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Tech Founder
Patrick Collison
Limerick-born co-founder of Stripe.
Education
Patrick Collison grew up in Dromineer, County Tipperary, and showed a remarkable aptitude for technology and problem-solving from a young age. He taught himself to program as a child, long before it was a common pursuit in Irish schools. At just 16, he won the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, which brought him national attention and signalled that he was no ordinary student. He went on to study at MIT in the United States, though his boldest move came before he ever finished his degree.
Career
Patrick co-founded his first company, Auctomatic, as a teenager with his brother John, and they sold it for around $5 million before Patrick had turned 20. Rather than settling into a comfortable career, he dropped out of MIT to pursue a bigger idea — a simpler way for businesses to accept payments online. That idea became Stripe, co-founded in 2010, which grew into one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world. Today Patrick serves as Stripe's CEO and is recognised globally as one of the most influential figures in technology.
Key Lesson
Patrick's story shows that where you grow up — whether it's Tipperary or San Francisco — does not set the ceiling on what you can build. Curiosity, self-teaching, and the courage to act on your ideas early are skills any Irish teenager can develop right now, regardless of resources.
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