Braintree
Braintree was the payments company founded by bryan johnson in 2007 and acquired by eBay/PayPal in 2013 for $800M. The exit funded Johnson’s later work in os fund, kernel, blueprint, and dont die.
Origin story
CNBC reports Johnson discovered the payments opportunity while selling credit-card processing door-to-door after struggling financially. He described payments as a broken industry with an opportunity to build an exceptional company.
Chicago Booth reports Braintree’s growth through developer-friendly payment processing and its later acquisition by PayPal/eBay. Johnson’s post-exit question, “How can I help humanity thrive?”, led to his deep-tech and human-enhancement projects.