The characteristics of a successful startup

[Applause]

hello everyone thank you for joining me

at uh of uh fbt university this morning

so uh first let me introduce my myself

my name

is uh leilankwa as as everyone knows i’m

a

startup investor and i now

invest in 17 companies

in different industries from sport

from agriculture education technology

food and service so

um this section may be a bit uh

different from

the the first three because we’re going

to do some

uh like interviewing but uh let first uh

let me recap about

a little bit about my life i’m now

a uh almost uh 39 years old

so when i was born it was not a very

good time in vietnam we’re now still in

a very uh

difficult situation right when i was uh

in my childhood my family like

having electricity like i remember like

uh

like four days a week so even having

electricity something

really delightful already back then and

then

um as as vietnam growing

my my my family growing you know

economically

i’m lucky i was lucky enough to to

having a chance to

study abroad new york city and new york

city actually the very first country

that i can

i really could you know like study

abroad you know outside of vietnam

before that i never visited any

any other country so but

um i think that’s a very

fortunate uh opportunity you know life

have given to me

but um so after study in the us and back

here to start my

business career um vietnam back then

was still very conservative country

especially like you know like

like a lot of people like including even

my parents

they don’t believe that you know you

only can do one job at a time

or or you have to choose like you know

you have to pick one

career or or one company and be focused

you know and then

that company will we will will lead you

to you know the

maybe the top level but

i’m like i’m i’m quite a

competitive like person

so when i was like 20 years old i

read an article about mr sir i called

sir richard branson back then

this was 19 years ago i still remember

and when i read about him he already had

a investment fund with 40 companies

and i saw every week he went for golf

you know he went surfing he very active

person

and i myself think of like why not me

you know i want to be that person i want

to be having you know like that’s

ecosystem

of companies and i share with my friends

i share with my parents i share with

a lot of people that you know i know you

know close to me

and most of them think that i was crazy

i think who you think you are what what

you up there you know we different

you know we we from different countries

different conditions

we’re different you cannot compare

that’s crazy i say okay then tell me

what makes a difference you know

one of the guys one of them the

businessman i really admire is like

leather like he’s from hong kong he’s

now one of the richest

you know like businessman uh in

in asia and what in the world

but as i um back then the story

i really moved me is one of my friends

saying you know when you come to hong

kong

every 100 you spend two dollar goes to

him

nobody knows about he owned that much of

business

but you know when he was at his

childhood

he was so good he could not make a

proper funeral to his dad

i was in a very much more advantaged

position

than him so why not me that that

that thought keep bringing me

today at the years of 30 years now

moving to my 38 years old

39 years old having 17 company

but only a few months ago when i read an

article about sir richard branson again

after

19 years you know what happened he now

has 400 companies

400th company on his own

and now i am having 17.

i was thinking i was half of his way

yes but i forgot in the last 20 years

he’s still growing too and he grow fast

i’m losing up no i still having a lot of

hopes because i’m now

only i still have another 30 years to

run

or 30 years to compete and 30 years that

we can

challenge each other so um

so what’s the formula so nowadays

everybody you know especially

in in this whole room who want to be

their startup

raise your hand so i can say anyone

yeah it’s a lot right i don’t see so

because of the lie sorry but you know um

[Music]

