Activator goes global

Activator goes global

Activator, the cornerstone of RMIT’s enterprise and entrepreneurial strategy, is going global, with Activator Vietnam launching in 2019.

With a youthful population, expanding economy, low production costs, government support and enthusiastic funders, Vietnam is the perfect ecosystem for enterprise creation.

Manager of Activator Vietnam Karen Rieschieck said the country boasted an incredibly healthy startup scene, with vast opportunities for entrepreneurs.

“In 2019, the focus is on creating excellent experiences for students that flex and challenge their entrepreneurial ‘muscle’. We’re working on pathways for students that encourage movement beyond a curious state of mind into a longer-term strategy,” Rieschiek said.

She said Activator Vietnam would also create global networks by providing opportunities for Australian founders to educate themselves on entering new markets and working overseas.

Making the most of that opportunity, Melbourne-based LaunchHUB participants and IDA Sports founders, Laura Youngson and Ben Sandhu recently visited the thriving country to explore manufacturing options for their range of women's football boots.

IDA Sports was a finalist in Pitch@Palace Melbourne last year after successfully pitching their vision to create the world’s best football boot for women.

“Vietnam is a fashion hub and we would love to move part of our production there in the future as a way to leverage local talent and make use of the incredible facilities at the RMIT Vietnam campus specifically,” Sandhu said.

IDA Sports founders Ben Sandhu and Laura Youngson IDA Sports founders Ben Sandhu and Laura Youngson

Melbourne-based founder Zac McClelland also has his eyes set on Vietnam. McClelland’s startup VicHyper is both a product and service designed to tackle the issue of waste across the globe by creating innovative ways to increase recycling through incentives.

McClelland will visit Vietnam to meet with RMIT academics and experience how to work between different countries and manage the logistics involved in the process. He hopes to run project-based learning to utilise Vietnam’s entrepreneurial talent to help refine his product.  

“I’m incredibly excited at the prospect of working in Vietnam,” he said.

Manager of Operations & Planning at Activator Melbourne Hanneke Mallegrom, said the initial focus of Activator Vietnam was to implement a range of hands-on experiential learning experiences to provide students in Vietnam with the means to develop their entrepreneurial mindset, gain skills for intrapreneurship and help them form their own enterprises.

“These programs will help founders define, iterate and test their ideas, as well as provide them with support and guidance to achieve market launch and enterprise creation, both within and outside of the classroom,” Mallegrom said.

“The long-term vision is to establish a thriving incubator and accelerator program at the Ho Chi Minh campus that will engage our active local alumni community in Vietnam and help create a globally connected industry network.

“Activator Vietnam can also help foster increased mobility of students and start-up teams between Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne,” she said.

 

Story: Rekha Ryan

12 February 2019

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12 February 2019

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