On a recent morning, Vinnie Lauria found himself weaving through the clogged, narrow streets of Ho Chi Minh City on a motorbike with his 3-year-old son as they navigated the morning rush to school. Had he still been living in Silicon Valley, the commute would have been less adventurous, but this was where the action was.
Lauria, an American expat and co-founder of Golden Gate Ventures, relocated to Ho Chi Minh City in 2022 after previous stints in Singapore and San Francisco, joining a growing number of foreign nationals lured there by a belief that the dense metropolis is a new mecca for startups.
"Southeast Asia is going to be a global growth engine in the next 10 years and Vietnam will be at the center of it,” said Lauria, sporting a pony tail and dressed tech casual in a printed shirt and white shorts.