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JOHN COLLISON, ONE of two Irish brothers behind multibillion-dollar payments company Stripe, says he is still “scratching the surface” of the problem he set out to solve.
Speaking at the Web Summit in Dublin today, Collison, 25, said he took issue with the suggestion he and his brother Patrick, 27, had “made it” since their company hit a $5 billion valuation on its latest fundraising effort.
“It’s one of these things that as you start scratching away at the problem you just keep realising it’s bigger and there’s more to it,” he said.
The Silicon Valley-based company, which essentially makes it easier for companies to take payments online, was launched in 2011.
It now employs over 300 staff, operates in 22 countries and counts Twitter and Kickstarter as its customers, while investors include Visa and tech luminary Elon Musk.
Teen Millionaires
The brothers first became millionaires while still in their teens when their previous company, Auctomatic, which made software for heavy eBay users, was sold for a reported $5 million in 2008.
Collison said to start a company you needed to have a “really strong familiarity with the problem at hand” and it helped that he had first-hand experience of the frustration of trying to process payments from overseas.
Stripe recently launched services in Brazil and Portugal, and the company will now be turning its attention to Latin America and Southeast Asia.
However, despite the rollout into new territories, Collison said it was important not to underestimate how difficult it would be to grow internationally.
Serving the 95% of the world’s population who lived outside the US was never as easy as catering to the first 5% in Stripe’s home market, he said.
If you are going to go international as a company you have to take it extremely seriously, make it part of your DNA and most of all acknowledge it’s going to be a long process.”
Collison said the companies he most admired were those without peers, like French long-distance carpooling outfit BlaBlaCar, rather than startups that focussed on improving an existing service.
“I think the biggest thing is probably to not be afraid to start a business that feels like it has no precedent,” he said.
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I’ve great admiration for these young lads… Proper tech innovators.
Future looks bright for this country with this calibre of young people coming through
@Tony
…And leaving the country, I don’t begrudge them that but like a lot of our best brains, they’re going abroad, their success doesn’t mean the future is bright for Ireland though. Fairplay to them though, not attacking their choice at all.
Can anyone of the11 people who gave the thumps. Down to the comment please explain what you have to do in this country to garnish any worthwhile praise ?
@Tony
Why doesn’t it? Two Irish brothers found a company that now has a $5b dollar valuation. If there are more young Irish people of this caliber (which there are) then of course the future is bright for Ireland, regardless of whether they go to Silicon Valley or stay in Ireland. Shows the tech world that we have the young talent here.
@Alan
Well Alan, this is just my opinion, but STRIPE’S success is an American success story, not an Irish one, American money, american based, Patrick in MIT and John in Harvard, we can hardly claim that the Irish had a meaningful hand in their success. Do people think of South Africa when they think of Elon Musk? No they don’t, do they attribute his success to his nation or to his personal brilliance? The latter, Ireland had very little to do with making Stripe a successful company IMO, it was their personal brilliance and American Support, Money and Education System. That’s as an outsider looking at their story, it could be very wrong though but it’s hard to claim their success says ANYTHING about Ireland apart from some smart people are sometimes born here IMHO.
I watched an interview yesterday from one of the bosses at slack. They want to expand it’s HQ in Dublin but they cannot find the office space large enough in the city. How many more companies are in this situation?
…easy: move out of Dublin.
In other news………..so is the Web Summit………….
Super smart family. Hopefully they will bring some innovation back into Ireland. Meanwhile look at the calibre of muppets who go into politics in this country.
Why can’t these people not talk without all the hand gestures ????
I was thinking the same.
Passion and enthusiasm are difficult to convey with your hands in your pockets.
I’ve definitely seen about skit about this somewhere.
It’s actually possible to show enthusiasm with your hands in your pockets, trust me. You just have to jump around a lot….works like a charm.
I would much rather see that tbh. More of a Monty Python level of enthusiasm.
Most people use hand gestures as they talk……you probably do as well but don’t realise. People use hand gestures while on the phone even though the person their talking to can’t see them.
It’s quite normal.
‘The bag of cash? It was this big’
Thanks for the lesson, Al. I’ve been to these events and I understand body language. I was making a joke about the exact stance that many guys at these tech talks and product launches use; arms out wide, sitting down and legs crossed. It’s an exact replica to the T of Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff.
All trained by the same media companies …. Every single reporter on TV and sport pundit are at it now …
talking to a large crowd can be daunting and intimidating using your hands allows you to pace yourself and control the speech more while also cummincating through body language.
That is a great saying, did you pen that?
I’m referring to Niamh Smith with “Passion and enthusiasm are difficult to convey with your hands in your pockets.”
Sorry Bevin, I was replying to Ken. All you said was…”I was thinking the same” which doesn’t come across as “I was making a joke about the exact stance that many guys at these tech talks and product launches use; arms out wide, sitting down and legs crossed”
Money is supposed to be a means to an end, not the end. I feel sad for people whose sole purpose in life is to make money.
Aww. You OK hunzo? x
Such a sad existence isn’t it. Turning an innovative idea into an actual successful business. And they’re so young as well….what a bloody waste.
Agree with the sentiment but if they were as preoccupied with wealth as you claim surely they would have sold Stripe long before now? Several people in Silicon Valley got rich early and retired. Clearly they’re not taking that route and want to build something which makes a positive contribution to online payments. Patrick and John are well known, but it’s the other Collison brother, Tommy who will make the most impact in the long run :)
Sometimes these companies get so big you need the expertise of other huge companies to move it to the next level but these companies want acquire these companies and keep the previous owners as consultants. It’s done all the time.
So John……if they get up off their own arse and start a business and it happens to be successful and make money, they’re doing it wrong?
Any chance of an interest free loan
Someone might want to point-out to John Collison that the carpooling sites in Germany have been in existance for years (e.g. Mitfahrgelegenheit.de OR Mitfahrzentrale.de… not to mention “bessermitfahren” or “flinc”). To suggest BlaBlaCar is without peers is utterly false.
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