Launchgarge Mentor Highlight: Phil Smithson

Phil is the Managing Director of On-Off Group, a strategic design company based in the Philippines, whose mission is to create meaningful change through the application of design thinking principles. He specializes in service design and has over six years of training experience with senior leadership teams, managers, government, educators, startups, students. His clients include Sun Life, Meralco, Department of Trade and Industry, QBE Insurance, European Chamber of Commerce, Unilab, Security Bank, and Shell, to name a few.

Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, he worked for WPP, the world’s largest advertising company, and created digital campaigns for brands such as Axe, L’Oréal, Del Monte, KLM, Maybelline. A regular mentor in the Manila startup scene, he helps startups in their design thinking application and lean startup methodologies. Phil’s passion for solving real-world problems through design thinking has led him to found Learn Tagalog Fast, an app that helps expats learn Tagalog through a unique, modern and dynamic approach, and The Failure School, an activity-based program designed to equip attendees with an entrepreneurial, problem-solving, innovation-focused mindset.

Phil is certified in Software Engineering, a User Experience with a first-class honors degree from British Computing Society and is also a Certified Scrum Master.

Find Phil on Linkedin.

The Launchgarage Mentor Network is a prestigious network of industry experts and startup rockstars whose altruistic goal is to provide significant mentorship for Garageheads. Interested in joining the Launchgarage portfolio? Shoot us a message through abe@launchgarage.com