[ethanhuynh]

I'm from Vietnam and we don't have a good and friendly startup culture here. In fact, it's pretty harsh here, entrepreneurs have to face so many constraints outside their control like government policy, corruption, politics, no support from the community, no angel funds etc .. this is not good for the morale, but we know what we have to do to overcome this, bootstrapping is the only option now, we hope that after gaining the startup momentum, we can move our startup to some other places to continue our dream.

[mbenjaminsmith]

No offense but that's exactly why Vietnam (and countless other places) are suboptimal for startups. As soon as people make a mark they jump ship and take with them their knowledge and ability to attract investment. Why don't you become a success AND stay in Vietnam. Help develop a startup culture and educate investors. I'm doing the same thing in Thailand. Feel free to contact me if you want to chat about anything matthew [@] jukaroo [.] com.

[ethanhuynh]

I think Thailand and Vietnam have many things in common regarding the startup culture, you were right mentioning that we can stay in Vietnam and be a success, actually, that's what we always wanted to do. The point here is that most people in Vietnam don't give entrepreneurs enough respect, and being an entrepreneur here means you have to bear a great cost of being seen as "jobless", and in my country, being "jobless" is the next worst thing to being a criminal (Actually my girlfriend just left me because I don't have a job, her family rejected me because I don't have a job).

When you go to VC (we have IDG venture fund here, they're the only one fund in tech) to sell your idea, they'll ask you about things like IPs, proven business model, stats about market size, market trends, demographic view and yes, they look at your background carefully, ironically, if you're a businessman with 15 year experience in business and tech and the like and can come up with the "great" idea like Facebook clone (http://bit.ly/c21XyJ) or Linkedin clone (http://bit.ly/96o8lm), chances are high that you'll get the investment. Having relations with government officials is also important here if you want to survive in the long run, especially when it comes to sensitive things like Internet related services like social network or social news ... So, when it comes to new product in new and untested market, you have to do it on your own with your own budget, test and learn. I see many friends of mine gave up their startup dream because they don't have enough support. It's a sad thing, and this must be fixed soon.We want to prove that this is the wrong thing

[mbenjaminsmith]

I just got your ping and I'm going to shoot you an email. Peace.