One Immigrant's Journey from Washing Cars to Uber's CTO

Washing cars. Wearing donated clothes and shoes. Working at the local public library. Surviving on state welfare to put food on the table. Taking care of his younger brother while his mother took on two jobs at a gas station and supermarket to keep the lights on at home. This was the life of Thuan Pham when he arrived in the United States from Vietnam as a refugee. He was only 11 years old.

Pham was born in Vietnam in the late 1960s, to parents who barely finished high school. Due to the political situation in Vietnam, it was increasingly unsafe for Pham and his family to stay in the country, and his mother made the decision to leave the country. She sold everything they had in order to pay for the journey, but failed to escape several times, as the arranged boat never showed up. It finally did; but during the journey, Pham and his family encountered and were victims of pirates twice.  

When they finally landed at a refugee camp in Indonesia, they lacked shelter and sanitation for weeks, but ended up spending 10 months there. Pham would swim to nearby islands to buy candies, which his mother would then use to trade for bread for the family. Pham's mother believed that it was better to leave their home country than to risk her children growing up without opportunities for a better life. Eventually, Pham's family arrived in suburban Maryland in the United States, where he started a new life.

In Maryland, Pham worked hard and hustled as a teenager - to do well in school, to overcome the language barrier, and to work to support his family. He quickly became the adult in the family, taking care of his younger brother and completing household chores, while washing cars and working at the local public library. 

He would often work long hours, washing cars on the weekend to earn extra money, even when it was cold in the winter. At the local library, he developed an interest in coding by fiddling around with the public computer terminals. This was when he started to realize he had a natural affinity for programming. 

In order to further develop his newfound interest, Pham volunteered his services at the local government agency, National Bureau of Standards Publications. Using Lotus, he automated the entire accounting system for the team within 3 months. As a result of his extra-curricular involvement and excellent academic record, Pham was admitted into MIT to study computer science in 1986, and graduated in 1991. In the same year, Pham saw his father for the first time in ten years - he finally got a visa to visit the United States for Pham's MIT graduation.

From MIT, Pham went on to work at HP Labs, Silicon Graphics, DoubleClick, and VMWare. Pham had always favored working at smaller companies in his career. He started off his career at HP Labs, which provided a research-focused and academic environment, allowing him to focus on learning the latest technologies. 

However, he soon had the desire to explore something new. In his career, Pham always prioritized learning. He was not afraid of a company failing, because as an immigrant, he had the mindset that one could always start afresh if need be. 

He then joined Uber in 2013 as the Chief Technology Officer, when the company was present in 60 cities and employed about 200 people.

Finishing up our conversation on market street off downtown San Francisco, I was curious about how Pham gets around these days, and if Uber provides their CTO with ride-hailing services to make his journey to work more comfortable. As Pham stood up to return to his desk, he shared that he has been taking the Caltrain (California's public transport system) everyday, from San Jose to San Francisco. It is a 3-hour commute daily, but he spends his time wisely by clearing emails or doing one-on-one with his colleagues for feedback. 

Author's note: This is a series of articles featuring 1st generation and 2nd generation entrepreneurs in America to showcase their immigrant story and how they worked hard to start their businesses. The author himself is an immigrant entrepreneur who moved to the United States from Singapore.