From lunches at Amazon to the Vietnamese community in the US

This is not the result of a temporary idea, but has been cherished by Mr. Le The Hien (born in 1993) many years ago.

Nearly 10 years for a connection dream

Going to the US to study at the end of 11th grade, Le The Hien spent 2 years studying at Everett Community College and then transferred to the University of Washington (Seattle) to study Business.

After that, Hien became an intern at Vietnam Airlines, Russell Investments and Amazon.

Looking back now, for Hien, the 9-month internship at Amazon was the most memorable time and it sparked his interest in the technology field.

“At Amazon, people work very quickly and demand high quality work.”

Therefore, after graduating, Hien returned to work officially at Amazon and has worked here for 5 years.

During this time, Hien continued to promote the idea of ​​​​building a Vietnamese community that unites and helps each other. For example, having lunch together every two weeks at Amazon Spheres.

At the beginning, Hien sent an email to the Amazon brothers and sisters that Hien knew invited them to have lunch with him. There were days when no one came, Hien had lunch alone. On the days when everyone is free, both tables are full.

“The talks are no big deal. It’s simply an opportunity for Vietnamese in the US to have the opportunity to hear other people speak Vietnamese, see other people eat Vietnamese food, chat with a friend. Vietnamese people are with me in conquering the American dream like me. The best thing left after every meal is the smile and warm heart amidst the cold life in America “- Mr. Hien recalled.

After leaving Amazon in 2019, in June 2020, Mr. Hien decided to establish a non-profit organization Vietnam Tech Society (VTS) with the goal of “Connecting and developing the Vietnamese community in the technology industry”.

VTS operates as a “tech startup”. During the first 3 months, VTS met with students and working people to find out the difficulties they encountered in the process of studying and working in the US.

“Everybody understands the importance of Networking and Mentoring, but they always feel shy, time consuming and ineffective when doing it.” For this reason, VTS spent 9 months developing the TechSphere product “on-demand mentorship with tech leader” – Hien shared.

TechSphere just launched in April 2022 – supporting students and job seekers in the technology field. This platform is considered the fastest place to connect mentors (instructors) and mentees (instructed people) ever. Mentee can create an account, choose their desired mentor and “book meeting” in minutes.

“I want to make sure that mentors using this platform feel that their time is respected by the mentee and that they see the impact of their contribution.

This product development VTS is completely free and will be free indefinitely. However, if the mentee does not appear in the mentorship meeting, the account will be banned for 1 month for the first time and permanently for the second time,” emphasized Mr. Hien.

After 5 months of testing and 2 months of going live, TechSphere had 600 subscribers, 30 instructors, 300 calls, and 10,000 talk minutes. There have been 10 people received full-time job offers and interns from many different large and small technology companies in the US.

This year, TechSphere aims to have 1000 instructors join this technology platform.

“This is the first time the team has built a technology product. Although the whole organization has many good friends, no one has had much experience in launching a product from scratch. However, the team members with a very young age have always burned with all their heart and pursued to the end. “.

“Dream on, but work on it”

Reflecting on herself, Hien said that she always felt that she was “different” from everyone else.

“I am a “dreamer”. There are always questions in my mind: Why do customers have this problem? Why can’t I do something to make their lives easier?”…

“5 years working at Amazon, I can’t understand what my passion is. Passion is always unknown until I “do something”, such as running the VTS organization myself.

Experiencing startup projects, Hien said that he had learned that: “It turns out that my passion is turning the dreams in my head into reality”.

“If you just sit and “dream” without starting to work, you will never find your passion. Let’s get to work, do anything, big or small. Along the way, you’ll discover what you like.”

Finally, Founder VTS wants to give advice to young people who have a startup dream that: First, you should find yourself a Co-founder (co-founder). If you are a “dreamer”, find yourself someone “under the ground”, but you can’t find another dream partner with you.

For example, I dream that I should be good at communication, marketing, working with customers. But will have to find someone who is good at expertise and technology.”

And one more thing, Mr. Hien noted, “Maybe the first dreams don’t work out, but it will help you a lot in the future”.

Phuc Hai