Past event…

Sep 14 2012 Event Ended

18bis/14 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.

The non-profit organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but Startup Weekend organizers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekends culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback.

Whether entrepreneurs found companies, find a cofounder, meet someone new, or learn a skill far outside their usual 9-to-5, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event better prepared to navigate the chaotic but fun world of startups. If you want to put yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur, register now for the best weekend of your life!

Learn what it takes to start a real business, join us for Startup Weekend HCMC 2012!

Watch this short introduction to Startup Weekend on Youtube!

Schedule

Friday

Sep 14

6:30pm Registration Starts
7:00pm Snacks & Networking
7:20pm Welcome & Speakers
7:30pm Pitches Start
9:00pm Attendees vote for the top ideas
9:15pm Teams start forming and discussing ideas
10:00pm Start to formalize teams and take an inventory of skills. Be honest, and direct about what resources and skills are needed for the weekend. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Saturday

Sep 15

9:00am Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
9:30am Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Call for needs & skills
2:00pm Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
6:30pm Dinner
7:30pm Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
10:00pm Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Sep 16

9:00am Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
10:00am Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Coaches arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
3:00pm Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
4:00pm Dinner
5:30pm Check-in
6:00pm Pitch Fire
6:30pm SHOWCASE
7:15pm Final Pitch
8:00pm Winner Announce
8:15pm Wrapup
8:30pm Networking

Platinum Sponsors

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Gold Sponsors

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Silver Sponsors

Speakers

Tuoc Huynh

Growth Manager, Facebook

Tuoc Huynh is currently serving as the growth manager of Facebook in Vietnam. Most recently, Tuoc was the Country Consultant for Google Vietnam. He was also Google’s chief evangelist for the Indochina region. During his time with Google, the company went from number 3 to the number 1 Vietnamese web destination in the country. Prior to Google, Tuoc was key management positions with Phu My Hung, the largest and most prestigious real estate development in the nation, and auto giant DaimlerChrysler.
Tuoc Huynh received his B.A. in Psychology and M.A. in Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Judges

Tuoc Huynh

Growth Manager, Facebook

Tuan Pham

Co-founder, Topica Education Group

Tuan is a serial entrepreneur and accomplished academic. He is currently the chairman of the TOPICA Education Group, president of Elite Vietnam Entertainment Group, and a steering committee member of the Asian Pacific Incubation Network. He has previously held roles in management consulting, higher education, venture capital, and software. Tuan has earned master's degrees in business administration and information technology, and a PhD in information management.

Quoc Trinh

Former Director, Avenue Capital

Quoc is currently an investor and entrepreneur focused on private opportunities in Vietnam in the healthcare and education sectors. Previously, he was a Director of Avenue Capital Group (one of the largest alternative investment managers in the world with $19.5 billion of assets under management) working on the Asia strategy team. Quoc also worked with the CT&D Group (the foreign investor in Phu My Hung, Tan Thuan EPZ and Hiep Phuoc Power Plant in Vietnam), Baker & McKenzie and the US-Vietnam Trade Council in Washington, DC.
Quoc graduated with an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business of the University of California at Berkeley, and received Bachelor of Art degrees in History and Biology from the University of Kansas, where he graduated from the Honors Program and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Quoc has split his time between US and Asia for over 15 years

Thinh Nguyen

Serial Entrepreneur, Angel Investor

Thinh is Founder and CEO of Pyramid Software Development. He has worked in the software development industry for over 25 years in the US specializing in rapid developing of enterprise and telecommunication networks management system (NMS). He has been the President/CEO of Pyramid Software Development (PSD) in Quang Trung Software City, Vietnam since 2001. He formed the Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) Committee of AmCham Vietnam and is currently serves as the committee Chairman.

Dung Nguyen

Director, CyberAgent Ventures

Mr. Nguyen Manh Dung worked in a Japanese manufacturing company, in charge of import&export department. Also he worked in the biggest software company in Vietnam, experienced several projects to develop Japanese market. He decided to study abroad to Japan and he researched finance and economy. April 2009, he joined CyberAgent Investment, Inc. Now the name of company has changed to CyberAgent Ventures, Inc. He is in charge of the investment activities and management support for venture capitals in Vietnam. Graduated from Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, Vietnam and Graduated School of Economics in Hosei University in Japan.

