The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Vietnam: A Snapshot

1. The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
of Vietnam: A Snapshot
Tran Tri Dung
International Innovation Business Forum 3
Ho Chi Minh city, 2 June 2016

2. There is always an Ecosystem…
Be patient.. Entrepreneurial that matters

3. The Entrepreneurs
• Entrepreneur is anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit:
1. Desire to create new value
2. Readiness for uncertainty
3. Capability to capture and realize opportunity
• Pools of talented engineers… just lack of startup/business founders.
• Confucianism in Vietnam:
Hierarchy: Social Ranking: “Sĩ – Nông – Công – Thương”
(Gentry scholar/Intellectual Official – Farmers – Craftsman – Trader/Businessman)
Face-saving: “Fail fast, Fail often, and Fail cheaply”
Relation-based business: personalize business relation
The hidden entrepreneur’s aspiration to become non-entrepreneur
• Golden population: the next generation of entrepreneurs
Young, enthusiasm, and dynamic
Low Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede: 30/100)
Critical role of education system in building entrepreneurial mindset

4. Innovation is everywhere
Zing.vn (14 May 2016): $0.018-0.027/kg of salt
in Duc Pho, Quang Ngai
100gram: $0.909

5. Beyond tech.. Struggling.. Moving forward

6. Government
• Entrepreneurship development is on national agenda
• National Agencies:
• MOST: National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization
(NATEC)
• MPI: Agency for Enterprise Development (AED)
• Legal framework
• Resources coordination and leverage (?) [Information = Resource/Asset]

7. Accelerators and Incubators
• Accelerators and Incubators (AIs) are not something new in Vietnam.
• But a list of AIs with clear supporting programs is not that long:
• Topica FI; Expara; VSVA; BSSC; DNES, BTIC
• VIISA; Hatch!Incubation; Innovatube
• Services and support:
• Mentoring
• Coaching & Training
• Infrastructure
• Seed financing
• Networking

8. Co-working Spaces: Not new players
Competition? Not at all

9. Startups help startups startup
The New Yorker’s Cartoon
 It is not a problem
 There are some advantages:
 Been there, done that
 Receptive and Collaborative
 Ecosystem hubs
 Developing/introducing more services to
the ecosystem:
 Incubation and acceleration
programs
 Mentoring services
 Angel investing networks

10. Angel Investors • Who?
Successful business people
‘Professional’ angel investors
• Why?
Active investors: profit-making business
Few consider angel investing as charity or
give back to community
• How?
Individual decision but very often a group of
friends and/or business partners
• Challenges:
 Quality deal flows
Legal issue
Exit strategy
• Equity funding to early-stage startup companies
• Filling the gap between early-stage need and VC deal size
• Supporting a much wide range of innovation than VCs

11. Mentoring
Proven Impacts!
3.5X increase in sales growth
7 times more likely to raise money

13. Ecosystem Accelerators
• Innovation Partnership
Program
Finish Government
MOST
• Mekong Business Initiative
Australian Government
ADB
• The Entrepreneurship Program
Swiss Government

14. A Call for More Engagement of Corporate Sector
• “The business of business is business”
– Milton Friedman
• How?
Source of mentors
Source of funding
Corporate accelerators
• Benefits
 R&D alternative
 Investment opportunity
 Innovative and entrepreneurial corporate
culture
1912 -- 2016

15. Thank you very much!