Gen Z startups: Success is when you dare to step out of your comfort zone

(Dan Tri) - Gen Z is dynamic, creative and daring to take on challenges, affirming its role in Vietnamese startups, despite facing many pressures on capital, experience and cash flow.

Starting a business is becoming an increasingly popular choice for the younger generation. In that context, the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, and not being afraid of failure of Gen Z (the group of people born between 1997 and 2012) seems to breathe new life into the Vietnamese startup ecosystem.

These people do not hesitate to step out of their comfort zone, make the most of social networks to bring ideas closer to customers, and affirm their own value through creative projects.

With strong support from the State, the startup community and society, Vietnam is entering a golden period for startups. This is the ripe time for breakthrough ideas from Generation Z to take shape, contributing to promoting the innovative economy and moving towards sustainable development.

Dare to start, dare to step out of your comfort zone

Nguyen Dinh Luong (born in 1997) started his career with a cake making class after many years of apprenticeship and part-time work at bakeries. Luong impressed the online community and cake lovers with his ability to create soft, lifelike cream flowers. Having been involved in the profession since the age of 19 as a student majoring in construction, he has nearly 10 years of experience in baking, of which the last 4 years have been specializing in cream flower making techniques.

Dinh Luong (black shirt, standing in the middle) and students in a baking class (Photo: NVCC).

Despite having a stable job, Luong still decided to switch to starting a business after a long time of thinking. With an initial capital of only about 30-40 million VND, Luong started with small steps to rent a space, buy raw materials, tables, chairs and tools. However, the most important luggage is not material, but skills and perseverance.

The first period was almost a period of silence and challenges. “When I practiced making roses, I wanted them to have a soul, but I kept trying and still couldn’t make them, I was so discouraged, sometimes I wanted to give up,” Luong shared. It took many months of perseverance for him to gradually overcome the precarious period and hone his skills.

Taking advantage of social networks and forums, he shares his own cake designs to attract students. The model is currently stable thanks to the combination of professional skills and the ability to connect with the community. To young people considering starting a business, Luong advises: “Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone. Youth only comes once.”

Le Thanh Thuy Tien (born in 1997), known on social media as Tien Le, opened the Daspace concept store in Ho Chi Minh City after many years of creating content in the beauty industry. Initially, she only intended to open her own office and store, but she quickly switched to a general store model that brings together domestic and foreign brands.

The multi-brand fashion store market is still new, building trust and convincing partners initially encountered many difficulties. However, thanks to effectively exploiting social media platforms and the community of followers, her startup gradually expanded with two branches serving both men and women. Revenue reached over 100 million VND/month.

“Don’t wait too long, get started right away. Starting a business is not easy, there will be times when you feel discouraged, but if you persevere, success will definitely come,” Tien advised.

Daspace shopping complex in District 1, HCMC (Photo: NVCC).

Is it difficult to have revenue of over 100 million VND/month?

Starting from personal needs, Tam Dan (born in 2002) started building the handbag brand "Tiem Nha Tui" with only 3 million VND in savings. Starting from not being able to find a quilted fabric bag that suited her taste, she designed and produced the first model for herself. The product then received positive attention from friends and the online community, creating the motivation to develop into a small business model.

The store specializes in convenient bags such as backpacks, laptop bags, and crossbody bags, mainly made of quilted cotton and pastel colors. The products are aimed at young customers who love a gentle, dynamic style.

On average, the store processes hundreds of orders each month, with each product costing an average of 120,000 VND to 300,000 VND. Revenue is maintained at a stable level of tens to hundreds of millions of VND and tends to grow well each season.

Production is organized in small batches to limit inventory. Tam Dan controls quality from the idea generation, material selection to trial sewing and sample adjustment. Excess fabric is used to make by-products such as mini bags or pencil cases, minimizing waste.

Tam Dan is currently the owner of the brand "My House Shop" (Photo: NVCC).

Her natural and approachable communication style helps the brand spread quickly on TikTok. However, to ensure quality and operational sustainability, she proactively stopped accepting orders during peak times and recruited more staff.

Coming from a background in culinary content creation, Nguyen Trinh Ha (born in 1999) - also known as Ha La Ca - entered the F&B business field with the brand Ha La Ca, specializing in serving Binh Dinh specialties.

Ha opened the first facility in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of 2023, with an initial capital of about 100 million VND. After nearly a year of operation, the model has expanded to 3 branches. Ha said that on average, the restaurant processes 200-300 orders on online platforms every day, consuming about 2,000 rolls, mainly grilled bread, Tay Son rolls and shrimp spring rolls. Revenue is stable at a level of tens to hundreds of millions of VND per week, depending on the time and sales channel.

Nguyen Trinh Ha is the main chef of Ha La Ca restaurant (Photo: NVCC).

According to Ha, young people starting a business need to be ready to face the pressure of operations, personnel management and incidents that may arise. “To build a sustainable brand, you must prepare a strong mindset and a full knowledge base,” Ha said.

Not all startups are "rosy", Gen Z born in 1998 Thuy Vy shared, she used to run a domestic fashion brand in Ho Chi Minh City with a revenue of more than 100 million VND per month. However, after the Covid-19 pandemic, the business model fell into a deadlock due to not finding a new direction, high rental costs and fierce competitive pressure from rivals in the same segment.

