# The Immigrant Journey Behind A Silicon Valley Success Story

**Author:** Garry Tan
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/JF-the-immigrant-journey-behind-a-silicon-valley-success-story
**YouTube ID:** PZqt2Y84gf0

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Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan sits down with one of the best founders of a generation, Tracy Young. She cofounded Plangrid
which sold to Autodesk for $875M, and is back with her new startup called Tigereye.

## Transcript

immigrants we get the job done today we're sitting down with one of the best founders of a generation Tracy Young co-founder of plan grid which sold to Autodesk for 875 million dollars who's back with her new startup called tiger eye but today since it's aapi heritage month we're talking about a different kind of origin story one that reaches back into our family immigrant stories let's get started

[Applause] [Music] thank you Tracy's parents came to the country in precarious circumstances escaping the ravages of the Vietnam War my parents are refugees of the Vietnam War they were children when the war started in Vietnam and I think by the time they waited it out

by the time the war ended it was very clear to them it was not going to be a country they wanted to raise their baby daughter and my older sister they saw a lot of horrific things like children getting murdered in front of them and they're just like we need to get ourselves out of here so you know no one wants to leave the home they were born in unless they really had to especially not on a small fishing boat with hundreds of other people here was Tracy's father mother and older sister who was one year old at the time

people were crammed on a boat hoping to reach another land to Freedom the boat goes to destination nowhere it's just trying to get the hell away from Vietnam and communist Vietnam specifically and they were on the boat starving by that point for at day eight and they got really desperate none of the coast guards wanted to pick them up no one wanted hundreds of Vietnamese refugees they convinced an oil rig boat to sink

their boat and it's just sort of this it was a maritime law at the time in the area where to be good human beings we can't let our fellow human beings sink in front of us without saving them and so they paid off and bribed the oil riggers they sunk their boat and let them go on board theirs and they called them Malaysian Coast Guard who had to pick them up and they got dumped in a refugee camp in Kuala Lumpur and they were there for a little shy of a year

and a Lutheran priest out of San Bruno California sponsored my family my mom my dad and my sister to live out of the church coming to the United States without being able to speak the language and wanting to make a better life for your children that was Tracy's parents experience they landed in the SF Bay Area and found work in Silicon Valley they worked a lot of jobs my mom actually worked the swing shift to build

ships and it's it's like a physically demanding jobs her eyes are actually completely wrecked now because you have to look through these microscopes and like I don't know solder things together and my father worked in grocery stores they eventually saved enough money to build their own restaurant distribution business so it's a very simple business it's an honest simple business it's you buy a bunch of goods you mark it up and then you sell it to restaurants and you deliver it and they did that for 40 years ABC wholesale that was something

they were really proud of I mean that that business helped you know fed all of us it housed all of us and it's sent to all three of us to college as the child of immigrants you see your parents struggle so hard to try to make a life for you and your siblings maybe that's why it's so common for children of immigrants to go on to start companies themselves just like Tracy did I mean being a Founder is just hard in a way that's that all other Founders know it's

emotionally challenging it's mentally challenging it's uh it's not for the faint of Hearts every single day sucks and you just have to get past that every single day every single day you'll be thrown you know there's just like there's so much to build there's not enough people to do it but it still has to happen your customers are mad at you um and then you have to make them happy rinse and repeat the next day over and over and over again and I think

it never mattered how hard I worked in my company my last company planner and now my new company tiger eye because it can't be worse than what my parents had to do and and part of it is just getting through each day without complaining and I think my parents really instilled that in me like I never had to be in Warzone I never had to see people die I never had to pack up my stuff and go destination nowhere hoping for a better life I mean it's kind of crazy that the most important decision of my life was

not made by me it was made by my parents I would have had a much different life if I was born and raised in Vietnam versus California being the children of immigrants gives Founders a grit it's something that a lot of Founders from similar backgrounds describe as something they can draw strength from no matter how hard it might get how bad it might get for you and your startup it won't be as bad as what it was like for someone in the country trying to make something with absolutely nothing you can forge ahead

knowing even that is something you can endure What Might Have Been viewed as a weakness or a disadvantage a trauma even is actually a strength [Music] plan grid was a tremendous success one of the best startups of a generation and seeing Tracy build that startup was an inspiration to me and many others I asked Tracy what it was like for that journey to play out to have her parents

see her go into this experience and come out on top so prior to founding my first startup plan grid I was a construction engineer they were always against that they're just like it's a very Asian mom and dad thing to say I don't think you as a petite Asian woman should work on a job site a construction site it's for men and so when they found out I wanted to start a company they're like yeah go do that get yourself out of the job site um which was really really nice it was nice to have my parents support and you

know they were also business owners and um they were all about yeah you should Be Your Own Boss and so I had a lot of support in that way which I don't know if that is um unique to my family or not and then as we saw some success I think they were always just very I know they were proud I I although I will say I don't think they've ever said those words to me but I know I know it I know they are proud of me and it's so it's such like so funny um I have Catholic friends and it feels like there is so much similarities

between Catholic families and like really really religious families in chinese vietnamese families where they're just certain things you don't talk about I asked Tracy what she wishes she knew when she was 18 or 22 just starting out in Tech and startups here's what she had to say there was a lot of parts of myself that I I just wanted to hide because it didn't feel like it fit into what I thought Silicon Valley and Entrepreneurship was I didn't think that

Founders looked like me it's as simple as that I thought that I had tricked everyone into believing that I I'm a founder and actually I wasn't and part of it is being a woman part of it is being Asian um but it was it's just like it's so not true it was all in my head I had made up the story and I'm sure I didn't do it by myself because it's the stomach it starts when we're young it starts with the representation that's

being put in front of us it starts with the words that we use with boys and girls that are different in school it's unconscious bias and all of that fed to an own an image of what I thought leadership and Founders look like and again at 18 years old I didn't think it looked like me and I know now that I am I was completely wrong about that I'm so glad to be here to share this story with you because I think Tracy's story is

ultimately an American story that families can come here from anywhere in the world that there's opportunity and free enterprise and that across Generations social Mobility is not a concept here but a reality and a reality we see unfold before our very eyes every single day my story isn't unique to me it's not unique to my family my story is literally everyone's story in America if you go back far enough and

it's just a shame that it seems like the whole world right now including this country is a little bit xenophobic and anti-immigration because it's immigration that makes for a strong economy look who puts food on our tables look who is delivering these foods to all the places we can buy them from look who is working in child care in Elder Care in hospitals there is like a lot of

immigrants that are working hard paying taxes contributing to our economy especially for countries that are seeing a decline in birth rate immigrants we get the job done as the child of immigrants myself I am deeply thankful for a country that values the ability to create something from nothing at the human capacity for love for our fellow humans is much bigger than we allow for today

that our capacity for love is actually infinite I mean we saw this my my family saw this when they first landed in America the religious community stepped up and they helped these these young chinese vietnamese refugees who had nothing and they got them on their feeds and and they're like so incredibly thankful and they just work their asses off contributing to the economy contributing to their communities and like raised really great kids out of it and I would like to see that continue on

for our country [Music] I'm so grateful to Tracy for sharing her story and where she came from to hear more from Tracy connect with her on LinkedIn follow her on Twitter at Tracy underscore Young And subscribe to predictablegrowth a monthly newsletter penned by Tracy that highlights senior women in sales driving revenue for their businesses Link in the description for

all of that that's it for this week if you're new to the Channel please click like And subscribe and hit the Bell icon I'll see you next week [Music] foreign [Music]
