Inside Loship CEO’s Brain: How he builds the Next Unicorn of Vietnam

Trung Nguyen is an entrepreneur and chief executive officer of Lozi, the fastest-growing
Tech startup which operates the No.1 hyperlocal e-commerce platform providing one-hour-delivery services called Loship.

As the CEO, Trung is responsible for running all facets of the business including marketing, investment, technology management, product development, and more. Under Trung’s visionary leadership, the startup has risen significantly to 8-digit-dollar’s value, successfully launching a wide range of services in four megacities across Vietnam, boosting its daily service transactions from 3,000 to 70,000 within just 18 months.

With proven fundraising and networking skills, Trung manages to foster fruitful relationships with hundreds of investors and partners in Vietnam and beyond, securing significant investments from well-established investors such as Vietnam Silicon Valley, Golden Gate Venture, DT&Investment, SmileGate Investment, and Hana Financial Group.

In 2017, Trung was nominated in Forbes 30 under 30 Vietnam, followed by being named in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia.

In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Trung Nguyen says:

My advice to someone who follows the path to entrepreneurship is never to rest. You will have to work 24/7 with no days off to get your business off the ground. Even when you are tired and stressed, you should never rest. The harsh truth is that when you regularly pause for just a moment, you lose the progress you have been making while your competitors are still moving forward.

I would say don’t be afraid of failure and stop worrying if things will work out. Not everything you get your hands on is going to work right away. Although it hurts a little bit each time you fail, at least you’ve learned something, and you can apply that lesson to move forward and make your business better. Success never comes failure-free.

Read on to know more about Trung Nguyen and his successful journey.

Please tell me about your personal background, and what are you working on currently?

Trung Nguyen: I’m Trung Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO of Lozi, a fast-growing technology startup that operates a one-hour-delivery e-commerce platform called Loship.

I studied Computer Science in the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and also spent some time working at Microsoft in the Cloud division. After a while, I founded Lozi in 2014 and haven’t looked back since. Currently, we’re working on scaling and expanding Loship to become the leading one-hour delivery platform in Vietnam, bringing the ultimate convenience of instant delivery to as many people as possible.

What motivated you to get started with your company?

Trung Nguyen: It all started with my passion for doing something different. While many of my friends began a quest for a stable corporate career after graduation, I hung back. I didn’t feel satisfied during my college and corporate life.

One moment I talked with a friend about the possibility of building a startup, it turned out we had the same ambition. We then came up with the idea of creating a food and restaurant review platform where everyone can easily find dining places online. At that time, such a thing as Yelp didn’t exist in Vietnam. We saw a problem as well as an opportunity to make an impact. And now that I’m here in my startup journey, I want to make the most of it possible.

What is your current main product, and (If there is any) can you share any product pivot story from founding to the current product?

Trung Nguyen: Our current main product is Loship, a one-hour delivery e-commerce platform in Vietnam.
Interestingly enough, we started first as Lozi, a food and restaurant review platform, and has since expanded to become a hyperlocal e-commerce platform dedicated to the buying and selling of various product categories. Back in those days, we didn’t know if transactions between buyers and sellers were completed on our platform, or whether delivery hiccups were happening along the way. At that time, we wanted to ensure a seamless buying experience for our customers, from ordering to payment and delivery. This was the time when we realized that we had something to do, and the idea of building our delivery fleet handling all sorts of e-commerce transactions started from there.

This idea seemed to be possible. From food delivery, we quickly expanded to other services categories, including fresh groceries, ride-hailing, laundry services pickup, medicine, courier, flowers, and even pet stuff. Fast forward to today, Loship has gained a particular foothold in the Vietnamese market, building a sustainable network of more than 50,000 drivers and 190,000 merchants, serving almost 1,500,000 customers across the country.

Often, in the startup phase, you have to be ready to make those changes and quickly adapt to market demand. Just because it starts as one thing doesn’t mean that things will be the end goal. Observe the market and make the fast moves; here is my formula for success.

How much money (funding) have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round?

Trung Nguyen: We recently announced the closing of a new funding round led by South Korea’s Smilegate Investment. We are also very near to the next Series C, where more and more investors are participating in our journey. Before that, we have secured investment from several investors, including Vietnam Silicon Valley, Golden Gate Venture, DT&Investment, and Hana Financial Group.

How have you attracted users and grown your company from the start? And Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?

