Hoang Dao’s journey from village to global impact

Hoang Dao is the Founder and CEO of Monkey Junior, one of the most downloaded learn-to-read apps in the App Store and Google Play. In a global pitch competition, he came first out of 29 entrepreneurs shortlisted from more than 1,000 applicants in 135 countries.

Hoang left a small village in Vietnam with little experience of the outside world, to study in Australia 13 years ago. His spoken English was so poor, he says, he “struggled to be understood.” A five-week English language program with UTS College built his confidence before he started his software engineering degree at UTS.

He and his Vietnamese roommate dreamt of starting a business that would have an impact on society, and after they graduated they returned home to do just that. “We inspired each other,” says Hoang. After a few false starts, the pair identified an opportunity for a start-up. In Vietnam, text processing – a form of aggregating information from different websites  wasn’t being used. So they set up BH Media. Today, it’s a provider of video, mobile and web services with millions of daily users.

The best thing about running your own company is you do what you love to do, and you do that every day.

Hoang quit BH Media to set up Early Start, better known as Monkey Junior in 2014, and now employs 100 staff.

“The best thing about running your own company is you do what you love to do, and you do that every day,” he says.

His app, for children as young as one-year-old, is not about using a screen to keep children quiet, he stresses.

“Technology is a tool. It’s not there to replace the role of parents. We want them to sit with their child and interact,” he says.

Hoang’s app is based on the methodology of Glenn Doman, an American physical therapist and pioneer of children’s brain development. Hoang discovered Doman’s research when he was teaching his own daughter, Lily, to read. When he found it was really successful, he decided to turn this method into an app.

In 2016, Monkey Junior won the Global Entrepreneurship Summit GIST (Global Innovation through Science and Technology) Tech-IPitch Competition in Palo Alto, California. The judges chose Hoang from a shortlist of 29 entrepreneurs globally because of the app’s potential to bring reading skills to millions of children.

In 2018, Hoang received the UTS International Alumni Award in recognition for his contribution to early language learning. Upon receiving the award, Hoang felt it was an encouraging sign he was on the right track. “We’re the leading early-education company in Vietnam,” he says. “But we want to be world leaders.”

It’s okay to fail. Many people give up because they lose the passion but you have to keep going. That kind of attitude moves you forward.

Hoang’s vision for Monkey Junior is to expand its capabilities into mathematics and create an entirely virtual school. Now based in Hanoi, he’s behind two of Vietnam’s top five most-downloaded apps, including Monkey Stories, which offers gamified English lessons to young children.

His one piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is: “It’s okay to fail. Many people give up because they lose the passion but you have to keep going. That kind of attitude moves you forward.”

Back to all alumni stories