Nguyen Xuan Luc - young businessman conquering the world market

Thanks to the success of orders for major partners in the US, WATA continued to conquer foreign markets.

70% of customers are from abroad

Vice President of the Vietnam Youth Union, President of the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association Dang Hong Anh praised that young entrepreneur Nguyen Xuan Luc had surpassed hundreds of entrepreneurs nationwide to be honored this time. The individuals who made it to the Top 10 were all voted on by secret ballot, based on criteria of age, title, personal capital contribution, business activities, etc.

Mr. Dang Hong Anh affirmed that Mr. Nguyen Xuan Luc has outstanding points to be listed, with the mark of the company's products conquering the global market. Currently, 70% of WATA's partners are foreign, in demanding markets such as: America, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, Europe...

A working session of WATA and foreign partners. Photo: Hoang Anh

Although he did not disclose the exact revenue figure, Mr. Luc boasted: since the start-up (2015), revenue has always grown by 200 - 350% over the past 5 years. The next 2 years (2021, 2022) grew by 100% and 50% respectively. At that time, WATA was confident in penetrating the international market. Currently, the company is focusing on building the foundation, restructuring personnel to move towards the plan of becoming one of the top technology companies in Vietnam and the region in the next 5-year plan.

Resurrection by fate

Before reaching success, but few people know, WATA almost had to close down. Still remembering clearly the day he received an order from an American partner from a friend, the feeling at that time was likened by this businessman to "a drought meeting a shower".

Businessman Nguyen Xuan Luc said that, as an IT engineer with experience working in a professional environment with international customers, partners, and multinational corporations, with the desire to change his life to escape poverty in the countryside of Nghe An, he and his childhood friend started a business.

At first, the company had only 2 people, who are also the current founders of WATA. At first, they had to look for customers, do consulting, analysis, and also work in the software and system development programming department; to project management, software and system testing to hand over to end customers...

“The founders split up, or took on concurrent responsibilities and covered for each other. The headquarters was just a 16m2 room. There was just enough space for working, receiving, and holding online meetings with customers,” Mr. Luc recalled.

Most of the orders were small orders received from acquaintances. Finding customers was also becoming increasingly difficult because the company was still too small, with capitalization of almost “zero VND”. It seemed that the startup path would have to stop after less than a year of operation, but a partner from the US appeared - a friend!

The partner brought the idea of ​​a technology platform project to support technicians in repairing and rebuilding, providing car services to businesses. The system has applications that help technicians easily estimate, invoice, manage teams and collect data from customers…

“At that time, WATA focused on working hard, considering this a chance for survival. My colleagues and I worked day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep, looking through every document, asking every expert at home and abroad. Months passed, and finally we succeeded. It was also a rare success that a small business could achieve,” he confided.

At the same time, he informed that this platform also helped the partner raise 4.2 million USD in investment capital from the famous American financial institution Silverton Partners. This was also a big boost to help WATA be accepted by the American market. They also increased their confidence and experience to "bring the bell to strike foreign lands" from there.

Founder WATA frankly said: "After that order, we clearly understood the development of systems along with mobile applications for Android and iOS platforms, as well as using new technologies at that time such as React Native, Flutter, Firebase, AWS, GraphQL... The company also had more experience with customers in the field of user interface (UI) design and user experience (UX) for mobile applications, creating friendly and easy-to-use products for customers. That was the most lacking thing for technology companies at that time".

As a result, after 1 year of starting up, the group has developed hundreds of other products for international partners in a short time. The business has grown from there, and its scale has gradually increased. In 2017, WATA conquered the Australian and Singaporean markets, including customers such as the Singapore Government and Changi Airport. In 2019, WATA expanded its customer system in Korea. By 2022, WATA will have more customers from the European market.

Thanks to the strategy of “bringing bells to strike foreign lands”, after 8 years of starting up, WATA now has hundreds of employees. “To achieve today, WATA always seeks to be different. Not only in terms of youth, but the company also aims for an open environment to increase creativity for employees” - said businessman Nguyen Xuan Luc.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/nguyen-xuan-luc-doanh-nhan-tre-chinh-phuc-thi-truong-the-gioi.html