Entrepreneur
Tech Leader
Motivator
Public Speaker

Have Frans’ passion for business and life inspire your audience.

FRANS TRISNADI’S KEY QUESTION FOR ENTREPRENEURS REGARDING LEGACY AND SIGNIFICANCE: “WHAT IS YOUR VERSION 2.0?”

Roaring Back From an Economic Setback, The Real Estate Investor And CEO of IT Firm Intelecis Expands His Influence As A Speaker, Mentor, Thought Leader and Philanthropist

As President and CEO of Intelecis, a thriving, proactive and business tech focused Orange County, CA based IT firm, Frans Trisnadi is frequently invited to share his expertise on the crucial topic of  Cybersecurity to large groups of professionals in the escrow, healthcare, insurance and financial services industries.

With a powerful and commanding ability to share insights and achieve breakthroughs for fellow entrepreneurs, the multi-faceted speaker, mentor, and philanthropist is also a rising force in personal development and leadership coaching.

Over the past few years, even as he and his team have built Intelecis into one of North America’s most trusted cybersecurity companies, Trisnadi has expanded his influence beyond the two industries where he has experienced the majority of his success as an entrepreneur. Before entering the cybersecurity world in 2010, he was a prominent property developer, real estate investor and Founder and President of Trisnadi Capital Partners. 

One of the key components of his mission and branding as a multi-faceted thought leader, coach and success influencer is his ability to connect with entrepreneurs and CEOs, who, like him, have experienced waves of great economic triumphs and downturns – and emerged from down swings stronger and more determined to succeed than ever. 

Trisnadi openly shares his personal comeback story, which includes the hard-won wisdom he gained from the dark period of his career between Trisnadi Capital Partners and the founding of Intelecis. He attributes his success during this time to his vision and relentless ability to attract and manage the best and brightest people in the industry and effectively empowering the day to day functions to his talented team as he sought more investment opportunities. And then, due in part to the Great Recession on top of some speculative investments in vacation home rentals, the bottom fell out – leaving him with millions dollars in personal guarantees. 

During the years when Trisnadi Capital Partners was growing, Trisnadi recognized the need for more IT security, data security and data privacy. He knew they needed to leverage technology to make his team more secure and efficient while he was traveling around the country creating opportunities to expand his investment firm. But he wasn’t able to find an IT security company that offered comprehensive security and who would take full accountability for their cybersecurity services. Those firms he hired were more interested in finger-pointing and “putting out fires” than taking a proactive approach that helps avoid data breaches, smooth business operations and minimize unnecessary costs. 

Years later, this concept would become the foundation of Intelecis. But Trisnadi still had to hit the skids before he could recover, come back and thrive as an entrepreneur again. As a former board member for Entrepreneur Organization’s Accelerator Program, he loves sharing his experiences with other entrepreneurs and also, in turn, thirsts to seek wise counsel of other successful entrepreneurs. 

“My desire to serve as a mentor and conduct personal and leadership coaching for entrepreneurs is rooted in the fact that many of my successes and failures are tremendous learning experiences,” says Trisnadi. “I can talk in layman’s terms about business growing pains and struggles, meeting payroll, and managing cash flow – drawing from my ups and downs to help other entrepreneurs develop their businesses and themselves. 

“But those nuts and bolts are just the foundation for my deeper interest in serving others and helping people discover a life of purpose and significance. I want to help them make what they’ve achieved in business a valuable asset with lasting value to their family and community. The end goal is taking the success you have earned and crossing that over to significance.” 

Helping his peers and clients envision a bigger picture for themselves, the provocative question he challenges them to explore is: “Now that you’ve accomplished all this, what is your Version 2.0?” 

Elaborating on this concept, he begins by asking, “Are you just going to accumulate more or is your 2.0 about giving back? Whether you’re sharing your skills with fellow entrepreneurs or college interns, or helping children, homeless people, veterans or anyone else, what are you contributing back to your community? Is your 2.0 to start ten more businesses or is it to start thinking about the legacy you leave to your loved ones and the world when you’re gone? Starting businesses, accumulating wealth, having vacation homes, cars and traveling the world are all amazing experiences, but it’s only when you’re truly touching another person’s life that you create significance and legacy. 

“I want to challenge those I share my story with to take a moment and spend some time thinking about what is most relevant to them,” he adds. “I like to ask, ‘What are you most passionate about?’ That centers them and helps them think meaningfully.” Now that you’re successful, how do you want to use that success to make an impact? Take a stand and use your influence to make an impact. Is your purpose significant enough to matter and to change lives? How do you use success to create purpose? How are you leveraging your success in order to cross over to a life of real significance? How is your success touching and influencing others? Using your success, what can you do to serve others?” 

Trisnadi’s passion for mentoring is a direct result of the difference several key mentors had on him in his early life – after his parents moved the family to Southern California from Indonesia when he was only four. The first were his mom and dad, whose both strong work ethic and determination to pursue the American Dream is another foundation aspect of Trisnadi’s drive to succeed and overcome setbacks. Despite both his parents having to sometimes hold several jobs at once to support their family, they were always there to support Trisnadi’s school endeavors and activities. Trisnadi draws on this wonderful example of parenthood as he raises his own sons. 

