Big Plans for Microlearning

Today’s workforce and business leaders need new ways to master crucial digital skills, veteran technopreneur and investor Frank Meehan tells Hong Xinyi

any asian cities want to become the next Silicon Valley, and these aspiring regional tech hubs have an interesting competitive advantage—there’s a much stronger female leadership presence in Asia’s start-ups, says veteran digital entrepreneur and investor Frank Meehan. Frank first started working in Asia in 1998, and co-founded venture capital firm Sparklabs Global Ventures. Its offshoot, Sparklabs Korea, invests in early-stage Asian start-ups with global potential. In 2015, he also co-founded microlearning app Smartup, a Uk-based operation that recently opened its Singapore office. “Silicon Valley is very much a boys’ club, but Asia is totally different,” the affable technopreneur shares. “At Sparklabs, 40 per cent of the senior management in our start-ups are women.” This trend could boil down to Asian women facing less pressure to pursue traditional corporate careers in finance and law, he speculates, and the resulting gender equality bodes well for the vitality of the regional start-up scene. Firstly, female founders are more likely to understand female consumers, who are crucial to the success of consumer-focused platforms. “Men download apps all the time, but they get bored after five minutes. It’s hard to get a woman to like something enough to download it, but once you’ve got them, you really do get them.” As female founders find it tougher to attract funding from male venture capitalists, they also have to make sure their business model really works, he adds. Frank’s perspective on tech’s gendered issues can be traced back to the five years he spent in Stockholm early in his career. “Sweden is very equality-driven. Coming from Australia, I was very much a proper boy and that was kicked out of me very quickly.” He has also worked closely with Solina Chau, the legendary co-founder of Hong Kong venture capital firm Horizons Ventures. “Working for her was amazing. She is so forward-thinking.” Smartup, which was launched to mentor entrepreneurs, has a specific channel for supporting female founders. More broadly, the platform offers a way of learning that’s relevant for today’s digital generation. It opts for gamified formats such as snappy quizzes that award users points for the right answers. The top scorers on the Smartup leaderboards can win the chance to be mentored by seasoned industry players. More recently, the company has started crafting training content in the same style for businesses that want to arm their staff with digital skills. “Most founders are engineers and scientists who have no time to go to business school, and we focus on helping them through these microlearning formats,” says Frank. “It’s the same for corporations. The traditional way of training is either face-to-face in a classroom or watching a long video. The Snapchat generation is not going to find that engaging.” The leaderboard scores are also a good way to discover promising talent, and as the twin tracks of Smartup’s entrepreneur-focused and corporation-focused services develop in tandem, “we can help to match these people and put them in touch with one another”. With antiglobalisation winds blowing strong in the West, Asia has an incredible opportunity to attract global tech talents, and he reckons three cities in the region are set for starring roles. Shenzhen in China will be the centre of hardware, while Seoul will leverage South Korea’s talent at building global businesses. Completing the tech trinity is Singapore. “The research facilities here are very good, the government support is strong and it’s now in the phase of moving on from e-commerce and consumer-focused tech to financial technology (fintech) and deep tech such as artificial intelligence and robotics. That’s very exciting.”