Vulcan Augmetics Co-Founder: Robotic Arm is a Tech Product, Let Users Be Proud to Wear It

In June 2022, Trinh Khanh Ha, co-founder of Vulcan Augmetics, a startup about robotic arms for the disabled, announced a fundraising campaign on a startup community. After a few exchanges, Khanh Ha agreed to be interviewed.

Born in a military village in the countryside of Phu Yen, Khanh Ha has a very "western" style with long, straight, dyed brown hair with highlights, brown skin, sleeveless shirt, and loose pants. At first glance, Khanh Ha looks more like a Filipino or Thai singer than a Vietnamese girl. Straightforward, open, strong, and confident are what people feel about this girl. The only female co-founder in the all-male Ironman team, Khanh Ha connects technology engineers to bring people who are less fortunate in life a robotic arm, so they can confidently step out into life like other normal people.

Studying at college in hotel tourism management, what brought Khanh Ha to study abroad in England, a very expensive learning environment? Nowadays, many people study abroad, but with my family background, studying abroad is a dream. I grew up in a military village in the countryside of Phu Yen. My parents broke up. I passed the university entrance exam for social sciences but decided to study at the college of foreign economics and hotel management because I wanted to study as quickly as possible to work and earn money to help my family. I had the opportunity to intern at a very beautiful 5-star resort in Nha Trang with a room rate of up to hundreds of millions of VND/night. But after working for a while, I felt very disappointed. What others expected of me was not suitable. At that time, I was confused and did not know what I should do. Luckily, my family had an aunt who was living in London and she supported me with a loan to study abroad. When I was in college, my grades were very good so I was admitted directly to a university in England. I chose economics because I have a talent for communication, foreign languages ​​and a passion for doing something for myself.

Usually, people who start out in a financial environment but have the opportunity to study abroad, especially in the UK - the financial center of the world, will choose to stay and work for others. Why did you decide to return to Vietnam to start a business? During my time studying in the UK, when I met people working in the financial industry, I didn't see anyone happy. Their lives were all about prestige. Investment banking may be a dream job with a very high income, and outsiders see them as very glamorous, but I don't see them as happy. I like London, but I don't think I'll stay there for the rest of my life. I read a lot of books, so I realized that everyone only has one life, so I should spend it on something that makes my heart burn every day. I like to do things that are difficult and challenging, but I'm excited and happy every day when I go to work. As for why I don't like working for others but like to start a business. During my time studying in the UK, the distance from home to school was very far, I had to take the subway for an hour every day. During that time, I read a lot of books about startups and was inspired, so from the beginning I decided that after finishing my studies I would find a way to start a business. But starting a business in the UK was very unrealistic because of the high capital requirements, so I decided that after finishing my studies I would return to Vietnam.

With no experience and little capital, how did Khanh Ha's startup journey go? When I returned to Vietnam, I still had no idea so I wanted to find a young startup to join the founding team. At first, I joined a startup like a reservation platform (revervation platform), but that startup only operated in Ho Chi Minh City, it was very difficult to expand the market. I presented the business vision to the founder but he did not listen, nor did he see the problem, so I thought I should start my own business. At that time, I decided to launch Boss Lady. Europe has many shopping apps, Vietnam has many domestic brands, beautiful stores but everything is small and fragmented. I wanted to gather everyone on one platform so that customers could shop on it. During my time in England, I worked part-time at a restaurant, did nails, and studied at the same time, so I saved a small amount of money. I planned to go to graduate school if I didn't start a business. When I founded Boss Lady, I did everything myself from marketing, sales... At that time, the team had 4 people, after 8 months of working, we ran out of capital, I burned through more than 10,000 USD. When I ran out of money, I had to raise capital, that was the first time I encountered the capital market in Vietnam. At that time, a shark advised me that the e-commerce market was burning a lot of money, if I didn't have the ability to compete, I should close down. I tried for another 1-2 months and then met the current team.

