Reflecting on Hanoi: Startups and Social Impact
I was motivated to apply for the UQ Startup AdVentures trip to Hanoi because I was interested in how entrepreneurial thinking could be applied to complex social problems.
Entrepreneurship is often constructed as a method of developing innovative solutions to complex problems. Understood in this way, entrepreneurial activity is most associated with technological breakthroughs and the rapid transformation of various industries.
My internship at a startup in Hanoi illuminated the importance of upstream approaches to various forms of social inequity, and the critical role that context-specific interventions play in bringing about meaningful change.
As a research intern at innovation consultancy BambuUP, I developed resources and delivery strategies for their “Youth-led Initiatives for Safe Migration and Human Trafficking Prevention” program. This startup incubator program aimed to equip young people across Vietnam with the skills to develop successful and innovative businesses, and in turn provide employment opportunities throughout various provinces in Vietnam.
To me, the project highlighted how socially-conscious entrepreneurship can contribute to positive social outcomes.
Creating employment opportunities throughout Vietnam is critical for addressing out-migration, whereby (typically) young people leave their rural or regional homes in search of jobs in big cities domestically or overseas. Language and literacy barriers often put these people at risk of exploitation and human trafficking, landing them in a worse predicament than the one they were trying to escape.
My time in Hanoi exposed me to two conflicting narratives about Vietnam. On the one hand, Vietnam was framed as an emerging economic hub with surging GDP growth, primed for prosperity amidst the transition to a digital economy. On the other hand, I found that ethnic minority status and lower rates of educational attainment contributed to greater social inequities outside the big cities driving this digital transition. This highlights the two-speed nature of development, wherein the pace at which new technologies emerge often outstrips societal progress in other domains, such as secure employment, climate resilience, and more.
With majors in Digital Media and Sociology, I am deeply interested in how inequalities culminate in adverse risks for some groups in society but not others, and how addressing these issues improves people’s ability to participate in societies undergoing rapid digital transformations.
I was grateful for the opportunity to work on a project which aimed to provide a solution to this challenge. It taught me that, fundamentally, addressing education barriers by providing technological and business skills for young people enhances their ability to participate in the digital economy, and to do so in ways that are beneficial to their local communities.
It’s important to note that these learnings were only partly a result of desktop research during the startup internship.
The UQ Startup AdVentures program was an opportunity to embed myself in the rhythms, nuances and challenges of life in a new city.
“Doing life” in a new way brought me into contact with local people, and helped me to understand the values underpinning the Vietnamese way of life. For example, the extent to which familial ties are embedded into language (irrespective of blood relation, everyone is a “brother” or a “sister,” an “uncle” or an “aunt,” and so on) shaped the way I was invited to sit with locals for coffee, lunch, or even celebratory banquet dinners.
Understanding these (and other) cultural nuances influenced how I contributed to BambuUP’s incubator project. Instead of thinking in terms of ‘startups’ in a ‘market,’ it challenged me to consider youth-led business initiatives as integral parts of larger communities.
I would recommend the UQ Startup AdVentures program to people who are eager to embrace challenges both within and beyond the internship itself. The ability to embed yourself within a new city with different rhythms and norms will challenge you to develop new perspective, allowing you to think differently about your own city, culture and community. Finally, while there are ample opportunities to shape your future career ambitions and develop new skills, situating these learnings within the cultural context and way of life of the city you’re in will distinguish this experience from any other.