"Build a better pipeline, conduct emails instead of meetings and communicate thoroughly but concisely."
Award-winning founder, startup veteran, early stage advisor and entrepreneur at heart. Phil Castro has won awards like “35 Under 35”, “Startup of the Year”, “Young Leaders in Tech” and more. He has also been in over 30+ publications like Inc, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Crains, WGN, BuzzFeed, Medium, etc.
Phil is the founder of Kamp (formerly known as Startup Bootkamp) which throws the best startup events for early stage founders. His events have helped over 5,000 founders in 20+ cities (along with 400+ testimonials) at premier incubators and co-working spaces across the country.
Their series “Day Kamp” is known around the nation for being the go-to event experience for early stage founders who are looking for vital startup knowledge in a fun party like atmosphere. Now, Kamp also offers scaleups and corporations the ability to book a full day private educational experience for their staff.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Phil Castro: I am a long time founder myself and founded Kamp in 2018. We throw the best startup events around the country. We like to combine top notch education from amazing speakers and a fun party like atmosphere.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Phil Castro: Celebrate remote work lifestyle, which not just includes me but hiring others to help scale your business. There are a bunch of online tools that makes this much easier these days like Asana, Slack, Zoom, etc.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Phil Castro: Build a better pipeline, conduct emails instead of meetings and communicate thoroughly but concisely.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Phil Castro: Event planning and organizing was 100% IRL until the pandemic, so we went virtual with all of our events. Now that the pandemic is over we are back to IRL events.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Phil Castro: Beef up your virtual events because this pandemic is going away in 2 months like you initially assumed.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Phil Castro: Ecom goes through the roof and bitcoin drops.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Phil Castro: Ten.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Phil Castro: Scaling IRL events; coming up with a plug and play format with promo, organizing and executing. But once you crack this coconut it becomes a very large business.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Phil Castro: I learn about many “things” on a daily basis, but right now heads down building Kamp..so not much downtime for a new skill set per se.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Phil Castro: 80% Remote work flexibility and 20% culture… that’s it.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Phil Castro: Accounting, I would do all my own books instead of outsourcing.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Phil Castro: Freedom. Success used to mean money when I was younger, now it just means time AND financial freedom combined to do what I want.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Phil Castro for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Phil Castro or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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