By Minh Phuong
Vietnam Startup Network in Europe (VSNE) and Startup Vietnam Foundation (SVF) collaborated to organize a series of events named “Startup, Why Not?” from December 7th to December 10th, 2018.
The forum was aimed to inspire and pervade entrepreneurial intentions as well as creating a basic foundation to support the Vietnamese startup community around Germany. The sequence of events took place consecutively from Munich (December 7th) to Frankfurt (December 8th) and Hannover (December 9th). Particularly in the event “Workshop Business Model” on December 12th taking place in Berlin, all the students were enabled to learn and exercise in constructing a practical yet effective business model under the consultation of Speaker Pham Duy Hieu – General Director of An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBANK) and Vice President of SVF, who has accompanied with VSNE since its initial event in mid-August.
“Helpful”, “Informative” and “Interesting” were the main keywords mentioned in the audience’s testimonials. Throughout the guidance of Mentor Pham Duy Hieu, student participants were presented to multiple valuable knowledge, along with real-life case studies that emphasized on the importance of a sound “mindset”, on how to prepare and develop it before building or managing their startups. The forum also highlighted the value of choices, self-belief and the roots of fear in everyone’s life conducted from personal experience and knowledge of the Speaker. Going further with entrepreneurship, the participants also had the opportunity to understand more the concept of “Six-step startups” and were enabled to somehow answer the question of their startup journey in the future.
Within the context of the last two panel discussions in Berlin “Startup, Why Not?” and “Innovation Changes the Game”, another crucial tool called business model was introduced in the Berlin “Workshop Business Model”. Appraised as one of the three determinants to the existence and survival of startups and companies in general, a good business model would help to bring business ideas closer to reality. In addition, another special section brought into the forum the first time was the “1:1 Mentor-Mentee” with the participation of three notable experts: Mr.Pham Duy Hieu (General Director of ABBANK & Vice President of SVF), Mrs. Le Hong Minh (Member of SVF’s Board of Director & General Director of Ivalue Holdings) and finally Mr. Le Minh Nhut (Project Manager of Local Startup Ecosystems & Startup Network Volunteers). The interaction between young, aspiring entrepreneurs-to-be and professionals were highly encouraged to give out opportunities for young startups in Europe to be advised directly from the predecessors with refined knowledge and expertise. The testing section of “1:1 Mentor-Mentee” has received great feedbacks from all the attendees afterwards.
Thanks to uncountable and enthusiastic help of SVF Funds and generous sponsorship of KOVA Paint, An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBANK), the graphic startup Molting Studio and cash register system startup Ikasse247, a series of medium-sized startup events in four cities have been incredibly successful. The organizers hoped that with this series of events students and entrepreneurs will be able to apply this new knowledge to develop ideas and construct their business model accordingly. It is not only a golden opportunity for young startups but also a potential investment playground for businesses and individual investors in Germany, Vietnam as well as throughout Europe.