Patrick Collison (born 9 September 1988) is an Irish entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Stripe, which he co-founded 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 fund COVID-19-related science with economist Tyler Cowen. In 2021, Collison co-founded Arc Institute, a nonprofit research organization, with bioscientists Silvana Konermann and Patrick Hsu.
Early life
Patrick Collison was born in Limerick on 9 September 1988 to microbiologist Lily and electronic engineer Denis Collison. He and his brothers were brought up in the small village of Dromineer in County Tipperary. 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.
Collison was educated in Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Nenagh, before attending Castletroy College in Castletroy, County Limerick. He re-entered the following year, and won first place at the age of sixteen on 14 January 2005.
His prize of a €7,500 cheque and a trophy of Waterford Crystal was presented to him by President Mary McAleese.
Auctomatic
He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but eventually dropped out in 2009 after starting businesses. In May 2008, he became director of engineering at the company's new Vancouver base. 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 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, Collison outlined his ideas for the future of Ireland on popular talk-show Saturday Night with Miriam.
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.
Collison joined the board of Meta Platforms in April 2025.
Forbes article
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". It claimed "shootings, pipe bomb attacks, and stabbings" happened there every night.
Collison lives in San Francisco, California.
In November 2024, Collison was criticized for visiting Israel and posting an image with the Israeli flag, amid the Gaza war.