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