Sieng Tran

Serial Entrepreneur, Angel Investor

A Founding Partner of Fold7 Digital and seasoned Tech Entrepreneur and investor who has raised and invested in success technology companies. Notable experiences include raising 250,000 in funding from Charles Denton over lunch for eCommerce facilitator and going on to sell the business in less than 12 months for 2.6 milllion. Raising capital from the first MD of Cisco UK for an eLearning startup and partnering with Microsoft, RBS and BT to generate 1.3 million in 18 months in 1999. Sieng is currently consulting for businesses who have a desire to grow online through the development and execution of a strategy or via mergers and acquisition. In recent times Sieng has been consulting for Maximuscle who was acquired by GSK for 162 million from Darwin Private Equity and Erno Laszlo who was acquired for $20 million. In Vietnam Sieng is currently providing angel funding to three upstarts and advising two established businesses on an exit strategy.

Coaches

Macro Breu

Manager Director, McKinsey Vietnam

Marco Breu is the Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company Singapore Pte Ltd at Hanoi. He is also a co-leader of our Financial institutions practice in Southeast Asia with main focus on Operations and IT.
His main areas of expertise are banking/insurance, public sector, and infrastructure. Marco covers market entry strategies, growth strategies, and a broad range of operational topics including lean and six sigma operational improvements. Marco has published widely in Swiss, German, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese newspapers and magazines on operational improvement, public infrastructure and consumer insights topics.He has a Masters Degree of Economics from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Chris Zobrist

President, Savvi Angels | Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+

Christopher QuangZobrist is the Deputy Director of JVN's Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship Programs. He has been a practicing entrepreneur and educator in the areas of leadership and entrepreneurship for over ten years, and has taught courses at UC Berkeley, RMIT Vietnam, Vietnam National University's International University HCMC, the University of Science HCMC, and the Hanoi School of Business at VNU Hanoi. He has been a founder of four businesses, one of which he still manages. Mr. Zobrist received his Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration from UC Berkeley, and a Masters in Business Administration from UC Davis. He is based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Diep Hoang

Former Director, Qualcomm Indochina

Diep Hoang took a MBA in Charles Stuart, New South Wales, Australia. Then, he worked as consultant in management, management strategy and media for many corporations in more than 26 contries.
In 1991, he went back in Vietnam working on IT&telecom industry, being chief representatives for a lot of foreign companies in Vietnam.Recently, he was the director of Qualcomm. At the moment, he is a senior consultant for some high-tech, IT& telecom firms.

Dan Shupp

Founder, Tech Propulsion Labs | Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+

Dan Shupp has 10 years of experience in the US, China, and Vietnam, with specific expertise in growing technology startups. He founded Tech Propulsion Labs in Ho Chi Minh City in 2008, to provide product development and consulting services to international tech startups, bring the state of the art in Web technology innovation to Vietnam, and fast track the development of Vietnam's top local talent. Previously Dan managed the Greater China Technology Group for VFinity, and worked at IBM in several "Emerging Internet Technology" teams. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Linh Thai

Director, DFJ–Vina Capital

She is now Director at DFJ VinaCapital, focusing on technology, media and telecom venture-stage investments.

Phuong Le

Founder, Chairman, BIT

Mr. Phuong Le is now Chairman of Managing Board, General Director of BIT company. He is an active, out-going person with strong entrepreneurial spirit. His 2015 objective for BIT is to become one of the most prestigious IT suppliers in Vietnam, whose quality service and customer trusts are the core business values.

Duy Le

General Partner, PVNI

Mr. Duy Le is General Partner at PVNI (Prosperous Vietnam Investment). He brings to PVNI with more than 12 years of experience in operating global software delivery organization at various leadership positions and more than 4 years of experience in consulting and funding startups in Vietnam. His industry base includes IT/IS, tourism, healthcare, financial services, telco, garment and consumer services.

