Vietnamese returnees are contributing to Vietnam’s burgeoning startup scene, while also learning about their own culture.
Have you ever wished that you can just edit the article when you read one written about you? Well, I am not much of a sitting around and wishing type…here’s how I would edit the TechinAsia article =P
DISCLAIMER: Content below has content from the original article which I based to SUPERSIZE my edits. My article is not original content except for where I made my edits.
“Today, he’s here back in the country of his birth because he said his personal passion is improving the life of every Vietnamese.”
Although this sentence, spoken by Barack Obama during his historic official visit to Vietnam in 2016, wasn’t aimed at Thu Nguyen, he did feel as if the former US President was addressing him directly. An American of Vietnamese descent, Nguyen is among the thousands of Vietnamese who have returned after years or even decades abroad.
Their homecoming is not only spurred by the desire to understand and the longing to connect with their homeland, but also by a mix of other reasons, such as Vietnam’s booming economy, which has risen by an average of six percent in the past 10 years. Its budding tech scene, low cost of living, amazing food, wonderful beaches and majestic mountains, super kind and happy people, relatively cheap labor, as well as the availability of TOP tech talent are also key factors.
“There’s a diversity of talent from around the world coming to Vietnam because of all this excitement and it’s easy to bootstrap [projects] here,” says Nguyen. The 35-year-old entrepreneur co-founded Christina’s, a Ho Chi Minh City-based travel and accommodation startup, in 2014, which is quickly turning into a travel ecosystem that could disrupt the Venture Capital business model itself — in addition to tours and accommodation, the Christina’s ecosystem also has a food & beverage operation, including cafes and restaurants, an architecture company, a merchandising company, a world class video production team, a plants/organic farming company, a hospitality training company (to be independent soon), a sourcing operation, and a couple technology design and engineering team in the process to joining…there will be thousands! All this while building all technology solutions in house and will soon launch a comprehensive transportation/logistics solution to rival the biggest of its kind in the world. Just take a look!
Nguyen and many other returning Vietnamese have work experience at multinational companies, an understanding of different cultures, and English proficiency — skills that can be beneficial in Vietnam’s startup scene. These have helped them join the local startups, and sometimes as founders, enabling them to contribute to the burgeoning startup ecosystem.
Growing outside one’s comfort zone
After graduating from Boston College and spending almost 10 years working in finance, Nguyen finally returned to Vietnam in 2011. A few months after he got there, he embarked on a 15 month journey around the world and then motorbike up and down Vietnam a few times to learn about his country. Being on the road allowed him to appreciate Vietnam’s landscape and cultural diversity, the kindness and hospitality of his people, and this set him on the path towards entrepreneurship that he never knew was going to unfold.
Named after Nguyen’s AMAZING/BEAUTIFUL/KIND/FUNNY/CRAZY/AND LOVING GIRLFRIEND, Christina’s opens their WAY-BETTER-THAN-HOTEL homes to travelers, working with local owners — similar to the new Airbnb Plus — and offers SERIOUSLY AWESOME local experiences with its DOWN RIGHT BEST IN THE WORLD GUIDE TEAM. What started out as Nguyen’s desire to meet travelers and getting free rent four years ago has now grown to a company with more than 320 full-time members plus 170 freelance guides and US$2.5 million in funding.
Christina’s is focusing on HYPER growth so it’s no longer profitable (spending massively on building up new technology and training and developing the team) at the moment, but Nguyen explains that his business is “unit profitable.” He declined to share exact revenue figures but accumulated revenues is reaching $5 million. Christina’s is exploring a “strategic partnership” with Airbnb to potentially empower hosts throughout the world to do the same thing that Christina’s has managed to do in Vietnam, because they think it’s a much BETTER economic model for developing nations than what the developed world is exporting over.
Returnees like Nguyen are commonly called overseas Vietnamese, a term that refers to the more than 4 million Vietnamese living in diaspora all over the world, with the largest community based in the US. They include refugees who left at the end of the Vietnam War plus their descendants, economic migrants who left for work, and natural-born Vietnamese who go abroad to study and stay in those countries to work and live as permanent residents.
Eddie Thai, general partner at 500 Startups’ Vietnam-focused fund, says that repatriates have played a “major role” in the rise of the country’s economy, specifically as startup hubs, just like Chinese and Indians did in theirs.
“Overseas Vietnamese are a source of capital — through remittances and investment — but more importantly of knowledge, ideas, and connections,” Thai, an American who’s also of Vietnamese descent, tells Tech in Asia via email.
Thai points out that of the 26 firms 500 Startups Vietnam has invested in thus far, more than half had founders who are overseas Vietnamese. He also notes that most of the co-founders of the seven unicorns across Southeast Asia, including ride-hailing firm Grab and online marketplace Tokopedia, are locals with “meaningful time abroad.”
