{"id":8956,"date":"2017-04-22T19:53:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-22T12:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/?p=8956"},"modified":"2026-10-01T01:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:26:06","slug":"nu-hoang-startup-viet-nam-neu-doi-nem-cho-ban-can-benh-ung-thu-hay-bien-no-thanh-mot-y-tuong-khoi-nghiep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/nu-hoang-startup-viet-nam-neu-doi-nem-cho-ban-can-benh-ung-thu-hay-bien-no-thanh-mot-y-tuong-khoi-nghiep\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam\u2019s startup queen: If life gives you cancer, turn it into a business idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sapo\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-field=\"sapo\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer at a very young age, Th\u1ee7y Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng did not despair. She wanted to seize every possible opportunity to launch projects contributing to the cancer patient community.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"newsbody\" data-field=\"body\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">One side effect of lung cancer treatment is pain in the roof of the mouth, which can make speaking difficult. Yet many people probably do not notice this when listening to Th\u1ee7y Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng, known as Vietnam's startup queen, speak fluently.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Having moved to the US with her family at 17, Th\u1ee7y Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng returned to Vietnam after earning a bachelor's degree in Computer Science at the University of Southern California in 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Returning to Vietnam, she founded two companies: frozen-yogurt business Parallel Frozen Yogurt and Greengar, the developer of Tappy, an application connecting people in the same location that was acquired by Weeby.co for millions of USD. After selling the company, Th\u1ee7y returned to the United States but continued sharing her experience and advising many Vietnamese startups.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Last year, she unexpectedly discovered she had terminal lung cancer. Rather than giving in to panic and despair, the young woman established several projects to help people with cancer like herself face the disease and care for themselves better. These include Salt Cancer Initiative, an initiative supporting cancer patients by providing information, education and assistance to patients and their families in Vietnam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><i>\u201cI once developed a rash as a side effect, so I added a note to the app advising the use of cold water because warm water would irritate the skin more. Other people undergoing treatment for lung cancer, as I am, can then know to avoid warm water.\u201d \u2014 <\/i>she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Recently, she also organized the competition <i>Hack for Health<\/i> the first for the University of Southern California. Th\u1ee7y said:<i> \u201cOne product we are pursuing throughout this hackathon is a mobile app that helps monitor and mitigate the side effects of cancer and cancer treatments.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><i>Hack for Health<\/i> began as a collaborative project between Th\u1ee7y Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng and the doctors treating her at the University of Southern California's Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. During a conversation with Dr. Nieva about monitoring cancer treatment using a Fitbit wristband, Th\u1ee7y was excited to hear about similar research the university was conducting for cancer patients. Having organized many hackathons (24- to 48-hour programming challenges) in Vietnam, she quickly began working on the new project.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"VCSortableInPreviewMode\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"img_27ca9920-2708-11e7-b3d7-d9e94ef10d9e\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/cafefcdn.com\/thumb_w\/640\/2017\/photo-0-1492830155740.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-original=\"http:\/\/cafefcdn.com\/2017\/photo-0-1492830155740.jpg\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"PhotoCMS_Caption\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Attracting dozens of students and engineers to participate, <i>Hack for Health <\/i>was a resounding success. Over 2 sleepless days and nights from 7\/4 to 9\/4, dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, software engineers and designers turned many interesting ideas into reality. One standout was Storyline, an app using computer vision to recognize images and help patients keep track of prescribed medicines. Users simply hold a medicine bottle up to their phone camera; Storyline records its ingredients, displays associated side effects and provides specific advice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Speaking about herself in the present, Th\u1ee7y said: <i>\u201cIf God tells you that you have cancer, you cannot change that reality. It affects everyone equally, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, good or bad. Yet even when the battle is unavoidable, we can still learn to master and control it.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Busy with personal and community projects, the young woman battling cancer still maintains her habit of hiking and picnicking every weekend and taking longer trips whenever possible. Recently, she also became one of the main subjects of the documentary <i>She Started It <\/i>by directors Nora Poggi and Insiyah Saeed. <i>She Started It<\/i> premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October last year and received much public acclaim.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Collected<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"author-description\">\n<div class=\"twitter mt6 fl\">\n<div id=\"main\">\n<div class=\"content-wrap\">\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"hfeed\">\n<div id=\"post-8926\" class=\"hentry post publish post-1 odd author-admin category-article\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"row push-bottom\">\n<div class=\"large-8 medium-8 medium-centered columns\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/article\/\">&gt;&gt; Great Articles on Entrepreneurship<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/x-startup\/\">&gt;&gt; Business Startup Course<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/kich-hoat-nang-luong-thanh-cong\/\">&gt;&gt; Success Energy Activation Course<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/ceo-coach-chuong-trinh-tu-van-kinh-doanh\/\">&gt;&gt; Business Consulting Program<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-seo=\"yup-program-link-20261001\"><strong>Ch\u01b0\u01a1ng tr\u00ecnh li\u00ean quan t\u1ea1i YUP Education:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/x1\/\">X-Startup \u2013 kh\u00f3a h\u1ecdc kh\u1edfi nghi\u1ec7p \u00abKh\u1edfi Ch\u00e1nh Nghi\u1ec7p\u00bb<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/journey\/\">The Journey \u2013 l\u1ed9 tr\u00ecnh ph\u00e1t tri\u1ec3n doanh nh\u00e2n<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u0110\u1ed9t ng\u1ed9t ph\u00e1t hi\u1ec7n m\u00ecnh m\u1eafc ung th\u01b0 giai \u0111o\u1ea1n cu\u1ed1i \u1edf \u0111\u1ed9 tu\u1ed5i c\u00f2n r\u1ea5t tr\u1ebb, Th\u1ee7y Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng kh\u00f4ng tuy\u1ec7t v\u1ecdng m\u00e0 mu\u1ed1n t\u1eadn d\u1ee5ng m\u1ecdi c\u01a1 h\u1ed9i c\u00f3 th\u1ec3 \u0111\u1ec3 kh\u1edfi ch\u1ea1y nh\u1eefng d\u1ef1 \u00e1n \u0111\u00f3ng g\u00f3p cho c\u1ed9ng \u0111\u1ed3ng b\u1ec7nh nh\u00e2n ung th\u01b0. M\u1ed9t trong nh\u1eefng t\u00e1c d\u1ee5ng ph\u1ee5 khi \u0111i\u1ec1u tr\u1ecb [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18237,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956\/revisions\/18237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}