What can young people do to overcome the 'firewall' of the next generation of entrepreneurs?

In the age of AI, how can young people start their own businesses?

AI, data, and e-commerce are drastically reducing barriers to market entry. Is this a better time to start a business?

Mr. Le Manh Cuong: It's easier to start, but not necessarily easier to succeed. Nowadays, just two or three AI users can research customers, build prototypes, run ads, and sell products at much lower costs.

However, if we're fast, our competitors are too. When ideas are easily copied, the advantage is no longer about "thinking it up first," but rather about execution speed, data, customer experience, operating systems, and the ability to innovate continuously.

AI can create beautiful demos, but it doesn't prove customers will pay. So when a young person brings a project to me, I don't ask if the idea is unique, but rather: Who will pay? Why will they pay? If they don't have your product, how are they solving that problem? Then there are the numbers about the cost of acquiring a customer, the return rate, the profit margin, and if revenue drops by 30%, how long will the cash flow sustain the business...

Many people enthusiastically talk about the multi-billion dollar market, but haven't answered the question of whether a single sale results in profit or loss. Starting a business requires ambition, but ambition must be based on sound calculations. I often tell the members of the club that you shouldn't confuse creating a product with building a business, and you should learn four things early on: managing cash flow, people, legal matters, and data," said Le Manh Cuong.

Sir, M&A is a new avenue for entrepreneurship. Perhaps instead of spending years building a company from scratch, young entrepreneurs could buy existing businesses to "get ahead"?

Mr. Le Manh Cuong: Moving faster might be possible, but making it easier isn't guaranteed. M&A allows an entrepreneur to "buy back time," acquiring existing customers, brands, licenses, personnel, or production capacity.

However, along with the assets, you might also be buying unseen problems such as debts, taxes, shareholder disputes, employment contracts, intellectual property, or an overly dependent customer base.

Therefore, M&A is not simply about "buying a company," but about valuing, assessing, and restructuring a business system. Vietnam has many small and medium-sized enterprises that already have a foundation, customers, and assets, but are facing challenges related to succession, technology, capital, or management.

Young people capable of taking over and reviving these businesses means preserving resources for society, instead of letting them close down and others having to start from scratch.

In the context of today's startup environment, how should the Club and the Outstanding Young Entrepreneur program change to promote Vietnam's startup ecosystem, sir?

Mr. Le Manh Cuong: Nowadays, it's increasingly easy for young people to start businesses, but staying afloat and growing them is the real challenge.

Nevertheless, Resolution 68 identifies the private sector as the most important driving force of the economy, setting a target of approximately 2 million operating businesses by 2030; Resolution 57 places science , technology, innovation, and digital transformation in a breakthrough position. This presents a great opportunity for young entrepreneurs, but policy opportunities only become business opportunities when businesses have the capacity to absorb them.

Regarding entrepreneurship, the question now is no longer about organizing many competitions or events, but rather what young entrepreneurs gain after the event to help their businesses grow. Inspiration is necessary, but if young people are not helped to understand the market, capital, taxes, laws , and management, it is easy to create a generation that "likes to start businesses" but lacks the necessary skills to run a business.