VietStartup: The story, the mission, the beliefs

The Story

Like a lot of great stories in the UK, this story all starts in a pub. I had made the trip to Oxford for the day to attend a conference. I had been introduced to Sean earlier by mutual friends, so we decided to meet up. A couple of drinks later, the idea of what is now VietStartup was born. The intuition was that we could create a community for the new Vietnamese generation in London, passionate by technology and entrepreneurship.

We have since then been joined by many amazing people that made what VietStartup is today and collectively shape what it will be tomorrow.

In a little more than a year, we have grown into a strong community, and organised more than a dozen events attracting between 20 and 30 people on average. And most importantly, we now learn from each others every day by working in a truly collaborative manner.

These events cluster in three main types: speaker series, jam sessions, and socials. We had the pleasure of hosting a 3-part speaker series where we had the honour to host a variety of guest speakers from first-time to seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, and startup experts like Huy Trieu Nguyen (Disruptive Finance), Duc Ha Duong (Officience) or Sieng Van Tran (Quintessentially), Anh-Vu Pham (UENI), Hoang Le (Pho & Bun) etc… to come to tell their stories and share their experience. We have kickstarted our VietStartup Jam Sessions, our very own collaborative format to work on community projects. Initiatives are put forward and voted on at the start of each session, and groups are then formed to autonomously execute on each project. It allows us to drive projects in a decentralised, participative, and transparent way. The third type of event is of course our socials, a casual moment to meet new people, bond, and celebrate success.

VietStartup is now in its second year. This anniversary was for all of us an opportunity to reflect on what we had achieved and where we wanted to go. The first year was a great moment to get inspired, connect with like-minded people, and build the community. This second year is now about setting things into motion, kickstarting projects, and learning from each other by building things. Our latest initiatives illustrate this new focus. The VietStartup matchmaking afternoon was a chance for us to pitch projects to the each others, with the aim to build teams with aligned vision, shared passion, and complementary expertise. Some great projects emerged from this session. The latest speaker event was a chance to explore bootstrapping, and break a couple of myths on starting businesses from scratch.

The Mission

Build a home for Vietnamese doers in London

The Beliefs

#1 We believe that entrepreneurs will shape the future of Vietnam

Technology disrupts the way we live, work, and interact with others. Entrepreneurs who understand Vietnamese challenges and execute on them with impact and scale will shape the future of Vietnam.

#2 We believe in learning together by building things, and breaking things.

Talking is overrated. Technology is lowering barriers to entry: commitment, creativity, and collaboration are the real differentiators. We believe in rolling up our sleeves. Building and breaking things fast is how we hack the learning curve.

#3 We believe in pay-it-forward.

Contracts are not where the magic happens. We believe in the power of paying forward. Whether it is by sharing experience, devoting time and expertise, or connecting people, we believe that generosity in helping each others is how strong communities are built.

#4 We believe in challenging the status quo through art, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Outsiders change the world. Art, technology, and entrepreneurship are their catalysts.

#5 We believe in the power of radical ambitions.

We aspire to nurture radical ambitions and believe in equally radical humility in their execution.