Phil Santoro, known for founding his first company at a mere 13 years old, is doubling down on his commitment to nurture the next wave of business disruptors. Having built and invested in over 20 companies through his startup studio, Wilbur Labs, Santoro is not just a serial entrepreneur but also a fervent advocate for innovative education. His contributions to his former stomping grounds, Madeira High School and the Lindner College of Business, area testament to his dedication towards empowering youthful ambition.
While still a student, Santoro kick-started his journey by creating FreeForums.org, a platform transforming the unwieldy process of forum hosting into a breeze for users of all stripes. The venture, born from the frustration of managing an Age of Empires online forum, skyrocketed to over 125 million monthly pageviews, teaching Santoro an invaluable lesson, simplify the tech, and they will come. Now, helping others to build their dreams, Santoro has established funding initiatives in both his alma mater, hoping to instill the same entrepreneurial spirit that has driven his own endeavors.
At Madeira, Santoro's impact is filtered through the prism of Jennifer Jordan's entrepreneurship class, where, as she recalls, he was always willing to "try new things and to take risks." According to a University of Cincinnati report, Santoro harnesses this ethos to encourage students to conceive and pitch their own nonprofits to seasoned entrepreneurs, laying the groundwork for real-world business forays.
His time at the Lindner College of Business served to refine the raw business acumen he naturally harbored, as the need to balance academics and his burgeoning enterprise led to vital lessons in finance and the school of hard knocks. Amid the rigor of academia, Santoro still managed to guide Free Forums to a successful exit, proving his capacity to juggle the life of a student with the reality of being an entrepreneur. Charles Matthews, founder of the Center for Entrepreneurship at UC, praised Santoro for his "3D vision" of drive, determination, and dedication, capturing the essence of his protégé's path to success.
Post-graduation, Santoro eyed the grand stage of Google, where, after an initial application snub, his relentless pursuit paid off, nabbing him a gig as a growth strategist handling multi-million dollar ad campaigns. This stint was prelude to Wilbur Labs, where, alongside fellow Google alumnus David Kolodny, Santoro applied his big-league learnings to a systematic approach in incubating startups fixated on solving tangible problems. The company's culture of embracing impactful work is seen not just as a professional creed but a societal contribution.
Reflecting on the tumultuous world of startups, Santoro observed, based on Wilbur Labs' research, that the overwhelming majority of founders, despite facing potential failure, would not hesitate to launch another venture. As he told UC News, "if that many people are able to do it again, it’s actually not that bad to fail." This resilience is a core value he hopes to imprint on the emerging generation of innovators through scholarships and educational funds dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship from a young age. It's clear that for Santoro, entrepreneurship is not merely about building businesses, but about creating an enduring legacy that champions the act of creation itself.
