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.

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.

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

Our goal definitely isn't to sell Stripe.

We know that recognition and intrinsic motivation are important to our success, but the key is finding ways to effectively operationalize them.

Chip maker Nvidia is the new old thing, an overnight success story years in the making that is having its moment and then some.

I don't feel like I've ever subscribed to the stereotypical notion of success. I've always equated success with having integrity, conducting yourself with compassion and honesty, and following your heart despite whether or not you ever make any money at it.

Well, the crazy thing for me is I think out of anything that's happened in the last year, all the success, people always ask what do you guys do with the money? I don't think they realize we're not really making any money.