The best kept secret on the Irish Show Biz scene is that the founder of HPSU Tech company SMS Tutor is Frank McNamara. Many of you may have been wondering what Frank McNamara has been up to since he departed, along with Gay Byrne, from RTE’s The Late Late Show. Apart from his latest Tech venture he has been touring America with the Irish Tenors, composing music for films like The Young Messiah and even undertaking an acting stint in Ronan O’Leary’s Hello Stranger. So what led him to develop the must have educational tool of the year, SMS Tutor?
Frank McNamara is best known for being the Musical Director for the Late Late Show for 20 years, from 1979 to 1999. He left when Gay Byrne retired in 1999. “I was about to start touring with The Irish Tenors in the USA in Summer 1999 so it was time to move on, and, I felt the timing was perfect as Gay Byrne was leaving too.” Life moved on, mainly in a musical direction, until earlier this year when he had a light bulb moment. Whilst texting his twin boys tips for their Leaving Cert music exam preparation, an idea formulated.
“The person I was with asked me how the boys were getting on. I, like all parents replied – well they would be great if they’d actually open a book! I explained then that I was texting them little reminders (as you do as a parent). As I was speaking the idea came that there may be a business in a text messaging service focused on tips for the Leaving Cert and SMS Tutor was born.”
The idea came to him whilst he was working on another company idea, with the New Frontiers Phase 2 Programme, in the HPSU unit located in the LINC. His boys Frankie and Quincy were the original guinea pigs for the service. Rather than oppose this current teenage addiction Frank decided to bring the books to them. “Having their heads constantly stuck in their mobile phones as opposed to books gave me the idea to put the academic stuff into the phone.” The proof was in the pudding when both boys (along with many others who used the system) passed their Leaving Cert with flying colours.
Although he feels that his creativity is a huge asset in building businesses, Frank learned quickly that that he needed to partner with people in areas of expertise that weren’t in his skill set. “My first port of call was to enlist the help of one of the most talented graphic designers in the country, Paul Tierney of Avalon Print & Design in Dunshaughlin. I knew that a good website was crucial. I told Paul I needed a website that looked like it cost €20,000 but I didn’t have the funds! I offered him a part of the equity in the company and he jumped in straight away.”
His next step was to enlist tutors in as many subjects as possible. He had a great response from teachers, signing up some of the best teachers in the Country, including going to Ceathra Rua Gaeltacht to get a native speaker/teacher.
SMS Tutor works like a flash card system. Parents will be delighted to note that as it runs on the SMS system a more expensive smart phone is not necessary (although some files are pdf downloads). The student can sign up for a fee of €3.67 a month or for €40.00 for the full 9 month school year, per subject. They will then receive an SMS message containing a key point of the syllabus every day of the school year, including Christmas day! On the back end the tutors upload their content to the website. The texts then go through an approval process and into the scheduler, ready to go out to the students. It covers subjects from the Junior Certificate, Transition Year and Leaving Certificate syllabus.
Recent scientific tests showed that those who used SMS Tutor were an impressive 4 times better at remembering the finer details, as opposed to those who didn’t. The average score of the texted group was a B1 versus C3 in the other group. Once he had all the key pieces in place and identifying that he had a demand for the service, he was able to bring an investor onboard, allowing SMS Tutor to grow quickly from a one man show to a limited company.
Although Franks entrepreneurial experience has been a positive one, he has learned along the way just how difficult it is to be a business owner in Ireland, particularly with regard to funding. “I’ve received no help so far for SMS Tutor”. I did approach Enterprise Ireland but they were the only people who didn’t see the worldwide potential of SMS tutor. The most difficult money to get, in my view, is EI money. The HPSU unit can give “matched funding” if you already have an investor – that’s the theory, the practice is very different. They really are only interested in narrow range of business types particularly in the IT area, despite the fact that one in ten hi tech start ups fail”.
When asked if he’d had any dark days (SMS Tutor has had a turnaround from concept to company of less than a couple of months), he says “I am very driven as an entrepreneur, I don’t do dark days! There are always obstacles, challenges to be overcome (but) I relish challenges.” There is an air of excitement about SMS tutor. He thinks that “this is because it is the first of its kind in the world.” He relishes the challenge of improving the standard of education in Ireland. The mission statement of SMS Tutor is “To make a difference. To take the stress out of study for kids. To improve the standard of performance in education.”
We asked if he had any tips for other startups, he said “Don’t be that person in the pub mouthing about how they had an idea “just like that years ago”. If you have a business idea then just get up and do it. If you can’t do it yourself, partner with someone who can.”
Immediate future plans include launching SMS Tutor in Scotland as their “higher” courses are similar to the Leaving Cert courses here. As more of us are going mobile it looks like a serious possibility that SMS Tutor is really the future of education. As uncle Gaybo used to say “Watch this space.”
You can follow SMS Tutor on Twitter and sign up at www.smstutor.com.
