The book ‘Chat with startups - From idea to successful fundraising’, released in 2021, has made a mark in the startup community. The author is Le My Nga, a familiar figure in the Da Nang startup community. Over the past years, she has been a mentor and companion for many startups at incubators across the city.

Ms. Le My Nga addresses at a conference for innovative startup coaches organised by the National Centre for Innovation and Startup Support under the Ministry of Science and Technology) in January 2022. Photo provided by the character.

When asked about what inspired her to write this renowned book, Nga said that the people are witnessing a shift in business models and technological application in all industries globally. Startup is even more challenging than running an ordinary business.

The owner of a startup project must possess broad knowledge and learn a lot of things from many life aspects.

The first edition of the book with a series of ‘Chat with Startups’ features many management- related topics. The book provides the most basic knowledge about innovative startups, just to answer the question: “What is a startup? How is a startup different from a doing traditional business?.

“I hope the book will help young people ‘re-shape’ themselves, decide whether they should start a business or enter the labour market after graduating from university. I want to paint a comprehensive picture of the ecosystem that young people need to participate in to be able to design a potential project and attract investment funds”, said Nga.

The ‘Chat with Startups - from idea to successful fundraising’ helps readers gain a deeper insight into ways to operate a successful startup. The author pointed out to the fact that “an unworkable business model or a dream that is too big will be like an oversized shirt, leaving you exhausted and unsure of where to start”.

An book introduced must-learn ways to define a customer in a right direction, with a focus on a specific customer market with a large enough scale, identify the right Pain Point and provide a specific solution and create customer data as soon as possible.

A successful product is not always a breakthrough one, but sometimes, it just needs to be an improved one that is suitable for consumers, based on a consumer need and must be implemented in a thoughtful way.

The book also details the things that startups need to consider when relying on support from incubators and business accelerators, and shows how to identify and find good mentors.

Besides, a particularly important part in the startup process is to pitching your idea to a group of investors to raise money through making a persuasive presentation.

The book devotes a lot of space to answering practical questions such as How to prepare a business plan presentation? and How to successfully convince angel investors and venture capital funds to give you funding? How to make startup funding rounds (pre-seed, seed, early stage, IPO...) so smooth and effective? Should we use crowdfunding or not?

In her evaluations on Da Nang’s innovative startup ecosystem?, Nga spoke highly of its great potential. The city government has paid great attention to creating practical conditions, including financial support for potential projects and policies to attract startups from many localities in order to complete a colorful entrepreneurial picture.

This is a step to serve the strategy of realising the goal of Da Nang becoming a smart city, a bright spot for innovation startups in Viet Nam and the region in the near future.

In an innovative startup, a complete and dynamic ecosystem plays a very important role in helping startups quickly complete the model, connect resources to launch to the market and scale up quickly. This is the room for Da Nang to improve.

The municipal administration and startup support units need to be more active in cooperating with domestic and foreign venture capital funds, and considering this an important strategy to perfect the ecosystem.

Because angel and venture capital is an extremely important element in the ecosystem alongside startup mentors, incubators and accelerators.

As for Nga’s pieces of advice, Da Nang startups need to learn the successful models, at least the ones that have raised venture capital. In order to design an innovative model that solves the "pain" of the market on a large scale, startups are highly recommended to master the existing market, apply technology to design new and more creative models, meet higher needs, and make more effective products/services. And of course, that model must be able to scale up quickly.

Reporting by PHONG LAN – Translating by A.THU