When people ask me about my favorite startups in Vietnam, SetechViet is at the top of my list. They’ve got an awesome young, innovative team and a product that intersects two huge Vietnamese markets: motorbikes and mobile phones. In Vietnam, there are over 33.4 million motorbikes (one third of the Vietnamese population) and over 140 million mobile phones.
The company designed a cellphone-operated device called S-Bike that installs inside a motorbike to deter and prevent theft. Customers can text their bike to turn it off, activate an alarm, and even get its GPS location. The company has developed an iPhone app, Android app, and the S-Bike can be activated with all feature phones via SMS.
Edit: Added extra details about mobile offerings.
I wrote a small article about them last year but I just had to grab an interview with them to get the full story. Dang Xuan Quynh, CEO, and Doan Thien Phuc, founder, gave me their one-year journey story.
Bike picked apart, company put together
It all started in 2009, when Phuc was still a sophomore at the HCMC University of Science, and a found his bike taken apart in a school parking lot.
The thieves didn’t even steal the whole motorbike, they just stole all the necessary parts for reselling. It was at that moment that I thought I want there to be a way that I can know if anybody touches or tries to steal my motorbike.
Phuc, the founder, receiving one of his first awards.
Less than a year later, Phuc pitched the idea at a university-wide competition called S-Idea where teachers evaluate new ideas from students. He won the ‘special award’ along with 5 million VND (US$240), which he invested in new phones to start testing his idea.
While still finishing up his major in computer science, Phuc built the early software himself but quickly found he couldn’t build a complete product without a team. The first team was four people, consisting of two on hardware and two on software. Quynh, one of the hardware guys and current CEO, elaborates:
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