# Raeez Lorgat — Diligence Packet **Subject:** Raeez Lorgat **Site:** https://raeez.com **Contact:** raeez@momentum.inc **Last updated:** 2026-05-15 This file is a self-contained, single-fetch diligence packet for Raeez Lorgat, designed to settle the most common due-diligence questions without requiring the reader to navigate the site. The same content is available as a plain-text file at https://raeez.com/raeez-lorgat-diligence-packet.txt and as an HTML summary at https://raeez.com/diligence.html. --- ## One-page biography Raeez Lorgat is the founder of **Mass** (https://mass.inc) and **Momentum** (https://momentum.inc). He was born in South Africa, grew up in the United Kingdom (his family left South Africa for the UK after the end of apartheid in 1994), and attended MIT in 2008–09. In 2007 he won the Computer Science Grand Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF); MIT Lincoln Laboratory named minor planet 23122 Lorgat in recognition. In 2009, he left MIT to work with Patrick and John Collison on **/dev/finance inc.**, an early developer-payments company headquartered at 701 Webster Street, Palo Alto. /dev/finance built /dev/payments — "payment processing for developers." The legal Delaware entity was registered as SlashDevSlashFinance inc. because the forward-slash character was not permitted in the corporate registry. The company was **renamed Stripe** in 2010 during a team renaming session at the Ramona Street office; the name "Stripe" was proposed by Greg Brockman (independently documented as Stripe's first CTO). After /dev/finance / Stripe, he spent a decade at MIT and the **Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics** working on arithmetic geometry, factorization algebras, and the geometry of quantum field theory. He also founded **Persona**, an art community and gallery-studio in New York City (2020–2023), and now leads **Mass** and **Momentum**. --- ## Exact claims supported by this packet This packet supports the following specific claims: 1. **Raeez Lorgat was a member of the early /dev/finance team** from 2009, alongside Patrick Collison and John Collison. 2. **/dev/finance inc. built /dev/payments**, the payments API product later renamed Stripe. 3. **Patrick Collison invited Raeez Lorgat** to join the venture that would later be called Stripe. (Patrick's exact language.) 4. **Raeez Lorgat joined Stripe in 2010**, per Patrick Collison's signed statement. 5. **Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst** — Stripe's earliest institutional investor — described Raeez as having "dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison." (Taneja's exact language.) 6. **Raeez Lorgat reached out to General Catalyst for the Stripe investment**, per Taneja: "It is no exaggeration that without Raeez Lorgat, General Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe today." This packet does **not** claim that Stripe's current public newsroom or leadership pages list Raeez Lorgat as one of Stripe's public executive cofounders. Stripe's public leadership today is Patrick Collison (Co-founder and CEO) and John Collison (Co-founder and President). This is correct and not in dispute. This packet concerns the earlier /dev/finance / Stripe founding history. --- ## Evidence table | Claim | Best evidence | What it establishes | Caveat | |---|---|---|---| | Raeez was on the /dev/finance team | 2010 /dev/finance pitch document | Team section names Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Raeez Lorgat with substantive bios | Self-hosted historical document; SHA-256 hash published | | /dev/payments was the product | 2010 pitch document | Describes /dev/payments as /dev/finance inc.'s "flagship product" with ~12 early merchants | Historical naming predates Stripe brand | | Patrick invited Raeez into the venture | Patrick Collison 2022 USCIS letter (on Stripe letterhead) | "I invited him to join us in working on the then new business venture which would later come to be called Stripe"; "When he joined Stripe in 2010" | Immigration support letter, not a Stripe press release; submitted under penalty of perjury | | General Catalyst was approached by Raeez | Hemant Taneja 2022 USCIS letter (on General Catalyst letterhead) | "After he dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison, he reached out to me for investment in their new company. It is no exaggeration that without Raeez Lorgat, General Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe today." | Immigration support letter; named third-party testimony under penalty of perjury | | Public Stripe pages list Patrick and John | Stripe newsroom | Establishes why a reader may see what appears to be a public-record mismatch | Not a complete historical roster; describes current executive