What brought you to the Vulcan Augmetics team? Vulcan Augmetics was born in a venture builder, it is like a startup incubator with many small projects. I was introduced to the venture founder, at that time she wanted to find someone who could lead projects (project manager). One of them was a project called Ironman, the predecessor of Vulcan Aumetics. At that time, Vulcan had Rafael Masters - founder, Akshay Sharma - CTO from India, 2 engineers and 1 freelancer. When I met that team, I thought it was so great, in Vietnam there was a startup making robotic arms for the disabled, but at that time everything was too primitive, the product was very big, very heavy and very ugly. I really liked it but I didn't dare to do it because I thought I had no experience in the field of medical equipment or hardware, and I had just failed, so I was afraid that if I led the team and the project failed, what would happen? But the Malaysian founder said that this startup was all boys, it needed someone with very good organizational skills to pull it together. Then, Akshay showed me a clip about a person who lost both arms but could still control a motorbike with his feet. Akshay said, " Disabled people are very good, have a lot of potential but need tools to be confident in themselves. I am the one who wants to build this tool for them." I decided to join the Ironman team, at that time it was 2018, then founded a company and turned it into a social enterprise. I was the first full-time person while the others were still part-time. After a while, Akshay was the CTO of Vulcan but also the CTO of another startup and when it came to the fundraising stage, because Ironman was too young, he chose a bigger startup. When Akshay left, I received my shares back and officially became a Co-founder, before that I participated as a project manager.

Why did I choose to do a social enterprise startup, when at first I wanted to have a job quickly to help my family, normally people like that would choose a job that is more materialistic? That is what I have to struggle with every day. When I woke up this morning, I still thought it was another day, another month without sending money to my parents. At my age, my friends send at least a few million to their parents every month, but it is difficult for me to send a few million to my father. When the startup was still new, the co-founders only received the minimum salary to maintain their lives. For me, it is a daily battle, I have to try, I have to raise capital faster so that the time to return to support my parents will be shorter. I am a girl who also likes to wear nice clothes, but sometimes the hustle and bustle of life makes me forget to take care of myself. Sometimes I also think, 5-6 years of doing a startup has cost me a lot. But I give myself time to do a startup, if I fail, I can still go back to work for a big company when I am 35 years old. I am confident in my ability to still find a job with a good income, and I trade my youth to do what I love, when I can't stand it anymore, then I have another path to choose. Currently, I am still pursuing the path.

Why did Ironman change his name to Vulcan Augmetics? Vulcan is the name of a Roman god, he was the god of fire and was disabled from birth, so his parents rejected him and sent him to the bottom of the sea. Alone, he refused to accept his fate and forged his own weapons and formed an army to defeat the other gods and then was recognized. The spirit of Vulcan is an unfortunate life but refused to accept it, still having the ability to train himself to change his life. With the technology that Vulcan Augmetics is developing, losing a part of the body will only be an inconvenience, no longer a misfortune. Aumetics is an abbreviation of the two words "Augmentation" which means to make better, to upgrade. Our criterion is to always upgrade technology for a better life, tic is "prosthetics" which is the prosthetic limb industry. Vulcan starts where people have the most urgent need but expands to the body augmentation industry, and the next level is what Elon Musk is doing which is the neuralink brain chip, the technology to enhance the human body. Vulcan's vision is to make all the technology when attached to the human body makes us better.

Without a background in hardware and technology, how do you lead the team? Luckily, I learn very quickly. At first, leading the hardware engineering team was quite difficult, having to learn what a motor is, what mechanical movement is... Then I realized that I don't need a strong background to lead a technology team. The important thing is to understand how to operate the team and what the purpose of technology is. Engineers often try to upgrade technology in a complicated way but forget its purpose, it must be commercial and suitable for users. In fact, Rafael, the founder of Vulcan, does not have a background in technology. He studied philosophy. In an educational environment abroad, you learn a lot of things, and one of those things is that foreign children get to play with Lego and learn about robotics at school, so luckily Rafael has a very good sense of design. Rafael made very good design decisions that helped Vulcan's products go faster on the market. As a co-founder, what is Khanh Ha's assigned role? In the first phase from 2018-2020, I was purely in charge of operations, recruitment, and finance. From 2021 onwards, when the startup had all the necessary licenses, it moved to the commercialization phase, I switched to business development, and Rafael focused on technology development. In Vietnam, it is difficult to find someone with experience in selling prosthetic limbs, so I had to do everything myself, connecting with doctors and orthopedic surgery centers. The team currently has 13 full-time members and 8 part-time members.

On Vulcan's website, its products are not positioned as medical devices but as technological products . Why do we have such an idea ? When people with disabilities buy products, they want to compensate for their loss and hide their defects. We want users to feel proud and confident when wearing Vulcan products, without having to hide the fact that they have lost an arm or leg or are paralyzed. Vulcan wants customers to wear robotic arms as if they were someone who needed to upgrade their abilities, just like when we normally buy a tool, a drill, or a computer to upgrade our productivity, so we can work more efficiently. With that mindset, we think that in the end, the users will be the ones who benefit the most. How are Vulcan Augmetics products manufactured? Currently, an arm has many parts and many different materials, the skeleton is made of metal, the outside has a 3D frame layer, silicon, electronics... the electrical part, the chip is designed by me but 70% is sourced from external processing partners, then brought back to Vulcan for assembly and QC, and finished product packaging.

