Over 10 years ago, Ngô Anh Tuấn stepped into a charming cafe on Cat Linh boasting a collection of board games imported from overseas. At the time, it was one of the only places in Hanoi where one could find international games.

BoardgameVN CEO Ngo Anh Tuan had no idea that his startup journey would begin there, in a modest board game cafe, and that the future of his entrepreneurship would revolve heavily around this concept of bringing people together through games.

“I started BoardgameVN with the belief that Vietnamese youth are in dire need of healthy, interactive forms of entertainment,” reflects Ngo.

“And the fact that almost anyone can make games has been the biggest driver of BoardgameVN’s growth over the years,” he beams.

Empowered by the knowledge that people from all parts of the country and all walks of life have the ability to design their own games, this Hanoi native built a community of board game enthusiasts with over 340 thousand social media followers and fifteen physical hubs through Vietnam.

Founder of BoardgameVN – Ngo Anh Tuan and his son.

Sharing in Ngo’s contagious excitement, Vietcetera connected with the BoardgameVN CEO to learn more about the transformative power of games both in his life and in the lives of people throughout Vietnam.

Fall down four times, get up five

Ngo’s idea for a Vietnamese board game company originated in around 2007 after he spent hours playing games in specialty cafes in Hanoi.

He saw a need and hoped to respond to it—international board games were hard to come by, and Vietnamese-made board games were almost nonexistent. After spending several years on a business plan, Ngo launched BoardgameVN at the end of 2011.

Then in college, Ngo and his partners were inexperienced at running a business. The group failed four times within only three years, eventually disintegrating. Only Ngo kept at it, telling himself that every failure had been an opportunity for him to learn more about starting a business.

“I was lucky to have been through all these struggles,” Ngo says. “It’s easier to recover from failure while you’re still young.”

BoardgameVN CEO Ngo Anh Tuan: A Local Brand With Global Goals