Template:Short description Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Patrick Collison (born 9 September 1988) is an Irish 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. In 2020, he founded Fast Grants to accelerate COVID-19-related science with economist Tyler Cowen. In 2021, he co-founded Arc Institute, a nonprofit research organization, with bioscientists Silvana Konermann and Patrick Hsu.
Early lifeEdit
Patrick Collison was born to microbiologist Lily and electronic engineer Denis Collison on 9 September 1988,<ref name=telegraph-20210223>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=loizou2017>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and he and his brothers were brought up in the small village of Dromineer in County Tipperary.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web">Template:Cite news</ref>
Collison was educated in Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh, before attending Castletroy College in Castletroy, County Limerick.<ref name="Maths project wins Young Scientist"/>
CareerEdit
Young ScientistEdit
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.<ref name="Maths project wins Young Scientist">Template:Cite news</ref> He re-entered the following year, and won first place at the age of sixteen on 14 January 2005.<ref name="Saturday Night with Miriam"/><ref name="Young Scientist of the Year is chosen in Dublin"/> His project involved the creation of Croma, a LISP-type programming language.<ref name="Young Scientist of the Year is chosen in Dublin">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
His prize of a €7,500 cheque and a trophy of Waterford Crystal was presented to him by President Mary McAleese.<ref name="Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web"/> His younger brother Tommy participated with his project on blogging in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2010.<ref name="Colin shows he's fit for success">Template:Cite news</ref>
AuctomaticEdit
He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but eventually dropped out in 2009 after starting businesses.<ref name="Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web"/><ref name=telegraph-20210223/> In 2007, he set up software company 'Shuppa' (a play on the Irish word Template:Wikt-lang, meaning 'shop') in Limerick with his brother John Collison.<ref name="Limerick brothers sell company for millions"/> 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.<ref name="Limerick brothers sell company for millions"/>
On Good Friday of March 2008, Collison, aged nineteen, and his brother, aged seventeen, sold Auctomatic to Canadian company Live Current Media, becoming millionaires.<ref name="Limerick brothers sell company for millions">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Teenagers become web millionaires">Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2008, he became director of engineering at the company's new Vancouver base.<ref name="Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web"/><ref name="Limerick brothers sell company for millions"/> Collison attributes the success of his company to his win in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.<ref name="Million dollar boy who changed the face of the web"/>
StripeEdit
In 2010, Collison co-founded Stripe, which in 2011 received investment of $2 million including from PayPal co-founders Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="telegraph-20210223" />
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By 2017, the brothers were notionally worth at least $3.2 billion each.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2018, Stripe, under the direction of the Collison brothers, contributed $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organisation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In September 2019, it was announced that Stripe had raised an additional $250 million at a valuation of $35 billion.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Together, the brothers hold a controlling interest in Stripe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
OtherEdit
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.<ref name="Three to Watch">Template:Cite news</ref>
On 18 July 2009, at the age of 20 and following the publication of the McCarthy Report, Collison outlined his ideas for the future of Ireland on popular talk-show Saturday Night with Miriam.<ref name="Saturday Night with Miriam">Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:Anchor 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 has not 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Collison joined the board of Meta Platforms in April 2025.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Forbes articleEdit
A profile of the brothers published in Forbes 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".<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison>Template:Cite news</ref> It claimed "shootings, pipe bomb attacks, and stabbings" happened there every night.<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/> It also claimed that "Some bad neighbourhoods are even walled off by a dirty graffitied 10-foot-high barrier, like the Berlin Wall".<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/>
The article received a lot of publicity online, causing a backlash.<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/> 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".<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/> John tweeted it was "daft".<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/> Patrick O'Donovan called on the magazine and author to apologise to the people of Limerick "for the insult and hurt caused" by it.<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/> 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."<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/> Niall Collins tweeted that the article was a "disgraceful description of Limerick, home to so many fine and decent people".<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/>
The article was removed from the website on 9 April 2021.<ref name=tj-forbes-article-limerick-stripe-brother-john-patrick-collison/>
Personal lifeEdit
In April 2022, Collison married Swiss-American biochemist and Stanford University professor Silvana Konermann, with whom he co-founded the Arc Institute. Collison met Konermann during the 2004 EU Young Scientist competition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Collison lives in San Francisco, California.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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