Early Life
John Collison was born on August 6, 1990, in Dromineer, County Tipperary, Ireland. He grew up in a supportive entrepreneurial family. His father, Denis Collison, is a successful businessman and founder of the software company Arralis. John's brother, Patrick Collison, is also an entrepreneur and co-founded Stripe with him.
Rise to Success
In 2007, John Collison co-founded "Shuppa" with his brother Patrick. The company later merged with Auctomatic, a software company that built tools for the eBay platform. Auctomatic was acquired for $5 million in March 2008 when Collison was 17. In 2010, John Collison co-founded Stripe, which received backing from Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Sequoia Capital. In November 2016, the Collison brothers became the world's youngest self-made billionaires, worth at least $1.1 billion, after an investment in Stripe valued the company at $9.2 billion. Collison was the youngest self-made billionaire in 2016.
Key Business Strategies
Stripe's key business strategy involves providing payment processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications. Stripe's growth has been fueled by strategic investments and partnerships, and by expanding its services to include subscription billing, fraud prevention, and financial management tools. Stripe is also known for its strong company culture and its focus on innovation.
Philanthropy
In 2018, Stripe, under the direction of the Collison brothers, contributed $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organization. John Collison bought the Abbeyleix Estate and Millbrook House in County Laois, Ireland, and plans to restore them. In 2022, Stripe started a new subsidiary called Frontier that would direct spending on carbon removal.