Growing a Business Network of Entrepreneurship and Mentorship in Vietnam
CA Danielle Rockel with Songhan Incubator (SHi) team. SHi is an organization that supports gender equality and women’s empowerment and prosperity. Photo by: Danielle Rockel.
Written by: Abigail Elizabeth Mani
In Da Nang, Central Vietnam’s commercial and educational hub, the Songhan Incubator (SHi) team are starting their day with the aroma of coffee around them. SHi specializes in incubating and accelerating businesses and startups with a focus on “Spreading the Vietnamese entrepreneurial spirit.”
Through an in-person assignment, Catalyste+ Advisor (CA) Danielle Rockel worked with the SHi team and the various start-ups and mentors in their network to provide mentorship support, business frameworks and financial templates, and knowledge from the Canadian start-up ecosystem.
“The most successful thing was really being able to support the entrepreneurs and hear them and help take in what they already knew and wanted and help them articulate it clearly,” said Danielle.
Danielle provided recommendations and helped five startups further establish themselves through three-days of mentorship and advisory, where mentors in the SHi network were also in attendance. She also facilitated 1-1 sessions with the startups which were observed by the wider network so everyone could further their own growth. The mentors learned how to best support their mentees in the SHi network and were able to learn from Danielle directly through observing the 1-1 sessions and the training.
Photo by: Danielle Rockel
Since 2017, SHi has been supporting a variety of different businesses, start-ups, universities and businesses across 15 provinces in Vietnam. SHi is an organization that supports gender equality and women’s empowerment and prosperity. SHi’s Her Mentor Program aims to create a better start-up environment in Da Nang for women-led startups and is an initiative of the cooperation process between SHi and Catalyste+.
Ly Dinh Quan, SHi’s CEO, enjoyed the training provided by Danielle and the positive effect it created for the network’s startups and mentors. By asking the right questions, Danielle structured the training in alignment with the entrepreneurs and their business goals.
“One of the most memorable moments was the first mentor-mentee pairing, where each mentee emotionally shared their entrepreneurial story–not only their business dream, but also their journey to overcome social barriers and gender stereotypes,” said Ly Din Quan.
The Her Mentor program has been growing rapidly over the past couple of years, and 13 mentors have been matched with mentees throughout their start-up journey. The mentees are able to grow personally and professionally by being a part of the program and receiving mentorship support.
The SHi team. Photo by: SHi
Looking forward, SHi is preparing to launch their next Her Mentor season with the goal of supporting 30 female mentees, 10 female mentee business startups, and expanding their network to 60 mentors by 2026.
