Carl Phil is the 26 year old founder Studentbox and Drinkyz. The ambitious young entrepreneur and Kings college graduate founded Studentbox in 2006 whilst still in university. Studentbox has grown into one of the most popular social network platforms in Universities around the UK.
He also founded Drinkyz, a promotional bottling company for major events, which he successfully exited from in 2010, selling his shares in the company two years after he founded it. This let him concentrate on his role as MD of Studentbox and also start Lost in London, a London experience company.
The serial entrepreneur has been involved in entrepreneurship since he was 16. Back then he used a fake id to hire out a venue. As a youngster in Paris, where he moved at the age of 12 from the US, he would organize parties for the young elite in Paris. He even had a staff of 20 people. Even before that, in his early teens, he would buy baseball cards and comic that he could sell of at a profit.
After moving to the UK to go to college at Kings, he started the entrepreneurs society there and was selected to attend an International Enterprise boot camp. This gave him the boost to go make his dream come true, which at the time was to create an online community of over 2 million users. Studentbox was created and his dream was realised.
"Anyone can be an entrepreneur and that it's more about the idea than the person. However, having drive, intelligence and a willingness to work hard is an advantage,," says Carl. So don't feel you have to have been starting business' since a teen to be a successful entrepreneur. To be honest I believe it's the mental attributes that will help you reach your own dreams.
Carl was also a contestant on the BBC show 'The last millionaire' which drops 12 of Britain's most successful young entrepreneurs into six of the world's most exciting and demanding cities. Here they are given the challenge to make money from scratch in just five days. Carl managed to win in Thailand, selling two businesses in less than 5 days.
He didn't have a problem with doing business in another country, the multi lingual entrepreneur was brought up in different countries and moved around lots. He was exposed to many cultures stemming from his parents, his Greek-Swedish father and a French-Romanian mother.
At such a young age Carl has crammed in a lot into his life and remember he still only has the same 24 hours a day that you and me have! He has a bright future and the Observer even selected Studentbox as one of the Future 500 companies in the UK,
