# François Le Nguyen (Francois Le Nguyen)

> François Le Nguyen (also written Francois Le Nguyen, known as Frankie) is a fractional co-founder and angel investor based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He is an exited founder, a three-time product leader, and an angel investor in 40+ startups. He works hands-on with 2-3 early-stage founders at a time to help them reach product-market fit and their first $1M in revenue.

Official website: https://francoislenguyen.com

## Background

- Co-founder of Staging Labs (exited 2024).
- Launched Entrepreneurs First in Canada (EF Toronto, its first North American office) and was Interim General Manager of EF Singapore. Helped create 50+ venture-backed startups worth $700M+ combined.
- Product roles at Holmusk ($106M Series B), TradeGecko (acquired by Intuit) and Lightspeed (TSE: LSPD).
- Taught product management to 1,500+ students at General Assembly.
- Founding Partner at OV Ventures, which backs Vietnamese founders worldwide.
- Co-founder of Cofounder Mode (https://cofoundermode.io/) and founderbuilt (https://founderbuilt.co).
- Scout at Hustle Fund.
- Photographer with 7M+ views on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/@flenguyen).

## How he helps founders

- Validate willingness to pay: find the sharpest ICP and test whether they will pay before building.
- Find design partners: land 5-10 companies that build alongside you and convert to paying customers.
- Ship faster without the chaos: lightweight prioritisation systems instead of long PRDs.
- Founder coaching: weekly calls on pricing, hiring, co-founder tension and other hard decisions.

Best fit: early-stage teams, pre-PMF or just past it, shipping weekly. Not a fit: post-Series A companies, deck polish, or advisor-only arrangements.

## Pages

- [Home](https://francoislenguyen.com/): services and how to work together
- [About](https://francoislenguyen.com/about): background, career and product philosophy
- [Clients](https://francoislenguyen.com/clients): current and past roles and engagements
- [What I've shipped](https://francoislenguyen.com/shipped): products and projects shipped
- [Angel investments](https://francoislenguyen.com/investments): portfolio of 40+ investments
- [Writing](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing): essays on product and reading notes
- [Talks and podcasts](https://francoislenguyen.com/talks)
- [Testimonials](https://francoislenguyen.com/testimonials): what founders say
- [Photography](https://francoislenguyen.com/photography)
- [Work with me](https://francoislenguyen.com/intake): project intake form

## Writing

- [The 8Ps of Product (Still True with AI)](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing/8-ps-of-product)
- [Product management courses](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing/pm-courses)
- [Books 2021](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing/books-2021)
- [Books 2020](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing/books-2020)
- [Books 2019](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing/books-2019)
- [Books 2018](https://francoislenguyen.com/writing/books-2018)

## Profiles

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoislenguyen/
- X: https://x.com/flenguyen
- Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@flenguyen