In 1977, Tracy Young's parents escaped Vietnam on a boat that reached Malaysia, and were picked up by the coast guards. The boat contained about 300 refugees who were trying to escape the Vietnam war. By a stroke of luck, Young's parents and older sister, who was less than 1 years old at that time, managed to immigrate to the United States.
As the daughter of Chinese-Vietnamese refugees of war, Young was the first in her family to be born in the United States, and she grew up watching her parents work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
In present time, from her office in the mission district of San Francisco, Young shared more about her journey. Her family roots and upbringing were very important to her, and imbued a strong sense of work ethics and determination. Young's mother was a hardworking business woman who gave her sound business advice, such as "spend less than you make", which served her well in her career.
Today, Young is the co-founder and CEO of PlanGrid, a construction management software application company that operates like a Google Doc for blueprints. The company has secured more than $62 million in funding from groups including Sequoia, Founders Fund, 500 Startups, Box, Northgate, Spectrum 28, and Tenaya Capital. PlanGrid is utilized in more than 500,000 projects around the world, including Hudson Yards in NYC, Levi's Stadium, NVIDIA's new headquarters, the $150 million Highway 99 Realignment Project in Fresno, California, and many others.
Young started her career as a construction engineer, after majoring in construction management at Sacramento State University, and was shocked by how inefficient the construction industry was. It was heavy, cumbersome and expensive, and version control of construction data was a huge problem. Young and her co-founders realized how difficult it was to physically ship paper out to field workers on construction job sites, and constantly update information.
At that point in time, it became obvious to Young and her team that they needed to do something about it, and hence PlanGrid was born, in 2011. PlanGrid's software initially provided everyone with the ability to view blueprints on their iPad through a simple interface, that even the least tech-savvy workers could use.
Today, clients use the software to share plans, markups, photos and reports with their entire project team. Users can even collaborate while offline, which is important as Wi-Fi signals at construction sites are often unreliable.
Young has now built a successful business in the construction industry, and her team has no plans to slow down. Tens of thousands of contractors, owners, and architects use PlanGrid to finish their projects on time and within budget. Today, PlanGrid has over 300 employees based around the world, and customers in over 72 countries. There is plenty of room to grow in the United States, where paper is still used in the majority of today's construction projects; but there are also a lot of opportunities to expand globally.
Her personal story speaks to aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to start a company. As a female leader in two male-dominated industries, technology and construction, Young shared that she never felt a difference because of her gender. She believes that by being respectful, working hard, and building a great team, one can get the job done and deliver.
Author's note: This is a series of articles featuring 1st generation and 2nd generation entrepreneurs in United States 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.