Le Hai Vu, Director and Founder of Velasboost (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Hanoi (VNA) – For 31-year-old Le Hai Vu, Director and Founder of Velasboost, the production of “Make-in-Vietnam” technology accessory products with high quality and reasonable prices is no longer a dream, but a thing that he has managed to do by setting up his own company in the field.
Vu’s company, Velasboost, specialises in producing “Make-in-Vietnam” accessories for computers and smartphones. The start-up has received five MFi (Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod) quality certificates from Apple. It has also successfully produced the first true wireless headphones in Vietnam that meet Qualcomm's aptX standards and appear on its website.
Although the firm has been operating for nearly three years, it has developed 30 different products and completing its own technology accessory ecosystem.
VietnamPlus has a talk with the young and ambitious “captain” about his success story.
Reporter: Many big “players” have joined this market. So why did you choose cables, chargers, and technology accessory production for your startup?
Le Hai Vu: Since I was a student, I started shop with smartphone business. Due to my understanding of products, customers and my existing relationships, I chose the smartphone accessory industry to create a new brand and make a new step forwards.
Along with that, starting a business with accessories is the safest method because at that time I only thought of one very simple thing, if I fail, I could still preserve my money or lose a little, but I could still get my money back. And if I do something new but my customers don't need it, it will most likely be lost.
Secondly, I see that there is a niche for business in this industry, because Vietnamese firms have paid great attention to software and technology, but not much about hardware. Either they do it for wholesale or export to foreign countries. But no Vietnamese brand had done that yet, that's an opportunity for me to seize.
I also thought that just making normal cables or chargers will not make any impression on customers. "Standing on the shoulders of giants" will be better than just walking alone. At that time, I thought of cooperating with Apple and following the MFi standards. In 2019, I launched my startup, and started production in 2020. At the end of 2020, I started selling my products.
Velasboots branded technology accessories (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Reporter: In the 2019-2020 period, the Vietnamese market saw many brands in chargers and cables with different prices. So what was the biggest challenge for you to engage in the industry?
Le Hai Vu: I had only worked in trading and never been in production, thus the first and biggest difficulty for me is money. As production activities required large amount of initial capital. Secondly, that was the time when I couldn't travel abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore I almost worked online with foreign partners.
In addition, factories that are qualified for producing Apple accessories are mainly located in China, while in Vietnam, there were not many parties that were able to manufacture or receive large orders. That's why I had to manufacture in China.
Reporter: Many people held that Velasboost is just Chinese products disguised as Vietnamese goods. How do you think about this opinion?
Le Hai Vu: I don't think they have the wrong mindset. In fact, my products were initially still manufactured in the form of OEM. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturing. OEM is often used to refer to companies and factories that carry out the production work according to the design, set specifications and sell the product to another company (responsible for distribution).
I tried contacting factories in Vietnam and no one worked with me. Meanwhile, China is home to the largest number of accessory brands. Along with that, many big technology companies have also chosen China for their production factories, Velasboost is no exception to that "revolving wheel". In order to keep pace with the world, we need to learn from their ways, which is good for us.
From the very beginning, Velasboots products have been certified by Apple (MFi) or Qualcomm. These are the highest standards. Therefore, users can completely trust them and the origin is no longer a problem but just a side story. Because it is totally a fair thing while putting Vietnamese and foreign products together as they have the same quality. As for the story of "disguising" or not, in my opinion, customers will only think in the way of the product is good or not. If you provide a bad product, it's still the same whatever you “disguise” them to be.
I am trying to make changes every day, trying to make deeper interference with the hope of ensuring that our products are 100% “made in Vietnam”. For us, a high-quality product is the one that meet the demand of customers at the price that they can afford.
Reporter: Talking about standing on the shoulders of a giant like Apple, then, are there any difficulties working with such a large firm?
Le Hai Vu: Apple is a big firm. And I didn't even establish a company at that time (laughs). At that time, my naive thought was that I wanted to do it and would ask them about it. However, Apple is a global corporation with their own procedures. It took me about two months to email them to understand the procedures. Fortunately, the factory that I cooperated with has been certified by Apple, so it has supported me very well in the processes.
I made a mistake which took me more than six months to receive a MFi certificate from Apple. That's when they asked for a business website and I sent them my retail website. There were a number of products that are managed by Apple and there was a product that violated their copyright, so they have stopped cooperating and asked for an explanation.
Then I decided to re-register from scratch. Thanks to experience learnt from the first time, the second time went smoothly and quickly. In December 2020, Velasboost was officially MFi certified by Apple and started selling products.
However, our first production batch was produced in March 2020, so it took nearly nine years for these products to be sold on the market. But thankfully, it only took about five days to sell out nearly 2,000 sets of charging cables (laughs).
Reporter: When you set up your company, did you imagine that it will look like what it is now? As now Velasboot has had diverse products, not just technology accessories. Do you even want it to be the "Xiaomi of Vietnam"?
Le Hai Vu: When I started, I didn’t think that it would be like this, I merely wanted to make something reputable and gain my own prestige. However, as I engaged deeper into this industry, I am more clear what I have to do. Especially after joining Shartank programme, I realised that I had not really do a business but only focused on my products. Doing business is to make products that meet the demand of customers.
Looking at Xiaomi, when they started they created popular products that attracted consumers. Consumers want to get good products worth the money they spend. I am trying to do it, but I’m not making something that are too high end. For now, we are starting to gradually lower the market segment by providing the best products in that segment but at a best price. Xiaomi is doing it very well. The company is not positioned as a premium brand but no one has complained about Xiaomi products.
CEO and Founder of Velasboost reveals that this year the firm will produce “Made-in-Vietnam” chargers (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Currently, the company's ecosystem of technology accessories has almost been completed. This year, we will start making “Made-in-Vietnam” power sockets, electric brushes and chargers.
Reporter: Among CEOs, there are very few people who broadcast live sales like you. So do you mind about this, or is this a special highlight of Velasboot?
Le Hai Vu: My first time making a livestream came contingently, as there were a lot of inventory, so I informed my customers that I would be on air that night to sell items. At first, it was also embarrassing to appear on the screen. I received a lot of comments, both good and bad, and I was also discouraged. But thanks to the orders I received, I was motivated to make another livestream.
Reporter: After you joined the Sharktank programme, is there any changes in Velasboot? Do you plan anything big?
Le Hai Vu: There has been so many changes since then. First of all, our company has had more staff and earned higher revenue and better reputation. Before that, I did not have a business mindset, but a merchant mindset. In a short time, I had to learn a lot about finance, human resources, accounting, and legal matters.
There was a period that I was stressed about the company's rapid change, I couldn't control my work, I didn't understand what was going on, while the workload kept increasing and the number of staff also increased, I didn't know how to assign the work to each staff. It took about half a year for everything to stabilise.
After joining Sharktank, I know that it's not okay to just pursue technology. And I think that the flow of technology changes constantly, so I can't keep chasing technology forever. So I will focus on making the products customers need. When they need the product, its life cycle will be longer.
I realise that nowadays the majority of customers are 8X and 9X. They are more interested in enjoyment. I will create products that make their lives better and for a smarter life.
Younger generations are interested in products that bring emotions too. The old generation only bought what they needed, but now customers are willing to spend on things that make them happy.
In the near future, Velasboot will focus on products related to life.
Reporter: Thank you for this conversation./.
