Two young Vietnamese who risked everything to grow their startups have managed to accomplish their dreams, despite the many potholes on their road to success.
Two young Vietnamese who risked everything to grow their startups have managed to accomplish their dreams, despite the many potholes on their road to success.
Lam Thi Thuy Ha and Nguyen Huy Binh, both residents of Ho Chi Minh City, are standouts amongst a sea of entrepreneurs for their commitment, determination, and recklessness in the pursuit of their life-long aspirations.
The two have triumphed in the ultra-competitive startup world, despite being forced to gamble with their livelihoods against constant obstacles along the way.
Selling the house, starting the business
Ha, co-founder of the travel project Triip.me, shared that she was forced to sell her house to raise capital after the business’s original flop.
The entrepreneur and her husband, Hai, had just given birth to their second child and their meager income meant the couple had to move into her parents’ house.
Previously a tour guide, Ha was well aware that travelers are shying away from organized tours, instead opting for more unique experiences.
To satisfy this newfound hunger for authenticity amongst travelers, Ha and her husband founded Triip.me – a platform designed to connect foreign tourists with local people through specially designed trips.
The packages organized by Triip.me typically include tours given by local residents, meaning travelers are given a culturally unique experience while serving as a valuable source of income for the communities which they visit.
In the early days of Triip.me, Ha and Hai rented space in an alley near Le Van Tam Park in District 3 to serve as the headquarters for their 15 employees and a residence for five of their staff.
It also gave the young startup a location for lunch and dinner gatherings, as well as their tri-weekly yoga classes.
Even with the team’s dedication, Triip.me failed to gain significant revenues during its first year, forcing the founders to abandon the business.
In early 2014, Ha became pregnant with her second child and decided to lay off the business for a while, giving her some time to rethink the idea and focus on where she went wrong.
After the baby came in September 2014, the businesswoman, with unconditional support from her husband, sold the family house to give Triip.me another shot.
The business started to take flight when a Singaporean tourist booked and experienced a tour to Vietnam with Ha’s company that led him to his love of the unique idea. Shortly after the trip, the man pledged support of the business with a small investment.
A second investment came when another Triip.me client, the president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, became involved in the business after a trip provided by Ha and her team.
With two new investors on board, the business ran strong until the end of 2015 when funds began to dwindle, forcing Ha to borrow money from her parents and friends to keep it alive through the first four months of 2016.
Later the same year, the project received a US$500,000 boost from Gobi Partners venture capital funds.
Triip.me now provides services to travelers from 655 cities in 98 different nations across the globe, Ha said, adding that her project has only reached about 10 percent of its mission.
Nguyen Huy Binh in this photo provided by himself
Five times of failure
Binh, dubbed Binh Applancer, the developer behind applancer.net, a project which provides HR support in the IT field, is not ashamed to admit his five failures before he struck success with his current project.
During the 14-year pursuit of his startup dream, the young man worked many jobs to earn money to fund his projects.
Binh recounted the most painful lesson from his journey, when back in 2010 he opened a technology firm specializing in surveillance cameras.
The products were sourced from the Philippines in order to meet high standards, resulting in a much higher price than similar devices sold on the general market in Ho Chi Minh City.
Market research was vital, Binh stated. “I spent too much time and effort developing high-end products. I didn’t understand that most consumers were interested in more basic devices.”
Binh then switched to mobile gaming, hoping to become an instant millionaire like Flappy Bird creator Nguyen Ha Dong.
After creating 50 games, all of which fell into obscurity, Binh opened a small computer service business.
Learning from his clients, Binh spotted a rising concern amongst parents over the obscene content their children were exposed to on the Internet, sparking the idea for his “kill porn” application, a program which was also named the winner of a local contest.
With the cash prize, Binh paid off his debts and started applancer.net to meet the increasing demand by local businesses for IT specialists.
Applancer provides IT experts that meet the requirements of its corporate clients, with fees charged based on the success of each project.
The service is quickly growing and Binh says there is still plenty of room for development.
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