How a Poor Refugee From Vietnam Became CTO of the $62 billion Startup Uber

[Viet]

Ryan General - Mar 15, 2016


Today, Thuan Pham is the successful Chief Technology Officer at Uber, the most valuable ride-sharing startup in the world worth over $62 billion, but as a child, Pham struggled to survive as a poor refugee boy escaping a war-ravaged Vietnam.

Pham was among the tens of thousands of refugees who fled from the Vietnam War in 1979. The 10-year-old Pham, his mom and his siblings were crammed with hundreds of other Vietnamese refugees on a 60-meter boat on their way to an uncertain future.

The refugees endured a perilous journey with their boat being raided by pirates twice.


“We would not panic. In fact we would be calm and surrender ourselves,” Pham told Tech In Asia. “That’s the way a startup journey is. Even if you lose all one day, you can build all over again if you retain your calm.”

Their boat landed on the shores of Malaysia but they were immediately rejected as refugees. Instead of returning to their country, his mother took a chance in taking her children on another boat to Indonesia, where the family stayed for 10 months.

Living on the island of Letung, young Pham would swim to the nearby town to buy candies which his mother sold in the refugee camp to earn money.


“We used to make 10 cents of profit a day, and that would be a luxury,” he recalled. “We could buy fresh fish.”

Pham’s life began to change after his mother’s asylum application in the U.S. was approved. They relocated to Maryland, where his mother worked as a ledger keeper at a gas station during the day, and as a grocery packer at a supermarket at night.

While studying in American schools, Pham struggled initially as he didn’t know English and had to start from scratch. He also wore donated clothes and shoes and found work at a local car wash station.

“I remember wearing girl socks for almost two years in oblivion, until someone pointed,” Pham told Tech in Asia.

A persistent and hardworking student, Pham graduated from MIT with a bachelor’s in computer science in 1991.


“I strongly encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to educate themselves, even if they don’t wish to graduate,” he said. “College education opens doors for you.”

After MIT, he found work at HP Labs, Silicon Graphics, DoubleClick and VMWare. When Pham joined Uber in 2013, it was already present in 60 cities with 200 employees. Currently, the company has an estimated net worth of $62.5 billion, has a presence in almost 400 cities and employs thousands of employees around the world.

As the Uber CTO, he has helped improve the Uber app which was prone to crashes in its earlier versions.

To ensure that the app is responsive and crash-proof, Pham has developed innovations that enable its architecture to keep running even if something goes wrong.

“Now we don’t crash, because we have done that in our early journey,” he said. “Entrepreneurs should fail fast in the early days.”

Growing up with hardship and the constant threat of death back in Saigon, which today is Ho Chi Minh City, Pham was forced to overcome fear at an early age, but that trait still stick with him today.

“It taught me that life is ephemeral,” he said. “I advise young entrepreneurs to treat their startups as a learning experience. Even if it all fails you can rebuild it again. You’re in a free world.”


How a Poor Refugee From Vietnam Became CTO of the Billion-Dollar Startup Uber

 

[Abacin]

The wife of Facebook's founder Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, is also a daughter of a Chinese Vietnam refugee, who fled Vietnam through those kind of refugee boats.
Priscilla Chan (philanthropist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Jao is a prominent Vietnamese American businessman in Southern California. The Le-Jao Center at his alma mater Coastline Community College is named in recognition of donations by Jao and Chieu Le, the entrepreneur and owner of the Lee's Sandwiches chain in California. Born to an ethnic Chinese father, he also fled Vietnam in 1975.

Amazon.com: Nam Moi: A Young Girl's Story of Her Family's Escape from Vietnam eBook: Charlene Lin Ung: Kindle Store
written by Charlene Lin Ung, a Chinese Vietnamese Refugee and an Engineering Manager in the famous Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) of NASA

 

[Viet]

The wife of Facebook's founder Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, is also a daughter of a Chinese Vietnam refugee, who fled Vietnam through those kind of refugee boats.
Priscilla Chan (philanthropist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Jao is a prominent Vietnamese American businessman in Southern California. The Le-Jao Center at his alma mater Coastline Community College is named in recognition of donations by Jao and Chieu Le, the entrepreneur and owner of the Lee's Sandwiches chain in California. Born to an ethnic Chinese father, he also fled Vietnam in 1975.

Amazon.com: Nam Moi: A Young Girl's Story of Her Family's Escape from Vietnam eBook: Charlene Lin Ung: Kindle Store
written by Charlene Lin Ung, a Chinese Vietnamese Refugee and an Engineering Manager in the famous Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) of NASA

I vote for a pragmatic solution: the 300,000 Hoa Chinese, who fled Vietnam to China when the relationship broke down, can return to Vietnam if they want. that should include their children.

 

[sweetgrape]

I vote for a pragmatic solution: the 300,000 Hoa Chinese, who fled Vietnam to China when the relationship broke down, can return to Vietnam if they want. that should include their children.

Hehe, it is not pragmatic, if they flee to other country, they are Chinese, or Chinese American kind, you have deprived them from their living right in Vietnam, it is easy let them leave, coming back is hard, not a vote can solve.

I also think you don't need them again, Chinese live in Vietnamese is not safe.

 

[Indos]

@Viet

He is not Uber founder, he worked there after Uber has already been expanding, so how can he make an entrepreneurship advice (even though it is a good advice) ....?

 

[Abacin]

I vote for a pragmatic solution: the 300,000 Hoa Chinese, who fled Vietnam to China when the relationship broke down, can return to Vietnam if they want. that should include their children.

300,000 Chinese Vietnamese Refugees still live in China and possibly another 300,000 Chinese Vietnamese Refugees live overseas. They should be a powerful resources for Vietnam to connect to China and the West, instead of a negative resources.

