27-year-old John Collison still feels uncomfortable when he is reminded that he is the youngest billionaire in the world (of those who self-made his fortune).
«People have been asking: how has your life changed? And I feel that people want to hear an interesting answer, it seems that now my hobby is collecting Faberge eggs or racing yachts, but it’s not,» says Collison BBC News.
Instead, self-made millionaire claims that he likes to run in his spare time, because it is «a practical and inexpensive hobby».
A native of Ireland, John Collison, with 29-year-old brother Patrick founded a technology company Stripe.
The company provides technical and banking infrastructure systems for online payments, she’s now up to 100 thousand customers, and according to Forbes for the year 2016, the state of Collision is estimated at $ 1.1 billion.
Pretty good for guys who grew up in the countryside in Ireland and who universities. John and Patrick were born in a small village of the County of Tipperary, ‘ the West of Ireland and as a teenager I became interested in programming. When it came time to enter University, both opted for American Universities.
In 2007, an older brother, Patrick, was admitted to the Massachusetts technological Institute, and two years later John was accepted into Harvard.
Millionaires, by the way, the brothers have become in those years. Their first business was a software company that allowed small businesses and individual traders easier to do business on eBay.
And already during his studies, both Collison left universities to start in Silicon valley your new business – the same Stripe.
«We just came up with it, come up with as many different useful things. Remember I said to Patrick: «I Think it will be very difficult? Maybe we should try?».
The attempt was more than successful. Now in the company of Stripe, whose main office is located in San Francisco, and 750 employees, the company has branches in Dublin, London, Paris and Berlin.
John says that he is more concerned about «external issues» — deals with partners, while Patrick focuses on programming. The brothers live together in «bachelor life» in San Francisco.
