Startup has become increasingly popular among younger generation, contributing to forming a generation of young people who boldly break out of their comfort zone and embark on the path of self-employment.

The FiveSS project participates in many domestic startup programmes and festivals, thereby introducing its utilities and servicesto a large number of customers. Photo: KHANH HOA

Get out of rut

The FiveSS Technology JSC, which has operated from May 2021, is the startup project developed by 41-year-old Do Quy Su.

The company targets to become an e-commerce web app integrated on smartphones and computers, aiming to connect contractors and material dealers with customers in a simple, fast, convenient and cost-effective way while still ensuring the technical and artistic quality.

Sharing about the idea of ​​developing the startup project FiveSS, Su said after a period of working in the construction sector, he decided to develop FiveSS with the desire to overcome the disadvantages in traditional construction methods to raise the level of the construction industry.

Thanks to its outstanding applicability in practice, the FiveSS project was named among top 10 outstanding startup projects at the Da Nang Startup and Innovation Festival (SURF) 2022. The project was highly appreciated by customers and experts for its necessity in the future digital transformation in the construction sector.

Another example is businessman Phan Hoang Huy who is CEO of Bep Trang Joint Stock Company cum Vice Chairman of the municipal Young Entrepreneurs’ Association.

In 2009, Huy boldly started a business with the project ‘My Quang Ech (Quang Noodles with frogs) - Trang Kitchen’ as he was only 19 years old.

Up to now, this project has succeeded in developing into a restaurant system specialising in Quang noodles - a specialty of Central Viet Nam. At present, the name ‘Trang Kitchen’ has risen to fame at both home and abroad.

Majoring in information technology but choosing the culinary field to start a business, Huy confided that the motivation to start a business about Quang noodles was a family with a traditional profession of making Quang noodles.

“I am so impressed by, and admired, the generations of successful senior entrepreneurs like Mr. Truong Gia Binh. Looking at them, I also want to be able to do something to earn an income, assert myself as well as bring values to the community through widely promoting traditional dishes of my homeland” Huy added.

Talking about the story of starting a business due to the pressure of life, perhaps it is impossible not to mention Le Thai Hoang, 38, who successfully built a chain of Thai cuisine restaurants in Da Nang named ‘Thai Market’.

After failing university entrance examinations twice, Mr Hoang travelled to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to work at a construction site as a worker. Sometime later, he made his ceaseless efforts to attend an intermediate accounting course whilst doing his job in HCMC.

His great efforts and nimbleness, then, were paid off as he became a building contractor that enabled him to save a good amount of money.  

In early 2012, whilst making friends with a Thai food chef, Hoang decided to quit his current job to learn how to cook delicious Thai dishes.

After that, Hoang returned his hometown in Da Nang. In December 2012, he opened the first Thai restaurant at Da Nang’s Indochina Riverside building on Bach Dang. However, at that time, Thai food was not much popular with local residents. Therefore, he had to cook beef noodles for sale in the morning in order to offset the losses to maintain the operation of his Thai restaurant.

In 2013, when the trend of eating Thai hot pot was growing, his Thai restaurant was always crowded with gourmets.

Nearly a decade after starting a business and going through ups and downs, but under the steady direction of Le Thai Hoang, the Thai Market restaurant system has grown strongly, and become a famous "brand" in the city’s food service - tourism industry. 

Look forward to next generation

Following the spirit of boldly starting a business of the previous generations of entrepreneurs, the city has generations of entrepreneurs born in the late 1980s and the early 2000s.

Nguyen Quoc Vuong, a resident of Son Tra District born in 1999, is a typical example.

After graduating from the Petroleum Engineering Major of the University of Science and Technology - the University of Da Nang, Vuong decided to start a business with an environmental project using microalgae to treat aquatic wastewater at seafood processing factories, fishing ports and wet markets.

For Vuong, the project is not only a job but also helps him satisfy his desire to make a small contribution to environmental protection.

In order for the project to really come into practice, in 2022, Vuong established the Vietnam Oil and Gas Company Limited. The biggest difficulty of Vuong, as well as many young people embarking on the path of starting a business today is still the problem of lack of capital.

Looking back on the arduous journey of starting a business, but having achieved many results, businessman Phan Hoang Huy remarked "It is not an easy path and not for those who are not brave and persistent enough. Desire to master big dreams but can't stand the pressure, the probability of success is very difficult. To be able to master, you must more or less have the courage, work hard to train your willpower over time. Therefore, when doing any job or position, if you do it with an attitude of mastery, you must be energetic and persistent, dare to accept challenges. And, as a rule, a person who is always learning, striving to maximize his ability, always looking for more experiences with persistent energy, it is difficult for that person not to succeed in life".

Over the past time, Da Nang has always been focusing on startup activities with many programmes and activities, gradually changing young people's thinking about career choice and direction for themselves in life, including mastery thinking.

Mr. Vo Duc Anh, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Innovation Startup Support Center commented that in the past ten years, Da Nang has become a perfect venue for many young entrepreneurs to embark on the entrepreneurial path. This helps to create a premise for Da Nang to realise its higher and further goal of turning itself into a major innovation center of the whole country in particular and the region in general.

Reporting by KHANH HOA - Translating by M.DUNG