Carl Pei (born September 11, 1989) is the co-founder and Head of Global for OnePlus. He is a member of Forbes' 30 under 30 Consumer Tech 2016.

Carl Pei was born in Beijing, China. He traveled a lot at an early age. By the time he was 6 years old, he had already lived in China, New York City, and Stockholm. He spent most of his childhood in Sweden.

When he was in the sixth grade, he worked at a game store.

It was for a one-week period, which is regular for kids in Sweden to gain work experience.

He recalls shrink-wrapping games, restocking shelves, and eating hot dogs.

At 15 years old, he started thinking about the concept of globalization. He believed it would be a game changer for his generation and would impact the stimulation of economies companies.

During his high school years, Pei admits to having a short attention span during his classes.

He was interested in subjects like science, language, and philosophy but often ended up daydreaming in class or skipping it to sleep in or play Defence of the Ancients (DotA).

Spending most of his spare time on the computer growing up worried his parents; they often nudged him to lead a “balanced and healthy” life.

After graduating high school, Pei attended the Stockholm School of Economics from 2008 to 2011. However, he did not complete his degree.

Before starting his own company (OnePlus), he worked under Pete Lau at Oppo Electronics as a Global Marketing Executive. He worked there from November 2012 to December 2013.

In August 2013, Pei had a conversation with his friends around a coffee table when someone pointed out that they were all using iPhones. This was particularly surprising to him, since some of them were working at other smartphone manufacturers at the time. After agreeing that Apple puts the most effort into making the best product, the group could not reach a consensus for what the second-best product was.

Pei's group of friends believed that no Android product stood out the way Apple's did. They all came together and agreed that they could enter the Android market.

In December 2013, Pei co-founded OnePlus with Pete Lau in Shenzen, China. He and his partner started the company after concluding that the Android phones on the market were not satisfying enough for them to use.

The company became the first global direct-to-consumer unlocked mobile brand.

Every day, before going to work, Carl Pei checks Twitter to see if there are any social media updates on OnePlus.

In his spare time, he loves playing Pokémon on his Nintendo 2DS.

At one point, Pei wore the same type of T-Shirt every day; he owned 9 of them.

He also lives month to month in Airbnb residences and travels everywhere by Uber. Everything he owns fits into a couple of suitcases and a backpack.

Some of his favorite quotes include: