Teenage millionaire scores eight A1s

A teenage entrepreneur who sold his software company for over €3 million last year has made headlines again after scoring one…

A teenage entrepreneur who sold his software company for over €3 million last year has made headlines again after scoring one of the highest Leaving Cert results in the country.

John Collison from Monaleen in Limerick was one of eleven Leaving Cert students in the country who
received eight A1s in the State exams.

The 18-year-old - who got a total of ten As - was still in transition year when he founded the software company Auctomatic with his older brother Patrick.

The company, which manages eBay accounts for high-level users, received backing from a number of private investors in Silicon Valley after the teenagers were refused funding in Ireland.

Last year, Canadian firm Live Current Media offered the Limerick brothers $5 million for their company.

A student at Castletroy College in Limerick, John is now planning to study science at Harvard University in Boston.

"We are delighted at the school with all our leaving cert results but obviously we are particularly thrilled for John. Results like this come along rarely, " said school principal Martin Wallace.

"John is a very level headed student who has a wide range of interests and in particular enjoys debating. Very often when you imagine the type of person who gets results like this you think of somebody with their head stuck in a book all the time but John is a very sociable guy," he continued.

In addition to eight A1s, John received two A2 grades, having sat a total of ten subjects in  June.

He also managed to fit in the Science Olympiad and is a student pilot, with over 40 hours of flying time.