The Turning Point – How an EIR Brought Cricket One’s Founders Back from the Brink
Swiss EP’s Entrepreneur in Residence helped Cricket One’s co-founders in 2018 when their partnership was on the verge of collapse. That support rebuilt their bond and continues to fuel the startup’s success and impact to this day.
Cricket One transforms sustainable protein with a focus on cricket-based products. Since joining the WISE Accelerator in 2018, its founders have received critical support from Swiss EP, strengthening both their business and co-founding relationship through mentorship and emotional alignment.
In 2018, at the WISE's Accelerator Program in Hanoi, something remarkable happened, beyond pitch decks and product development. Cricket One's co-founders, Bicky Nguyen and Nam Dang, stepped into the Swiss EP-backed bootcamp on the verge of walking away from both their startup and their partnership.
They had once been close allies, starting from zero after leaving a large corporation. But by the time they arrived at WISE, conflicts and unspoken tension had driven them apart. Conversations had turned into arguments, mutual trust was low, and their ability to move forward as a team was in jeopardy.
That’s when Keith Ippel, Swiss EP’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), noticed something. As he facilitated the workshop, their disengaged body language and strained silence stood out. During a break, Keith made a simple but powerful move; he approached them and asked, “How are you doing?”
That moment shifted everything.
Keith invited Bicky and Nam into a deeper, private conversation, one that acknowledged their pain points, misalignment, and shared frustrations. He didn’t offer surface-level advice. Instead, he held space for vulnerability and guided them through a process of rediscovering how to listen, communicate, and realign.
SWISS EP is a program that creates opportunities for founders in Vietnam to not only receive training, but also get the support they need at various stages, support that goes beyond training. Through mentorship and peer connections, founders are able to overcome the challenges they face on their path to success.
— Keith Ippel, Entrepreneur in Residence, Swiss EP
Over the next few months, with ongoing check-ins and tailored mentoring, Bicky and Nam transformed their conflict into connection, learning to treat their co-founder relationship as a marriage, one that requires trust, communication, and respect.
What Swiss EP and WISE brought us was more than just frameworks and startup tools. They offered deep, understanding knowledge, rooted in real founder experience, empathy, and emotional intelligence. That changed everything. It helped us rebuild not just our business, but our partnership. It’s rare to receive this level of in-depth insight and commitment, especially when you're at a breaking point.
— Bicky, Co-founder of Cricket One
Today, Cricket One is thriving. They’ve launched new product lines, expanded their team, and continue leading innovation in the alternative protein space. Most importantly, the co-founders still actively practice the principles they developed during that critical turning point: open communication, emotional honesty, and mutual respect. These values now shape not only how they work with each other but also how they lead their internal team and engage external partners, fostering a culture of clarity, empathy, and resilience.
I've always been a huge fan of what SWISS EP is doing and what the team stands for. What matters most to me is that the program supports founders like Bicky and Nam in the moment, while also empowering partners like WISE who uplift many more. That’s how we create sustainable, far-reaching impact across the ecosystem.
That’s the power of the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program.
— Keith Ippel, Entrepreneur in Residence, Swiss EP