How I Built This with Guy Raz Stripe: Patrick and John Collison (2018)
Mar 9, 2020
Patrick and John Collison, the brilliant brothers behind Stripe, share their entrepreneurial journey from coding in their family’s hotel to revolutionizing payment processing. They discuss their early successes, including a startup that catered to eBay users, and the challenges they faced securing investor trust post-financial crisis. The duo also highlights how they transformed payments into a seamless part of online shopping, showcasing the blend of skill and luck in their relentless pursuit of innovation.
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Childhood in Ireland
- The Collison brothers grew up in rural Ireland, near their parents' small 12-bedroom hotel.
- They spent their childhood playing in the garden, with Legos, reading, and occasionally sliding on the hotel's ballroom floor.
Early Coding Days
- Patrick started coding at 13 after buying a programming book and creating web pages.
- John followed suit, motivated by building websites and video games, and learned a security lesson when Patrick hacked his first website.
Young Scientist Award
- At 16, Patrick won the Young Scientist Award of Ireland for creating a new version of the Lisp programming language.
- He focused on making it easier to build complex web applications, showcasing his early interest in creating tools for others.