Entrepreneur shares inspiring startup journey with students

At the workshop "Starting a business - Starting locally - Thinking globally" on November 3, many entrepreneurs shared their startup stories from many perspectives, helping students learn lessons if they intend to start a business.

Overview of the workshop "Start-up - Start locally, Think globally" on November 3. (Source: Van Lang University)

Starting a business is a difficult journey, many studies show that in the first 5 years, more than 95% of startups worldwide have to close down for many reasons. To create conditions for students to prepare solidly in the field of startups, on November 3, the Faculty of Public Relations - Communication (Van Lang University) organized the workshop "Starting a business - Starting locally, Thinking globally", attracting more than 2,000 students from the whole school to attend.

Through the program, students have the opportunity to interact with speakers who are successful experts and leaders of prestigious companies, thereby accessing in-depth knowledge, valuable experience and drawing practical and meaningful lessons for their entrepreneurial journey.

With over 20 years of experience in the field of management and education, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Huu Duc, co-founder of BCC and Better Living, said that Vietnam ranks 3rd in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of startups. However, within 5 years of starting a business, 95-97% of businesses "fail".

Mr. Duc said that first, one must start from the locality, including factors such as geography, oneself, and current events when starting a business.

"We start small with a global vision. If you want to think globally, don't forget your roots, and what you have inside you such as passion, talent, and values. Then comes youth, curriculum, technology and information, and startup projects," said Mr. Duc.

Talking about his four thorny startups, Mr. Nguyen Trung Dung - Chairman of DH Foods Joint Stock Company recalled that at the age of 28, he opened a handicraft company. At the age of 31, he started his second business with negative capital. In 2007, he started his third business at the age of 45 with the mindset of a rich person, but the global economic crisis left him penniless. And at the age of 50 (in 2012), he started his fourth business when he returned home after 30 years of living in Poland.

At this time, Mr. Dung founded DH Foods with the dream of clean Vietnamese specialty spices, no synthetic colors, no artificial preservatives. Currently, DH Foods has successfully built a brand of clean specialty spices, contributing to bringing Vietnamese spices to the world.

Sharing at the program, the CEO of the DOL English thinking English system said that his startup has two outstanding strengths including the super technology system DOL SuperLMS and the Linearthinking English thinking method (certified by the Department of Intellectual Property in 2019).

As a former student specializing in Mathematics at the Gifted High School (Ho Chi Minh City National University), Dinh Luc had researched the above method since grade 10 to solve his own "problem" of being bad at English.

Basically, Dinh Luc's Linearthinking method combines three elements: studying the influence of the first language on the second language, in this case learning Vietnamese on learning English. The remaining two elements are applying super memory techniques and mathematical logic to practice English.

Like the way to learn grammar, instead of learning a lot of formulas and solving problems with tricks and signs, he "shows" how to create mind maps and simplify, as well as apply context. Meanwhile, the way to deploy thinking from Vietnamese to English will solve situations that students were previously afraid of, especially in the communication part.

Once he had mastered English, Dinh Luc decided to open an English tutoring class during his university and graduate school years to earn extra income and reduce the financial burden on his family. Thanks to the effectiveness of the Linearthinking method, the number of students spread by word of mouth and grew. That was also the reason why he turned down a PhD scholarship in Australia to start an Edtech business in 2017. He called it an "all-in" decision, leaving behind all other opportunities.

Before Covid-19, he only had one offline center and invested heavily in online, including digitizing the management and academic aspects. And thanks to following the edtech direction, Dinh Luc's startup overcame the pandemic. Currently, the system has 18 centers in the three regions of the North, Central and South.

"To be ready to penetrate the global market, Vietnamese startups in the field of educational technology need to prepare essential competitive advantages. The first is the product advantage. In education, the success of a product is determined by the learning effectiveness of the user. Therefore, educational technology startups need to invest deeply in content, build unique and effective teaching methods. At the same time, they need a team of teachers with enough expertise to convey these methods optimally," Mr. Luc shared.

The second factor, according to Mr. Luc, is technology. When Vietnamese education startups enter foreign markets, technology products need to be different and creative compared to competitors in the same industry in the international market. The challenges in marketing, communication, sales, legality and operations in the international market can be huge.

"However, if the startup has an advantage in product quality, especially in teaching methods, teaching staff and technological features serving students, this will be a significant advantage to help Vietnamese education startups compete effectively when expanding to the international market," he said.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/doanh-nhan-chia-se-chang-duong-khoi-nghiep-day-cam-hung-toi-sinh-vien-292482.html