Vientiane is growing rapidly; the town’s population is predicted to extend by 54.5 percent between 2015 and 2025, bringing the overall variety of residents to an estimated 1.6 million..
And while Vientiane is growing, it continues to be dwarfed by other major competitive hubs, akin to Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. That has had an impact on the investment of angel investors, a key driver for entrepreneurs who need to grow their businesses but lack the capital or ability to generate profits.
Steve Landman, a member of the Mekong Angel Investment Network, founded and supported by the Australian government, says investment in Laos has been slow due to the startup sector’s infancy.
“We haven’t found any investable companies at this point,” he said. “The size of the market is important. In particular, is the product or service scalable to other markets? Because most countries in the Mekong region are not sustainable markets.”
In Vientiane’s case, the intention is to find the town’s “startup hero,” a key step toward unlocking understanding amongst a population most of whom dislike risk-averse entrepreneurship.
This traditional resistance, mainly among the many older generation, is an lively obstacle to 1 group hoping to develop into a frontrunner within the Vientiane startup scene.
Souliyo Vongdala and Mangkonephet Sayasane are co-founders of Bizgital, an increasingly profitable marketing solutions company with international clients akin to Coca-Cola and Heineken, in addition to Foxpress, an internet courier service.
This latest project solves a transparent problem in Vientiane – the postal system – but interest in it continues to be limited.
“In Laos, the postal service may be very weak and unreliable. If you send something very priceless from abroad here, it’s going to almost certainly wander off or stolen,” said Vongdala, a confident, U.S.-educated 25-year-old.
“But in Laos it is really difficult to change people,” he said.
He says that is because of an ingrained culture, explaining that the majority of his colleagues’ families generally don’t support entrepreneurship, as an alternative encouraging them to take traditional, secure jobs in banks or corporations.
“Change is coming. The younger generation will probably be even higher… they read in regards to the success stories and have the energy to do something,” he said.
Foxpress currently serves mostly online retailers who use Facebook as a platform to run their business. As more people start using the service, they hope to create a central app that works similarly to Uber, but for couriers.
“Laos is a small country, there are a variety of problems to unravel, so which means there are a variety of options. If you do not succeed with the primary one, you do the second, third or tenth,” Vongdala said.
“But if you do something right… you can make money while solving a problem, and that’s something you should be proud of.”
At Book Delivery, Bou also has greater plans – to remodel the business, using Amazon as inspiration. In the approaching months, the group plans to introduce clothing and footwear to its online offering and further explore the chances of e-books, which is latest within the country.
“I love it. Others are afraid of failure,” he said. “If you want to do something, you should do it. You’re the boss now.”
Source: Jack Board, Channel News Asia
