Frank’s been quite busy with SmartUp, a smart micro-learning tool that guides companies through digital transformation. Spread over three countries, Frank spends his time making sure every member of his team gets the support and guidance they need.

Read more about digital transformation here and we’ve got another one here.

When asked about his favourite quote, he mentioned former Intel CEO, Andrew Grove’s most well-known quote,

“Only the paranoid survive”.

He uses that mantra to turn nightmares and crises into opportunities for your business to grow and get better.

When he’s not in the SmartUp office, you’re likely to find Frank spending time with his family or indulging in his passion for great music.

Find out his story below.

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  1. Sell us your company/service in 300 words?

If you’re sick and tired of the way learning is created and delivered, then SmartUp is the platform for you! We are a peer-to-peer, knowledge sharing platform focusing on microlearning and the gamification of content. What this means is the SmartUp platform allows you and your employees to:

  1. Easily crowdsource content that is suited to your organisation’s needs
  2. Make learning accessible on a mobile platform
  3. See learning as fun again with quizzes and leaderboards

At SmartUp, we make it our mission to change the face of corporate learning because, more than ever, learning has to be intuitive and suited to our mobile lifestyles.

The company was incorporated in Singapore in 2017 and to date, we have more than 20 clients from Singapore and Malaysia. This year, we signed our first clients in Europe and US. We are very focused on becoming THE go-to solution for microlearning and digital transformation.

  1. What is stopping you from having the largest company in the world?

We need to hire a lot more people to keep up with the rate the business is growing.

First, startups have limited resources so every hire is an important decision, one that we need to make carefully. Often, we simply don’t have the time to hunt them down.  

Second, B2B businesses face competition in the talent market from sexier, more relatable B2C businesses.

At the end of the day, it’s up to ourselves to make SmartUp a great success and to do that, we need to attract the best talents to join us!

  1. If you could change one thing about the tech industry in Southeast Asia, what would it be?

To shift our focus from e-commerce and marketplaces.

The next big wave in the Tech industry is coming from corporates —we’re already seeing this in the United States. Corporates are starting to get more involved not just as accelerators but doing deep things like buying companies and encouraging them to do more B2B SaaS enterprise stuff. I think that’s going to be a big opportunity for the Tech industry in Southeast Asia.

  1. Name one person in the region, who is making a difference in Technology?

Steve Leonard from SGInnovate. He’s an advocate for deeper technologies and he brought Entrepreneur First into Singapore. This is someone who is doing a lot to grow the region’s capabilities in deep tech.

  1. What would you want people to remember you for, 100 years from now?

For being that guy who just likes to do things differently! I think it’s important for everyone to – at least once in their lives – do their own thing and see if they can make a difference with that!

I have a son and I want him to – when he grows up – to look back and say, “Hey! That’s my dad you’re talking about! He’s that awesome guy who decided to go down the route less traveled.”

As parents, what we do, we do ultimately for our children. What other people remember you for is one thing. What really matters is what your children, and their children, will remember you for.

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About Frank

frankmeehanFrank is Co-founder and CEO at SmartUp.io In 2012, Frank was selected as part of Wired UK’s Top 100 in tech. In 2010, he was on Vanity Fair’s The Next Establishment list.
Frank is also the Co-Founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures and a Partner at SparkLabs, Asia’s premier accelerator based in Seoul (South Korea).

Previously Frank was with Horizons Ventures (HK), representing them on the boards of Spotify, Siri, Summly, Affectiva, Bitcasa, Fixmo, DoubleTwist, Ginger, Desti and Magisto.

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Views expressed by the interviewee are not necessarily shared by Tech Collective. Some minimal editing is done for clarity’s sake.

To read more great interviews with your favourite startups, click here.