Patrick Collison (born 9 September 1988) is an Irish entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and current CEO of

Stripe Stripe, striped, or stripes may refer to: Decorations *Stripe (pattern), a line or band that differs in colour or tone from an adjacent surface *Racing stripe, a vehicle decoration * Service stripe, a decoration of the U.S. military Entertainment ...

, which he started with his younger brother,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, in 2010. He won the 41st

Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition The Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, commonly called the Young Scientist Exhibition, is an Irish annual school students' science competition that has been held in the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland, every January since the com ...

in 2005 at the age of sixteen. In 2020, he founded

Fast Grants Fast Grants is an American charity that provides funding for scientific research. The project was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide quick funding to scientists working on research projects that could help with the pandemic. ...

to accelerate

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-related science with economist

Tyler Cowen Tyler Cowen (; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, columnist, blogger, and podcaster. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. Cowen writes the "Economic ...

. In 2021, he co-founded

Arc Institute Arc Institute is a nonprofit biomedical research organization based in Palo Alto, California. It was co-founded by Stanford University biochemistry professor Silvana Konermann, UC Berkeley bioengineering professor Patrick Hsu, and Stripe, Inc., ...

, a nonprofit research organization, with bioscientists

Silvana Konermann Silvana Konermann (born May 18, 1988) is a Swiss-American bioengineer and neuroscientist whose research focuses on CRISPR, genome engineering, Transcription (biology), transcription and epigenetics, and Alzheimer's disease. She is an assistant pr ...

and

Patrick Hsu Patrick D. Hsu (born June 25, 1993) is an American bioengineer, entrepreneur, and investor specializing in CRISPR, machine learning, synthetic biology, and gene therapy. He is an assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Califor ...

Early life

Patrick Collison was born to microbiologist Lily and electronic engineer Denis Collison on 9 September 1988, and he and his brothers were brought up in the small village of

Dromineer Dromineer () is a small village and townland in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is on the shores of Lough Derg, 8 km north-west of Nenagh (10 km by road) on the R495 road. It is also a civil parish in the historical barony of Ormo ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

. The eldest of three boys, he took his first computer course when he was eight years old, at the

University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...

, and began learning computer programming at the age of ten. Collison was educated in Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan,

Nenagh Nenagh ( ; , or simply 'the Fair') is the county town of County Tipperary in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Nenagh used to be a market town, and the site of the East Munster Ormond Fair. Nenagh was the county town of the former county of Nort ...

, before attending

Castletroy College Castletroy College is a co-educational community school in Newtown, Castletroy, County Limerick, Ireland. It was founded in 2000. As of 2024, it had over 1,200 students enrolled. Sport Basketball is played at the school and the girls team have ...

Castletroy Castletroy (, meaning O'Troy's Landing or O'Troy's Callow) is a suburb of Limerick, Ireland. The town was named after Castle Troy also known as the Black Castle, which is located on the southern bank of the River Shannon, roughly 2 km eas ...

, County Limerick.

Career

Young Scientist

Collison entered the 40th

with his project on

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(nicknamed 'Isaac' after

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

, whom Patrick admired), finishing as individual runner-up. He re-entered the following year, and won first place at the age of sixteen on 14 January 2005. His project involved the creation of Croma, a

LISP Lisp (historically LISP, an abbreviation of "list processing") is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized Polish notation#Explanation, prefix notation. Originally specified in the late 1950s, ...

-type programming language. His prize of a €7,500 cheque and a trophy of

Waterford Crystal Waterford Crystal is an Irish manufacturer of crystal glassware, especially cut glass products. It is named after the city of Waterford in Ireland. In January 2009, the main Waterford Crystal manufacturing base on the edge of Waterford was cl ...

was presented to him by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author, and former politician who served as the president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, ...

. His younger brother Tommy participated with his project on

blogging A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2010.

Auctomatic

He attended

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, but eventually dropped out in 2009 after starting businesses. In 2007, he set up software company 'Shuppa' (a play on the Irish word , meaning 'shop') in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

with his brother

John Collison John Collison (born 6 August 1990) is an Irish entrepreneur and the co-founder and president of Stripe, which he co-founded in 2010 with his brother Patrick. Collison was the youngest self-made billionaire in 2016. As of 2022, according to ''Blo ...

Enterprise Ireland Enterprise Ireland is an Irish state economic development agency focused on helping Irish-owned business deliver new export sales. The aim of Enterprise Ireland is to help Irish enterprises to "start, grow, innovate and win export sales in glo ...

did not allocate funding to the company, prompting a move to California after

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...

showed interest, where they merged with two

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

graduates, Harjeet and Kulveer Taggar, and the company became Auctomatic. On

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

of March 2008, Collison, aged nineteen, and his brother, aged seventeen, sold Auctomatic to Canadian company Live Current Media, becoming millionaires. In May 2008, he became director of engineering at the company's new

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

base. Collison attributes the success of his company to his win in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

Stripe

In 2010, Collison co-founded

, which in 2011 received investment of $2 million including from PayPal co-founders

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

and

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According ...

, and venture capital firms

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

Andreessen Horowitz AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of M ...

, and

SV Angel SV Angel Management LLC (SVA) is an American venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm focuses on investments related to the AI, software and IT sectors. Background Until mid-2009, Ron Conway made most of his investme ...

. 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. By 2017, the brothers were notionally worth at least $3.2 billion each. In 2018, Stripe, under the direction of the Collison brothers, contributed $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organisation. In September 2019, it was announced that Stripe had raised an additional $250 million at a valuation of $35 billion. Together, the brothers hold a

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the maj ...

in Stripe.

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. On 18 July 2009, at the age of 20 and following the publication of the

McCarthy Report The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes was an advisory committee established by the Irish government in 2008 to recommend cuts in public spending. It was chaired by economist Colm McCarthy. It published two volumes ...

, Collison outlined his ideas for the future of Ireland on popular talk-show ''

Saturday Night with Miriam ''Saturday Night with Miriam'' was an Irish talk show first broadcast on RTÉ One in the summer of 2005. The show runs for six weeks as a summer filler, and is overseen by Miriam O'Callaghan, a co-presenter of ''Prime Time''. Format ''Saturda ...

''. 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 o
his website
In November 2018, Collison published a piece in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' with

Michael Nielsen Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is an Australian-American quantum physicist, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in San Francisco. Work In 1998, Nielsen received his PhD in physics from the University of New ...

entitle
Science is Getting Less Bang for its Buck
arguing that increased investment in science has not produced commensurate output. In 2019, Collison published an opinion piece in the same outlet with

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. Collison joined the board of

Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads ...

in April 2025.

''Forbes'' article

A profile of the brothers published in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' in 2021 claimed the brothers had "escaped" from Limerick, describing it as a "warzone" because of a gang feud and it was "the 'murder capital' of Europe". It claimed "shootings, pipe bomb attacks, and stabbings" happened there every night. It also claimed that "Some bad neighbourhoods are even walled off by a dirty graffitied 10-foot-high barrier, like the Berlin Wall". The article received a lot of publicity online, causing a backlash. Collison tweeted "Not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of 'overcoming' anything is crazy. We are who we are because we grew up where we did". John tweeted it was "daft".

Patrick O'Donovan Patrick O'Donovan (born 21 March 1977) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport since January 2025. He previously served as Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovati ...

called on the magazine and author to apologise to the people of Limerick "for the insult and hurt caused" by it. He also tweeted "I am calling on them to come to Limerick where I will gladly set the record straight in respect of what our county and city has to offer as opposed to what your work of fiction depicts," and "Please let me know when suits to visit."

Niall Collins Niall Collins (born 30 March 1973) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has served as a Minister for State since July 2020. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick County constituency since 2016, and from 2011 to 2016 for the Lime ...

tweeted that the article was a "disgraceful description of Limerick, home to so many fine and decent people". The article was removed from the website on 9 April 2021.

Personal life

In April 2022, Collison married Swiss-American biochemist and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

professor

, with whom he co-founded the

. Collison met Konermann during the 2004 EU Young Scientist competition. Collison lives in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collison, Patrick 1988 births Living people Irish billionaires Irish computer programmers 21st-century Irish scientists People educated at Castletroy College Businesspeople from County Limerick Y Combinator people Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 21st-century Irish businesspeople YIMBY activists