Duy is currently the Vice President of Delivery Services at CSC Vietnam where he provides oversight and leadership over approximately its project portfolio and delivery operations of 700 direct and indirect reports.

Binh Nguyen

Founder, PeaceSoft Solution

Mr. Nguyen HoaBinh is now president & CEO at PeaceSoft Solutions Corporation, started up in 4/2001. He got over 30 achivements in technology and business.

Eytan Schmal

Professor, RMIT Vietnam

EytanSchmal has been in the IT and telecommunications industries for more than 25 years. He has worked across four continents (Asia, Europe, North America and Australia) participating in every level of IT and Telecom development. Besides being a Professor at RMIT Vietnam, MrSchmal is also a member of SAVVi, an organisation aiming in promoting entrepreneurship in Vietnam, and is a supporter of entrepreneurship activities and research.

Tomo Huynh

Co-organizer, Barcamp Vietnam

Tomo Huynh was born in Japan, raised in the US, and has over four years of experience in Vietnam. After cutting his teeth by participating in open source operating systems development, he worked both for Silicon Valley's mature corporations - formerly startups - as well as small product startups experiencing rapid growth eventually leading to acquisition. With over 12 years of experience working in the technology space, he's currently the technical co-founder of two Internet startups, including VEO Media / Alehap.vn.

He also organizes BarCamp Saigon, the country's premier technology conference, in his spare time.

Huan Dinh

Co-founder, The Gioi Di Dong

Besides being the managing director of Dienmay.com, Mr.HuanDinh is also Member of Managing Board of Thegioididong.com.

Bryan Pelz

Co-founder, VNG | Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+

With 29 years in software and 16 years in startups, now Bryan Pelz is Co-Founder at 3 different companies in 3 different countries, including Vietnam with Vinagame. VNG (formerly known as VinaGame) is the #1 online game company in VN.

David Tran

Co-founder, Nhommua.com

In 2004, after graduation, David Tran went to his homeland with his parents. Then, He workes as a marketing executive in a Vietnam software company. 1 year later, he came back to the States working in online advertising and marketing research development. However, he was not interested in his job and in 2008, he returned to Vietnam and found Nhommua.com, the leading Groupon model company in Vietnam

Nguyen Viet Hung

Managing Director, KMS Technology

Mr. Hung is Managing Director of KMS Technology Inc, started up in 10/2008. He took a MBA of University of Hawaii.

Binh Le

Founder, Mat Bao

Le Hai Binh is a director of one of 3 top companies providing Web Hosting services in Vietnam. The name Binh “Mat Bao” sounds very familiar among the circle of IT.

Vincent Nguyen

Director, Indochina Asset Investment

Vincent Nguyen, BA Finance and MBA (Singapore), based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has 10 years experience in fund and investment banking management in Vietnam and ASEAN region. He has strong experience of setting up venture funds and investment vehicles including successful Market Money fund and ETFs in Singapore. He has track record of deals in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia in investment banking. He has expert knowledge of regulations and connections with government, finance industry and businesses in Indochina region, particularly Vietnam. His industry specialism is in renewable energy technologies and resources, particularly non-ferrous and semi-precious metals. Currently, Vincent is partner at Indochina Asset Investment.

Tuomas Pollari

Innovation Expert at NIRAS Finland | LinkedIn

Tuomas Pollari, Innovation Expert, Innovation Partnership Programme (www.ipp.gov.vn )
Tuomas has been working at the Innovation Partnership Programme, an official development assistance programme between Finnish and Vietnamese governments living in Vietnam for three years until now. He has been responsible for the Finnish-Vietnamese partnerships as well as the training and cooperation in the ICT sector. Before Vietnam, he was working as a business development advisor coaching the start-ups in the Technopolis Incubator. Tuomas has also been involved in the Venture Cup in Finland, the national business plan competition as a jury member and mentor coaching the young start-ups in the Finnish start-up ecosystem. Most recently, Tuomas has been working together with Aalto University Center of Entrepreneurship and National Agency of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development (NATEC) to share the best practices in technology transfer operations and fostering high-growth entrepreneurship with the Vietnamese universities and incubators.

Organizers