People with disabilities, or congenital disabilities, are often caused by work accidents or traffic accidents, and these people are mostly workers, without much money. How does Vulcan solve the problem of price and quality? Why are most disabled people poor? 70% of customers who lost their arms come to Vulcan because of work accidents, because they are workers, they are working in factories without labor protection. They only earn 5-7 million VND/month. Second is diseases like diabetes. When you have diabetes, your resistance is very low, so for example, if you have a scratch, it is very difficult to heal. There are many cases of diabetes, 40% will have to amputate the leg, not just once, for example, in the 3rd or 4th year, the foot is amputated, it keeps eating and then cutting again, then bone cancer, ... The rest are mine accidents in poor rural areas. In the end, the vicious cycle of poverty, disability and poverty. Compared to functional prosthetic arms on the market, Vulcan's selling price is only 1/3. There are many robotic arm products on the market from China, Germany, Taiwan (China)... but the prices of those products are very expensive. There are prosthetic arms priced from 65-110-300-500 million VND, even 1 billion VND, those are prosthetic arms, but compared to other prosthetic arms, Vulcan's products are not cheaper, cosmetic arms have silicon gloves around 6-7 million VND/piece, mechanical arms controlled by the shoulder cost tens of millions, and if the robotic arm is around the price of a motorbike, it costs around 25-30 million VND/piece. Last year, Vulcan's robotic arm was the best seller, with more than 70 arms sold, for a medical product just launched during the Covid season, that is proof of its suitability to the market.

In terms of function, can prosthetic arms help users function like normal arms? Everyone expects prosthetic arms to be used like normal arms, but that is impossible. Currently, Vulcan arms can support about 40% of the function of a normal arm, but it is only at the level of supporting the other arm. That means that whatever needs to be done with 2 hands, the Vulcan arm will support, and if something needs to be done with 1 hand, I will do it with the other hand, why would I suddenly use the Vulcan arm? Everyone must understand that when buying the product. For example, the Vulcan arm can support users in riding a motorbike, daily tasks such as holding a bowl of rice, opening a bottle of water, carrying something... things they can do every day with 1 hand but it is very inconvenient, the robot arm helps make their lives more convenient. Or Vulcan's arm can go to the gym, currently Vulcan's arm is the only arm in the world prosthetics market that can go to the gym. That's not what we thought of at first, but the users suggested it during use, because most people who have lost an arm are men, and if they don't exercise for a period of time, the remaining arm will atrophy, so keeping up with vigorous activities is very important to maintain their body shape. Besides robot arms , does Vulcan make robot legs ? Actually, I also thought about researching legs before, but there are already many leg products on the market. Vulcan is robotics, meaning there is a combination of mechanics, electricity and software, but the leg is just a purely mechanical product, we think that when jumping into the purely mechanical field, it is a competition between price and production, that is not Vulcan's strength. But we have a lot of customers asking to buy legs, so from April 2022, we will consult and introduce customers to partner orthopedic centers, and then we will receive commission for referring customers. At the end of this year, when we finish raising capital and have a stable source of capital, we will import leg products from other brands that private orthopedic centers normally cannot import, to increase the choice of better and cheaper legs for users.

How is the prosthetic limb market in Vietnam now and do you plan to bring your products internationally ? Currently, the prosthetic limb market in Vietnam is developing very quickly, but lacks many foundations for development. There are 3 reasons: First, Vietnam does not have a health policy or insurance for people who have lost limbs. In other countries, only those who have lost limbs will be insured and the health system will take care of them, so losing limbs and being able to buy support products is a default. In Vietnam, due to affordability, the demand for purchasing will be less than in other countries. Second, the workforce in this industry is also very small. It was really lucky that at first, I invited Mr. Le Tan Viet Linh to be a technical advisor of Vulcan. Mr. Linh is an orthopedic expert in the industry for many years. He works part-time because he has his own orthopedic facility. When it is commercialized, Mr. Linh will introduce me to the remaining orthopedic centers. I talked to many partners in the industry, they saw that there were many people who needed to use it everywhere in the country, they wanted to open more orthopedic centers in the provinces but they couldn't find orthopedic technicians who were specialized in that field to take charge. There was a shortage of human resources in the industry because orthopedics is a field that requires 4-5 years of study, costs a lot of effort, money and intelligence but only receives an intermediate degree, not trained at college or university level. So there are no young people studying this field, the majority of the staff are old men. That leads to people buying this product not knowing where to find information, no one talks about price, no one talks about function, if you lose a limb, just leave it like that, many people lose a leg and just walk, hop around for the rest of their lives, it's still very difficult. Therefore, the demand is still very high. Vulcan's problem now is to stabilize the product. The current arm is only enough to sell to the domestic market because if there is any technical problem, we can immediately ship the replacement part or the customer can send it for repair and warranty very quickly, but to export abroad, the product needs to be more stable. The current arm can be used for 2-3 years, but to export to foreign markets, it must be durable for up to 5 years. Vulcan's goal is to export to the Indian market in early 2023. Vulcan is determined to go global and not just sell in Vietnam. Currently, Vulcan is interested in many equipment distribution companies in African countries, Pakistan, and even Ukraine, but we have not immediately obtained licenses to export to those countries, but we are ready for India.

