Vietnamese startups encouraged to embrace failure

Vietnam Online Startup Forum 2018 is an ideal platofrm for entrepreneurs and startup founders to access the newest trends and best practices

Around 70 per cent of startups fail in the first five years due to problems related to financial management and sales and marketing activities. To help Vietnamese startups embrace failure much more, IM Group, under the auspices of Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), has recently organised Vietnam Online Startup Forum 2018 with the participation of more than 1,000 entrepreneurs and businessmen in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the forum, around 12 keynote speakers from prestigious firms like Amazon, Nguyen Kim, Zalo Business, IM Group, and Deca.vn shared stories and best practices to overcome failure.

Le Thanh Nhan, CEO of Lecon Seafoods, established his first seafood business in 2006, which soon took off and reported a monthly revenue of $1 million. However, after five years of operations, the company faced unsurmountable challenges due to the intensifying competition in the seafood market as well as financial management problems. As a result, the company went bankrupt with mounting debts in 2014.

Based on this failure, Nhan gave some valuable advice to Vietnamese entrepreneurs. To build a successful startup, founders should be armed with financial management skills in order to gauge the health of the business, like cash flow, bad debts, and inventory.

In addition, startups should not use short-term income like capital from suppliers and banks to invest in long-term assets because it affects the business’ sustainable development prospects.

After the failure, Nhan started to build another startup named Lecon SeaFoods in 2015. The startup has received investment from large investors and became a partner for renowned brands like Golden Gate restaurant group and Pullman Hotel.

Beside valuable lessons from aspiring entrepreneurs, the forum also gave an insight into Vietnamese consumer behaviour in the 4.0 era, ways to optimise profits as well as ways to leverage technology to develop e-commerce businesses.

Vietnam Online Startup Forum 2018 has become an ideal platform for entrepreneurs, startup founders, brand owners, retailers, and manufacturers alike to exchange information, discuss best practices, and take steps to drive their online business forward in 2019.