The Typical Vietnamese Startup Founder
Vietnam’s startup ecosystem has grown rapidly in the past decade, drawing global attention for its entrepreneurial energy and expanding talent pool. But who exactly are the individuals building these ventures? What backgrounds do they come from, and what common traits define a typical founder in Vietnam?
According to the survey on the startup ecosystem in Vietnam 2019, the profile of a Vietnamese startup founder is both promising and revealing. The majority are men, usually between the ages of 25 and 35, and most come from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) or Business and Economics backgrounds. These founders are typically self-starting, motivated by a desire for independence and impact, and often rely on personal savings or family funding to launch their ventures. Formal support in the form of venture capital or structured incubation programs tends to come later, if at all.
While these founders are undoubtedly resilient and resourceful, the data also shows clear imbalances. Female founders remain vastly underrepresented. Those without formal education in STEM or Business struggle to access networks and capital. Moreover, rural founders and those outside of major tech hubs like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi face geographic and infrastructural challenges.
This “founder archetype” reflects both the strengths and structural gaps in Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem. It demonstrates the strong pipeline of talent from elite universities and the hunger for self-made success, but also highlights a lack of diversity, in gender, in educational backgrounds, and in exposure to interdisciplinary thinking.
Education: A Strong Foundation, But Not the Whole Story
Education plays a significant role in shaping Vietnam’s startup founders, but it is far from the only factor that determines success. The majority of Vietnamese founders come from well-educated backgrounds, with most holding at least a university degree, often in STEM or Business disciplines. This reflects the country’s strong emphasis on formal education and the competitive nature of top national universities such as Foreign Trade University (FTU), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, and RMIT Vietnam.
Many founders also benefit from overseas education. Case in point: Vu Van, co-founder of ELSA Speak, earned her MBA and Master of Education at Stanford University. Her experience abroad shaped not only the product vision but also the go-to-market strategy targeting global English learners. Similarly, MindX, a fast-growing startup providing coding and entrepreneurship education, was founded by an FTU graduate with no technical background, who later built a team around her idea and mission.
Founders with STEM backgrounds often bring advantages such as structured problem-solving, rapid prototyping, and the ability to communicate effectively with engineering teams. However, technical knowledge alone does not guarantee startup success. Many STEM-trained founders face challenges when it comes to understanding customer behavior, crafting business models, or navigating regulatory and market complexities.
In parallel, a growing number of Vietnamese founders are emerging from non-traditional or self-taught backgrounds, including bootcamps, online courses, and accelerator programs such as 500 Startups Vietnam, Topica Founder Institute, and Antler Vietnam. These programs are helping to democratize startup education, offering real-world training in areas like pitching, product-market fit, and growth hacking—skills that are often missing from university curricula.
A formal degree may offer a head start, but it is no longer the only path to becoming a startup founder in Vietnam. As access to global knowledge and tools increases, so too does the potential for non-traditional founders to thrive, provided they have the right mindset, community, and support systems behind them.
Gender Gap in Vietnam’s Startup Scene
Despite the vibrancy of Vietnam’s startup ecosystem, gender inequality remains one of its most persistent gaps. According to the survey on the startup ecosystem in Vietnam 2019, only 10–20% of startup founders are women, a figure significantly lower than the ASEAN average of approximately 23%. While there are exceptions, the overall picture reflects a systemic lack of inclusion, shaped by cultural, structural, and economic factors.
One major barrier is the deep-rooted perception that tech and entrepreneurship are male domains, particularly in high-growth sectors like fintech, AI, or logistics. This bias limits women’s access to key networks, funding opportunities, and leadership roles. Female founders often report being taken less seriously by investors, receiving less media attention, and facing greater scrutiny over their decisions, especially in technical areas.
Nevertheless, Vietnam is home to a growing number of trailblazing women entrepreneurs. For instance, Ru9 (a direct-to-consumer mattress brand co-founded by a female entrepreneur), WeEscape (an early player in immersive entertainment), and fashion-tech brand Emwear. These women have successfully navigated a male-dominated ecosystem by combining domain expertise with bold execution and often, strong co-founding teams.
Support for women in startups has also improved in recent years. Organizations like WISE Vietnam (Women’s Initiative for Startups and Entrepreneurship), SHE Loves Tech, and UN Women have launched programs offering mentorship, funding, and international exposure to female-led startups. However, these remain relatively small in scale and unevenly distributed across regions.
