Phil’s first experience with business came at the age of 7. Phil came to the decision that he wanted to start a lemonade stand in his condominium complex. Realizing that he did not have the proper authority to set up shop on land he did not own, he mailed a handwritten business proposal to his building’s condo association requesting permission to operate on their property. The condo association sent back an official letter, accepting the proposal.

At 10 years old, Phil discovered the television show, “The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross”. He watched each rerun and came to the same question at the end of each episode – what was Ross doing with all the paintings? Phil came up with an idea to write an offer to purchase two of Ross’ paintings that he could then later sell. He wrote an offer letter to Bob Ross, Inc. requesting to purchase two of any available paintings for $20. Phil received a response from the company stating that the paintings were not for sale.

The late 90s and early 2000s brought the world the Internet revolution. Computers became affordable, resulting in widespread adoption. At 14 years old, Phil began exploring various websites and became intrigued with the concept of generating web traffic. He noticed that certain websites and videos were getting a lot of hits, while others struggled to catch the attention of users. He started running experiments on blogs, forums, social media and video platforms to see if he could direct traffic. He researched keywords, created relevant content, and utilized site engagement tools to better understand how to control the flow of traffic towards pages he controlled.

Upon turning 21, Phil found that his site traffic research in high school had a useable application. He discovered that certain keywords trigger Facebook groups to rank higher than their competitors. He came up with a plan to create multiple Facebook groups that targeted incoming college freshman within the Washington Metropolitan Region. By the end of his experiment, Phil had amassed an online network of nearly 15,000 people.

With a sizeable community under his control, Phil negotiated deals with two music venues in Downtown Washington. He planned to host nightlife events while utilizing his network as a lead funnel. His first event drew in over $4,000 in net profit.

During the initial shutdowns caused by the pandemic in 2020, Phil noticed a disruption within the manufacturing industry. Many companies had relied on Chinese based manufacturers for their products. The shutdown of Chinese factories resulted in mass shortages of goods. After studying the market, Phil decided to take on another experiment to see if he could provide import alternatives. Phil’s solution was to create a network of South American manufacturers who could utilize Free Trade Agreement exports to the U.S.

Although the start-up failed, he was able to draw several successes: he established manufacturing partnerships with 5 factories and workshops within Peru, he inaugurated a distribution hub within Bahrain, he secured the cast of a major ABC hit television series as a client, and he was twice considered as a Retail and E-Commerce category candidate for the Forbes 30 under 30 list.