Lack of experience in developing digital content, especially sales videos on social networks, gradually made the brand lose its advantage. Vy was forced to stop working and return to office work.

As a first-time entrepreneur, Vy encountered many difficulties in marketing and identifying her customer base. In addition, focusing too much on personal design made the products unsuitable for general tastes. Many clothing designs with personal touches were not popular with customers, leading to low purchasing power and declining revenue.

Although early failure left regrets, it was also valuable practical experience for Vy. From there, she realized the importance of listening to the market, controlling costs and building a flexible business mindset, instead of just pursuing personal interests.

When passion and creativity are not enough

Starting a business has never been an easy road. According to Investopedia, about 90% of startups fail, and 70% of them close down within 2-5 years of their founding. The main reasons come from lack of long-term capital, limited management skills, not understanding market demand, and not being well prepared for cash flow.

According to Master Nguyen Viet Hoang Son, business valuation expert, Founder of Willan Finance Academy, Lecturer of Economics and Project Management in Australia, one reason why many young startups quickly fall into a deadlock is that Gen Zers often do not have long-term financial preparation, and do not anticipate having to self-inject capital in the first 1-2 years when there is no stable cash flow.

In addition, most initial startup models are still quite rudimentary and lack human resources, leading to the founder having to take on many roles, from operations, finance, sales to marketing. This can easily overload you both mentally and time-wise.

Mr. Son also believes that starting a business requires not only passion but also a foundation of management and practical thinking: "Many young people are excited to start working right away, skipping the market research step, and have not yet built a business plan or a systematic management plan, leading to being easily passive and confused when facing difficulties."

To start a successful business, you need a management foundation and practical thinking (Photo: Freepik).

In response to the opinion that Gen Z takes failure too lightly and easily gives up to try something new, he does not deny this fact but sees it as an advantage. “Many first projects fail, but because they are not afraid of failure, they dare to continue with the second and third projects, that is when real success comes,” he shared.

To avoid paying too high a tuition fee, he advises young people to make a detailed plan, reserve at least 6-12 months of living expenses, absolutely do not use company money for personal purposes, and consider themselves as a paid employee. At the same time, they need to prepare for long-term work, and allocate time in a disciplined manner to maintain family and social relationships.

“Don't start a business alone. Find a co-founder with complementary expertise to share the pressure and encourage each other to overcome difficult times,” he emphasized.

Don't have illusions about instant success.

Master Le Hoai Viet, lecturer of the Department of Entrepreneurship - Innovation and Creativity at the Faculty of Business Administration - Ho Chi Minh City Open University, believes that Gen Z's greatest strength is their boldness and unconventional creative thinking. They are not afraid to experiment, are willing to activate community emotions and are very good at using social networks to spread ideas.

However, the very environment of “everything can go viral overnight” easily makes young people have the illusion of instant success, confusing a popular campaign with a business model that creates repeatable and sustainable value.

From his teaching experience, the expert pointed out three weaknesses that Gen Z often encounter when starting a business. First, they often idealize their ideas to the point of ignoring market feedback, leading to a loss of flexibility.

Second, many young people focus too much on external image and forget that a startup is an “operating machine” and not just a “creative playground”. Third, Gen Z tends to run fast in the early stages but lacks the patience and system to stick with the stressful, repetitive operating days.

However, according to Mr. Viet, society should not stereotype Gen Z as “irresponsible”. Many young people fail many times but still do not give up, and this is very admirable. In fact, they learn quickly, dare to look directly at failure and know how to self-reflect to make adjustments. Failure is only truly valuable when the person involved dares to dissect the cause, does not make excuses, and does not use it as a label to attach to themselves.

“Most importantly, starting a business is not an ego show, but a process of operating a system with logical thinking, clear cash flow and long-term responsibility. The important thing after each failure is not only the determination to do it again, but also changing the way of thinking,” Mr. Viet shared.

According to Mr. Viet, Gen Z needs to give up the habit of “commercializing the ego” to practice thinking like a system designer. Before thinking about “quality” or “brand personality”, answer the question: how many bottlenecks does the financial model have? Are the profit margin, break-even point, and runway time enough to survive? Startups can only survive when they see cash flow and dare to make decisive decisions.

"The market doesn't care how passionate you are, the market only responds by whether you are willing to pay or not," Mr. Viet emphasized.

Gen Z - a dynamic, creative and daring young generation is gradually making its mark on the Vietnamese startup ecosystem. With a spirit of not being afraid of change, many young people have boldly started businesses in new fields, requiring breakthrough ideas and perseverance.

However, the path to starting a business is never easy, especially when they face barriers in terms of capital, management experience or pressure to maintain cash flow in a fiercely competitive market.

The series "Gen Z Startups" not only outlines an overall picture of the trends and reality of startups among the young generation, but also depicts inspiring real-life stories - young people who dare to think differently, do differently, and are willing to stumble to grow up.

The goal is to spread a positive message about the spirit of innovation, lean but sustainable, encouraging young people to dare to try - dare to fail - dare to stand up.

Each shared story is not only a valuable lesson for the startup community, but also contributes to motivating and inspiring Gen Z to continue to rise up and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/gen-z-khoi-nghiep-thanh-cong-la-khi-dam-buoc-ra-khoi-vung-an-toan-20250730163251363.htm