Phil Libin was born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1972 and moved to America at the age of eight. He attended The Bronx High School of Science and later Boston University, concentrating in Computer Science. He left university before graduating to launch a software company, Engine 5, which was acquired by Vignette Corporation in 2000 for $26 million. Following the acquisition, Libin served as principal architect and chief technologist for applications at Vignette.