Vietnamese youth spur entrepreneurship

A bunch of Vietnamese college students studying in the US and Singapore are nurturing dreams of linking entrepreneurial Vietnamese students around the world with globally renowned figures. They will meet later this month in Vietnam for the maiden Viet Youth Entrepreneurs Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up.

Tuoi Tre spoke to Nguyen Thai Dong Huong (Co-chair, Viet Youth Entrepreneurs Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up, Stanford University Class of 2014) about the camp that has caused surprise among quite a few experts.

Can you tell us about Viet Youth Entrepreneurs Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up?

“Viet Youth Entrepreneurs Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up,” organized by Viet Youth Entrepreneurs (a non-profit incorporated in California, the US), aims to provide internationally recognized entrepreneurship training to Vietnamese university students, while sowing the seed for a global community of students and mentors passionate about entrepreneurship in Vietnam. The bootcamp takes place from August 18 to 24, 2011, in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to preliminary research by VYE, there is high interest in entrepreneurship amongst Vietnamese youth. Compared to their overseas fellows, young Vietnamese are smart and hard-working but lack the opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship directly from individuals and organizations with experience. This partly explains for the comparatively low success rate among Vietnamese startup groups. Recognizing this sad discrepancy, the VYE team, who have always considered themselves privileged to have access to many resources abroad, is striving to build a program that caters specifically to Vietnamese college students’ needs. As learning takes place not only in classrooms but also, as effectively, through conversations, VYE Bootcamp aims to be not merely a training course but also an opportunity for entrepreneurial students to get connected with each other, with professors, professionals, investors, and other key players in Vietnam’s entrepreneurship scene.

Can you tell us more about the “opportunity” part of the VYE Bootcamp?

Perhaps I should talk first about my personal experience at Stanford University. Located right in the heart of Silicon Valley, the global entrepreneurship hub which has witnessed the birth of many giant tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Intel, Stanford offers abundant networking opportunities that both shocked and amazed me initially. I met Mark Zuckerberg three times in my first quarter, visited Google and Facebook offices in my second quarter, and talked to individuals from the biggest Venture Capitals in my third quarter, freshman year. Such opportunities, I had previously thought, were impossible to get.

Immediately, I thought of ways to share these opportunities with Vietnamese college students. The idea got eager support from my friends, most of whom are also Vietnamese students abroad. Accordingly, we founded VYE and sketched the first plan for the VYE Bootcamp 2011, which has grown so much since. Trying to capitalize on our international advantage, we are partnering up with many prominent entrepreneurship organizations from Silicon Valley, Singapore, India, Japan, and Vietnam.

The VYE team members are still very young. Do you think this may create skepticism about the quality of the VYE Bootcamp?

We do not think young age is a disadvantage. Young people possess a fresh mind and enthusiasm; in fact, many entrepreneurs achieved great success when they were young: Mark Zuckerberg, Seth Sternberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, etc. It is important that we believe in what we could do and strive hard to do that – this is also the message VYE hopes to give out through the upcoming bootcamp.

Besides, the VYE team is not completely inexperienced. At 19, I have been involved with many education and community service organizations: Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students, Stanford Pre-business Association, Southeast Asia Leadership Network, VietAbroader, etc.

Other students on the VYE team are also actively involved in many youth activities.

We are lucky that many potential partners and sponsors have recognized the group’s potential and given us their whole-hearted trust. We have worked very hard for the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up and are now completely confident in the project’s result.

What will the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up bring to participants?

VYE Bootcamp participants will have the opportunity to learn a Stanford-certified entrepreneurship course named Gear Up taught by Professor Thomas Kosnik from the Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP). They will receive a certification from Prof Kosnik and STVP at the end of the course. Besides training, the bootcamp also includes many panel discussions and chats with prominent entrepreneurial figures such as Henry Nguyen (IDG Ventures Vietnam), Seth Steinberg (founder of Meebo), Le Hong Minh (Vinagame), etc., mixer events, and a startup competition. VYE has partnered with the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students and Start-up@Singapore and will take the winning teams from this startup competition to Silicon Valley and Singapore next spring to join international entrepreneurship events there.

VYE has only selected 100 university students for the upcoming bootcamp. Is this number too small? What are the admission criteria for the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up?

VYE consulted many professionals before coming up with the decision that 100 is the ideal number to ensure the bootcamp’s quality. The most important admission criterion is applicants’ passion in entrepreneurship. Besides, basic English skills (equivalent to the B diploma) are necessary. Though we will try to have as much translation as possible at the bootcamp, poor English command may prevent necessary interactions during class.

As for selection methodology, VYE uses the most advanced methodologies from major entrepreneurship test-making hubs for our application and, especially, interviews. We consulted Prof Thomas Kosnik, experts from the Institute of Potential Leaders, Trung Nguyen coffee firm, and Business Startup Support Center.

For more detailed information regarding the application process for the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up, refer to our website at www.vye.vn. Applications are open until August 8.

Recently there have been many entrepreneurship training programs for students in Vietnam. What makes the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up different?

VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up stands out for our internationalism. Participants in the bootcamp will not only listen to expert entrepreneurs and investors in Vietnam but also learn an internationally recognized entrepreneurship curriculum and interact with individuals from global entrepreneurship hubs. The balanced mix between Vietnamese and foreign speakers will equip them with both global and local perspectives on entrepreneurship.

Besides, we notice that entrepreneurship programs in Vietnam only focus on students from economics backgrounds. The VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up seeks attendance from both students of social sciences and, especially, natural sciences and engineering backgrounds. We know a perfect startup team needs both the savvy businessmen and the genius technical geeks.

What are you looking forward to after the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up?

We are launching many activities after the bootcamp to keep growing the VYE community. Our ultimate goal is to contribute to an ever-expanding, sustainable entrepreneurship culture in Vietnam through inspiring and assisting young people with their entrepreneurial endeavors. Though it is not the right time to reveal our specific long-term agenda, I can say that provided they are committed to the VYE ideals, participants of the VYE Bootcamp 2011 – Light Up will have abundant opportunities in future.

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