Yes, my Mom is a “Nguyễn”.
In response to the requests of numerous Vietnamese entrepreneurs and influencers, I’d like to share some information about my connection to the Vietnamese community abroad, specifically here in the U.S. My mom, born in Sàigòn, a Vietnamese from the south (người miền Nam), proudly carries the common Vietnamese surname ‘Nguyễn,’ which holds significant cultural meaning.
Shortly after I started using the popular Threads App, which has been nicknamed the “Twitter killer,” I received direct messages through my Instagram account from Vietnamese entrepreneurs and influencers. They were curious if I was the “Jenny Ta” they had heard about when they were younger. While I don’t consider myself old, I understand that to Gen Zers and Millennials, anyone older may be perceived as such. Lol 😆
To answer their question, yes, I am the ‘Jenny Ta’ who was known within the Vietnamese community abroad through different media networks, including television and radio broadcasts. Remember, Instagram was only created in 2010, and TikTok in 2016. So, allow me to share a bit of my history with you, which began a few years before Instagram’s inception.
As a young Gen-X, I left Vietnam in the late 70’s and grew up in a refugee camp in Hong Kong for a few years. I was primarily raised under the care of my single mother on welfare, and we faced significant financial struggles, including wearing second-hand clothes. This is a story I have already shared with the media here in the U.S. on a few occasions.
After swiftly completing my Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems with a minor in Finance, I found my way to Wall Street at the early age of 20, where I began working for Shearson Lehman Brothers, which eventually became Morgan Stanley, then eventually became Barclays.
To date, I am known as the only woman to have founded and led two investment banks (broker-dealers) akin to firms like Goldman Sachs. Therefore, I am the sole Asian-American woman to have founded two investment banks.
I achieved self-made millionaire status at the age of 25, thanks to my endeavors on Wall Street.
During my early 20s, I was the first “Vietnamese-American” woman to teach seminars on Stocks, Bonds, and Options within the Vietnamese community in Southern California. The top three Vietnamese news media outlets at the time—Người Việt Daily News, Việt Báo Daily News, and Viễn Đông Daily News—all covered my journey.
Around that same time, I was the first Vietnamese-American to have launched the first online stock trading platform called ‘Viettrading.com,’ and I was also the pioneer in introducing Forex Trading through a collaboration with FXCM with ‘VietForextrading.com,’ offering seminar courses and facilitate online foreign exchange currency trading.
After the acquisition of my first investment bank in 2000, I was invited to co-host a weekly television series on SàiGòn Broadcasting Television Network (SBTN), a 24-hour Vietnamese language television channel targeted at Vietnamese audiences living outside of Vietnam. Its headquarters are in Garden Grove, California. The host, Victoria To-Uyen, assisted with translating into Vietnamese, I primarily spoke in English with some broken Vietnamese. Additionally, I provided daily 5-minute market updates on the popular Vietnamese radio station, SàiGòn Radio Hải Ngoại 106.3 FM Live, titled ‘5 Minutes Wall Street Updates with Jenny Ta’ (5 phút thị trường chứng khoán với Jenny Tạ). Both shows were exclusively focused on financial markets, stocks, bonds, and Wall Street.
Following the acquisition of my second investment bank in the mid-2000s, I took a few years off to immerse myself in the vibrant world of performing artists from the two leading entertainment productions within the global Vietnamese community, Asia Entertainment and Paris By Night. Through my extensive travels with these artists during their musical production tours, I developed a strong connection with the Vietnamese entertainment industry, forging relationships with the founders/owners of these two renowned productions, as well as numerous other well-known artists. Through these connections, I played a pivotal role in executive producing the highly successful ‘Concert for World Peace,’ which was the largest live concert at the time. This unforgettable event took place at the Pyramid Theatre in Long Beach in November 2008 and brought together esteemed American artists like Stevie B and talented Vietnamese singers, with all 5,000 seats sold out. Notably, I spearheaded the effort to secure sponsorships from American companies, including American Radio KOST 103.5 FM, which is under the ownership of iHeartMedia, and Donate Blood of Southern California, totaling a quarter of a million dollars in sponsored ads. These sponsorships were groundbreaking within the community since sponsorships had largely been confined within the community itself, without much outside support. Additionally, I served as the Executive Producer for numerous smaller shows at the esteemed Majestic Night Club in Huntington Beach, CA., a renowned Vietnamese nightclub in Orange County during that period. The owners, Anh-Quoc and his wife Phi-Khanh, herself a well-known singer, both were good friends of mine.
After departing from Wall Street, I ventured into the tech industry and founded my third company (first tech startup). It was a centralized social network that incorporated a comprehensive range of features all within one platform—a concept similar to what Elon Musk aims to achieve now for X Corp, the parent company of Twitter. I single-handedly raised a $2.5 million PreSeed funding round from high-net-worth investors. This led me to subsequent ventures into the worlds of venture capital and private equity.
Apart from spearheading stock and forex trading within the Vietnamese community in my early to mid-twenties, my primary entrepreneurial experiences have revolved around Wall Street and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). My third exit came in 2021, just 15 months after launching a decentralized social commerce platform. The platform assisted people in purchasing everyday supplies from online retailers through dropshipping using cryptocurrencies, enabling them to conserve cash during the COVID shutdown. This venture was acquired at a valuation of $200 million.
In October 2022, I founded Web3VCFunds.com, later rebranded as WEAL28H in 2024, where I lead a syndicate of private investors and funds, starting with $25 million dedicated to decentralization and AI projects. Additionally, I am currently working on my fifth company, which also focuses on the power of artificial general intelligence and decentralized technologies.
If you are a young Vietnamese-American entrepreneur or an individual of Asian or Vietnamese ethnicity seeking guidance and support in navigating the world of entrepreneurship, securing capital and funding for your startup or project in a legitimate manner, feel free to reach out via email. My team and I are here to provide mentorship and advisory services, and we will be happy to connect with you for a consultation: vibes@weal28h.com.
Please follow my social media accounts, Instagram.com/JennyQTa, Twitter.com/JQT_WEAL28H, or Threads.net/@jennyqta, for the latest updates on my projects and endeavors.
Thank you!
P.S. I was featured on the webpage of Vietnam’s former Prime Minister, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (click here).
And, I was also featured on number of media publications from VietNam, here’s one from KENH14/VN as ‘Những nữ doanh nhân gốc Việt thành công nơi xứ người’ [click here / (Successful Vietnamese-Origin Female Entrepreneurs Abroad)].
P.P.S. Although I consider myself a mix of Chinese-Vietnamese, I have to admit that I’m NOT fluent in either language. This is because I didn’t grow up with my father and learn his language. As for my mom, well, let’s just say I got pretty good at understanding her when she yelled at me while I was growing up. Lol 🙈🙊