Turning an 'impossible' idea into the world's youngest billionaire

Dropping out of college together to start a software company, the two Irish brothers opened their first company at the age of 19 and became the world's youngest self-made billionaires with lines of code that are the "backbone" in the payment operations of websites and e-commerce applications.

Brothers Patrick and John Collison - Photo: The Irish Times.

Americans spend about $1.2 billion online every day, nearly doubling in the past five years, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. And that number is expected to double again in the next five years as online businesses continue to encroach on and “destroy” traditional retail. One of the things that makes e-commerce so powerful is online payment tools.

Starting from an idea that was considered "crazy"

Realizing that, in 2011, two Irish brothers, Patrick and John Collison, founded Stripe Inc. and began developing software that allows websites and applications to instantly connect with credit cards and banking systems to receive payments.

The idea was initially considered “crazy” and impossible by many. However, Stripe successfully tested the beta version in less than 2 months. Stripe’s product caused a stir in the Silicon Valley startup community at that time, becoming the “backbone” solution for payment operations of a series of companies such as Lyft, Facebook, DoorDash…

Although Stripe won’t disclose it, analysts estimate the company handles about $50 billion worth of transactions a year, or $1.5 billion in revenue. According to Bloomberg, half of all Americans who shopped online through Stripe in the past year did so without even knowing it.

Stripe is now valued at $9.2 billion, making its founders Patrick, 28, and John, 26, the world's youngest self-made billionaires. According to Forbes, the Collison brothers are now worth $1.1 billion each after Stripe raised $150 million from Alphabet's CapitalG investment fund.

Stripe now works with more than 100,000 businesses, holds critical financial information like credit card numbers, handles fraud, and supports new services launched by those companies like Apple Pay. In six years, Stripe has expanded to 25 countries with 750 employees.

Tech geniuses drop out of school together

The Collison brothers were born and raised in Dromineer, a rural area in central Ireland where their father ran a hotel. The Collisons have a long tradition of science, with their father, Denis, an electronics engineer, and their mother, Lily, a research scientist, before becoming an entrepreneur.

The Collison brothers attended a school with fewer than 20 students per class. Whenever they were bored during class, they would sneak in books to read.

"I think there's a good thing about growing up in a boring place because it forces you to find your own interests," John said.

As teenagers, the brothers got their first computer and began to diligently learn programming every day. Both had impressive academic achievements, with John achieving the highest high school exam score in the country and winning many science awards.

Patrick stayed home to study on his own in his final year and graduated at 16. That was also the year he won the Young Scientist of the Year award for developing an artificial intelligence system and programming language.

After graduating from high school, the brothers moved to the United States where Patrick was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John was accepted into Harvard.

In their spare time, the brothers developed iPhone apps. One of their first products was an $8 version of Wikipedia that allowed users to look up information offline.

While in college, the brothers founded their first software company, Shuppa, when John was 19 and Patrick was 21. The company later merged with the startup Auctomatic, which built software for eBay sellers. In 2008, Auctomatic was sold for $5 million, making the Collisons millionaires.

The brothers dropped out of college and in late 2009 came up with the idea for Stripe. They set up an office in Palo Alto and biked to work every day. Stripe officially launched in 2011, with Patrick as CEO and John as president. The Collisons spent two years testing their service and building relationships with banks, credit card companies, and regulators.

With Stripe, all a company had to do was add seven lines of code to its website to accept payments. What used to take two weeks was now a matter of copy-pasting. And that’s when word of the breakthrough code spread throughout Silicon Valley.

Sharing his success, Patrick Collison said: “The initial success was just a small encouragement on the journey to achieve the goals we set for ourselves.”

According to Kim Tuyen/vneconomy