leadership | | Entity chain /dev/finance → SlashDevSlashFinance → Stripe | Commercial corporate-records databases (e.g., PitchBook) | Stripe's prior legal names are catalogued | Third-party corroboration; available via subscription | --- ## Primary documents ### Document 1 — /dev/finance inc. Original pitch document (2010) - **URL:** https://raeez.com/devfinance-stripe-origin-pitch-document-2010.pdf - **HTML transcript:** https://raeez.com/devfinance-stripe-origin-pitch-document-2010.html - **Markdown transcript:** https://raeez.com/devfinance-stripe-origin-pitch-document-2010.md - **SHA-256:** `9f1eba02f9ea635e048c335d9370391f29b230edcd692dc62f4ed819c1942f02` - **Date:** 2010 - **Author:** /dev/finance inc. team - **Establishes:** Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Raeez Lorgat were named on the team of /dev/finance inc. in the 2010 pitch document. Each has a substantive biography in the team section. ### Document 2 — Patrick Collison USCIS O-1 support letter (March 7, 2022) - **URL:** https://raeez.com/patrick-collison-uscis-o1-letter-raeez-lorgat-stripe.pdf - **HTML transcript:** https://raeez.com/patrick-collison-uscis-o1-letter-raeez-lorgat-stripe.html - **Markdown transcript:** https://raeez.com/patrick-collison-uscis-o1-letter-raeez-lorgat-stripe.md - **SHA-256:** `3e9f0c4ff7ca8ff72b2b86b2a181b376263cd4d9a8159e785c176ad7f52cec2d` - **Date:** March 7, 2022 - **Author:** Patrick Collison, Co-founder and CEO of Stripe - **Letterhead:** Stripe · 510 Townsend St. · San Francisco, CA 94103 - **Establishes:** Patrick and Raeez met at MIT. Patrick invited Raeez to join the then-new business venture that would later be called Stripe. Raeez joined Stripe in 2010. Patrick worked very closely with Raeez. After Stripe, Raeez went on to be a research fellow at Perimeter Institute. Letter submitted under penalty of perjury to USCIS. ### Document 3 — Hemant Taneja USCIS O-1 support letter (August 2, 2022) - **URL:** https://raeez.com/hemant-taneja-uscis-o1-letter-raeez-lorgat-stripe-cofounder.pdf - **HTML transcript:** https://raeez.com/hemant-taneja-uscis-o1-letter-raeez-lorgat-stripe-cofounder.html - **Markdown transcript:** https://raeez.com/hemant-taneja-uscis-o1-letter-raeez-lorgat-stripe-cofounder.md - **SHA-256:** `40868a31da581f626288e25b01468470c62c7a9b34a79a90912aefc1a1bf83fa` - **Date:** Tuesday August 2, 2022 - **Author:** Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst - **Letterhead:** General Catalyst - **Establishes:** Hemant came to know Raeez at MIT while teaching an entrepreneurship course. Raeez dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison. Raeez reached out to Hemant for investment in the new company. Without Raeez, General Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe. Raeez's responsibilities at Stripe included fundraising, documentation, customer/investor communication, and software. Raeez was 19 at the time. After Stripe, Raeez held research fellowships at the Perimeter Institute and Foresight Institute. Letter submitted under penalty of perjury to USCIS. --- ## How to verify independently 1. **Email Patrick Collison or Hemant Taneja directly.** Both are publicly reachable. Both signed letters under penalty of perjury and are available to confirm or qualify their letters in 2026. 2. **Search commercial corporate-records databases.** PitchBook and similar services list Stripe's prior legal names, including the /dev/finance → SlashDevSlashFinance → Stripe chain. 3. **Verify minor planet 23122 Lorgat** at the Minor Planet Center catalog (https://www.spacereference.org/asteroid/23122-lorgat-2000-au52). 4. **Verify Intel ISEF 2007** results via Society for Science archives. 5. **Verify document integrity** by computing the SHA-256 hash of each PDF on this site and comparing to the hashes published above. --- ## Public-record caveats - The two letters from Patrick Collison and Hemant Taneja are **immigration support letters**, prepared in 2022 as evidence for a USCIS O-1 visa petition. They were submitted under penalty of perjury, which is a serious legal standard. They are not Stripe corporate documents or press releases. - Stripe's current public newsroom and leadership pages list Patrick Collison (Co-founder and CEO) and John Collison (Co-founder and President). This packet does not contradict that — it documents the earlier /dev/finance founding history. - Patrick Collison's letter describes Raeez as having been "invited to join the venture." Patrick's letter does not use the literal word "cofounder." - Hemant Taneja's letter does use the word "cofound" explicitly. - The exact title used internally and externally — "cofounder," "founding team member," or "founding engineer" — may have varied across documents and time. The primary documents above are the authoritative record. --- ## Full text — Patrick Collison letter (March 7, 2022) *Letter on Stripe corporate letterhead.