Starbucks

includes Starbucks Pay

14 statements across 11 episodes · 6 bullish · 4 bearish · 10 people on the record · first statement Jul 16, 2017 by Alex Rampell · said 82 times in 40 episodes since 2017 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Alex Rampell (14), Adam Ludwin (8), Earvin "Magic" Johnson (6), Balaji Srinivasan (6), Kyle Russell (4), Benedict Evans (4), Steve Cheney (3), Jeff Jordan (3)

tap a year for its mentions
00251350252017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
013252017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
002134252017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 14 mentions in 4 episodes 4 per episode
2025 4 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2022 4 mentions in 1 episode
2019 47 mentions in 23 episodes 2 per episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 8 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Starbucks, oldest first

Jul 16, 2017 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rampell: Starbucks, Uber, Lyft, and United hold tens of millions of stored cards
“Starbucks has tens of millions of credit cards on file. Uber does, Lyft does, even United Airlines does.”
Alex Rampell Jul 16, 2017 ▶ 21:15 What Happens When Mobile (Really) Hits the Wallet
Jul 16, 2017 negative
Assertion Open · timeframe Jul 2017
Rampell: First-gen financial managers lack level three transaction data
“The reason why you can't answer that query today using existing PFMs is PFMs do not get level three transaction data. They don't know what you bought at Starbucks. They don't know what you bought at Walmart. They just know that you spent 19 dollars at Starbuck…”
Alex Rampell Jul 16, 2017 ▶ 10:29 What Happens When Mobile (Really) Hits the Wallet
Jul 15, 2018 bullish
Prediction Partly held up
Liu: Consumer platforms will integrate crypto into loyalty programs within a year
“And so I think over the next year, we're going to see a number of those things to be proven out. And what we've already at least heard is that what was, I think Starbucks talked about maybe integrating blockchain to the loyalty program. Rakuten, which is, you …”
Lily Liu Jul 15, 2018 ▶ 23:53 An Intro to Crypto: Building Companies, from People to Code
Jan 2, 2019 neutral
Assertion Supported
Jeff Jordan: Starbucks missed Q4 revenue due to declining mall foot traffic
“Starbucks in their fourth quarter earnings call. Came in light on the revenue line, and they blame the fact that their stores in malls experience declining year over year foot traffic.”
Jeff Jordan Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 12:01 a16z Podcast | Ecommerce and the Holiday Shopping Collision
Jan 2, 2019
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Cheney: Starbucks will be entirely barista-less by 2024
“I would likely suggest that Starbucks will be like barista-less in five years.”
Steve Cheney Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 9:10 a16z Podcast | Location, Location, Location -- and Mobile
Jan 2, 2019 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Armstrong: Mainstream merchants like Starbucks will eventually accept Bitcoin
“Now, someday, if the world, if Bitcoin becomes more and more popular, like we all think it will then yes, even the Starbucks across the street will be accepting Bitcoin, because they still don't want to pay two percent, they'd rather pay a fraction of one perc…”
Brian Armstrong Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 28:09 a16z Podcast | Bitcoin, Greece, and What’s Next for Cryptocurrency
Jan 2, 2019 negative
Opinion
Ludwin: Bitcoin network design is ill-suited for merchant-issued gift cards
“Bitcoin doesn't actually fit quite well there, perfectly there, because the only way to leverage the Bitcoin network for Starbucks would be to kind of hack the network and layer a Starbucks dollar into the Bitcoin network, which is an approach called a colored…”
Adam Ludwin Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:21 a16z Podcast | Blockchain vs/and Bitcoin
Jan 2, 2019 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Starbucks was the only Swedish merchant lacking mobile payment support
“When I went to Sweden, you know, as a cashless society, supposedly the only place that didn't accept a mobile app was Starbucks”
Charlie Wurzel Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:25 a16z Podcast | Fintech Revolution or Evolution?
Jun 20, 2024 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Plaid CEO: Pay-by-bank will almost never succeed for in-person retail purchases
“No one's gonna walk into a Starbucks and say, I would like to pay for my three dollar coffee with my bank account. That's basically never gonna happen. Or any small merchant for that matter. Frankly, in my opinion, like, very few in-person transactions are eve…”
Zach Perret Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 9:31 Zach Perret (Plaid) & Simon Khalaf (Marqeta): New Applications in Fintech
Feb 11, 2026 positive
Opinion
Magic Johnson: Starbucks deal with Howard Schultz established his business legitimacy
“From the money that I did make from Howard Schultz and Starbucks, and again, thank you, Howard, because you, he made me legitimate. That Starbucks deal sealed the deal for me”
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Feb 11, 2026 ▶ 59:22 Inside The Life of Silicon Valley's First Athlete Investor | Magic Johnson
Feb 11, 2026
Disclosure
Magic Johnson operated 125 Starbucks stores across 40 markets
“Howard Schultz and I did Starbucks. In a 125 stores in 40 different markets”
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Feb 11, 2026 ▶ 18:26 Inside The Life of Silicon Valley's First Athlete Investor | Magic Johnson
Feb 11, 2026 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Magic Johnson: Inner-city Starbucks and theater investments succeeded due to unmet demand
“Well, you think about the theaters, you think about Starbucks, all the things that, that we did, There was heavy demand for it in the inner cities, but nobody was going in there building them. So we, it was supply and demand, right? So we met that and man, eve…”
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Feb 11, 2026 ▶ 41:30 Inside The Life of Silicon Valley's First Athlete Investor | Magic Johnson
May 5, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Tony James reveals DLJ made early investments in Starbucks alongside Costco
“Starbucks too, by the way.”
Tony James May 5, 2026 ▶ 15:16 Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, and Working with Munger | Tony James on The a16z Show
Sep 3, 2026 neutral
Assertion Supported
Rampell: Starbucks Pay was designed to avoid per-transaction payment processing fees
“That's why Starbucks invented Starbucks Pay, because they wanted to stop having to pay. It's like these prepaid, they only have to pay one time. You chart, you put 50 dollars on your Starbucks account, well, they only have to pay Visa, MasterCard, and everybod…”
Alex Rampell Sep 3, 2026 ▶ 6:37 Why AI Agents Could Finally Reinvent the Credit Card
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