# Stephen Phillips

> Stephen Phillips is the Brisbane-based founder and chairman of Splash, previously its CEO. A software developer who grew up on a cattle property in northern Australia, he helped build We Are Hunted, the music discovery service acquired by Twitter. After working on Twitter Music in San Francisco, he pursued AI music through Popgun and Splash, whose Roblox experience lets players make music and perform for peers. He became chairman when Tracy Chan took over as CEO in March 2024.

- **Role:** Founder and Chairman at Splash
- **Organizations:** Splash, Popgun, We Are Hunted, Hunted Media, Wotnews, Twitter, Wonder.fm, Mawson, Techstars Music, Replica, SUPERRES
- **Nationality:** Australian
- **Known for:** Helped build We Are Hunted and its acquisition by Twitter., Developed music discovery projects including Wotnews-derived We Are Hunted and Wonder.fm., Co-founded Popgun with Adam Hibble and participated in the first Techstars Music class in 2017.

## Career timeline

- **1982 (approximately)** — Began programming around age ten on a VIC-20 repaired by his father.
- **1991–1992** — Entered paid programming work; subsequently developed software and agency websites.
- **2008** — Met Nick Crocker in Brisbane while developing Wotnews.
- **2009** — We Are Hunted launched in April, with Phillips among its founding team.
- **2012–2013** — Twitter acquired We Are Hunted; the deal became public in April 2013. Phillips worked at Twitter in San Francisco.
- **2014** — Left Twitter and started music discovery service Wonder.fm.
- **2016** — Founded AI lab Mawson; formed Popgun with Adam Hibble in December, according to his retrospective account.
- **2017** — Popgun joined the inaugural Techstars Music class; Splash dates its AI work to 2017.
- **2020** — Splash’s Roblox music game launched in May.
- **2021** — Splash raised a US$20 million Series A, reported in Australia as approximately A$27 million.
- **2024** — Became chairman when Tracy Chan took over as CEO in March; retained involvement in product strategy.

## Achievements

- Helped build We Are Hunted and its acquisition by Twitter.
- Developed music discovery projects including Wotnews-derived We Are Hunted and Wonder.fm.
- Co-founded Popgun with Adam Hibble and participated in the first Techstars Music class in 2017.
- Founded Splash and led it through its 2021 US$20 million Series A.
- Splash reported 400 million all-time Roblox visits in its March 2024 CEO announcement.

## Latest updates

- **2024-07** — Former Splash colleague Lex Toumbourou publicly thanked Phillips for the opportunity to work at the company and praised his product intuition.
- **2024-03** — Splash appointed Tracy Chan CEO; Phillips became chairman, with continued involvement in product strategy.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-phillips-5ab7866/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mawsonguy

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/stephen-phillips
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-11