Trung Nguyen: Marketing strategy is not a silver bullet that helps us win the game. At Loship, we focus more on growth, which is merely a different approach to conventional marketing. In general, marketing concentrates only on the first two layers of the customer journey: awareness and acquisition. Growth, on the other hand, tells a broader picture of the business: awareness, acquisition, retention, and referral. To attract users and grow the company, we have to build fundamentals for the Growth team that can evolve from a long-term perspective: Tactics, Hiring, Culture & Priority. The growth team is led directly by me – CEO with a single & decisive mission: Every Vietnamese must use Loship.

Speaking of the tactics, as a Vietnamese startup, we don’t have the same capital resources as compared to other regional players in the market. Hence, traditional marketing tactics such as outdoor advertising, television ads, or KOL marketing are not our go-to’s. Instead, we have done so many different and creative tactics to boost growth. It’s proud to say that we are amongst the first companies in Southeast Asia doing this, and the effect these tactics have brought into is significant. We can’t share specifics that aren’t obvious, nor can we share statistics. Nor can we speak to the complete level of depth and complexity that the entire team went into to fine-tune the parts of the product that enabled growth to happen. Some tactics we also don’t want to share because they were so effective.

But we can share with you one of the minimal works we have previously done. We have developed a total of 10 services to date, one of which is called Express service offering cost-effective document and parcel delivery solutions. We provide the service at an excellent and affordable price (without loss) so that we can attract so many sellers. Then, whenever sellers use this service to deliver the items to their buyers, and if the buyers are not yet our customers, they will instantly receive an SMS to download Loship. This is a very context-based content to convert someone, even not hearing about you into your user. And this Express service is seen as a New-Customer-Attracting-Hub.

Hiring, Cultures & Priorities are also crucial as it comes to growing the company. I directly interview whom I will pick into the Growth team. I interviewed a lot but only picked a few, and they must be very different from the rest of the team. All of my Growth Folks at Loship must be smart, hungry, and humble, as well as have the ability to take risks and deal with not-so-pleasant things when the company is continuously compared with other giant competitors. A great culture makes a startup unique, and I’m proud to describe our perceptions as Don’t be afraid but head down. Look straight to the point, and get things done. Put customers first and conquer them. That’s how we will win the game.

When you already set the right cultures for your team, your team will know what should be a priority at any given time: Customer’s Problem.

Which is the best marketing tool for the growth of your startup, and why?

Trung Nguyen: With so many marketing tools out there, we can easily get overwhelmed by choosing what we should have in our arsenal. However, in my opinion, customer referrals are one of the most powerful selling and marketing tools available. You can’t have a business without customers. And satisfied and loyal customers will get you even more customers. It’s as simple as that.

It is hard to understand in detail what exactly we do in our customer referral strategies. Simply put, we put our customers first, always care about them, and we let them speak about Loship by themselves. We always listen to the customers and ask for specific feedback to know more about customer experiences and whether our services have met their expectations and needs. If we deliver late, we refund the full money to them. If they are ever unsatisfied with our services, they will also get a refund.

This helps to establish further the relationships we have with our customers and get the right word of mouth. If you can do such things on a large scale, it will be compelling. When you deliver the value, your customers expect, they see you as a very credible, valued resource. And for those customers, a referral is a very logical and comfortable next step.

In a nutshell, tools are more about short-term marketing tactics, while customer focus is always a winning strategy for the longer term.

What do most startups get wrong about marketing in general?

Trung Nguyen: What startups usually get wrong is that they believe spending hefty amounts of money in vital marketing activities and advertising campaigns will get them customers. It’s not about how you do marketing; it’s about how you understand your product, how the product functions, and how it can add value to your customers. If the product fails to impress customers and solve their problems, they will eventually leave you no matter how much money you have poured into marketing. Spend wisely, not blindly.

On the other hand, as it comes to marketing, some startups tend to use big words and create a buzz so that they can acquire more customers in a limited period – this is relatively short-term thinking. Don’t try to fool the customers by overselling what you can offer. If you say big things and deliver small, customers will lose respect for your brand soon.

What were the internal decision processes in determining when to begin fund-raising, and what were the logistics for this? And how many investors have you met so far, and how did you meet these investors and which channels worked best for you?

Trung Nguyen: We’re always on the continuous path of fund-raising and never rest on it. The goal of a startup is not to remain as a startup. The goal is to scale, and we need enough capital resources to achieve our ambition.

