Who We Are
Philo was founded to create the television experience we’ve always wanted — one that our subscribers love as much as the shows we watch. In order to do that, we believe that we need to build a team united by passion, innovation, and the desire to be a part of a company that puts people before profits.
Our Name
Our name was inspired by the lifelong inventor and television pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth. Our headquarters are even located across the street from his original San Francisco laboratory on Green Street where he successfully transmitted the first electronic TV signal.
Philo Farnsworth grew up from humble beginnings on a farm in rural Utah. With little formal education, he happened one day upon a trove of popular electronics magazines, which sparked his interest in invention and led him to conceive of the idea for electronic television at the age of 15. Story goes that while harrowing the hayfields on his family farm, he realized that just like plowing the rows of a field, you could detect and transmit an image line-by-line, electronically.
His inventiveness never slowed. By the time of his death in 1971, he had earned more than 300 U.S. and foreign patents for electronic and mechanical devices, including devoting the later part of his life to the quest of generating practical fusion power. Philo lived an inspiring life and his spirit of curiosity and innovation continues to inspire our company as we continue to push forward the boundaries of the medium he pioneered.
Our Philo-sophy
At Philo, our values are inspired by Farnsworth’s wide-eyed optimism about the future and his indomitable drive to improve the world by bringing his ideas to life — it’s the reason we continuously strive to create a better way to watch TV. Like Philo Farnsworth, we don’t shy away from building things from the ground up if we think there is a better way, and we work hard to surmount obstacles to discover more elegant solutions. Just like it took hundreds of prototypes and product generations to create television, we are constantly iterating and looking for ways to improve on what we’ve built. The work we do relies on our collective passion, thoughtfulness, and diverse experiences. Our dedication to openness and collaboration helps us benefit from ideas and perspectives that come from unexpected places, and lets us see the broad horizon of possibility ahead of us.
Lastly, we’re all just a bunch of TV fanatics building an exceptional experience for other TV fanatics of all stripes. We look forward to sharing this new space with all of you to talk about the next steps in our journey as a company, share big news about our product, offer insights into how we work, and so much more.
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