# Patrick Collison

> Patrick Collison is the Irish-born CEO and co-founder of Stripe, the payments infrastructure company valued at over $90 billion. At 21, he and his brother John built Stripe from a prototype hacked together on holiday into one of the most influential fintech companies in the world. Beyond Stripe, Patrick co-founded the Arc Institute for biomedical research, launched Fast Grants that distributed over $200 million for COVID research, and championed Progress Studies with Tyler Cowen. A former teenage programming prodigy who won Ireland's Young Scientist Exhibition at 16, he dropped out of MIT to pursue entrepreneurship and became one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires at 28.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-founder at Stripe
- **Organizations:** Stripe, Arc Institute, Fast Grants, Progress Studies, Stripe Press, CA YIMBY, Stripe Climate
- **From:** Dromineer, County Tipperary, Ireland
- **Nationality:** Irish
- **Education:** Dropped out, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Secondary education, Castletroy College, Primary education, Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh
- **Known for:** Winner of Ireland's Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (2005), Created Croma, a LISP-type programming language at age 16, Built and sold first company (Auctomatic) for $5M at age 19

## Career timeline

- **1996** — Took first computer course at University of Limerick at age 8
- **1998** — Started learning computer programming at age 10
- **2005** — Won 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with Croma programming language at age 16
- **2007** — Co-founded Auctomatic at age 18
- **2008** — Sold Auctomatic to Live Current Media for $5 million
- **2009** — Dropped out of MIT
- **2010** — Co-founded Stripe with brother John Collison
- **2011** — Stripe received $2 million investment from Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and top VCs
- **2016** — Became world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 28
- **2019** — Co-founded Progress Studies initiative with Tyler Cowen
- **2020** — Co-founded Fast Grants to accelerate COVID-19 research
- **2021** — Co-founded Arc Institute for biomedical research
- **2025** — Stripe valued at $91.5 billion through employee share sale
- **2026** — Spoke at Stripe Young Scientist Exhibition, participated in AI conference with Sam Altman

## Achievements

- Winner of Ireland's Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (2005)
- Created Croma, a LISP-type programming language at age 16
- Built and sold first company (Auctomatic) for $5M at age 19
- Co-founded Stripe, now valued at $91.5 billion
- Became world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 28 (2016)
- Co-founded Arc Institute with $650M in funding for disease research
- Co-founded Fast Grants, distributing $200M+ for COVID research in record time
- Co-founded Progress Studies academic discipline with Tyler Cowen
- Built Stripe into a company processing hundreds of billions annually
- Named to Bloomberg Billionaires Index with estimated net worth of $9-10 billion

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Participated in conversation with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about AI and entrepreneurship, noting a 'parabolic rise' in new firm creation
- **2026-01** — Spoke at Stripe Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in Dublin, emphasizing business adaptability in volatile times
- **2025-02** — Stripe valued at $91.5 billion through employee share sale program

## Links

- Website: https://patrickcollison.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/patrickc
- GitHub: https://github.com/pc
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickcollison/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/patrick-collison
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-03