The Immigrant Journey Behind A Silicon Valley Success Story

Young’s parents fled Vietnam after the war, taking her older sister by boat. After eight days at sea, they were rescued and spent nearly a year in a refugee camp in Kuala Lumpur. A Lutheran priest in San Bruno sponsored the family’s move to California.

Young’s parents found work in Silicon Valley: her mother built ships, and her father worked in grocery stores. They later started ABC Wholesale, a restaurant distribution business they ran for 40 years. The business supported their family and sent all three children to college.

Young says her parents’ experience gave her perspective on the emotional strain of founding a company. She described the daily work of building PlanGrid and Tiger Eye while handling customer problems, and said her parents’ example helped her keep going. She sees resilience shaped by hardship as a strength founders can draw on.

Young’s parents supported her decision to leave construction engineering and start PlanGrid, partly because they wanted her off job sites they viewed as unsuitable for a petite Asian woman. Looking back, she says she once thought founders did not look like her and felt she had fooled people into accepting her. She connects that belief to limited representation and unconscious bias.

Young describes her family’s story as part of a broader American immigrant experience. She points to immigrants’ work across food supply, care, and health services, and says they pay taxes and contribute to the economy. Her family’s early support from a religious community also shaped her belief in helping newcomers build a life.