How did Vulcan survive 2 years of Covid? Somehow, Vulcan miraculously survived 2 years of Covid. The startup had just launched its product when Ho Chi Minh City was completely locked down. During that period, we had to cut 50% of the company's salary, all co-founders were unpaid, focusing on R&D. But you guys still stayed and fought. There were stages when we were preparing to deliver 20 hands, the whole team got Covid, coughing and having a fever but still had to work, very pitiful. Then in the 3rd stage on-site, some of you had to sleep in the office to complete the progress. The cost of some normal chip components that cost 5,000 VND increased to 500,000 VND because of Covid and global transportation congestion. At that time, the engineering team had to redesign the circuit board with components available in Vietnam to meet the delivery time. There were changes that even required changes in the technological details. Currently, we still have monthly sales, of course not enough to cover all operating costs, but it is enough for us to continue without being too dependent on investment money. We still have to raise capital. In the company account, there is still 6-8 months of operating expenses, plus the factor of having revenue, which means that from now until the next 6-8 months, we have to raise capital, otherwise we might have to cut salaries again. That is the current situation. But we feel very positive because after 4-5 years, with people coming and going, up to now, this is the most stable, united, and best team. Everyone knows what their job is, I can rest assured to take 2 weeks off to go to Poland to get married. 3 years ago, I did not have the confidence to take 2 weeks off to take care of my personal work. But now the team is very stable, operating well, everything is in order, so I see everything very positive.

What are Vulcan Augmetics ' upcoming goals ? Vulcan plans to raise $1 million, valuing the company at $6.5 million. This is the fourth round. In the first round, Vulcan raised capital from the Vietnam Silicon Valley fund, followed by The Ventures fund from Korea, and the next round is a Canadian fund. In the near future, we have set four main goals: The first is to go global, which means exporting to a second market at all costs. Currently, the target is India, or maybe Cambodia. The second is to invest in technology, but in terms of AI, machine learning, software, that is what helps us have real long-term competitiveness. As for hardware production, it is only at a level sufficient for commercialization. Therefore, the company must invest and build a stronger software team. The third is to improve the production process. Currently, Vulcan is assembling in the final step, but everything is still very manual, done by hand, I want to automate some processes more effectively. For example, I am currently 3D printing, but for a startup, 3D printing will not be cost-effective, instead it needs to switch to molding, so that is what I have to do in the near future. In terms of products, we feel that we still have to continuously improve, such as the battery is still too big, people want to use the battery all day long and it is safe, it has to be big, some girls say that the battery is heavy, so we have to continue to improve the battery and technology. Currently, the team is still recruiting some senior positions in finance, because the founder team is holding quite a lot of concurrent positions, we need to add a stronger leadership team, in areas that the founder team is not good at.

Now it's 2022, where is your goal for Vulcan by 2025? I think in 3-5 years when people talk about Vulcan, it won't just be a startup that produces robotic arms. In 3-5 years, we will be a platform for all disabled people who want to find functional products, maybe for people who have lost arms or legs, for people with other disabilities who can scan their body parts and need support. Vulcan can then give users fully informed and most suitable options for them, then they will know the price, where they need to go, what the process is like, and that product can be sent directly to their home, and it will be in all developing countries, not just Vietnam. Any disabled person in any country in developing countries can go to the Vulcan app to find a product that suits them and it will be delivered to their home. That's what we envision for our business model and the user base we'll be serving in the future.

After 10 years looking back from a girl in Phu Yen, then studying abroad in London , then being a co-founder of a startup, it's like Cinderella going to the ball. If   Looking back at the past , what is my feelings? Happiness and pride. Friends, the team also loves me. I find life really beautiful. I also do not regret the previous startups I have failed, because it is a worthy experience, all of the Founder has to go through those feelings, when I plowed all the website alone, the app , plowing everything, I had to go through those things, I was valuable to the big or small achievements I have later.   Will you achieve all the goals later ? Confident so that I have done until now.

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