Square Co-Founder and RIT Alumnus to Speak at RIT
Tristan O’Tierney shares his experiences from RIT life to creating a successful start-up
RIT alumnus and co-founder of Square, Tristan O’Tierney ’08, will speak at RIT Oct. 1.
It’s not every day that Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, asks you to start a business with him. But for RIT alumnus Tristan O’Tierney, that’s exactly what happened. In 2008, O’Tierney graduated with a degree in computer science and by 2010 he was one of the co-founders of Square, an electronic payment service that allows people to accept credit cards through their mobile phones.
O’Tierney will share his story and the valuable lessons he learned on the journey from RIT student to massive start-up success from noon to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 1 in Student Innovation Hall, formerly known as the Center for Student Innovation.
Square accepts credit cards from a mobile device using a small, square-shaped mini card reader that attaches through the headphone jack. Customers can swipe their card, choose a payment amount and then sign their name for confirmation. In August 2012, Starbucks announced it would begin processing all credit and debit card transactions using Square.
Before Square, O’Tierney worked on Yahoo! Messenger for Mac, Safari for Mac OS X, VMware Fusion, the official Obama ’08 iPhone App and Twinkle, one of the first Twitter client apps on the Mac App Store. He’s also known for his online Objective-C tutorial and enjoys hacking on projects like FlickrBooth.
Square accepts credit cards from a mobile device using a small, square-shaped mini card reader that attaches through the headphone jack.
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