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What always blows my mind is that Vietnam's richest man got rich making noodles in Ukraine[1]. Mivina instant noodles were a staple food for me as a kid. It wa
by romwell 7y ago
What always blows my mind is that Vietnam's richest man got rich making noodles in Ukraine[1].
Mivina instant noodles were a staple food for me as a kid. It was a very Ukrainian brand to me. I was telling my Vietnamese friend about these glorious noodles, and she told me "You know that it literally means 'Noodles From Vietnam' in Vietnamese, right?".
Turns out, Mivina is a brand of Phạm Nhật Vượng's, which grew out of his (not too successful) restaurant.
He grew the Mivina business instead, and eventually sold it to Nestle for $150M - and then 10X'd that with a resort/real estate business in Vietnam.
A pity he didn't stay in Kharkiv, I say.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%E1%BA%A1m_Nh%E1%BA%ADt_V%C6%B0%E1%BB%A3ng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%E1%BA%A1m_Nh%E1%BA%ADt_V%C6...
- SenHeng 7y agoMoral of the story, know when to pivot.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- threw4324 7y agoAmusingly, Nepal's (only?) billionaire also appears to have taken this route. https://www.wealthx.com/featured/2015/the-nepalese-billionaire-using-his-noodle-to-help-nepal/ https://www.wealthx.com/featured/2015/the-nepalese-billionai...
- bicolao 7y ago> You know that it literally means 'Noodles From Vietnam' It's short for (Mi) (Vi)et (Na)m, which is basically Vietnamese Noodles. You can already guess "Mi" is noodles in Vietnamese.
- albertshin 7y agoSamsung started off as a small trading store / company and later became a sugar refinery. Lotte (another Korean conglomerate) started off selling gum during wartime. Even Nike initially started off with Phil Knight simply being the importer for Japanese Onitsuka Tiger shoes. This is why I think it makes total sense for good early stage investors to invest in people and teams (as opposed to the ideas). The category or industry they're operating in today is just a small taste of what they're capable of.