2023-01-02
Tran Ba Thin is an active person. Right from the time he was sitting in the university lecture hall 15 years ago, he and a group of friends started a fast food restaurant business, providing hundreds of meals a day for the student village of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. After graduating in 2010, he decided to go his own way, set up an IT Outsourcing company and have maintained it until now.
After more than 12 years in the profession, participating in many "projects" large and small, Tran Ba Thin gradually realized the nature of the IT Outsourcing industry, if there is no breakthrough, it is just a short-term money-making industry.
"For me, the story is not only about making money, but also how to create life's achievements and bring lasting value to society," the boy born in 1988 thought.
By chance, his outsourcing company received an order to make building management software from a real estate management company. The product after "out of the oven" is not so perfect, but the customer still agrees to use it. Curious why customers don't use software already on the market, but accept a "pretty bad" product, Thin receives a surprising answer: "Bad but at least meets the basic requirements for customers. On your side, the other parties have tried it all but can't use it".
The answer makes Thin feel like reaching the "light at the end of the tunnel" after a period of trial and error with a series of new start-up ideas. At the same time, in the second half of 2019, the demand for digital transformation accompanied with the increasing trend of using software as a service (SaaS) from enterprises , he decided to re-start his business with a digital transformation platform. for the management and operation of apartments and buildings. And that's how PiHome started.
CEO 8x admitted, at a glance, PiHome is not much different from existing solutions on the market. However, other solutions take the exploitation of resident data to provide services (repair, real estate brokerage, rental ...), as the driving force for growth, while selling software is just a sideline. Meanwhile, PiHome is positioned to become a smart operating system for the building, fully respecting the security of customers and the privacy of residents.
As a B2B (business-to-business) platform, PiHome offers 3 sets of solutions at the same time: a set of management solutions, a set of operational solutions, and a set of statistical and financial solutions. Not only suitable for apartment management model, PiHome also meets all models of buildings, complexes, commercial centers...
Officially launched in early 2021, until now, PiHome has signed cooperation agreements with 200 buildings. The first customer as well as all customers using PiHome have been with the platform for a long time, so far no customer has left.
The secret to starting a business with… wife
Tran Ba Thin said, what PiHome is most proud of is having a team of "genuine" and dedicated staff. With a technology start-up, in the early days capital was still limited, how to recruit the right people was a difficult problem.
Thin still remembers, for 3 months, he "red eyes" reading each profile on Linkedin to look for technology engineers, rummaging through the list of hundreds of engineers who had worked with him to propose cooperation. Fortunately, he found 6 talented employees, forming a solid framework for PiHome to develop. They accompanied him, fighting from the beginning without asking for any rights.
But the most special person in PiHome's leadership team is probably co-founder Le Hoai Thanh, who is also Tran Ba Thin's life partner. CEO 8x shared that he and his wife have been in love since their freshman year of college, having spent many years with each other on the journey to building a career. Hoai Thanh was originally a promising lawyer, but withdrew to start a business with her husband.
"My wife is probably the most professional and effective person I've ever known", Tran Ba Thin could not hide his pride when it came to his wife.
In the PiHome model, Thin is the head of the pole, responsible for the entire operation of the start-up. If a couple has a conflict related to work, they will slowly sit down, find the root cause with a positive mindset, and let the conflict go away on its own. Then, only the question "what is the solution" remains, and if the solution has been determined, they solve it together.
For any founder, starting a business is a multi-marathon journey that requires support from teammates to get to the finish line. Therefore, Thin thinks that if you find a co-founder who is a spouse, the start-up journey will become more attractive, rewarding and interesting. However, when choosing to start a business with a partner, both of them must be more responsible and must do what to minimize the impact on their children, especially in difficult times.
Thin shared, in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean", when the British Royal Navy ship was sunk by the Black Pearl ship after years of chasing Jack, the captain of the famous Royal fleet standing on the ship. sinking, with helpless eyes, muttering: Just Only Business. It is an interesting and haunting image.
“As a founder, I told myself, to be firm, no matter what happens, it's just a job, we need to strive towards positive and optimistic thinking. Worrying too much will make me drained of energy and knocked down at any time,” said CEO Tran Ba Thin.
And another important thing, is that your child must be given time to care, love, connect. Time will pass quickly and success if there is, will be incomplete, if the starter concentrates too much on work, causing children to get hurt.
According to Investment Newspaper - Nhung Nguyen
