Flavored iced tea syrups

The Polish striker pounced on a poorly judged back pass after nine minutes to steer in his 72nd goal in the competition. In doing so, he surpassed former Real Madrid striker Raul in the competition scoring charts to reach a total only bettered by Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo, with 134 goals, and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, with 119.

* A spectacular Olivier Giroud overhead kick gave Chelsea a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg in Bucharest. The French striker broke the deadlock in the 68th minute with an outrageous bicycle kick which was flagged offside but eventually given following a lengthy VAR review as the ball had come off Atletico’s Mario Hermoso before Giroud hit it.

* Golfing champion Tiger Woods was hospitalised in Los Angeles on Tuesday with severe leg injuries suffered when his car swerved off a road and rolled down a steep hillside, requiring rescue crews to pry him from the wreckage, authorities said.

* Real Madrid will attack Atalanta in Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg in Italy and go all out for victory despite missing close to half of their squad due to injury, coach Zinedine Zidane said. Real are missing nine first-team players including captain Sergio Ramos, record signing Eden Hazard and top scorer Karim Benzema but have managed to overcome their injury problems in recent league matches, winning their last four outings.

* UEFA have cancelled the planned finals of its Under-19 European Championships for both men and women due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the confederation said on Tuesday. The men’s tournament was due to be held in Romania from June 30 with the women’s event schedule for Belarus from July 21.

* Argentine Federico Coria upset sixth-seeded Dominik Koepfer in straight sets Tuesday in the first round of the Cordoba (Argentina) Open. Coria recorded a 6-1, 6-4 victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes over the German.

* Great Britain’s Andy Murray lost in straight sets and No. 8 seed Jan-Lennard Struff was defeated by his countryman Peter Gojowczyk in the second round at Montpellier, France. Gojowczyk won the all-German battle 6-3, 6-4. Murray fell 7-6 (8), 6-1 to Belarus’ Egor Gerasimov.

* Sixth-seeded Radu Albot of Moldova needed three sets to defeat Australian qualifier John-Patrick Smith in the second round at Singapore. Albot won 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in 1 1/2 hours.

* Manchester City will not change their approach for Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg encounter with Borussia Moenchengladbach but cannot get complacent, manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday. Premier League leaders City beat Arsenal 1-0 last Sunday to extend their winning streak in all competitions to 18 games and will be firm favourites against Gladbach but Guardiola said his side must show the German team the respect they deserve.

* Czech free-diver David Vencl swam nearly 81 metres beneath the ice on Tuesday, breaking the world record after braving the freezing water wearing only a swimsuit.

* MotoGP team boss and motorcycling world champion Fausto Gresini died at the age of 60 in Bologna on Tuesday, two months after contracting COVID-19. The Italian was placed in a medically-induced coma at a Bologna hospital when he caught the virus in December but taken out of it when his condition improved in January.

* World number three Simona Halep has withdrawn from next week’s Qatar Open in Doha, the organisers of the WTA 500 tournament announced on Tuesday. Halep, who lost in straight sets to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals last week, did not specify why she was pulling out of the March 1-6 hard court tournament.

* Everton’s planning application for a new 52,888-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock has been unanimously approved by Liverpool City Council, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

* Torino have suspended a training session due to concerns of further COVID-19 cases in the squad, the Serie A club announced on Tuesday. Three unnamed players tested positive for the virus last week, two on Thursday Feb. 18 and another on Saturday Feb. 20.

* A superb free kick from Brazilian winger Raphinha capped a 3-0 win for Leeds United over Southampton at Elland Road on Tuesday, condemning the struggling Saints to their seventh defeat in eight Premier League games. The win brought to an end a two-game losing run for Leeds and lifted them to 10th place in the table on 35 points, while Southampton remain 14th on 30 points, eight points above the relegation places.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai (right) had a meeting with Nguyen Ha Dong in 2015

In 2015, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, paid a working visit to Vietnam and had a meeting with Nguyen Ha Dong, the creator of Flappy Bird, a game with a record high number of downloads. The meeting took place at a street tea shop, lasting 30 minutes.

