Patrick Collison

Patrick Collison (born 9 September 1988) is an Irish billionaire entrepreneur. 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.

Patrick Collison
Collison in 2015
Born (1988-09-09) 9 September 1988
Dromineer, County Tipperary, Ireland
NationalityIrish
EducationCastletroy College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known forAuctomatic; Croma; Stripe
Net worthUS$3.2 billion (February 2020)[1]
RelativesJohn Collison (brother)
AwardsYoung Scientist and Technology Exhibition (2004)
BT Young Scientist of the Year (2005)
Websitepatrickcollison.com

Collison lives in San Francisco, California. The brothers were worth at least $3.2 billion each after Stripe raised $150 million from CapitalG, an investment division of Google parent's company Alphabet, and General Catalyst Partners.[2] In September 2019, it was announced that Stripe had raised an addition $250 million at a valuation of $35 billion.[3] Together, the brothers hold a controlling interest in Stripe and will be able to retain control should the company go public.[4]

Early life

Patrick Collison was born to Lily and Denis Collison in 1988.[5] The eldest of three boys, 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.[6]

Collison was educated in Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh, before attending Castletroy College in Castletroy, County Limerick.[7]

Career

Young Scientist

Collison 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.[7] He re-entered the following year, and won first place at the age of sixteen on 14 January 2005.[8][9] His project involved the creation of Croma, a LISP-type programming language.[9][10]

His prize of a €3,000 cheque and a trophy of Waterford Crystal was presented to him by President Mary McAleese.[6] His younger brother Tommy participated with his project on blogging in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2010.[11]

Auctomatic

After attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a time, Collison dropped out.[6] In 2007, he set up software company 'Shuppa' (a play on the Irish word 'siopa', meaning 'shop') in Limerick with his brother John Collison.[12] 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.[12]

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.[12][13] In May 2008 he became director of engineering at the company's new Vancouver base.[6][12] Collison attributes the success of his company to his win in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.[6]

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.[14]

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.[8]

In 2010, Patrick co-founded Stripe, which received backing from Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Sequoia Capital.[15]

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.[16]

According to Collison, he reads books and is interested in a broad range of subjects on history, technology, engineering, fiction, philosophy, and art. He publishes the list of books he read on his website. In November 2018, Collison published a piece in The Atlantic with Michael Nielsen entitled Science is Getting Less Bang for its Buck, arguing that increased investment in science hasn't produced commensurate output. In 2019, Collison published an opinion piece in the same outlet with Tyler Cowen arguing for a new academic discipline called "Progress Studies", which would study the cultural and institutional conditions which lead to the most progress and higher standards of living.[17]

In 2018, Stripe, under the direction of the Collison brothers, contributed $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organization. The Collisons are citizens of Ireland.[18]

On June 29th 2020, Collison criticized the Chinese governments treatment of Uighurs tweeting: "As a US business (and tech) community, I think we should be significantly clearer about our horror at, and opposition to, the atrocities being committed by the Chinese government against its own people". [19]

References
  1. "Patrick Collison". Forbes. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  2. "How Two 20-Somethings From Ireland Built a $9.2 Billion Company". Bloomberg.com. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  3. Metcalf, Tom; Verhage, Julie. "Stripe Brothers Become Richest Self-Made Irish Billionaires". Bloomberg. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  4. Rudegeair, Peter (26 September 2018). "Payments Fintech Stripe Valued at $20 Billion in Latest Funding Round" – via www.wsj.com.
  5. "The untold story of Stripe, the secretive $20bn startup driving Apple, Amazon and Facebook". Wired. Wired. 5 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  6. John Costello (7 January 2009). "Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web". Evening Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  7. "Maths project wins Young Scientist". RTÉ. 9 January 2004. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  8. "Saturday Night with Miriam". Saturday Night with Miriam. 18 July 2009. Archived from the original on 1 August 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  9. Emma O'Kelly (14 January 2005). "Young Scientist of the Year is chosen in Dublin". RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  10. O'Brien, Ciara (18 January 2018). "Young Scientists: where creativity and charm collide". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  11. Tommy Collison. "Young Scientist Report on Blogging". Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  12. "Limerick brothers sell company for millions". RTÉ. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  13. "Teenagers become web millionaires". BBC. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  14. "Three to Watch". Inside View from Ireland. 5 January 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  15. "Stealth Payment Startup Stripe Backed By PayPal Founders". Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  16. Mac, Ryan. "Stripe Investment Makes Cofounder The World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  17. Collison, Patrick; Cowen, Tyler (30 July 2019). "We Need a New Science of Progress". The Atlantic. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  18. Torres, Blanca (3 May 2018). "Are tech CEOs finally tackling the Bay Area housing crisis? Stripe jumps into the fight". San Francisco Business Times.
  19. "https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1277783532182671361". Twitter. Retrieved 30 June 2020. External link in |title= (help)
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