After nearly 10 years of perseverance with blockchain, Mr. Nguyen The Vinh and his colleagues have turned Ninety Eight into a digital financial ecosystem built by Vietnamese people. That journey is not only a story of getting rich through knowledge and technology, but also a testament to the perseverance, daring and going all the way of a generation of young Vietnamese entrepreneurs.
- Blockchain has been likened to a “fever”. What do you think about that point of view?
I think calling blockchain a “fever” is both right and wrong. Any new technology will have a boom period, like a fever to help that technology spread faster and reach more people.
Blockchain also needs such hype to become popular, but the hype does not represent the nature of the technology. When the hype passes, the technology is still there and continues to be used, developed, not disappear.
- What made a software engineer like you turn to blockchain, a field that was then very unfamiliar to the majority?
To be honest, the first reason I got into blockchain was... to make money. At that time, I had a startup mentality. Right after graduating, I started my first startup, a software outsourcing company, but it only lasted about 6 months.
At that time, I realized that I still lacked a lot, both in terms of expertise and business operation skills. After that, I decided to join Bitcorp, then FPT Software for nearly 3 years, with the main goal being to learn. I was very clear: not to work for a long time but just to learn enough to return to the startup.
During my working time, I also nurtured many ideas, even bought domain names. When I felt I had accumulated enough skills, I decided to return to start a business. But the biggest problem at that time was having no money.
It was early 2017. I invited a few close friends to start a business together, but everyone chose the safe option, no one dared to quit their jobs to join us. So, without money, without people, the startup plan had to be put on hold.
At that time, a friend invited me to explore the blockchain market, with a very simple initial goal: to earn money to have capital to start a startup. But when I entered, I realized that this market was too attractive, too potential in both technology and finance.
Blockchain combined with finance creates something very special. I myself am very entrepreneurial, so I find this field extremely suitable. At that time, the goal of making money was no longer the main motivation, but the determination to learn, invest seriously and pursue long-term.
- Ninety Eight was born in a market full of risk and skepticism. Did you ever feel like you were taking too much risk?
At that time, the blockchain market, especially crypto in Vietnam, was extremely risky. Most people looked at it with caution, even labeling it as a “scam”.
I have to admit that at that time, out of 100 blockchain projects in Vietnam, 99 were scams. So it was completely understandable that people were suspicious.
For me, just having my family not forbid me was already a huge support, and I couldn’t expect them to understand or support me more. At that time, I thought very simply: I was still young, this was the time to try, to take risks for myself.
If I fail, at least I will gain experience, connections, and lessons for next time. But opportunities like this only come once when I'm young.
- Nearly 10 years of building Ninety Eight, what was the most difficult period?
Definitely the first 2 years. My co-founder Le Thanh and I invested all our own capital to build the company.
At that time, our point of view was very clear: if we do something, we have to go the long way, we don't want to sell unripe rice, we don't want to raise capital too early and then lose too many shares.
The problem is that the monthly operating costs are very high, around tens of thousands of USD. Usually I will try to ensure enough capital for the next 2-3 months. But there are also many times when I run out of money this month and don't know where to get the money to maintain next month.
Literally out of money. If the company doesn't make any money next month, it will definitely have to close down.
But if we cut costs and reduce staff, the company will go downhill immediately and cannot recover.
So Thanh and I were determined to keep the business running, trying to find every way to make money. Sometimes we did events, sometimes we took advantage of market trends to earn some money, then we overcame it.
This happened about 5-7 times over the first 2 years. It was not until 2021 that Ninety Eight officially raised Seed and Private funding, totaling about 16.5 million USD from major funds.
- And in that journey, which "incident" caused you the most stress?
In addition to the initial financial difficulties, there was a huge community-related incident.
We started from the community. We built the community in 2017 and maintained it in 2019, mainly sharing experiences, knowledge, and evaluating blockchain projects.
In 2020, I highly appreciated a layer 1 blockchain project called Solana. At that time, Solana only had a capitalization of a few million USD, looking at it, everyone thought it was a "garbage project", no one believed in its potential.
