This dramatic about-face in our transaction margins was no puzzle to Peter Thiel. It was a few weeks into his stint as the acting-CEO when I heard him compare our new economy payments network to an abstract old economy machine. PayPal’s many policies— such as the fees charged to sellers, spending limits placed on unverified buyers, and our behind-the-scenes fraud algorithms—were like levers, dials, and pulleys. The key was to adjust each of them carefully in unison with the others until the machine hummed along at cruising speed. And Peter had no choice but to tinker. With no documented business precedent similar to PayPal to guide him, he needed his executive team to tweak each variable repeatedly to discover what inputs would optimize the business

(excerpt from Paypal Wars which I am currently thinking about)

Master post: Frameworks to think about growth