G’wan the Irish!
According to Forbes, John Collison is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
The Irishman is 26-years-old, and along with his brother Patrick, founded a San Francisco-based software platform called Stripe.
Patrick (who is two years older) and John based their company on online payments.
The publication reports that the brothers are two of the four billionaires in the world that are still in their 20s.
John was only 17-years-old when he founded his first company, Shuppa (an online auction management company), which he sold for more than €5 million in 2008.
He went on to study in Harvard University, and in 2011, created Stripe with his brother while he was still a student.
However, speaking recently to Wired, he said that there are still opportunities out there for budding entrepreneurs.
“It’s easy for people to think the best opportunities are taken. I absolutely don’t think that is true at all.
“My advice to my younger self would be not to be too OK with the ways the world is broken, and instead see them as opportunities.
“For instance, I don’t think anyone’s particularly happy with their mobile-phone provider. If a better provider were to come around, I don’t think anyone would be particularly surprised.”
Could the next Irish self-made billionaire be in our midst?
