Fundoo: Adding Joy To Your Days

We can say that now the time is divided into pre and post COVID-19 era for mankind. COVID-19 has brought heavy waves of transformation. These sudden changes were not easy to accept but were dealt with optimism. All the new norms that are currently being followed are a sign that we are moving forward and have accepted the change. Similarly, the rise of social media, remote working, and online usage are a few of the many factors shaping the new normal. Statistics demonstrate that numerous companies could not sustain the new normal, however, on the contrary, several companies saw an opportunity to help and flourish in the market.

On an individual level, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was dynamic. People pushed themselves to live in an environment like never before. This motivated few to utilize this time to create something better for society. A similar experience was faced by Long H. Nguyen who is currently serving as CEO at Fundoo. After graduation from the U.K with a background in Finance, a degree in Statistics, he started working where he spent his few years of his career committing and diving into numbers—either at the personal level of investing or the professional level at finance. This made him question what excites him every day?

This question emerged more and more often during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar to others, he also experienced WFH as far from normal social interaction with limited mobility. Addressing the same, Long says, “I have witnessed people struggling to cope with social distancing, I myself have been missing the opportunities to experience new, exciting activities around.” At the same time, he met Toan who had a fanatical idea of enriching one’s life with personal, joyful experiences that emerged from meaningful connections. This crazy idea led to the foundation of Fundoo in 2020 as a part of VH Holdings.

Combination of the best from the industry

Fundoo is a dynamic company, which combines engineering and product veterans whose works have been at the frontier of Vietnam’s economic transition during the last 25 years in the areas of telecommunication and consumer goods. There are three established client-facing Business Units as part of the organization including Product, Front-Office, and Back-Office, where Product focuses on the development of the main platform Fundoo.me, Front-Office is established to provide event-focused services to retail customers and Back-Office is where it serves the corporate clients with a tailored solution in communication and marketing.

The pandemic highlighted the importance of human interaction for us. It adds value to our life-enriching our soul from the core. Fundoo was born as an innovative event platform where the organizers and participants of an event can connect and interact with each other in a more much interesting way. The company focuses on the progress of digital transformation. Its purpose is to serve its users, in creating meaningful connections for their joyful experiences.

Focusing On Improvement

“We are truly blessed to have the ability to attract and retain the most dynamics group of team members across different Business Units. What have nurtured a strong relationship and collaboration between team members are the values and purposes that we share,” asserts Long. As a CEO, Long focuses on supporting its colleagues and people in the best possible way so that the entire organization can serve its best. His daily work spans across supporting different Business Units, ranging from working with the team to establish Product idea and roadmap, to go out and talk to its customers and clients to understand what and how the company can contribute to its customer’s lives and businesses.

Company culture is important while tackling the challenges. The real character of the company is displayed when it is dealing with the most difficult situation during its journey. Initially, Fundoo faced challenges when it began to transform the idea and vision into visible products which demanded time. It took more than 5 months and several iterations and deployments to release live as Fundoo.me, which is termed as and Real Customer Experience design. Explaining further, Long states, “We’ve managed to attract a few thousand early users to the platform when we will be focusing on product improvement by learning from our users and understanding the product from their perspectives. That’s what we like to call the Real Customer Experience design.”

Similar to other successful organizations, Fundoo has set its company culture right within the organization where it focuses on being one. The company emphasizes and dedicates its effort to create a trust and accountable environment where the team member can be authentic and express themselves while contributing to the business purpose.

Creating A Safe and Trustful Environment

Since the inception, the company has nurtured a strong relationship and collaboration between team members of each different BUs within the organization. This has happened as the team shares common values and purpose with each other. Fundoo constantly emphasizes empathizing with each other by understanding the journey that each member has gone through until the point, how that journey contributes to building what the company is, and what the company wants to achieve next. Constant empathizing helps in creating and sustaining organizational values.

Fundoo has managed to truly create a trusting and safe environment that can best serve its people and support them in achieving their personal purpose. The company is also fortunate to receive support from a board of advisors whose combined experiences run across different areas, which is deemed essential to the business. From seasoned entrepreneurs whose products have served billions of users worldwide in the media & publishing and travel industry, to pioneering leaders in the field of psychology and business management, they have been a great source of inspiration and support for the company.

Shaping the present and future

After the crisis of 2020, to foresee what is coming next has turned into a blurry vision. Evolution and transformation are a constant affair, which will keep dominating—with or without the pandemic. For instance, since the introduction of the internet we have highly relied on its services but what if they come to an end? What can we do next? The ‘what next?’ question has been the biggest motivator for Long and his team.

With the years of experience in the industry, it is obvious that advanced technology such as AR/VR is going to play a bigger part in the next decade. Fundoo is looking forward to leveraging these advanced technologies to further enhance mobilization and full sensory experience. The team is currently working on a comprehensive experience platform, and investing in AR/VR technologies for research and development of AR/VR core tech, and applicable products in Vietnam. Furthermore, Long also highlighted that technology is a mere helping hand to enhance virtual experiences, but the emotional journeys made of experiences are what helps in shaping the future.

He concludes, “What would it be, the new world you are living in? The next quest of progress, we believe is to look back to yourself and the emotional journey made of experiences, which will help to shape our future. We once again enjoy what is localized and personalized for ourselves with a much higher clarification after years of globalization. The question now, is not how often do you go travel to another country or will you be able to book a hotel room at a place you never been to, but have you enjoyed, the experiences right around you?”