Patrick Collison Quotes

Powerful Patrick Collison for Daily Growth

About Patrick Collison

Patrick Collision, born on October 31, 1988, in Dublin, Ireland, is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, software developer, and co-founder of Stripe, one of the world's leading financial technology companies. He was raised in a family that encouraged curiosity and intellectual pursuits. His father, Lochlann, is a journalist, and his mother, Kathleen, a writer and academic. Collison displayed exceptional academic abilities early on, graduating from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics at age 19. He then pursued a master's degree in computer science from MIT, where he met his brother and Stripe co-founder, John Collison. While studying at MIT, Patrick and John started Auctomatic, an automated blog comment spamming tool, which they later sold for a substantial sum. This success fueled their ambition to create something more impactful. In 2010, they founded Stripe, an online payment processing platform designed to make it easier for developers and businesses to accept payments over the internet. Patrick Collison's influence extends beyond Stripe. He is known for his insightful quotes that resonate with entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts worldwide. Here are a few: 1. "If you want to create something of value, it's not enough just to know how to code." 2. "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." 3. "Startups are a good way to learn a lot about a lot of things." 4. "The internet has made it easier than ever before to start something new and reach a global audience." Patrick Collison's life story is a testament to the power of innovation, perseverance, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. His impact on the tech industry and his inspiring words continue to guide and motivate countless aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Success is often a combination of hard work and luck."

This quote suggests that success is not exclusively due to individual effort, but also relies on elements beyond one's control, such as luck or opportunity. It implies that hard work plays a significant role in achieving success, but it is equally important to be aware of and seize opportunities that may present themselves unexpectedly. The quote encourages perseverance in the face of challenges while reminding us not to overlook the role of chance in our lives.


"The best entrepreneurs are the ones who can take the most risk, because they have the most confidence in themselves."

This quote suggests that successful entrepreneurs are those who are willing to take significant risks, as their high self-confidence enables them to do so. Confidence, in this context, refers to a deep belief in one's abilities and judgment, which empowers individuals to venture into uncertain territories with the faith that they can overcome challenges and achieve success despite the inherent risks involved. Therefore, the quote emphasizes that self-assured entrepreneurs are more likely to take on high-risk opportunities due to their conviction in their capabilities.


"It's important to remember that even the smartest people in the world were once beginners at what they do now."

This quote emphasizes the universality of learning and growth. It serves as a reminder that no matter how accomplished or intelligent an individual may seem, they all started as beginners at some point in their journey. It encourages humility, perseverance, and the understanding that mastery requires time, effort, and patience. In other words, every expert was once an eager learner, and everyone's success story begins with the first step towards knowledge acquisition.


"Entrepreneurship is not about having ideas all the time; it's about making the ideas you have executable."

This quote emphasizes that entrepreneurship is more than just generating ideas; it's about bringing those ideas to fruition. It suggests that while creative thinking is essential, the real key to success lies in taking action to turn ideas into tangible, executable solutions or businesses. In other words, entrepreneurship is less about ideation and more about implementation, execution, and making things happen.


"The best business ideas are often the ones that seem crazy at first."

This quote emphasizes the importance of embracing unconventional and seemingly outlandish ideas in the realm of business. Innovative thoughts, which initially appear absurd or impractical, can ultimately lead to groundbreaking and profitable ventures. By challenging established norms and taking risks, entrepreneurs can foster an environment conducive to disruptive change and growth. It encourages us to think outside the box and consider ideas that might be overlooked due to their initial seeming absurdity or impracticality.


One of the first major programming projects that I worked on when I was growing up in Ireland, back just coding by myself, was a programming language. Then I spent a bunch of time working on a new web framer. Just back-end things to make it easier to go in and build things on top of, do other development.

- Patrick Collison

Back, Other, Projects, Programming Language

We presumably believe that most of the technological progress over the arc of humanity to date has been good. I don't see any argument to go back to 1600.

- Patrick Collison

Date, Over, Been, Presumably

Presumably, what you want to do is work on something meaningful and significant with people you really admire.

- Patrick Collison

Work, Admire, Want, Presumably

Silicon Valley does not breed great technology. Instead, the smartest people from around the world tend to move to Silicon Valley.

- Patrick Collison

Silicon Valley, Move, Breed

One phrase we use at Stripe is, 'Most tech companies are building cars. Stripe is building roads.'

- Patrick Collison

Most, Tech, Companies, Tech Companies

It's a common case with high-growth startups where the co-founding team breaks up - generally, it's hard to get the team to persist. It's easy to stick with it when you have known the person for decades either as a friend or family.

- Patrick Collison

Team, Easy, Breaks, Startups

When Facebook famously moved out to Palo Alto, there were people in the same house Facebook was based in working on different ideas. It is vital to remember that.

