Dr Hoang Kim Toan, Director of Center for Start-up and Creative Innovation - Hue University
So can the activity of Start-up and Creative Innovation (SCI) at Hue University “play out of time”, sir?
The SCI support activities at Hue University are far slower than in either end of the country, namely Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but we have taken steps in the right and firm direction. Right from the start, we have approached and got the cooperation from the leading experts on SCI in Vietnam such as Ms. Thach Le Anh, Project Manager of Vietnam Silicon Valley (VSV); Mr. Dam Quang Thang, expert on agricultural technology; Mr. Nguyen Anh Thi, Director of Software Technology Park, Ho Chi Minh City National University; Mr. Truong Thanh Hung, co-founder of FiNNO Venture; Mr. Nguyen Tien Trung, expert on the SCI community support and many other experts.
Up to the present time, after about 10 months of intensive activities, Hue University has initially formed the basic components of the SCI ecology. One of the prime foundations is the Co-working Space - Hue University’s central facility of SCI ecosystem, providing a working space that simultaneously accommodates approximately 200 people including mainly Hue University’s students and officers. It is also home to representative offices of a number of start-up support organizations, venture investment funds and start-up enterprises.
From the Co-working space, we will organize training activities, nursery activities for start-up groups and projects.
The training course in Start-up and Creative Innovation for Hue University officers.
How does Hue University involve experts, researchers in the Co-working space?
In the nursery programs, we provide working space resources, experts, and support services for projects for free. The project development teams will work in a modern, well-equipped space, meet expert trainers, senior advisors, and will be supported by the center in intellectual property advisory services, brand identification, business registration and so on. In return, the project development teams will share 5 - 10% of the company stocks with Hue University when the project calls for investment successfully.
For start-up acceleration organizations, venture investment funds, “angel” investors, where there are specialists, we will provide them with input, namely the graduation projects from our nursery programs. They will share expert resources with Hue University through the signed cooperation programs.
Which criteria are based on to select the projects for investment, nursery or calling for capital?
With the support from experts, we are developing the nursery program for the nursery park of Hue University. The future nursery will be the core activity of the ecosystem. Hue University is also making a study of legal procedures and making a plan to set up Hue University’s start-up investment fund.
The projects to be nursed have to meet at least three prerequisites: First, creativity, including novelty (either a new invention or a development based on an existing idea); value (positive) and sustainability (others are hard to imitate). Second, creating value for society, handling a problem / pain for a large enough customer group. Third, having capacity for rapid growth. A start-up project can take one or ten years to seek a business model, but once the business model is perfected, it has to achieve very rapid growth, market expansion and annual revenue increased many times until reaching the scale threshold.
How are the evaluation, approval and support for these ideas and projects carried out, sir?
There are many ways to select the projects, ideas for the nursery programs: through the contests and the "Demo Day" event (the festival for the start-up entrepreneurs to call for investment). Hue University has two competitions: Bussiness Innovation Hackathon and Contest of SCI Idea. The "Demo Day" event will be held by Hue University in 2019.
For both categories above, the jury will make a decision to select the project for nursery. The jury consists of experts on SCI, investors, representatives of start-up support organizations, leaders of Hue University, departments and so on. At the 2018 competitions, we invited some renowned experts.
We also collaborate with the leading experts on SCI training and consultancy. These experts, along with the staff of Center for SCI from Hue University, and collaborators – the officers and lecturers from the member universities of Hue University- are the supporters of the development of start-up ideas and projects.
Does Hue University feel under pressure compared with the big start-up playgrounds?
Hue University’s leadership is determined to implement, organize the SCI activities. Hue University actively seeks and connects the resources from the Government, ministries, and organizations domestically and internationally; coordinates with local departments, sectors to implement the SCI activities among officers and students. We also actively develop the plan for each phase, each academic year, and make the detailed plan of activities for each month.
Admittedly, Hue University is encountering many difficulties: the SCI environment is limited, and most students have no access to SCI-related knowledge. In addition, the start-up groups are small in number, and low in quality. Center for Start-up and Creative Innovation - Hue University has organized many significant SCI events. However, the number of students who know of these events and engage actively in remains limited.
Does it stem from the fact that students give little attention to SCI movement?
Our target is not to turn all nearly 50,000 full-time students of Hue University into start-up entrepreneurs because not everyone is suitable and can do start-up. Just like sowing seeds, we have to select the best seeds to sow and germinate them into healthy and well-developed plants.
Thank you
Story by HUU PHUC