Building the Future with AI Products

My Story

My name is Binh Nguyen, and I grew up on Kham Thien Street in Hanoi — a street once heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, now famous as part of the train street where tourists gather to watch the trains pass just inches away. I was born after the war, so I didn't experience it directly, but its history lived quietly in the background of my childhood.

We didn't have much, but I never felt deprived. My parents gave me freedom, trust, and a few coins each morning for breakfast — small things that meant a lot. Vietnam was beginning to open to the world, new jobs were appearing, but with a Vietnamese passport back then, traveling abroad was almost impossible. Without travel, you don't see the world, you don't learn, you don't grow.

My family didn't have a telephone until I was 24, and I bought it myself after I started working. I didn't fly on an airplane until I was 27. Even though I had studied English for more than ten years, I couldn't ask for directions the first time I went abroad. English education in northern Vietnam at that time focused on grammar, taught mostly by former Russian-language teachers who themselves struggled with pronunciation.

When I applied to university, I wanted to study economics. But in Vietnam, getting a job often depended on family connections — something we didn't have. So I chose a different path. I enrolled at Hanoi University of Technology, the top university in the country, and studied Applied Mathematics and Information Systems.

Becoming a software engineer changed my life. It opened doors that had always been closed. I didn't need to pay huge amounts to study overseas like many of my friends. My skills became my passport. I earned an MBA, gained British citizenship, and eventually traveled to 14 countries — a small number for some people, but incredibly meaningful for someone who once couldn't leave Vietnam at all.

Today, I work in the UK as a senior software engineer by day, and an indie hacker by night. I build intelligent tools, automation systems, and AI-powered products that solve real problems. I create things that make life easier, more efficient, and more accessible.