Tokyo to Saigon — An Unexpected Message on the Last Working Day of the Year
“On December 30, 2022, I was working right up until the day before New Year’s Eve. This year, my daughter and I had stayed behind in Tokyo while the rest of the family returned to our hometown. The reason? To accompany her to winter cram school sessions she had recently started attending. With my daughter at her classes, I found myself with some extra time and decided to work until the very last minute. Most of our employees and partners had already started their holiday break, so Slack was quiet. I was just thinking how I could really immerse myself in programming without distractions when suddenly, a message popped up from my Vietnamese friend, Hector.
Hector and I had met 10 years ago in Silicon Valley, during the famous venture capital firm 500 Startups’ acceleration program. An acceleration program is like a boot camp for entrepreneurs. The venture capital firm invites founding members of startups they’ve invested in to their Silicon Valley office. There, for three months, these entrepreneurs undergo daily training and mentoring sessions aimed at rapidly growing their startups. At the end of the program, participants get the opportunity to pitch to investors in Silicon Valley and New York, with the ultimate goal of securing additional funding.
Hector was the lead engineer of a startup selected from Vietnam. As for me, my own company wasn’t chosen, but I joined for the last month as a developer for a friend’s startup that had been selected. These startups were tiny, usually just 3 to 5 people, so each company only occupied about one table’s worth of space. Our table was right next to Hector’s team’s table. Being fellow programmers and Asians, we quickly hit it off.
After the acceleration program ended and we returned to our respective countries, we managed to stay in touch. We met up twice when I visited Ho Chi Minh City for work, catching up over meals. A few years ago, Hector had started a new startup with two American entrepreneurs. They had secured investment and were developing a new product.
The message revealed that their company’s main investor had collapsed, forcing them to shut down their business. His company had an American CEO, and their primary investors were based in the United States. About a month or two earlier, the media had been reporting on the collapse of a certain American fund. It seemed that their investor was either directly affected by this collapse or suffered significant damage, making it impossible for them to continue their investments.
Hector wanted to continue working with his core team of five skilled members, and the team felt the same way. They were hoping to find development projects they could work on together to keep the team intact. That’s why he messaged me, asking if I had any development work available. For several years before the pandemic, I had been considering setting up a company in Vietnam. I had been doing research and even accepting Vietnamese interns, something I had previously discussed with Hector. Our conversation quickly evolved into exploring the possibility of establishing a legal entity in Vietnam where we could distribute and work on the projects that Goldrush Computing was handling in Japan.
This message arrived on the last working day of the year. I had been planning to go home, relax with a beer, and ease into the holiday. Instead, I found myself at an unexpected turning point in my life. It seemed that 2023 was going to be a year full of surprises and challenges…
To be continued…
Thank you for reading this first installment of my entrepreneurial journey.
As this story unfolds, I’d like to introduce you to our company, Goldrush Computing Inc., based in Tokyo. Our team’s expertise spans the entire spectrum of service creation:
- We start from the ground up, assisting with requirements gathering, UX design, and UI development.
- Our involvement continues through development, testing, and post-launch analysis of usage, crashes, and issues.
- We’re committed to our clients’ long-term success, providing ongoing support and optimization.
- Our technical prowess covers Web, Mobile, Backend, and Infrastructure/DevOps environments.
- Currently, we’re focusing on cutting-edge Data Science and AI service development.
While our roots are in Japan, we’re eager to collaborate with clients and partners from all corners of the globe. If you’re interested in working with a team that combines technical expertise with a global perspective, we’d love to hear from you.
For more information about our services, please visit our website: https://goldrushcomputing.com/en
If you have any questions or would like to discuss potential collaborations, feel free to reach out to me directly at: mizutori@goldrushcomputing.com
Stay tuned for the next chapter in this cross-cultural business adventure!
Note on terminology: In this series, I use both ‘Saigon’ and ‘Ho Chi Minh City’ to refer to Vietnam’s largest city. While Ho Chi Minh City is the official name since 1976, ‘Saigon’ remains widely used in daily life, especially in the city center and in many business contexts. I may use ‘Saigon’ in titles or when brevity is needed, but will also use ‘Ho Chi Minh City’ throughout the articles. Both names refer to the same vibrant metropolis that’s central to this journey.
