Going from Zero to Hero

By Francesca Siow

Hello fellow geeks! Do you remember who your childhood hero or heroine is? For the life of me, I can’t remember mine. It could be Powerpuff Girls and Professor Utonium but I also found Professor X in X-Men really cool (particularly his hairstyle).

Still, I know for a fact that nobody came close to Frankie, my very own brother. Frankie was popular in school with many friends. From cleaners and school canteen aunties to teachers and even the principal, everyone knew Frankie by name. His school results were always talked about during assemblies and among teachers.

ZERO TO ONE

It was a different story at home. Our parents couldn’t stop worrying about Frankie – what if failing subjects in school signpost his failure in the working world too? Does scoring zero in exams translate into an empty bank account when he grows up? Is he a bad influence to his younger sister (me!)?

Well, they worried unduly. When kids were still doing their school projects with typewriters, Frankie built us a computer (or PC) – unheard of in those days. The enterprising Frankie then went on to start a “timesharing business” where our classmates paid a small fee for turns at using our PC for their project work.

ONE TO MANY

Soon, when there were more classmates than we had time on our PC, Frankie birthed a new idea – assembly PCs for these classmates at a charge! That marked the start of One Frankie, Many. Many. PCs. As you’ll imagine, that put my parents’ fear about Frankie’s zero bank balance to rest.

And Frankie had it going for a good long while. Remember the first time all of you met Frankie in 2016 – when he was still manning the Hapless Helpdesk? Between helping clueless users reset their passwords and troubleshooting IT woes, he was running orders for his PC assembly business.

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

But that’s history now. Frankie retired that business when he left Hapless Helpdesk, but not before he had rung up many zeroes in his bank balance.

So no more Helpdesk, no more PCs, and a fat healthy bank balance. The restless Frankie is currently on to his shiny new toy – his very own startup. The last I checked – his team size has just zoomed past 100, and he was preparing for his submission for the SCS Tech Leader Awards 2023.

Frankly, if there were one thing my parents got right, it was that Frankie is an influence – but (maybe) not a bad one.

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