CEO of startup 1Long: “Being different is one of the fundamentals of business"

DNHN - With the success of raising 500,000 USD from major investment funds, 1Long is proving its strength in the field of financial management. Let’s explore an exciting conversation with Michael Do about the journey of building this fintech startup.

Fascinated by the success stories of young entrepreneurs, Michael Do, a graduate of the University of Southern California, once harboured a dream of founding a start-up project. That desire has grown and been nurtured in many fields, from investment banking, and fund management to product development. Finally, Michael felt he was ready to turn his dream into reality.

Thus, 1Long was officially launched with a positive “starting jump”. Recently, the fintech platform 1Long proudly announced that it had successfully raised 500,000 USD (about 12 billion VND) from leading investment funds such as Iterative, Monk’s Hill Ventures, R2VP and Orionis Capital. This fundraising success is a testament to the strength of investors’ belief in 1Long’s unique approach to financial management.

Despite achieving remarkable successes, 1Long is still a young project with a long journey of development ahead. Their success can be explained by the way they have rightly “touched” the current demand with the prospect of “A super-small capital investment platform (from only 10,000 VND), simple and suitable for everyone”.

In a March interview with Enterprises and Integration Magazine, Mr Michael Do shared about the important steps in the journey of building this promising fintech startup.

It is known that 1Long has recently successfully raised 500,000 USD from major investment funds including Iterative, Monk’s Hill Ventures, R2VP and Orionis Capital. With this successful fundraising, as the Co-founder and CEO, can you describe in more detail which factors in 1Long’s financial management model have made investors appreciate and decide to invest?

Michael Do: The most important part is to identify the problem. This is how we impressed investors. When talking to customers, who are currently depositors through banks, we identified the obstacle because of the inconvenient policies related to term deposits. In general, customers do not like the feeling of fear of losing interest if they do not maintain the savings on time.

Life changes quickly and customers want to take advantage of the flexibility of daily savings accounts, with the accumulated profit of long-term deposits. 1Long leverages technology to identify the best savings products across the ecosystem, and optimises the portfolio to meet this customer need.

Having strategic partners such as Viet Tin Capital and Techcombank has certainly contributed to the success of 1Long. Can you share about the level of cooperation and their importance in building a safe and sustainable investment environment?

Michael Do: The business is still in its early stages, and we are very grateful for the partners we can work with at this time. The partners have helped 1Long execute transactions across a variety of asset classes through their platforms and supported us in setting up the appropriate legal framework to work with our clients.

As an early-stage fintech company, we benefit greatly from being open to collaborating with multiple partners to solve common problems for end customers, while supporting partners in achieving their business metrics.

1Long said that in the future it will provide value-added services such as retirement and tax planning to serve both domestic and international investors interested in the Vietnamese market. So can you tell us, what opportunities and challenges you see in expanding services to serve both domestic and international investors interested in the Vietnamese market?

Michael Do: In fact, we haven’t faced too many challenges in convincing investors about Vietnam’s growth prospects. There are a lot of positive developments happening in the market that any smart investor would want to participate in. However, we do see some behavioural and regulatory challenges.

For example, we find that domestic investors tend to prefer to manage their wealth, including making term deposits with banks and buying real estate for speculation. This type of investing works well in a high-growth, low-interest-rate environment, but this is not the current state of the world. So there is a big opportunity to educate, and help Vietnamese people get comfortable with more optimal wealth management practices of portfolio rebalancing, and risk-adjusted returns for retirement planning.

For international investors, they are very excited about the prospect of owning equity in the future businesses of Vietnam, but there is a lack of clarity on how they will exit. We look forward to continued improvements, and liberalisation of the stock market as a viable fundraising option for corporates, and an exit opportunity for investors.

With 1Long intending to expand its services to new investment products such as stocks, bonds and real estate, how does the company ensure that this expansion is not only about diversification but also about quality and meeting the real needs of customers?

Michael Do: One of the key principles of business is to always be different. Because solutions need to be 10x better or 10x cheaper to be successful. For the first two savings products, 1Long is addressing the pain points of term savings products that lack flexibility, and we have found a practical solution.

As we expand into more asset classes, we will take the time to understand the problems that customers face when investing in stocks, real estate, gold, and private businesses. 1Long focuses on solving real problems, rather than just creating features for problems that don’t exist.

In the context of the financial and investment market constantly fluctuating, how does 1Long perceive its role in creating a stable and safe investment environment for users?

Michael Do: Any investment management business needs to be able to anticipate where the market is going, and how a range of macro and microeconomic events are connected. This allows us to properly advise our clients, and 1Long’s success as a business will stem from how accurate that advice is.

Furthermore, we have noticed that many investment apps in recent years have been targeting new investors who need to learn the basics of finance. This is helpful but we are targeting a more sophisticated investor segment. 1Long can contribute to their success by providing investors with regular, intelligent updates on market conditions, and how to use their capital effectively. At the same time, we provide options for high-net-worth investors to have immediate access to one of our wealth management experts. 1Long will strive to provide additional services to meet the rapid development of the financial sector.

What motto does 1Long set out to maintain strategic relationships with current and future partners to ensure stability and sustainable development?

Michael Do: Transparency, integrity, and financial success must be at the core of business operations. Implementing these elements will build trust with 1Long’s current and future partners. We must be responsive and have a deep understanding of our partners’ business needs, as well as drive innovation to help them achieve their goals.

1Long believes that good fintechs can be agnostic, and partner with multiple partners for a common set of solutions – connecting an ecosystem for the ultimate benefit of the end customer.

According to Motor Intelligence, the fintech market in Vietnam is expected to surpass the 72 billion USD mark by 2029 with an expected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13%. This trend demonstrates the huge potential in the industry and is completely in line with the mission at 1Long. We will continue to relentlessly explore opportunities in an increasingly growing business environment, always focusing on innovation and bringing financial success to our users.

Bao Bao