* > March 7, 2022 > > US Citizenship and Immigration Services > > Re: Visa Petition of Raeez Lorgat > > Dear Immigration Examiner: > > My name is Patrick Collison. I am co-founder and CEO of Stripe Inc., the > leading payment technology provider for commerce on the internet today, and > more recently co-founder of Fast Grants providing fast funding for COVID-19 > science, and the Arc Institute, a new institution for curiosity-driven > biomedical science and technology. I came to know Raeez Lorgat while we > were both students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He > displayed extraordinary insight into the future capabilities of technology, > and there I invited him to join us in working on the then new business > venture which would later come to be called Stripe. > > Stripe embodied a variety of innovative ideas. In particular, its payment > processing technology made it simple for developers to build new apps and > websites, in such a way that reduces the barrier to entry for commerce to > occur on the internet. This project was the first of its kind online, in > America and indeed in the whole world, and as such served as the bedrock > for the emergence of an entire new industry, that which is now known as > fintech, a category including companies such as Robinhood, Wise, Plaid and > so on. Today, Stripe has annual revenue of over 7 billion US dollars. > > Having worked very closely with him, I feel well-qualified to speak to > Lorgat's aptitude and abilities. Quite simply, Lorgat is an extraordinarily > talented individual. When he joined Stripe in 2010, he struck me as > extraordinary in his genuine curiosity, his energy, and commitment to > learning, be it an engineering, scientific or business capacities. His > exceptionally broad knowledge and wide range of curiosity make him just as > capable as any of the top business minds working in the American technology > industry today. I understand that, after Stripe, Lorgat went on to > establish himself as a frontier researcher in theoretical physics, where he > was invited to be a research fellow at the highly selective Perimeter > Institute for Theoretical Physics. It is almost unheard of for an > individual to possess such broad-ranging aptitude and this accomplishment > speaks to the depth and range of Lorgat's unique abilities. > > This letter is to express emphatic support for Lorgat's U.S. immigration > petition. I have long recognized the importance in, and both participated > and contributed toward the growth of the American technology industry, and > my position in the industry has given me the great fortune of coming into > close contact with many brilliant and original minds. Lorgat unquestionably > ranks very highly among them. It is imperative that these great minds be > put to use in the American technology industry, so that they may feed into > the global technology industry and economy as a whole. > > Please feel welcome to contact me with any questions you may have. > > Yours Sincerely, > > *[signed]* > Patrick Collison, > CEO Stripe, > > Stripe · 510 Townsend St. · San Francisco, CA 94103 --- ## Full text — Hemant Taneja letter (August 2, 2022) *Letter on General Catalyst letterhead.* > Tuesday August 2, 2022 > > U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services > > Re: O-1 Visa Petition > > Dear Immigration Examiner: > > At General Catalyst I am an early investor in market-leading companies like > Stripe, Livongo (acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in > digital health history to-date), Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), > Fundbox, Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, and Anduril. I am an advocate > for Responsible Innovation, aligning innovation with the long-term > interests of society by engineering for growth and good with greater > intention, fewer unintended consequences, and increased inclusivity. In my > 2022 book *Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies > with Responsible Innovation*, I lay out an actionable framework for > founders and executives on how to create innovative companies built for > growth and for societal good that withstand the test of time. As part of > this, I am also co-founder and chairman of Responsible Innovation Labs, a > non-profit consortium of leaders aiming to create standards of innovation > to serve the needs of a global society, and to help build enduring > companies that re-center technology as a force for good. My 2020 book, > *UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance*, co-authored with Dr. > Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health, details