No need. Just VCP should manipulate less on nationalism and focus more on economic development. Vietnam really needs to utilize foreign resources, or disputed resources through business and economic cooperation. Resources sharing (both natural resources and human resources) is the main drive of globalization. Instigating damage on assets of foreign companies can ruin the credits of Vietnam for quite a long time.

Just like SCS. Vietnam shouldn't set a high goal to control SCS by nationalism. SCS is the path for rising of China and has become a geopolitical hot spot between China and United States. Plays at this level is beyond the control of Vietnam. But this doesn't mean that Vietnam should not actively pursue of economic interests and security interests. For example, if SCS is really turned into a big fishery and travel spot, Vietnam and Philippines will still get a significant part in business and jobs, potentially much more than the economic interests you are getting now. Introducing external powers only increase number of parties to share the interests.

Just like playing games, when you and other people find some treasures and start disputes, do you want to sit down to talk about partitions or call more people to join in?

 

[Jlaw]

“I strongly encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to educate themselves, even if they don’t wish to graduate,” he said. “College education opens doors for you.”

LOL

I vote for a pragmatic solution: the 300,000 Hoa Chinese, who fled Vietnam to China when the relationship broke down, can return to Vietnam if they want. that should include their children.

Most of the Hoa Chinese do not like Vietnam's government who caused them to flee and lost everything. Most would not go back to invest.

 

[Abacin]

In SCS, the core and indisputable interests for China is the security interests. Security for the Nuke Submarines in Hainnan Island and Security for Economic centers in Southern China free from massive destruction. The main goal of US FON is the navigation to monitor Chinese Nuke Submarine fleet in Hainan. These are nothing related to Vietnam and Philippines. Even if you care, you do not have the resources to play.

But for economic interests, even if SCS is indisputable part of China, China still need to share with Vietnam and Philippines to utilize human resources, market etc to boost economic interests. Co-operations can magnify business interests.

 

[Viet]

Hehe, it is not pragmatic, if they flee to other country, they are Chinese, or Chinese American kind, you have deprived them from their living right in Vietnam, it is easy let them leave, coming back is hard, not a vote can solve.

I also think you don't need them again, Chinese live in Vietnamese is not safe.

I am a generous person, thus promote a settlement right for our former hoa people. Vietnam is a rising country. GDP per capita in PPP is expected to reach $18,000 or more in 20 years. there are many benefits. sure, the hoa can stay where they are. but if they like they can settle in VN. what do you want more?

 

[Abacin]

I am a generous person, thus promote a settlement right for our former hoa people. Vietnam is a rising country. GDP per capita in PPP is expected to reach $18,000 or more in 20 years. there are many benefits. sure, the hoa can stay where they are. but if they like they can settle in VN. what do you want more?

Vietnam needs to learn from South Korea and Japan. Both are very nationalistic. But they know that there is a red line. Never use nationalism to hurt people and business. As long as this holds, I bet that all east Asian countries, with the help of Confucian, becoming secular and focusing on education as long as 2000 years ago, will definitely catch up the West in decades.

 

[Viet]

@Viet

He is not Uber founder, he worked there after Uber has already been expanding, so how can he make an entrepreneurship advice (even though it is a good advice) ....?

have you ever been to Germany, France or other countries in Europe? in America, Canada and Australia? there are zig thousands of viet businesses everywhere. here in Germany, viet businesses such as resto, nails and supermarkets have overtaken traditional chinese. our people are very business oriented. so giving advice on business is not arrogant, I believe.

in contrast, Chinese NEVER give you advice how to make money!

 

[Abacin]

have you ever been to Germany, France or other countries in Europe? in America, Canada and Australia? there are zig thousands of viet businesses everywhere. here in Germany, viet businesses such as resto, nails and supermarkets have overtaken traditional chinese. our people are very business oriented. so giving advice on business is not arrogant, I believe.

in contrast, Chinese NEVER give you advice how to make money!

It is because when Chinese do business, expansion in China is always in mind. Chinese like to pursue high tech, Chinese restaurants, trade, finance, real estate etc. No matter whether they succeed overseas, they want to apply their experience in China.

If you do not have a china related experience, it may be difficult to communicate.

 

[Viet]

LOL



Most of the Hoa Chinese do not like Vietnam's government who caused them to flee and lost everything. Most would not go back to invest.

Do you think every vietnamese in the country and in exile likes the government? For almost of our history, the common folk have no say in politics. I believe China is not different, is it?

If you haven't noticed a wave of exile Vietnamese return home to make business. It's up to the Hoa if they don't want.

 

[sweetgrape]

I am a generous person, thus promote a settlement right for our former hoa people. Vietnam is a rising country. GDP per capita in PPP is expected to reach $18,000 or more in 20 years. there are many benefits. sure, the hoa can stay where they are. but if they like they can settle in VN. what do you want more?

Generous? hehe, from you comments, I don't feel it,

And he is Chinese American, he was forced by you vietnamese to flee from Vietnam, don't because he work for Uber, then stand beside him, if you want them, praising him, don't want, expel him, hehe.

Even there are something with Vietnam in his life, also no need to bragging here: "Vietnamese" give advice on business, Chinese will NEVER, blabla.. first know, he is worker, just a high rank worker, not founder of Uber, from you mouth, sound he own Uber, no him, no Uber,

In the world, too much rising country, but if it is not safe, even you can earn million, billion, so what? VCP can easily confiscate you properity, and expel you, even take you life

Now, even they want make benefit from Vietnam, I think they know how to do, never settle in Vietnam, of course can earn money in Vietnam, but need transfer benefit to safe place in time.

 

[Marshmallow]

good reply above ...Meethay Angoor!