Trisnadi was also blessed with two volunteer mentors who motivated him at different key stages of his young adult life. One of them, Dan, was an ex-IBM executive whose success in business inspired Trisnadi, after a period of soul searching to go to college and pursue a business career. The other, Henry, was a youth ministry leader at church who also did well in the corporate world. He has kept in touch with Trisnadi over the years. However, after college when Trisnadi began his entrepreneurial journey, he did not surround himself with other successful business owners. Trisnadi says that one of the reasons he “crashed and burned” in his investment business was that “I spent those eight years without entrepreneurial mentors and a peer group. I didn’t surround myself with other entrepreneurs and missed out on receiving guidance from anyone who had experienced similar seasons like what I was going through as a business owner.” 

Trisnadi believes his greatest strength lies in helping people articulate their vision and taking creative action towards achieving it. He recognizes that being from and based in the relatively affluent, fast-paced culture of Orange County presents many unique challenges in creating selfless mindsets. “Southern California is definitely a unique culture, where much of the focus is on how we look, what we do, and what we own and drive,” he says. “So I like to challenge my peers to go against the grain, defy the status quo when it comes to accumulation vs. giving back. I face these issues of materialism myself. So I’ve set my own vision for what I would like to achieve by the end of 2025. Right now, I’m living on 80 percent of my income and giving 20 percent to charitable foundations I am a part of. By 2025, I would like that to be switched and give 80 percent of my income to go to charitable foundations that I am part of, and live on 20 percent.” 

Trisnadi actively supports many national and local community-based events and non-profit organizations, as well as helping underprivileged students at a local school and one non-profit that he and his family recently started. With the initial inspiration and support of his wife and the opportunity to involve his young sons in an opportunity to give back, Trisnadi recently launched We Care America. This is a dedicated group of community volunteers and citizens to assist in raising funds, awareness and develop “ready to go” packages for America’s temporary homeless. Trisnadi’s family usually keeps their cars stocked with We Care America Packages. He believes that with the help of corporate sponsors, generous donations by fellow Americans, volunteers and paid staff, We Care America has the potential to impact the homeless across the country while involving and teaching children to give back. 

While allowing him an outlet to create a personal Version 2.0 of significance and purpose, We Care America is a direct extension of two driving influences in his life. The first is rooted in his background as a child of immigrants who came to America seeking a better life. They didn’t know anyone in the U.S. and he has memories of moving from motel to motel, as his dad traveled around town, knocking on doors looking for job opportunities. The second is his fall from grace in his own business – and the realization that no matter how financially well someone thinks they’re doing, circumstances can change quickly, leaving people out of luck and homeless. 

In a dramatic statement explaining his background and goals with We Care America, he acknowledges that “many of us have faced extreme times of difficulty, emotionally, physically, spiritually or financially. For some people, times can get so bad that they end up losing their home, resulting in them being temporarily homeless. Some are fortunate enough to have family they can lean on, but for some, this isn’t a choice and they end up in a shelter or on the street. You might be thinking, ‘No way, it can’t happen to me.’ Well let me tell you, that with the perfect storm, it could happen to you or I.” 

Trisnadi then details his rise to the top: solid family background, college, corporate America, marriage, pursuit of the American dream and growing his business by leaps and bounds. Then over a two year period he lost everything – including his homes and cars. He was crippled with debt. He admits his shame in having ever looked down on homeless people – because “we don’t know how or why they are where they are. That could be you or I. Hard working Americans…Military veterans…War heroes…Entrepreneurs.” 

He encourages “all of us to help our fellow Americans within our own capacity. They just need to be reminded that we care about them. That they are not just another statistic. So next time you see someone on the side of the road pushing a cart or asking for help, I encourage you to take action. Stock up your cars with one of our We Care America packages so that you can extend your love and give them hope.” 

Trisnadi’s dedication to personal development and leadership training extends to his day to day role as head of Intelecis, whose focus is on helping organizations avoid costly and painful data breaches. He is heavily involved in Intelecis’ sales and marketing efforts while helping them stay on track meeting their goals and executing his larger vision for the company’s mission: Delivering WOW! When he meets current and prospective clients, he reminds them of the value Intelecis provides. For a fraction of the cost of building out your own Security Operations Center (SOC), including all the work that goes into hiring and training security staff and vetting security software vendors, they’ve got an experienced security team along with the necessary security tools to make a successfully security program from Day 1. 

“Those are the brass tacks” Trisnadi says, “but when I sit down with business owners and talk to them about how to be more profitable by making sure their data is secure, I’m also getting more personal with them and discussing things like significance and their personal Version 2.0. I love to share with my fellow entrepreneurs about struggles, successes and rewards of being business owners, but to me, it’s the value of legacy that matters most as we crossover from success to significance.