New Ideas And My Networking
Early 2018, I had ideas about a project in which designing a product which provides personalized loans for nearly 49 million customers at Vietnam who underserved by traditional financial institutions. The project required a lot of knowledge and experience in the field of finance, data science, and law; therefore, I reached out the experts in my network.
I exchanged emails about the idea with a financial expert named Ngoc-Mai, then he and his team took on the role of building and optimizing the business model for the project. Besides, I invited Phuong-Ho (a data science expert) to have a dinner. We had a great time and he agreed to help me develop non-traditional data plans for credit risk assessments. About the law, my friend referred me to Diep-Pham who later joined us as an independent legal advisor. She identified the risks involved in joining and operating in the finance industry. Finally, we have completed the first beta version of the product, and it is expected to officially launch in May 2019How did I networking…?Three vital actions that I did to build and maintain the network were to determine the priority of the relationship; be interested in everyone; and be willing to help them. I put the above-mentioned friends and others on different categories to easily find out and allocation attention for these relationships.
In networking, it was not just about exchange business cards and work discussion, I have been interested in my friends in other aspects. Last week, I shared with Phuong-Ho and Diep-Pham an article about yoga which is their interesting topic, then we had a discussion and this helped me know more about my friends in other aspects. In addition, I spent time on our common interests such as sports, reading and music, and these are great opportunities for us to connect in real life and strengthen our relationship. Besides, I have exchanged emails about jobs and lives with them regularly.
Furthermore, I have been always willing to help friends in our network. When Product Director Vacancy was open, I reach out Mai-Ngoc because I knew him was suitable. Then I introduced him to the recruitment board, which triggered the interview round, and he got the job. Besides, a good network is not only deep but also wide. Therefore, helping people connect, and expanding relationships are what I did. There have been many times, I acted as the bridge to help my friends reach the potential partners that they were looking for. In exchange, they also supported me tapped into the pool of their network by invited me to their private parties or outdoor sports activities.
What I am going to do in the future
When I joined the Chevening Scholar Network (CSN), I planned to establish a community named The New Enterprise Launcher (NEL), this community aimed to transform Vietnam into the best place in Asia to super-charge start and scale a business. The main activities are advising Start-up in Vietnam developing ideas, calling capital and deploying the products in reality. Mentors are start-up experts, influencers, engineers and entrepreneurs from the CSN. Moreover, NEL also has investors from venture capital funds such as VietCapital and Goldman Sachs where I have many great contact and relationships.
Members of this community will have the opportunity to approach new, breakthrough and creativity ideas. This is an opportunity to establish potential relationships which later can turn out to investors, suppliers, partners or clients, etc.
