Phillip Kingston, 2009 Anthill 30under30 winner

What is 30under30?

30under30 is an Anthill initiative that was launched in early 2008 to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among young Australians. Each year, we invite our readers to nominate young Australian entrepreneurs deserving of recognition for their outstanding entrepreneurial endeavours. Anthill’s editorial team then trawls through hundreds of applications and identifies and profiles the top 30 Australian entrepreneurs under the age of 30. The process culminates in an event held in Melbourne where the 30 winners network and celebrate. We’ve been releasing profiles of this year’s Anthill 30under30 winners via our Twitter account – youngest to oldest. After a brief hiatus for Venture Capital Month, these profiles continue.

Name: Phillip Kingston
Age: 24 (b. 1985)
State: VIC
Industry: Software and website development
Company: Kingston Development

Being the first and only child, Phillip Kingston is statistically pre-disposed to be entrepreneurial. But his biggest motivation is to prove his sceptics/doubters wrong.

Kingston started three companies that all made money while he was still a university student. His most successful venture, Kingston Development, is a software and web development company providing low-cost solutions to small businesses around Australia. He employs nine people and has maintained over 20 percent month-to-month revenue growth against the global economic headwind.

As the company’s founder and managing director, Kingston’s role is to keep the marketing fresh and the sales pitch tasty.

“I’m very motivated by people that can’t see, or don’t believe in, my vision,” says Kingston. “I am also motivated to be successful, and a core part of success in today’s world is wealth. But on reflection, I really enjoy people, working with people, communicating, etc. I wish to create a large company full of great people because the energy is really amazing.”

In addition to Kingston Development and his university study load, Kingston manages to squeeze out another 15 hours a week on his two other startups. One is in online mathematics education. The other is in careers advice for year 11 and 12 students.

Kingston considers himself a serial entrepreneur because his passion for starting up new and exciting companies isn’t waning over time. One of Kingston’s earlier startups, Flogd, was featured in the BRW Top 100 Web Startups. He was also a finalist in the Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards.

Having recently graduated from Bachelor of Science and Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne, Kingston is not short of time or ambition to grow his companies even bigger. “I will be employing over 20 people by the end of the year and will have over 150 clients.”

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LESSONS ACCORDING TO PHILLIP

Kingston was involved in a number of failed high-risk, no-revenue model web 2.0 startups.

“We made a number of mistakes – the biggest was changing products – mid-development – to what we ‘thought’ the market wanted.

“We learnt to not worry about the detail and get a product out there fast that solves most of the problem. Waiting to have the perfect product that provides 100 percent of the solution is a costly mistake. Get to 70-80 percent and launch it, then take on feedback.”

MULTIMEDIA

Amir Nissen (founder of Student Entrepreneurs | Agents of Change), interviewed Phillip Kingston while he was the CEO of Flogd.

Tian Yang is the founding member and vice president of Student Entrepreneurs | Agents of Change, an organisation dedicated to creating and cultivating entrepreneurship communities in Australian universities. He is also the sponsorship and partnership manager of the second annual Entrepreneurs Week 2009. Tian is currently completing his Bachelor of Commerce/Media & Communication degree at the University of Melbourne.