My superpower would be: Telekinesis My life hack: I have a life operating system that I built for myself. It helps me get through life and not keep everything in my head.
Vince McPhillip
Helping people find meaningful work and their professional tribes
PLAYING TO YOUR STRENGTHS. Vince McPhillip believes that life is a team sport; that humans are meant to support each other, and everyone brings valuable knowledge, expertise, and experiences to the table. It’s from this old adage that his company, Knomad, was created.
Knomad is a creator collective, bringing high-skilled freelancers who transcend borders together to achieve financial abundance. Knomad’s vision is to create a new category of work grounded in independence, collective security, and shared upside.
The power of community has been a dominant motif in Vince’s life. Born in Trinidad, he firmly believes the culture of unwavering support from his family, friends, neighbors, and teachers was pivotal in helping him move to America, go on to study at Yale and Stanford, and even feel confident in his sexuality. “At first, I really struggled to feel accepted, and that sense of alienation and separation from the folks that are around you is something that I hate. It's also not good for society, because it means people are missing out on the unique experiences and knowledge that that person could be contributing.”
Reflecting on his childhood in Trinidad, Vince’s competitive school environment (“We were force ranked from the age of six”) meant he was surrounded by talented people from a young age. However, not everyone went on to reach their potential due to missing out on vital support and connections. “Because of that, I've dedicated myself to being able to build communities, for myself and for others, and really build communities at scale.”
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY. To do this, Vince studied how companies like Google, Instagram and Facebook were reaching billions of people around the world. It was this, and a Stanford paper he read on ‘Expert Crowdsourcing’, that led him towards cryptocurrency and Web3 and their power to supercharge communities. “For better or for worse, we live in a society where often the people who do good things end up finishing last. In my mind, the power of crypto and Web3 is the ability to say, hey, you can actually give to a communal cause but then also get something in return.”
For Vince, Knomad represents the culmination of ten years of work in building what he describes as “collectives”. His previous venture, Pi Network, a digital currency app aiming to keep cryptocurrency mining accessible, is perhaps his largest, with more than 50 million downloads. It’s a project that represents both his greatest successes and failures. “I’m incredibly proud that we united a multimillion-person community behind a shared goal, but with Knomad, I’m ensuring we're able to deliver value to our customers and community members from day one.”
That value, for Vince, is bringing something into the world that he lacked as a child. “I'm a gay, black, immigrant who was navigating life in the United States. I think that part of what I'm doing with Knomad is trying to prove to myself and to the world that everybody deserves to feel a sense of belonging, support, and appreciation.”