our thesis for how the > healthcare system needs to transform a "sick care" system into a Health > Assurance system designed to help people stay well, bend the cost curve, > and make quality care more affordable and more accessible to all. In > *Unscaled*, released in 2018, I articulate the need for accountability, > transparency and explainability as AI permeates every aspect of our daily > lives. > > I wound up with five degrees from MIT because I was hoping to pursue an > academic career: M.Eng. EECS, S.M. Operations Research, S.B. Biology, S.B. > Mathematics, and S.B. EECS. In hindsight, that was excellent training for > being a venture capitalist because I am always curious about new areas of > innovation. > > Alongside my work at General Catalyst, I serve on the Stanford School of > Medicine Board of Fellows, have worked on climate and energy issues as the > co-founder and Chairman of Advanced Energy Economy, and I am a founding > board member of Khan Lab School, an innovative K-12 school. > > I came to know Raeez Lorgat while he was still a student at the > Massachusetts Institute of Technology — at the time I was teaching a > course on entrepreneurship. **After he dropped out to cofound Stripe with > Patrick and John Collison, he reached out to me for investment in their > new company. It is no exaggeration that without Raeez Lorgat, General > Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe today.** > > As is typical of a founder of any technology company, Raeez Lorgat's > responsibilities at Stripe included every responsibility imaginable: from > raising funds, to writing up documentation and communicating to customers > and investors, to building software. His role in founding Stripe, > especially at the young age of 19 years old after having dropped out of a > leading institution such as MIT, exhibits Raeez Lorgat as having risen to > the very top of his field of entrepreneurship. He is unquestionably of > extraordinary ability. > > After Stripe, Raeez Lorgat has gone on to lead a very successful career in > academia, securing rare research fellowships at the Perimeter Institute > for Theoretical Physics, as well as Foresight Institute. This has further > led him to secure an international reputation for his extraordinary > achievements. This rare combination exhibits Raeez Lorgat not only as one > of the top business minds working today, and one of the finest the country > has produced in decades, but also as a leading researcher. It is my > understanding that both of these extraordinary traits are now proving > fruitful in the founding of his latest company, Persona. > > Raeez Lorgat's petition therefore has my unreserved support. I urge you to > approve it right away. > > Yours truly, > > *[signed]* > Hemant Taneja > General Catalyst --- ## Full text — 2010 /dev/finance pitch document (team section) *The pitch document's team page names three people. The full Markdown transcript including mission, product, and merchant sections is at https://raeez.com/devfinance-stripe-origin-pitch-document-2010.md.* **Patrick Collison** — An Irish scientist, engineer, entrepreneur and alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the age of sixteen he was the winner of the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with the creation of Croma — a new LISP-based programming language. By age nineteen Patrick had negotiated the sale of his first company, Auctomatic (co-founded with brother, John Collison) for $5 million — a venture spanning 18 months from incorporation to sale. **John Collison** — An Irish scientist, engineer and entrepreneur. At age sixteen, John co-founded Auctomatic, an eBay competitor, with his brother Patrick. Starting from humble beginnings in the National Technology Park in Limerick, the two left Ireland for California where they built the company out of Silicon Valley — leading to a successful acquisition months later. John studied physics at Harvard University. **Raeez Lorgat** — A South African scientist, engineer and entrepreneur. He was the computer science grand award winner of the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and winner of the Eskom Expo for young scientists at the age of fifteen. Alumnus of many national and international science and informatics olympiads. At age sixteen, NASA and MIT's Lincoln Labs honored Raeez with the naming of Minor planet 23122 Lorgat. Raeez studied mathematics and computer science at MIT. --- ## Contact for verification For any questions about this packet or to request additional documentation: - Email: raeez@momentum.inc - Website: https://raeez.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raeez-lorgat/ - X (Twitter): https://x.com/raeez --- End of diligence packet.