Patrick Collison

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Patrick Collison : biography

9 September 1988 –

Patrick Collison (born September 9, 1988), is an Irish scientist and entrepreneur from County Limerick. He was the winner of the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005 at the age of sixteen. He was also the individual runner-up at the 40th Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

Early life

Patrick Collison was born to Lily and Denis Collison in 1988. The eldest of three children (two younger brothers, John and Tommy), Collison 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.

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

Young Scientist

He entered the 40th Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with his project on artificial intelligence (nicknamed ‘Isaac’ after the famed English physicist whom Patrick admired), finishing as individual runner-up. He re-entered the following year, and won first place at the age of sixteen on January 14, 2005. His project involved the creation of Croma a LISP type programming language. His prize of a €3,000 cheque and a trophy of Waterford Crystal was presented to him by President Mary McAleese. His younger brother Tommy participated with his project on blogging in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2010.

Auctomatic

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

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. In May 2008 he became director of engineering in the company’s new Vancouver base. Collison attributes the success of his company to his win in the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

Recent events

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 July 18, 2009, at the age of 20 and following the publication of Bord Snip Nua, Collison outlined his ideas for the future of Ireland on popular talk-show Saturday Night with Miriam.

In 2010, Patrick cofounded Stripe, which received backing from Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Sequoia Capital.