I analyzed the whitepaper, the architecture of Solana and believed it had great potential. At that time, the price was only about 1 USD, I openly shared the investment potential of the project, even expecting it to reach 300 USD.
But then, Solana rose to $3-5, then the market crashed. Solana price fell back to $1. The community panicked, rushed to sell at a loss, and then... turned to attack me.
They made memes, spammed groups, used bots to attack, and even searched for my child's company, home, and school addresses to threaten me. It was an extremely stressful and dangerous time.
But I still believed in my assessment. I even bought a lot more Solana at the low price. And finally, Solana went up to 266 USD as I expected.
- At 32 years old with the Ninety Eight ecosystem, do you think you're rich yet?
What I say is not just theory but comes from practical experience.
When I entered the market, my goal was to make money to start a startup, but my motivation was never to get rich. Startup for me is a challenge, to create value, not a means to make money at all costs.
In fact, if it were just money, my investments in Solana and many other projects would have been enough to make me financially free long ago. But I still choose to continue building Ninety Eight, because I want to create greater values, change the digital finance industry, create jobs and contribute to changing society.
- Many young people aspire to get rich, but in your opinion, what is the most sustainable root?
The most sustainable root is self-development.
My personal experience is that in 2017, I made a lot of money. At that time, I thought I was good, but in fact, it was just luck. At that time, buying any coin was profitable, investing in any coin was a win.
But when the market crashed in 2018-2019, everything went away. That's when I realized: I knew nothing, had to learn from scratch.
So, making money is one thing, but keeping it and making it grow sustainably is a completely different story.
- Young Vietnamese people have great potential, but what are they lacking to make a breakthrough in technology and digital finance?
Vietnamese people are smart, sharp, and catch on very quickly. But because of that, they easily fall into the mindset of getting rich quick, following trends, and lacking patience.
The biggest weakness is the lack of perseverance to buy-in to something long-term. Wanting everything fast, wanting to win everything right away.
The current young generation is very divided. The excellent ones are really excellent.
To break through, I think you need to dare to take risks, dare to make mistakes continuously, and correct mistakes. Myself and the Ninety Eight team still live by that principle.
- In the Ninety Eight ecosystem, what makes you most proud?
What we are most proud of is that we have built a platform ecosystem. It is strong enough that any idea that comes up can be realized immediately on that platform.
Currently, we have expanded to Web2, collaborating with artists, supporting copyright registration, intellectual property using blockchain technology.
For example, the problem of music copyright. Now, musicians only need to release a set of copyright NFT solutions, singers who want to use them just need to buy a license on the blockchain - it can be by year, by month, or for life.
Everything is transparent, clear, payment and confirmation of usage rights are automatic. Disputes are almost gone.
- What role does training the younger generation, especially Gen Z, play in Ninety Eight's long-term strategy?
Extremely important.
We just organized Uni Tour - a series of sharing sessions at universities, meeting students of potential faculties to introduce blockchain, about Ninety Eight, about career opportunities in this industry.
In addition, we also provide scholarships worth 1 billion VND to each school.
Internally, Ninety Eight always has training programs, supporting employees to study, participate in professional courses, and international certificates.
We are even willing to recruit 2nd and 3rd year students for long-term training, preparing for resources for the next 5-10 years.
- Ninety Eight, from an all-Vietnamese team, has entered the international market. In your opinion, what factors help a Vietnamese startup go far?
We don't have any superstars on our team. We don't have the best in the market. But we are the ones... who are still around.
During my career, I met many people and teams who were much better than me. But they left the market, maybe because they couldn't stand the pressure, or felt they had had enough, or for many other reasons.
In the end, we still stay and keep going. So I think the biggest survival factor is perseverance, daring to persevere on the path you have chosen.
Thanks for the interesting chat!
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/ninety-eight-founder's-journey-to-get-rich-of-vietnamese-people-in-the-gioi-so-ar952637.html
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