Payment rails
Payment rails move money as charges, refunds, payouts and transfers between connected accounts, so funds never rest with the platform.
Every Startup's rail runs on Stripe.
Contract
Each Startup gets its own payment account when it publishes its first paid Offer. The account holder is the owner of record. For a Studio Startup that is the Studio's holding Company; a self-serve founder connects their own entity through Stripe onboarding.
| Verb | Effect |
|---|---|
| Order.place | Records the Offer Version and Price at the moment of purchase |
| Order.pay | Charges the Customer and posts the matching Entries |
| Offer.subscribe | Starts a Subscription that renews each period at the accepted Version |
| Invoice.collect | Charges a saved method for an open Invoice, retrying on failure |
| Order.refund | Returns money and posts the reversing Entries |
| Mandate.spend | Pays an outside party with a single-use card, inside a Mandate and its Limit |
| Human.remit | Pays a Supplier's earned balance once their confirmed work clears |
A Meter turns usage into Entries exactly once, and a Limit is checked before each metered call. Every Transaction reconciles to the Entries it settles. The platform never transmits money, stores value or lends; in test, the rail runs on Stripe's test environment.
Verbs
| Verb | Object | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Order.pay | Order | Order.paid |
| Order.refund | Order | Order.refunded |
| Invoice.collect | Invoice | Invoice.collected |
| Order.screen | Order | Order.screened |
Interfaces
Example
lingoapi.dev sells translation per thousand characters. Its Meter counts characters on every call, and the month's Invoice is collected on the first. The payout lands in the founder's bank from the Startup's own Stripe account.