To close the gender gap, Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem must move beyond one-off programs and toward structural inclusion. This includes increasing the visibility of successful female founders, encouraging gender-sensitive investment practices, and creating mentorship networks led by women. More importantly, innovation policy and startup support programs must actively target and remove gender-based barriers—not just passively hope that more women will break through.
As the ecosystem matures, gender diversity is not just a social goal—it’s a competitive advantage. Studies globally show that diverse founding teams outperform homogenous ones in both creativity and financial returns. For Vietnam, empowering more women to become founders is not just about fairness—it’s about unlocking the full potential of its innovation economy.
Coding Skills: Necessary or Overrated?
In the early days of Vietnam’s tech startup wave, technical skills, especially coding, were considered essential for founders. Today, that assumption is being challenged. While technical literacy remains important, especially for product-centric ventures, the ability to code is no longer a prerequisite for launching a successful startup in Vietnam.
First, it’s important to distinguish between two types of startups:
- Tech-driven startups, where the product itself is based on technology (e.g. AI platforms, SaaS, blockchain).
- Tech-enabled startups, which use technology as a tool to scale a service or process (e.g. e-commerce, edtech, healthtech).
In tech-driven ventures, founders with strong coding or engineering skills often have an early advantage. Startups like BotStar (chatbot platform), OpenCommerce (e-commerce tools for global dropshipping) were all founded by technical entrepreneurs who could build and iterate on products quickly.
But coding expertise doesn’t always translate to startup success. Many highly technical founders struggle with customer development, business modeling, or managing non-technical teams. This is why founding teams that combine technical and business skillsets tend to perform better. A CEO with market insight and strategic thinking paired with a CTO who can build the product is a proven model.
On the other hand, many notable startups in Vietnam were launched by non-coders who understood the problem deeply and built the right team to execute. Moreover, the rise of no-code/low-code platforms, open-source tools, and AI-based development assistants is lowering the technical barrier to entry. Today’s founders can test MVPs, build landing pages, or automate backend processes without writing a single line of code.
That said, technical fluency still matters. Even non-technical founders benefit from understanding tech basics, enough to evaluate product quality, recruit engineers, and set realistic roadmaps. But Vietnam’s startup landscape now rewards strategic leadership, team-building, and market understanding as much as it rewards raw coding ability.
Coding is a valuable tool. However, the most successful founders are those who know what to build, why it matters, and who can help them build it.
Rethinking Support for the Next Generation of Founders
As Vietnam’s startup ecosystem enters a more mature phase, the question is no longer whether startups can thrive here, but who gets to become a founder, and what kind of support they receive along the way.
Insights from the survey on the startup ecosystem in Vietnam 2019 and subsequent reports reveal structural gaps that persist despite overall ecosystem growth. Many founders, especially women, non-technical individuals, and those from outside major urban centers, struggle with limited access to early-stage capital, reliable mentorship, and market testing environments. Policies, while well-intentioned, often fail to address the specific needs of diverse founder profiles.
To build a more inclusive and dynamic startup landscape, governments, investors, accelerators, and universities need to shift their approach from selective support to systemic inclusion. Here are four strategic moves to consider:
- Develop pilot markets and regulatory sandboxes: By enabling founders to test solutions in controlled, low-risk environments, the government can lower the barrier to entry for non-traditional entrepreneurs. Sectors like healthtech, edtech, and climate tech are especially well-suited for these programs.
- Invest in skills, not just credentials: Instead of focusing solely on university degrees or foreign education, support programs should prioritize hands-on training, such as startup studios, challenge-based learning, or internships in fast-growing companies.
- Map and connect regional and underrepresented founders: The current ecosystem is heavily concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. A national startup database that includes founders by region, gender, and industry could help target support where it’s most needed and uncover untapped potential.
- Promote inclusive investment practices: Investors and grantmakers should commit to tracking and improving gender and background diversity in their portfolios. This includes supporting women-led funds, requiring diversity metrics in grant reporting, and actively sourcing deals outside elite circles.
At its best, a startup ecosystem is not just a collection of high-growth companies, it’s a platform for creativity, resilience, and transformation. Vietnam’s next generation of founders may not all come from prestigious schools, have elite networks, or write perfect code, but with the right support, they can solve real problems, build inclusive businesses, and contribute meaningfully to national and global innovation.
The future of Vietnamese innovation will depend on how intentionally it welcomes and empowers diverse talents, across education levels, gender identities, and technical backgrounds.
