Patrick Collison

Patrick Collison
Born (1988-09-09) 9 September 1988
Dromineer, County Limerick, Ireland
Residence San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality Irish
Education Castletroy College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known for Auctomatic; Croma; Stripe
Net worth US$1.0 billion (August 2018)[1]
Relatives John Collison (brother)
Awards Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (2004)
BT Young Scientist of the Year (2005)
Website patrickcollison.com

Patrick Collison (born 9 September 1988) is an Irish entrepreneur from County Limerick. He is the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, which he started with his younger brother, John, in 2010. He won the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005 at the age of sixteen. He lives in San Francisco, California. The brothers are now worth at least $1.0 billion each after San Francisco-based Stripe raised $150 million from CapitalG, an investment division of Google parent company Alphabet, and General Catalyst Partners.[2]

Early life

Patrick Collison was born to Lily and Denis Collison in 1988 in Dromineer, County Tipperary.[3] The eldest of three children (two younger brothers, John and Tommy), he took his first computer course when he was eight years old at the University of Limerick and began learning computer programming at the age of ten.[4]

Collison was educated in Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh, before attending Castletroy College in Castletroy, County Limerick.[5]

Career

Young Scientist

He entered the 40th Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with his project on artificial intelligence (nicknamed 'Isaac' after Isaac Newton, whom Patrick admired), finishing as individual runner-up.[5] He re-entered the following year, and won first place at the age of sixteen on 14 January 2005.[6][7] His project involved the creation of Croma, a LISP-type programming language.[7][8]

His prize of a €3,000 cheque and a trophy of Waterford Crystal was presented to him by President Mary McAleese.[4] His younger brother Tommy participated with his project on blogging in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2010.[9]

Auctomatic

After attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a time, Collison dropped out.[4] In 2007 he set up software company 'Shuppa' (a play on the Irish word 'siopa', meaning 'shop') in Limerick with his brother John Collison.[10] Enterprise Ireland did not allocate funding to the company, prompting a move to California after Silicon Valley's Y Combinator showed interest, where they merged with two Oxford graduates, Harjeet and Kulveer Taggar, and the company became Auctomatic.[10]

On Good Friday of March 2008 Collison, aged nineteen, and his brother, aged seventeen, sold Auctomatic to Canadian company Live Current Media, becoming overnight millionaires.[10][11] In May 2008 he became director of engineering in the company's new Vancouver base.[4][10] Collison attributes the success of his company to his win in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.[4]

Other

Both Collison and his younger brother John were featured on a young Irish persons rich list aired on an RTÉ television show during the 2008 Christmas period.[12]

On 18 July 2009, at the age of 20 and following the publication of McCarthy Report, Collison outlined his ideas for the future of Ireland on popular talk-show Saturday Night with Miriam.[6]

In 2010, Patrick co-founded Stripe, which received backing from Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Sequoia Capital.[13]

In November 2016, the Collison brothers became the world's youngest self-made billionaires, worth at least $1.1 billion, after an investment in Stripe from CapitalG and General Catalyst Partners valued the company at $9.2 billion.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Patrick Collison". Forbes. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "How Two 20-Somethings From Ireland Built a $9.2 Billion Company". Bloomberg.com. 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  3. ↑ "The untold story of Stripe, the secretive $20bn startup driving Apple, Amazon and Facebook". Wired. Wired. 5 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 John Costello (7 January 2009). "Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web". Evening Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  5. 1 2 "Maths project wins Young Scientist". RTÉ. 9 January 2004. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  6. 1 2 "Saturday Night with Miriam". Saturday Night with Miriam. 18 July 2009. Archived from the original on 1 August 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  7. 1 2 Emma O'Kelly (14 January 2005). "Young Scientist of the Year is chosen in Dublin". RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  8. ↑ O'Brien, Ciara (2018-01-18). "Young Scientists: where creativity and charm collide". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  9. ↑ Tommy Collison. "Young Scientist Report on Blogging". Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Limerick brothers sell company for millions". RTÉ. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  11. ↑ "Teenagers become web millionaires". BBC. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  12. ↑ "Three to Watch". Inside View from Ireland. 5 January 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  13. ↑ "Stealth Payment Startup Stripe Backed By PayPal Founders". Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  14. ↑ Mac, Ryan. "Stripe Investment Makes Cofounder The World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
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