Patrick Collison

Patrick Collison is an Irish entrepreneur, programmer, and philanthropist who co-founded Stripe's financial technology company with his brother John. He currently serves as the company's CEO.

Born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1988, Patrick Collison was a precocious child who began coding at the age of 10. He was accepted to MIT at age 16, where he studied theoretical physics. While a student at MIT, he and his brother John founded their first company, Shuppa, a web development agency. After graduating from MIT in 2009, he and John decided to focus on the payments industry and founded Stripe in 2010.

At Stripe, Patrick is responsible for setting the company's vision, developing strategy, and overseeing the day-to-day operations. Stripe has emerged as one of the world's largest and most successful financial technology companies and is now valued at over $35 billion.

Patrick is also an active philanthropist. He is a board member at the charity DonorsChoose.org, which helps public school teachers fund projects in their classrooms. He is also a trustee of the Thiel Foundation, which provides grants to young entrepreneurs. He has also donated to the SENS Research Foundation, which is dedicated to finding treatments for age-related diseases.

In addition to his business and philanthropy, Patrick is an avid reader and a prolific writer. He has published articles on topics ranging from the future of the internet to the power of technology to improve our lives. He also writes regularly on Medium and his personal website.

Patrick Collison is an inspiring figure in the tech industry, and his work has made a lasting impact on innovation and entrepreneurship.

In addition to his work as an entrepreneur and philanthropist, Patrick is also an avid public speaker. He has spoken at a variety of events and conferences, including the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the 2019 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, and the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. He has also appeared on the podcast The Tim Ferriss Show and the TV show The Big Bang Theory.

Patrick is also a passionate advocate for open-source software. He is a strong proponent of the open-source movement, which encourages the sharing and improvement of code among developers. He has provided financial support to a number of open-source projects, including the JavaScript programming language.

Patrick is also a vocal champion of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. He is an investor in several cryptocurrency projects, including Ethereum and Zcash, and he is a frequent speaker on the topic. He has also written a number of articles on the potential of blockchain technology and its applications in the financial sector.