At a later meeting with Vietnamese CEOs during the visit, he said that Vietnam had caught the attention of international businesses and that businesses need to grab the opportunity and reform themselves continuously.

During the one-hour talk, the CEO stressed that the way to success is to focus on the domestic market. Succeeding there first will allow Vietnam’s businesses to reach out to the international market.

Saul Singer, the author of “Start-Up Nation”, told the press during a visit to HCM City, that the city was filled with an entrepreneurial atmosphere.

He said people were doing certain types of business on every sidewalk, at every corner, and on every street.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, former CEO of Grab Vietnam, has mentioned how the idea about Grabbike, a motorbike ride-hailing service, came to him.

“In 2015, I saw the flow of motorbikes trailing each day into the city (HCMC) center, about half of them had empty seats behind. I believe that it is wasteful if one person uses a motorbike. This causes traffic jams. Why don’t I develop Grabbike after developing GrabCar,” he said.

Some startups focus too much on spending money to lure more users and expand market share, while forgetting to make money. This leads to financial problems. A startup that is good at spending money but bad at making money is compared to an ‘addict’ who has to sell shares to raise funds.

Grabbike has been developing well beyond expectations. Almost everyone owns a motorbike and they can become Grabbike drivers to earn money. This is an opportunity for students who want to earn extra money, or unemployed workers. Just one year after Grabbike was launched, the project had attracted tens of thousands of drivers in Hanoi and HCMC.

Many traditional taxi motorbike drivers have also become Grabbike partners because they can get more work and earn more money.

For Nguyen Hoang Trung, the founder and CEO of Lozi, developed a platform that allows people to easily find eatery houses online.

Trung said he could grab the great opportunity as there was no such app at that moment.

Lozi, a platform ranking restaurants, eateries and food, was launched, followed by Loship, a company specializing in providing e-commerce services and delivering goods within one hour.

“When running Lozi, we realized that establishing Loship was inevitable. Startups need to advance forward and improve instead of staying in the same place,” Trung explained.

According to Trung, when starting up, most founders tend to focus on creating products with high quality and believe that only good products will attract customers.

However, it is necessary to understand customers first and then create products that can help solve their problems.

He said entrepreneurs need to be ready to change and adapt to new circumstances. They need to set up targets, observe the market, embrace opportunities, and make quick decisions when necessary.

Startup founders also need to work hard with no day off. Once you take a rest, rivals will surpass you.

Pursuing philosophy of street rice vendors

Nguyen Huu An, the Vietnam Startup Wheel 2018 Champion, once thought that to start a business, one needed to have good ideas, attract many users, and call for large capital.

But now he thinks more simply. Setting oneself up in business means providing good services, solutions, and products to customers; paying full salaries to workers; and making a profit and developing companies.

Some startups focus too much on spending money to lure more users and expand market share, while forgetting to make money. This leads to financial problems. A startup that is good at spending money but bad at making money is compared to an ‘addict’ who has to sell shares to raise funds.

An believes these startups are vulnerable during Covid-19. When they use up all the money from previous fundraising rounds, they will have to try to call for new capital. Meanwhile, it is more difficult to call for capital during the pandemic. Once they cannot find new capital sources, they will die.

“I find some startups are even worse than female steamed glutinous rice sellers,” he said.

A seller spends 10 dong to make steamed glutinous rice and she collects at least 11 dong from the rice sale so as to have money and continue making the rice for sale the following days.

But many startups take losses continuously and many have disappeared.

“While many startups have had to leave the market, the steamed glutinous rice seller is still prosperous. I think her know-how is delicious glutinous rice and positive cash flow,” he said.

The 2020 E-Conomy SEA Report reported that VNPay has officially become the second Vietnamese technology unicorn, or startup valued at $1 billion or higher. The first one is VNG. The country aims to have five unicorns by 2025 and 10 by 2030.

Thu Ky