According to 8x entrepreneur Tạ Minh Tuấn, the relationship between startups and investors is a Partnership, not one of Asking–Giving or Gratitude–Obligation. So investors are not the only ones choosing startups; startups must also choose investors.
Tạ Minh Tuấn was born in 1988 and studied Industrial Systems Engineering at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.
He is known as a pioneer of the “Personal Doctor” model in Vietnam. With only a few million dong in capital and an innovative idea, Tạ Minh Tuấn raised billions of dong and successfully built HELP International.
In 2011, he founded YUP Insitute, a pioneering academy for entrepreneurship training and support in Vietnam.
That same year, Tạ Minh Tuấn became one of Vietnam's 15 exemplary social entrepreneurs, certified by CSIP (Center for Social Initiatives Promotion), the British Council, and the World Bank.
In 2015, he was honored by Forbes Vietnam among the Top 30 most outstanding young people under 30.
NDH had a brief conversation with this entrepreneur from the 8X generation to hear his startup experiences.
“Educating the Market” – A Challenge for Pioneers
As the first person to build the “Family Doctor” model in Vietnam, what advantages and difficulties do you think pioneering startups face?
Within difficulties lie advantages, and within advantages lie difficulties. In my personal experience, pioneering startups face the challenge that their business model is still relatively “hard to understand” for most of the target market. Turning “hard to understand” into “easy to understand” requires startups to “educate the market.”
Educating the market is usually a very difficult stage requiring a great deal of capital. Changing even one person is hard, yet here you need to change an entire market. It also takes time and your own perseverance, along with a very sound and intelligent approach.
Sometimes, just as we have “almost” educated the market, we run out of capital and die. Our successors then reap all the benefits of that earlier process, stepping over our “corpse” into the market and needing only a little more capital and time to succeed.
Conversely, the opportunity is that if a startup pioneers and successfully educates the market, the market will see its brand as ‘top of mind’ — the first brand recalled whenever that need arises. This is a success lesson from existing brands, including Vietnamese ones such as X-men.
The key is to understand the game you are about to enter, make the preparations required for that particular kind of game, and choose the right moment to act.
Choosing an investor is like getting married!
With a fairly new idea, you raised many billions of đồng in investment. What advice would you give Start-ups on persuading investors to fund their projects?
I think there is plenty of advice out there, but I will not offer advice along the lines of “How can I get investors to agree to put money into my business?” Or, jokingly, how can I “lure” an investor? Instead, what I would like to share is this: Choose the right investor for you!
Because having an investor is like getting married: choose wrongly and everything becomes a disaster. It destroys a startup’s architecture for success. The relationship between a Startup and an investor is a Partnership, not a relationship of Begging and Giving or Gratitude and Obligation. Therefore, investors do not merely choose Startups; Startups must choose investors too. To choose the right investor, review these factors:
Does this investor fit the startup's goals, culture, core values, management style, and business strategy?
Is the startup willing to change one or more of the above criteria to receive investment, or will it defend its core values to the end?
Does a startup need angel investors or an investment fund?
Is the timing right to receive investment?
Why does the startup need investment? How much investment is needed? What will the money be used for?
Sometimes the ability to build and develop a future relationship with each other is an important condition. Many “pairs” do not sense this in one another, so even if everything seems very good, they still do not team up.
At some point, every company must become a ‘good company’
Do you see social enterprise as a new direction for young entrepreneurs?
I have met many people who tell me, “I dream of becoming an entrepreneur.” I hope that in the future, I will hear many people say, “My dream is to become a social entrepreneur.”
Every company, upon reaching a certain stage of development, must become a “good” company—a good company—where “good” means its growth does not conflict with society's sustainable development. Besides creating more jobs, companies come under greater scrutiny and must therefore actively contribute to social activities that bring positive value to the community. Their business models must solve a specific social problem in order to grow. This is not just a form of PR; it seems to be a requirement for continued growth: undertaking activities that contribute to the community, such as CSR programs (corporate social responsibility—reporter's note).
And most importantly, we must help society move forward together, rather than prosper ourselves while society goes backward. Otherwise, they will be going against nature and be destroyed.
Take Alibaba: many sellers of counterfeit branded goods contributed significantly to the company's success. Once successful, however, Alibaba must gradually “clean out” those sellers, willingly or not, even if it temporarily hurts the company itself.
The challenge here is whether businesses can become 1 “good company” from the very beginning, without waiting until they are successful or wealthy. And that hope is placed in social enterprises.
Thank you, Tuấn!
