AV6 | Recruiting the A-team and making them earn a seat at the table

AVV Founders and Friends

Before launching Aitomatic, Christopher Nguyen and his founding team worked together for nearly 10 years building new AI solutions over multiple ventures. As a seasoned Silicon Valley and Vietnam tech veteran he imparts his wisdom for pragmatic decision making, winning over A-team hires, and how they should earn a seat at the table.

In This Episode

• (04:03) The AITOMATIC team
• (07:07) Founding team and not just a founder
• (08:53) What should your team look like?
• (11:16) Core values
• (14:20) How to make your brainstorms better
• (16:27) Manufacturing skills and value systems
• (22:06) Changes in hiring over time
• (24:28) Hiring tech employees as a non-tech CEO
• (27:07) How to better screen your employees
• (29:52) Buddy system and presentation
• (31:48) 30 second pitch about AITOMATIC

The AVV Founders and Friends podcast is a Top 10 podcast in Vietnam. If you’re an entrepreneur or interested in the Vietnamese and SE Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe now so you never miss an episode

Links

• Show notes and full transcript for the episode

Our Guests

Christopher Nguyen is a serial entrepreneur who is currently developing "AITOMATIC", the Knowledge-First App Engine for Industrial AI, which helps businesses translate domain expertise, combine it with machine learning, and automate everything on a single SaaS platform.

He has previously built companies such as Arimo (acquired by Panasonic), ACTGent (acquired by ICBC), and Agenda-Asia (acquired by WPP). He was also the first Engineering Director of Google Apps, and he co-founded the Computer Engineering program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a professor. In his 35+ years of experience, he has worked for leading technology companies such as Intel, Xerox, and Intel.

He earned his bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley and his master's and doctorate degrees at Stanford University. He also serves on the board of directors of Fulbright University Vietnam.

Your Hosts
Hau Ly is the partner at Ascend Vietnam Ventures focused on portfolio success and has been in the VC space for six years.

Adrian Latortue is portfolio manager at 500 Startups Vietnam, prior to which he was a founder himself and an early member of the Uber team in Southeast Asia. He’s lived in Vietnam, working with Vietnamese startups for 12 years.
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In this podcast we interview successful founders in Vietnam and South East Asia to discuss their journeys, especially the stories and challenges of their first few months. Learn and be inspired by how some of the hottest startups in the region made early hires, raised funds, found product-market fit and so much more. If you're a startup founder in South East Asia or aspiring to be one, please follow the show, share it with fellow entrepreneurs and send in your stories. We'd love to hear from you!

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