Paving the path to a golden future

Much has been said and indeed written in recent years about the pressing need to reform Thai education, particularly at the upper secondary and tertiary levels. But while small changes have been made , technology has been slow in making its presence felt in the classroom and students are still force-fed knowledge rather than encouraged to take risks or learn by discussion.
Ruangroj Poonpol, or Krating as he is known to family and friends, is out to change all that in the next decade, using disruptive innovation in education to develop 10,000 young innovators and bring Thailand into the top 20 on the world’s startup map by 2025.
Recognised as a pioneer in crafting the startup ecosystem in Thailand, Krating is the founder of Disrupt University, a venture partner of 500 Startups and general manger of 500 TukTuks. A graduate of Stanford University, he has also worked as product marketing manager for Google Earth (Global Lead).
“The world is being disrupted by the new innovations introduced by startups. Indeed in many countries, startups are considered the most important engines in driving the economy forward,” he says. “I believe the same holds true for Thailand and that startups will give the country its economic edge in the decade to come.”
Krating is the founder of Silicon Valley enterprise Mobilitz and in 2011 developed Quipster, a location-based social network enabling users share latest events around the town through contextual icons. Now back in Thailand, he’s turned his knowledge and experience to building the country’s startup ecosystem from zero.
In 2012, he founded Disrupt University, which he describes as a school for startups in Thailand. Its mission is to bring the knowledge and know-how of Silicon Valley, the land of startups, to Thailand and thus craft Thai startups using the Silicon Valley model.
To date the 500 students attending Disrupt University have together raised an impressive US$20 million (Bt700 million) in funding – almost half of the total startup fund raising in Thailand in 2015..
“Working at Google I learned if there is something we do not like then we need to change it or if does not exist, then we need to build it. In 2012, there was no school for startups so we built Disrupt University. In 2013 there was no accelerated programme to speed up startups  in Thailand, so we worked with Dtac to create one. In 2014, there was no funding purely for seeding startups, so we created‘500 TukTuks’,” he says.
Since last July, 500 TukTuks has used $12 million of its funding to invest in 15 startups and is planning to fund a further five before the middle of the year. The aim is to reach 30 startups in 2016.
The second tranche of funding is expected to reach between $30 million to $50 million by 2017, and 500 TukTuks #2 plans to switch to multi-stage startups, going from the seed funding stage to series-A funding and expanding coverage to include startups in Southeast Asia.
“My mission is to change Thailand into a new competitive country. To do this we need to rebuild Thailand’s foundations through education, technology and innovation,” Krating explains.
“We want our young generation to believe in themselves. They need to become better versions of themselves not just second-generation successors,” he says, adding that he hopes to bring Thailand’s startup value up from US$500 million to US$1 billion in the next five years.
“If we achieve this, it will build confidence in young Thai entrepreneurs.”
Disrupt University’s next phase, due to start this year, is to serve as a venture builder or startup factory. This will allow it to go beyond its current mandate of providing knowledge to offering young teams the process, know-how and well as the initial investment for a startup.
“They don’t necessarily need to have an idea about the product and service they will offer as a startup. They will simply go through our development process and we will craft them from a team to a startup and accelerate their launch by investing in them.”
Krating is also planning to turn Disrupt University into an education tech startup focusing on embedding technology and innovation into education.
“Thailand needs to declare a state of emergency with regard to education,” Krating says. “Our country needs new skill-sets for the new decade, not least because the latest research shows that by 2030 around 50 per cent of the global working population will be unemployed because of AI [Artificial Intelligence] and robotic disruption. The only way to survive this disruption is to build people with new-skill sets ready to tackle the new industries of the world.” he says.
The role of Disrupt University is to define what these new skill-sets are and how to inculcate these in the up-and-coming generation. “I  personally see the future industries as genomics, big data analytics, connected devices, IOT [Internet of Things], autonomous systems, cyber security, FinTech, and cognitive systems.
“Disrupt University will be the driver in this area. Our motto is ‘maximise impact and optimise profit’. We are a social enterprise and this year we are expanding our impact,” he says..
Having set Disrupt University’s new role, Krating is hopeful he will be able to build the 10,000 agents of change whose job it will be to change Thailand and Southeast Asia through technology and innovation.
“We hope that among these 10,000 ‘national heroes’, there will be 100 leaders or startups with strong vision for the future. The others will serve as influencers in bringing change to the country,” Krating says.
Disrupt University will follow the same path taken in developing the startup ecosystem in Thailand in rebuilding the very foundations of education, redefining the skill-sets for the future and embedding technology and innovation in all aspects of everyday life.
“We can only hope that the government will see fit to accelerate these vital changes,” he says.
“I estimate I have achieved just 10 per cent of my dream. A lot needs to be done in order to turn Thailand into a competitive leader in the new world. I am happy to bring about those changes  My personal motto is to maximise happiness while minimising regret and to dream big, fight hard, and never give up. We will get things done,” he concludes.