We’ve been raising money since 2015. We seized every opportunity that came our way and tried to connect with as many investors and venture capital firms as possible. So far, we have met and discussed with over 100 investors in Vietnam and the region, 90% of which have passed on us already. However, I don’t consider my fund-raising journey as tiring and stressful but rather a learning circle that every entrepreneur has to go through one way or another. Fund-raising will never look like the “Shark Tank” scenario: you go into a room, present your business for a minute or so, and either you leave rich or empty-handed. It’s all about rounds and rounds of meetings and negotiations before the final decision is made. I admit I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the process of fund-raising, but those were also the moments where I learned the most.

The way I see it when it comes to fund-raising, cold emails don’t work. Referrals and introductions will always be more productive. In my case, mainly, I got the opportunity to get in touch with the Smilegate Investment thanks to the introduction of the Vietnam Silicon Valley, one of our angel investors since 2015. We went out to have lunch together, slowly built relationships with them, and the rest is history. That being said, fund-raising is a relationship-building exercise, and you need to maintain and nurture relationships with the people that you meet, as you never know the value your connections can bring to you.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced and obstacles in the process of fund-raising? If you had to start over, what would you do differently? (Your insight or advice on this would be very helpful for startups)

Trung Nguyen: One of the biggest challenges in fund-raising is how to prove to investors that our business idea is sound, that we have in place a profitable and scalable model, and that investors can get a return.
If I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self to be more courageous to withstand doubt and rejection. Be brave enough to speak on your challenges and limitations openly, to tell the investors that “Yes, we have a vision for the future, a growing market, and a great team, but it also has risks and weaknesses, as every other business does.” Also, remember that of all the rejections, sometimes you only need one “yes” to survive and continue the journey. So, don’t get discouraged when being rejected.

What are your milestones for the next round? And what are your goals for the future?

Trung Nguyen: We aim to triple our transactions within the next 12 months to around 150,000 transactions per day, bringing in revenue of approximately US$31 million in 2020. Around that time, we’ll be looking out for further investments to foster our business growth and global expansion. We’re currently working on our next Series C funding round, which is set to close by the first half of Q2 2020.

How do you plan to expand globally?

Trung Nguyen: At the moment, we are utilizing our local know-how and market insight to focus on the domestic market. However, regional expansion is part of our strategic plans in the long run, with Laos and Cambodia as must-win markets. We set our sights on conquering a total market of 400 million population, and once we have researched enough and have our resources in place, we’ll be ready to start operations there.

What are the most common mistakes companies make with global marketing?

Trung Nguyen: I think the main mistake is not to invest enough in market research in target countries. When it comes to global marketing and expansion, we must understand the local insights, industry trends, competitive environment, and customer preferences so that we can create product variations that fit into the local markets. A one-size-fits-all business model will never work.

What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company? (or What should all first-time startup founders know before they start their business?)

Trung Nguyen: When first starting the business, the majority of startup founders are often told to focus on the product, and the right customers will come. However, I believe startups should work backward, which means understanding your customers first and then create a product that solves their problems.

Also, some often start a company to get rich, and this is one of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make. When you look at money as the ultimate goal, you will never feel satisfied that you have enough. Instead, find something more profound than the monetary value that keeps you going. Be profitable, but don’t treat money as your end goal. Entrepreneurship is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?

Trung Nguyen: I would say speed is more important than perfection. As a startup, you shouldn’t be focused on perfection. Instead, focus on creating a workable product, getting it in the hands of customers, and then keep improving based on the feedback you get from customers. There’s no need to worry about getting it perfect right for the first time as you’ll be able to adjust and improve along the way, step by step.

My advice to someone who follows the path to entrepreneurship is never to rest. You will have to work 24/7 with no days off to get your business off the ground. Even when you are tired and stressed, you should never rest. The harsh truth is that when you regularly pause for just a moment, you lose the progress you have been making while your competitors are still moving forward.

What are the one or two things that you would do differently to improve your life (or what kind of personal habits would you improve?) if you could go back to 10 years ago?

Trung Nguyen: My advice to my younger self? I would say don’t be afraid of failure and stop worrying if things will work out. Not everything you get your hands on is going to work right away. Although it hurts a little bit each time you fail, at least you’ve learned something, and you can apply that lesson to move forward and make your business better. Success never comes failure-free.

You can follow Trung Nguyen here.

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