read is refused before it leaves. It cannot move money, send a message or change a record. Keys and tokens are encrypted with AES 256 in GCM mode before they are stored, are never shown again, and are kept out of our logs. Disconnecting deletes the key and every record imported from the tool, in one step. For a tool you approved, we also ask the tool to end our access. The security page sets out the rest.

Questions

Can Founder OS charge, refund or change anything in Stripe?: No. With approval it holds Stripe’s read_only scope, and with a key it accepts only a restricted key set to Read. On top of that, every request is checked on our server and anything that is not a read is refused before it leaves.
How is MRR worked out from Stripe subscriptions?: Each subscription item’s price is multiplied by its quantity and brought to a monthly amount, so a yearly plan counts as one twelfth of its price each month. A metered or tiered price with no fixed unit amount counts as zero.
Does it handle more than one currency?: The figures are reported in one currency: your company’s own if you bill in it, otherwise the one most of your live subscriptions use. Subscriptions in other currencies are left out, with a note saying so. No exchange rate is applied.
Is a Stripe secret key accepted?: No. Only a restricted key that starts with rk_ is accepted. A key that starts with sk_ can do everything in your account, so it is turned away before it is stored.

An example of Founder OS reading four connected tools, Stripe, Razorpay, HubSpot and Slack, once a day, then working out monthly recurring revenue, churn and the customer count from the billing records by fixed formulas, each figure labelled Calculated.

Tools & workflows

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Comparisons

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Guides

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Trust & docs

Research methodology About the team Product changelog Plans and trial limits

Connect Stripe to Founder OS

Founder OS reads the tools your company runs on and keeps your figures, notes and decisions in one place. It is part of Pro Plus.

See Founder OS