YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS, A golfer, a businessman and a boyband member all with one thing in common – being Irish – have made the Forbes 30 under 30 list of people to watch.

Limerick entrepreneurs Patrick and John Collison, Terry Cavanagh, founder of of gaming company Distractionware, Niall Horan of boyband One Direction and golfer Rory McIlroy all made the list.

Business

Having raised $50 million from the likes of Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal alums, Patrick and John Collison built Stripe, an online payments company that processes billions of dollars a year for thousands of companies in 11 countries, writes Forbes.

Both men, originally from Limerick feature on the technology list. Patrick Collison is the CEO of the company, while John is the president. Patrick studied math at MIT and previously sold online auction and management system Auctomatic to Canada’s Live Current Media for $5 million, Forbes reports.

While Niall Horan is just one of the five members of One Direction – who also made it on the list – he still has cause to celebrate as Forbes describes them as “the world’s biggest boy band” with earnings last year of $42 million (€30,875,544).

Tech

Director of Distractionware Ltd, 29-year-old, Terry Cavanagh also made the top 30. Known as a talented games designer, Cavanagh is praised by Forbes for being a finalist for the Best Design award at the Independent Games Festival, audience choice winner at Fantastic Arcade and a finalist for Game of the Year on Apple’s App Store.

Ireland’s best known golfer was also featured, with the 24-year-old, two-time major champion being described by Forbes as “the face of the sport”.

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