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Frank Meehan

Co-Founder & Partner, SparkLabs Group · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderexecutiveengineer@frank_meehan ↗LinkedIn ↗sparklabsglobal.com ↗

Frank Meehan is an investor and entrepreneur who previously represented Horizons Ventures on the boards of breakout companies including Spotify, Siri, Summly, and Affectiva. He went on to co-found SparkLabs Global Ventures, micro-learning platform SmartUp.io, and multiple AI and climate-tech initiatives.

12statements → 5claims → 1claims resolved → 3.83/5average certainty → 2.5/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources → 3said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 4 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 3 assertions · 2 opinions · 4 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Frank argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Meehan: Asian e-commerce is early-stage and rapidly growing
“So in Asia, we don't do e-commerce really anywhere except in Asia, but in Asia, e-commerce is so early and so, and growing so fast that it's a fantastic opportunity.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 15:25 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.3 / 5 directness 4.7 · coherence 4.5 · precision 4 · compression 3.5

answered every one of 13 assessed questions directly

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

277 words/min while actually speaking · 32.4 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 3,060 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 2/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 55%

Everything Frank Meehan said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Meehan: Overfunding Idea-Stage Startups Like Clinkle Ends in Disaster
“You know, you get things like Clinkle, where for some reason, investors invest in it in an idea which isn't fully formed in a prototype that isn't built, and of course, you know, it ends up being a, they invest too much, and it ends up being a disaster.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 8:55 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Insight
Frank Meehan: Startup founders do not need to learn coding
“Oh, I think that's I don't think that's necessary. I think an understanding of it so that you can have an understanding of how things work and an understanding of the principles of the technology behind it is, is, is actually probably even more important so th…”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 4:34 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Insight
Meehan: The hottest seed rounds have 8 to 10 investors
“And, you know, the best rounds and the hottest companies in the valley now will not have one or two investors in them. They will have a good eight or nine or 10 because it's a network effect.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 6:15 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Meehan: Spark Labs will not invest without top-tier co-investors
“We won't invest unless there's other very top tier investors in it, be that is, you know, private individuals or firms because you've got to get the collective validation.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 9:43 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Meehan: Competitive Seed Rounds Do Not Drive Up Valuations
“Later on in a series C and a series D, when you've got Big, big players like a Goldman's or something jostling around, then the price does get driven up, but not in an early stage, not when you're trying to put that initial really core investor group together,…”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 11:23 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Opinion
Meehan: European e-commerce is too saturated to be attractive
“I wouldn't invest in an e-commerce business in Europe because it's so saturated that it's all about just operations and how much cash you can raise. That's not interesting for me. It's just a brand play.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 15:54 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Insight
Meehan: Understanding tech trends like blockchain matters more than coding
“So and, you know, just an understanding of how the world is moving, you know, it may be more important for you as a founder to know the deep ins and outs of how blockchain technology works than actual coding.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 5:11 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Insight
Meehan: Early-Stage Investors Fail to Match Startups' Global Scope
“But investors are very local, and investors, especially at early stage, have not matched the global expansions of startups these days.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 11:55 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Meehan: Only tech giants can afford proper two-factor authentication
“Only the very big guys, the Googles and Facebooks, et cetera, can afford to implement, like, proper two-stage authentication, which I didn't know, but is very, very expensive, so, which is why the only big guys do it”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 13:34 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Assertion Supported
Meehan: Asian e-commerce is early-stage and rapidly growing
“So in Asia, we don't do e-commerce really anywhere except in Asia, but in Asia, e-commerce is so early and so, and growing so fast that it's a fantastic opportunity.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 15:25 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frank Meehan: Asian tech market expanding into deep tech and smart cities
“It's, the future of the Asian tech market is, is huge. Initially, it's going to be driven around e-commerce and gaming, but already you can see deeper tech and particularly internet of things, smart cities”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 17:28 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market
Disclosure
Meehan: Spark Labs focuses exclusively on fintech in London
“So in London, we tend to really only do fintech right from the very start because we picked that there would be a huge group of investors around the fintech space and a lot of great exits.”
Frank Meehan Feb 20, 2015 ▶ 15:14 20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market

The other half of the tape: Frank Meehan's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 1 episode on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 3

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0021312015episodesmentions
0112015episodes it came up in
001.50.5312015episodesmentions per episode
2015 3 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20 VC 013: Frank Meehan Series A, Spark Labs and The Future of The Asian Tech Market Feb 20, 2015 14m
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