At the young age of 17, Bui Le Chi Bao have accomplished many achievements in the realm of entrepreneurship.

In 2019, Bao was recognized as the most impressive contestant in the startup competition Vietnam Startup Wheel by the Ho Chi Minh City-based Business Startup Support Center.

One year later, Selfomy – his digital-based education solution – was named among the top 25 outstanding startup ideas at Tuoi Tre Golf Tournament for Startup 2020.

Speaking of his back-to-back achievements, the young entrepreneur is still euphoric as his excellence was recognized despite his age.

His tech journey started in middle school when he picked up coding and English all by himself.

After creating his first product – a website for his class – he saw a need for a platform where Bao and his classmates can discuss class assignments, solve them, and archive the conversations for future use.

It was out of this scenario that Selfomy was born.

Due to his young age and inexperience, Bao struggled a lot when trying to solve coding issues.

Even when assisted by English documents, his code still returned errors.

This only motivated him to further enhance his English command to do better research and grasp the guideline he wants from a sea of information available on the Internet.

The creator of an app that advocates self-study, Bao admits that he used to take extra-curricular classes to hone his skills while he was in high school.

“I used to fear being left behind if I didn't take extra-curricular classes, which hindered my self-study schedule,” Bao recalled.

“Self-study is definitely not a panacea for all situations; we still have the choice to adopt other methods, namely study groups and extra-curricular classes, as long as it works."

The COVID-19 restrictions in April turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Bao, as it made time for him to try out a more intense self-study schedule, which in turn boosted his academic performance and gave new motivation to his work.

A lot of his classmates felt the same effect when studying at home under teachers’ instructions, he said.

As the studying journey gradually uncovers his own limit in knowledge and experience, Bao is striving to further educate himself via online learning platforms, open source libraries, as well as the precursors in his chosen fields.

For the time being, his website is making consistent income for him and a few other partners.

Speaking about his devotion to Selfomy, Bao said he yearns to encourage the spirit of self-education among young Vietnamese.

“I believe that in order for the youth to catch up with the accelerating pace of technological advances in our society, we have to fully comprehend the value of self-education and absorption of new information. Without this skill, young people will quickly be left behind and become out of touch,” he said.

“We can’t just rely on 16 years of school education to cope with the rest of our life.”

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