Minister Nguyen Manh Hung: The core of startups is to solve big problems

This information was shared by the Minister of Science and Technology (MST) Nguyen Manh Hung at a meeting with artificial intelligence (AI) startups held on the afternoon of 16 January, 2026, in Hanoi.

Startups must become the giants

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, startups are not born to work for the big players, startups must become the big players themselves. A startup is not a typical business, while an ordinary business grows at a linear rate, a startup, once it grows, must do so at an exponential rate.

If they position themselves as ordinary businesses, startups will face disadvantages from the start due to limitations in capital, customers, and branding. The core issue for a startup is to solve major problems, even replacing old models that have existed for many years, rather than just stopping at providing supplementary solutions.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung also pointed out the fundamental difference between a startup and a large enterprise lies in their approach to risk. For a startup, a mistake is not a failure but rather data for learning and adjustment. Rapid experimentation, accepting mistakes, and continuous improvement are essential conditions for finding a suitable model.

Meanwhile, large enterprises often prioritize stability, perfection, and the limitation of operational risks.

In the field of AI, the Minister assessed that Vietnam currently lacks the resources to compete directly in core technologies compared to the world's major powers.

Instead, a suitable direction is to focus on creative applications, utilizing existing technologies to solve specific socio-economic problems.

This is seen as a path to accumulate resources, market share, and experience, while creating a foundation to step-by-step master higher technologies in the future.

For the development of AI startups, the Minister recommended a “problem first, technology second” approach. Owning and deeply understanding a significant practical problem will determine a startup's position in the value chain. Technology, capital, and other resources will follow once the problem is clearly defined and its value is proven.

From the perspective of state management and business operations, the Minister suggested several major challenges for AI, such as improving governance efficiency, accumulating organizational knowledge, or handling overlaps and contradictions within the legal and regulatory framework.

For startups with ambitions to reach the global market, according to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, they first need to find and solve problems right at home, because “most of Vietnam's problems are also common global problems”. When effectively handling issues in Vietnam, a startup simultaneously possesses a solid foundation to bring solutions to the international market.

Regarding the selection of problems, the Minister believed that issues receiving little trust from the majority sometimes hide opportunities for success. An idea supported by all parties, from regulatory agencies to investment funds, is likely one where the breakthrough value is no longer significant or has become too obvious to create a sustainable advantage.

On the contrary, skepticism and difficulties during the fundraising process are sometimes signals that the startup is pursuing a distinct path.

Regarding the challenge of investment capital, a common concern for many startups - the Minister emphasized that recent changes in the science and technology institutions will contribute to resolving this difficulty. For example, the Law on Technology Transfer now allows technology to be considered a type of asset.

However, the Minister also advised startups to view the state of being “capital-deprived” as a driver to find breakthrough solutions, rather than successfully raising capital but gradually losing the motivation for innovation or losing control of the business.

For startups, money is not the top priority for development. The difficulties startups face is like a moth before breaking its cocoon to become a butterfly.

The more difficult the situation people are placed in, the more intelligent they become, finding the “right problem” will solve the challenges startups are facing. Startups need intelligence, breakthrough initiatives, and a deep understanding of the nature of the problem, the Minister of Science and Technology emphasized.

Enterprises need to become the first customer of a startup when establishing investment funds

However, in Minister Nguyen Manh Hung’s assessment, enterprises still play a key role in the development of startups. Instead of choosing to hire or acquire, enterprises should play the role of “guinea pigs” or become the first customers of the startup.

In the beginning, what a startup needs most is not necessarily capital, but a practical environment to test products - a place where they can deploy, encounter issues, make mistakes, and adjust based on real data. When a product solves a specific problem for a large enterprise, the startup will have practical evidence to continue perfecting and expanding to other markets, both domestically and internationally.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung also requested units under the Ministry of Science and Technology to research and adjust mechanisms and policies, considering a requirement that large enterprises, when establishing investment funds for startups, must include a clause to become the first customer of those startups.

This approach not only creates a “launchpad” for startup growth but also encourages large enterprises to open their systems and promote innovative thinking.

Additionally, the Minister argued that many Vietnamese startups have not reached far because their chosen problems and ambitions remain limited. If they only aim for an early exit by selling the company for a few million USD, startups will lack the motivation to pursue large, long-term issues.

Conversely, aiming for problems with broad scale and impact on society or the economy is the factor that helps startups develop sustainably, instead of narrowing themselves into small businesses working for large corporations./.

Copyright belongs to the Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology (VJST-MOST).

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