Kelly Tran

Hi everyone, my name is Ha Tran. I was born and raised in Vietnam. At 16, when I first came to the US, there was a classmate told me that if he put 10 of me together it would be "Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha …” Since then, I go by Kelly lol.

I went to Villanova University in Pennsylvania for college, majoring in Finance and Accounting. After graduation, I moved to New York City and worked in financial services for a while. Being young, wild, and free (and naive), I decided to quit my job and go back to Vietnam to pursue several startup ideas. In the past 3 years, I built, launched and shut down several startups. I learned a thing or two about building products a long the way - hopefully. Having always working on the non-technical side throughout my career, I then realized I was actually interested in the technical aspects of businesses. I found my passion for Tech!

Growing up in Vietnam - a conservative male-dominated country - as a female, I never seriously considered software engineer a feasible career option. I always loved Math and solving problems. Although the thought of going into engineering in college crossed my mind countless times, I fell under the fallacy that STEM-related careers are for males, and I would never make it in the tech world. At the age of 26, I finally had the gut to follow my passion.

A year ago, I printed out my very first "Hello, World." I could never imagine that within a year, I'd be back to the US and pursuing a masters degree in Computer Science @ UChicago. It has been both a difficult and rewarding experience with many late nights and a lot of struggles (and joy). I'm so glad I made the decision.

I am looking foward to building cool products, and currently looking for software engineering as well as product management opportunities in the US.