um the formula so now everybody talking

about a startup in vietnam right

but today when i come here all i want

is to share the formula the essential

formula

of having a successful setup

in vietnam startup is a global concept

but you know all the global concepts

have to be

localized you know startup in different

country

in different situation is need to be

flexible

right so today as a person that invests

in quite a lot of startup in vietnam in

different

industries so i would love to share with

you guys

what i think the formula of having

a potential successful setup

in vietnam thank you very much and now

we can

do some interview okay very good so now

we see that we have some

like essential thing that we need to

keep in mind

and i will start with some keywords

because keywords will come to ideas and

then

a very interesting conversation so let’s

talk about creativity

what do you think about creativity and

how you know important is creativity

i think creativity to me is nowadays

is a must nowaday when people talk about

we

we keep talking about um a lot about

like um

the industry 4.0 right about technology

right about

ai about you know robot can replace

people right

so that’s my creativity is now is

very very important in life especially

for young people like us i’m not that

young but you know still i have to keep

myself be

creative because only creative

creativity can really make us

differentiated from what machine can do

in a very

near future

next let’s talk about market how do you

find the right

market for your business or if your

product

okay so um

when when i look at a market or a

product or service

that i invest in and i normally have to

look first at the

the market side right it’s hard to be

big

it’s you know like most of the product

now or service are investing right now i

have to see potential that that product

can

like export you know can concur the

world

or at least vietnam so there’s a a

formula that can create a

possible like unicorn unicorn you guys

know that a billionaire

a billion u.s dollar like in

startup right so the market side that’s

uh possible for a unicorn is around

600 million people and above

so if you want to having a chance

upgrading

any unicorn you have to start

at first finding something that you can

sell to that much

of people right let’s say vietnam we

think vietnam bit

nah only a hundred million people we

need

a market size at least six times than

vietnam

you know our neighbor country china we

have maybe 1.4 billion or something

india 1.2 billion that’s why they have a

lot of unicorn

because they’re lucky enough you know

growing in a country that have already

really really big market side i mean

people

yes so and i’m i’m a very curious person

since i was

a kid right so i love reading love

reading

financial report so you know what i

invest in i normally have to read a lot

of financial report you know about the

market side about you know like how big

you know is the site

that that market you know can really you

know

uh get there very good

so let’s talk about our team development

when it comes to startup

i think our team development is very

important so how do you

develop your team and i think team

okay so first is the market size second

of course

the team team is actually people what

i meet up with a lot of startup every

year almost like every month

a lot of startups will come to me and i

think one of the biggest fellow

you know payload the startup make in

vietnam is

they find the wrong team because

a lot of i meet up with a lot of

excellent people and you know they have

a very differentiated product or service

you know have huge potential

but you know when they started

they try to fight to work with friends

or maybe like family members who who can

really supporting them at the very first

stage

or who have the you know the same

mindset with them

you know but it’s gonna go to a very

troublesome

later on because when we find a team to

run a company or run a startup

you need to find people have different

very different

skill at least you have to you know

you have to have someone to really get a

sell really good operation

finance legal right at least

so maybe a team of three have to cover

at least

this four basic skill but normally

people

cannot wait to rush to form a company

but still

not having a proper team that can really

you know

pull that uh startup idea become a real

company that can survive

thank you so much so uh you you have

mentioned about localized

so can you tell me what what is

difference between vietnam and other

countries

and how can we actually localize when it

comes to start or

do a business um i think one of the

luckiest thing for me anything for

everybody in here

is reborn and raised in this time

and in vietnam vietnam the last 10 years

is the farthest growing country

in the world and the world now expecting

us in the next 10 years still the

farthest growing country

and that is actually the golden

opportunity

for vietnam maybe in the last thousand

years

in the last thousand years vietnam men

never find

that spotlight of the world economically

now we are here

last year vietnam have

the the most the biggest number of

countries

in this invest in one country

that show how potential vietnam right

now that we can attract

a lot of you know like foreign investors

you know that that come to us and and

explore our market

but then back to to vietnam so what what

makes vietnam so

substantial we are

we having the youngest population in in

the world

right we have the check check location

right that you know can access to a lot

of you know like

big market like china like like the rest

of asia

the u.s right but

i myself i really i’m born in a

a family that that develop business in

agriculture

i love agriculture and

um in the last 20 years when people

mention about china

they think china is the

they call china is the manufacturer of

the wall

but i really expecting

among many many people can make vietnam

become the kitchen

of the world wow the kitchen because we

have tropical weather

we can manufacture rice coffee pepper

fruit tropical fruits all the fruit that

you know like developed countries they

pay you know like

dearly you know to have our longing our

mango right we definitely

can concur that market can make that

national brand

and you know i just tell you one thing

coconut right so now because a lot of

people they

they’re really concerned just for one

example so you can’t imagine how big

it agriculture product you know the

market side of

a agricultural product now a lot of

people in the world are really

concerned about the health right so they

they start shifting from using starch to

cocoa powder

to make cakes do you need to to to eat

every day

and the market side of cocoa powder

right now in the world

it’s 22 billion u.s dollar

and it’s growing nine percent every year

and as we know coconut only growing in

tropical country right like thailand

live vietnam like

and that’s already make it very

differentiated you know

for just one product passion for also

the same

huge and you know as young people

we don’t just look at technology we

don’t look just look at something

fancy just look at something very basic

you know like food

like during the corporate time you guys

see every you know when the economy in

the world like going down you know

people try saving a lot

we can stop shopping we can stop buying

stuff

but we cannot stop eating

and now we have to eat clean right

so to me that’s one of the reason that

make vietnam is something that we can

really

think about when it comes to oregon

culture and also one other thing is i

have one of my startup

we do like ig solution vietnam now

among the top country in the world where

they go to i.t solution

just behind like india right and now

it’s the time of you know 4.0

you know so iit actually

is the biggest tool for vietnam to go

fast and we that now i’m at the apt

university the university of technology

so we are now definitely at the very

right time

with a great label for us when it comes

to technology

to really support all the industry to go

global wow amazing

so i think my last question would be are

your very famous thing

about how like to choose the right

people

in my industry something can you share a

little bit about your very famous saying

the right people yes

the right people in the right industry

at the right time is it right

okay yeah i might say it

okay so i think the right people

in the right industry at the right time

yes that’s correct

but to me the most important thing and

the first foremost

is the right people you have to find the

right people that’s the hardest thing

because for example i invest in one of

my startups about the cake

industry i see the potential of the cake

industry

i think more than 14 years

i really want to have to do something

with that industry

14 years ago i kept thinking about that

business of that market of

upgrading a company that can survive and

grow in that industry for 14 years

but i cannot find the right people

the the person that you know like

co-founded with me on that the cat

factory

the startup about with me now is

actually the third person

that i find not the first

the first two i fail but i keep

you know searching consistently to find

the right person

to put in the right industry and now i

figure it out

if you have those first two anytime is

right