Leaving a mark
Although it’s hard to quantify the net effect of returnees like Nguyen on Vietnam, they’re the country’s “secret super weapons,” says Lars Jankowfsky, the German founder of NFQ Asia, a three-year-old IT outsourcing startup based in Ho Chi Minh City. WHEN COMBINED WITH DEEP LOCAL TALENT, IT HAS TRANSFORMATIVE, WORLD LEADING POTENTIAL.
Bobby Liu, co-director of Hanoi-based accelerator program Topica Founder Institute, shares a similar view. Liu says that most successful Vietnamese startups have founders with extended exposure outside the country. “This is particularly important when these startups start scaling across the region.”
Christina’s, for instance, is already operating in six Vietnamese cities and plans to launch in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, and Australia, to empower their local communities to do the same thing that Christina’s has done in Vietnam.
Another good example is lifestyle app WisePass, which is available in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Bangkok. It offers membership to more than 230 upscale hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, and (soon) airlines that includes a complimentary bottle of wine, spirits, lunch, or dinner on a daily basis.
By the end of the year, WisePass wants to expand to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, according to 34-year-old founder Lam Tran, who was born in France but moved to Vietnam eight years ago. Tran is an ex-Googler who also worked for Vietnamese ecommerce firm Tiki.vn before launching WisePass.
His startup has raised close to US$1 million to date and recorded less than US$100,000 in sales last year. It isn’t profitable yet.
His communication skills and international network have helped him the most in business, explains Tran. “When you speak the language of some of your partners, you can simply connect and close deals faster.”
Re-investing in Vietnam
Launching businesses isn’t the only way returnees are helping the startup ecosystem grow. Some also invest by using the money they earned during their international stints.
Among them is Justin Nguyen, operating advisor at Singapore-based VC fund Monk’s Hill. Born in Vietnam but raised in California, he played instrumental roles in four startups in his birth country as well as Silicon Valley and Shanghai. He relocated to Ho Chi Minh City in 2015 after selling the gaming industry supplier company he had founded in 2008.
Ho Chi Minh City / Photo credit: Pixabay
In an article for Tech in Asia titled “Why I returned from Silicon Valley to Vietnam” last year, he explained why Vietnam will become the “next technology hub.”
“The country has all the necessary ingredients for an explosion in innovation: a young, educated population and a sizable returning diaspora serving as a catalyst,” he wrote. “I’m convinced it’s a chain reaction in the making.”
Returning home
Official data from Vietnam’s government is sketchy at best, so it’s hard to tell exactly how many overseas Vietnamese have returned to their homeland and whether their number has increased in the last few years.
But Liu of Topica Founder claims there has been a “steady gradual rise” in the influx of returnees since the country opened up its economy in the mid-1980s. 500 Startups’ Thai also sees a “growing trend,” especially among those under 35.
Vietnam’s leaders are encouraging far-flung compatriots to come back and help build the economy with relaxed visa programs and by giving them the ability to regain their citizenship under specific conditions. This might exempt them from certain foreign investment requirements.
Understanding the local market takes time
However, while overseas Vietnamese bring a lot to the table in terms of network and know-how, they don’t immediately understand the nuances of the Vietnamese market, contends Liu, who grew up in Singapore. “Like other foreigners, they still need to spend considerable time in Vietnam to fully grasp the local market.”
Some also complain about a prevalent “information asynchrony.”
“Not everything is as clear-cut as in more structured and developed countries where people had time to build up the systems,” said Nguyen of Christina’s. So he urges returnees to decide for themselves what they can and cannot tolerate. Thai agrees, mainly because of a still prevalent “scarcity mentality” among locals due to decades of wars and deprivation.
Overseas Vietnamese play a role in fostering the whole ecosystem. “Folks like the founders of Christina’s and WisePass combine their experience in other markets with local operational ability to build something for 21st century Vietnam. Their commitment to the notion that Vietnam can be a launching pad for world-class, international tech enterprises reinforces the development of Vietnam’s startup ecosystem,” explains Thai.
However, he also cautioned against overemphasizing the role of returnees. “At the end of the day, the success or failure of the ecosystem will depend first and foremost on local Vietnamese as founders and other stakeholders. What overseas Vietnamese can do is clarify and facilitate bringing together the necessary ingredients for future success materializing.”
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am just playing editor in chief…
For the real article, please check it out here.
Returning Vietnamese are making their mark on Vietnam’s burgeoning startup scene
For my other crazy articles, check them out here:
Obama Time @ Christina’s Saigon
Design your social impact by harnessing Vietnam’s TRUE competitive advantages
Let me keep this one positive and not mention Agoda.