- Patrick Collison

Facebook, Based, Moved, Alto

It's very possible that advertising business models will simply never do as well on mobile devices as those oriented around transactions.

- Patrick Collison

Business, Very, Models, Transactions

Square is turning informal, cash transactions, like you would do with a taco truck, into card swipes. Stripe is more for the Internet, it's focused on the kinds of transactions that weren't possible years ago. We think about how you would buy things from a mobile phone, crowd-funding, how should that work.

- Patrick Collison

Truck, Buy, About, Transactions

If you're building a consumer app, you're necessarily coupled to the intrinsic time cycle of human fashion in that it's a fashion-driven space, and we see that in the cycle of these various apps. I think for infrastructure that that just naturally tends to play out over a longer time horizon.

- Patrick Collison

Play, Cycle, I Think, Consumer

In 2007, there weren't any other accelerators, at least that I was aware of. We were almost the prototypical Y Combinator founders: We were highly technical but had never done a startup before. We also didn't know anyone in the Valley - investors, other entrepreneurs, potential hires. YC seemed like a great way to bootstrap that network.

- Patrick Collison

Other, Technical, Great Way, Startup

'Entrepreneur' is a long, fancy French word, but it didn't seem like something you aspire to. It seemed normal, because whatever your parents do seems normal.

- Patrick Collison

Fancy, Normal, Like, Entrepreneur

Stripe makes it easy for anyone, be it an individual or a small business or a large business, to accept credit card payments on the Internet. We want to give control to the user or the business to define what the experience looks like. We work on a website or a mobile app, or whatever between that.

- Patrick Collison

Small, Small Business, Card

One of the important lessons of the Internet is, how easy it is to get things done completely shapes what gets created. For that reason, technologies like Amazon's cloud service are very important. Even if they aren't technically impressive, they make things easy to do.

- Patrick Collison

Cloud, Reason, Very, Lessons

At most large companies, what is locally optimal for you is very frequently not what is globally optimal for the company.

- Patrick Collison

Most, Very, Companies, Locally

I myself am not religious, but yes, I certainly grew up in a very Catholic environment.

- Patrick Collison

Religious, Very, Certainly, Catholic

If you want to hire the best people, the best people are already doing pretty impressive things. They have their life plans, their picture for what they want to be doing. To figure out a way in which those trajectories align really takes time.

- Patrick Collison

Best, Doing, Hire, Align

There is a higher degree of operational excellence and rigor demanded of Stripe than of most companies.

- Patrick Collison

Excellence, Most, Companies, Operational

I started Stripe with my brother John Collison while we were in school together. We first started off building iPhone apps together and using the money we made from them to pay our tuition.

- Patrick Collison

Pay, Made, Using, iPhone

It's inevitable that tough situations will come up, but it's how you react that is the challenge.

- Patrick Collison

Will, How, Inevitable, Situations

I grew up in very rural Ireland. The Internet was kind of a connection to the greater world. It had a lot of significance.

- Patrick Collison

Kind, Rural, Very, Ireland

It was very clear, if you grew up in the middle of Ireland, just how potent a force the Internet was and could be. I was always seduced by the potency of computers and the possibilities for which they could be leveraged.

- Patrick Collison

Always, Very, Which, Ireland

The promise of the Internet is around this transcendence of physical geography. To a large degree, the Internet has delivered on that promise, but when it comes to the movement of money and the ability to start and operate a business or needing to purchase from a business, it really hasn't.

- Patrick Collison

Business, Degree, Large, Purchase

Being a public company certainly doesn't stop you from taking a really long-term time horizon, but it does make it more difficult.

- Patrick Collison

More, Difficult, Certainly, Long-Term

In general, I have a lot of issues with the mythology of the founder.

- Patrick Collison

Founder, General, Lot, Mythology

I think that Stripe generally is comprised of the kind of people who believe in technology or are kind of optimistic about its effect and want to have whatever future it's leading to happen.

- Patrick Collison

Think, Happen, I Think, Stripe

The part of Stripe that I've always found most interesting is the idea of facilitating new commerce that wouldn't otherwise happen. Payouts is turning out to be a big part of that. These new networks are efficient, intelligent replacements for offline behemoths.

- Patrick Collison

Big, Idea, Big Part, Stripe

Our goal definitely isn't to sell Stripe.

- Patrick Collison

Goal, Sell, Definitely, Stripe

What interests us in Stripe is the idea that there could much more commerce happening on the Internet.

- Patrick Collison

More, Idea, Could, Stripe

There is really an issue in Silicon Valley with companies getting a bit ahead of themselves in terms of their own self-perception of their own success.

- Patrick Collison

Own, Ahead, Issue, Silicon

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