Ho Chi Minh City traffic

I hold on tightly behind my brother as he deftly maneuvers his scooter through the seemingly chaotic traffic of Ho Chi Minh City.

At first, watching hordes of cars and scooters sharing the streets and avoiding each other without apparent defined rules can be both astonishing and terrifying. But from the back seat of Paul’s scooter, I soon begin to understand certain rules and reasoning behind the commuters’ actions. The traffic, as it turns out, moves along rather well, despite the congestion of the city.

Doing business in Vietnam works in similar ways. The rules and expectations are different than in the US. People seem to be coming at you from all directions, but then a pattern starts to develop.

Vietnam is a developing country. Its people have a relatively high education level.  The country also has a disproportionally high number of young people under the age of 30 compared to developed countries. The government is very stable. Compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, I’ve also noticed that the Vietnamese culture has more elements of the Chinese work ethic like those in the Far East countries.

In addition, Vietnam is a handsome country, with a long, beautiful coastline. Vietnamese food is fabulous, gaining popularity throughout the world. With a population of around 82 million, Vietnam could someday become an economic pillar in Southeast Asia.

For now, though, Vietnam remains a developing economy, and the labor extremely cheap. Get a haircut, and you can have one person cutting your hair, while two others will manicure your finger nails. I played golf, and frustrated with a bunker shot, I raked my own mess. My caddy (and you have to have a caddy) thanked me profusely, embarrassed that she didn’t move fast enough to take the rake away from me. People are everywhere to serve you. It can be humbling, yet charming.

For the right type of business idea, Vietnam represents tremendous opportunities. Some entrepreneurs have already built technical development teams here to service the West’s appetite for off-shoring those components. International marketing and research firms have established operations here to help foreign brands move into the Vietnamese market. To support new innovations, venture funds are now being established here with both foreign and local money.

Nonetheless, many more foreign ventures will fail here than succeed. It is not easy to manuever through the local business and cultural environment. The risk remains extremely high. Like Paul steering us through the traffic, any company that has a fighting chance of success here needs the guidance and support of someone(s) who already understands the business climate and culture in Vietnam.

Naming companies have become increasingly difficult with the prerequisite of having to secure a corresponding domain name. It amazes me the words and combination of words that have been secured as domain names.

Branding experts generally advise new companies to pick a name that is easy to say and remember, but one that has no relevance to the type of business involved. Apparently, our human brains remember such unrelated names better. Examples would be Apple or Amazon.

Of course, this works for heavy consumer brands with large marketing (branding) budgets. If I were starting a software ecommerce company and could get software.com, I certainly would opt for that name. Yet, such names are obviously not available, and the current owner of that domain name had paid a very hefty fee for it many years ago.

I like fruits as a company name. Maybe it’s our primal equation of “healthy nourishment” with colorful fruits that make those so appealing. Well, good luck finding any of those names or combinations of those names available. Not going to happen.

After careful consideration, I’ve settled on Lift9 as our company name. Deciding on this name has taken longer than securing seed money or modeling the business. Well, it’s taken longer time to decide, but certainly not as much effort. Anyway, my hope is to make Lift9 a trusted and recognized brand in the area of social media research ad brand analytics. In the end, it’s the execution and success of the business enterprise that really determines the sustainability of the name.

Some do it from comps (comparable companies) and then discount for the many risks as a start-up. Some look at projected financials or maybe market share. Some calculate the amount of unpaid labor that may be required by founders and try to value the company that way. Some try a combination of all the above, or some other way.

Let’s face it, there is no proven, scientific way to value a start-up company. If you are starting a new company and need seed money, you can come up with all sorts of justifications for a valuation. In the end, however, the value is whatever point that  investors are willing to give you money.

For start-ups, many of the investors are family and friends so it’s usually what the entrepreneur claims the value to be. Otherwise, investors will invest in the person — the entrepreneur. A great business plan can be never be successful if inappropriately executed by a mediocre team. An experienced entrepreneur can polish a mediocre plan into a good one, and actually execute upon it.

So, in the end, the value of a start-up is the experience and capability of the entrepreneur and his/her team.

I’ve been humbled by the interest in my new venture. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the business plan doesn’t require much cash.

My focus in talking with interested investors have been to be completely honest about the potential risks — and there are many for all start-ups. I also have been clear that the valuation is subjective and solely based upon my  experience. Some advisers insinuated that maybe I was not being aggressive enough given the amount of interest. Well, another lesson I’ve learned from previous ventures is that “greed” can surely set you up for failure.

Teamwork is vital for start-up companies

When starting a new venture, everything begins with picking the right team. That is something heavily on my mind right now as I am about to launch a new company.

In “Good to Great”, the book clearly found empirical evidence showing that the team is more important than the vision or idea. The reasoning is that a great team working together will fine tune the idea into a winning vision.

I could not agree more. I’ve learned a lot about putting teams together,  having been involved in five previous startups. First, the entrepreneur must understand his or her own strengths and weaknesses. It sounds easy but experience has taught me that honest self-evaluation is not always a strength of entrepreneurs.

Once the leader’s skills are honestly assessed, the team members should augment and complement those attributes. Imagine a basketball team of just centers. Well, I’ve seen a start-up team of just programmers without any business or management experience.

I certainly want teammembers smarter than me, especially in areas of my weakness. In general, having smart people around is obviously a good thing regardless. However, chemistry is more important than individual intelligence or capabilities. An aligned, supportive team will always outperform a superstar who is not willing to work with others.

So, you think you have an amazing business idea and plan? I will guarantee one thing. Your plan will change and evolve as you test it in the market. However, the people  you pick on your team will most likely be the same core people taking you through the execution of the plan.

Here are some questions to ask when assembling the team:

• Honest evaluation of each person’s skills, not just in areas of their professional domain expertise, but in people, management and sales skills.
• Is each person a team player? Do they provide positive energy or drain energy from the group?
• How would each person react to stressful situations?
• Are the individual value systems aligned?
• Are your expectations aligned with each teammembers’ expectations? Double check.
• If you have doubt, don’t include that person. Don’t talk yourself into it.