Hi, I’m Han.

I was born in China and moved to Singapore with my single mom when I was 8. In a new country, with no family but each other and barely any English, I did well in school but felt like an outsider.

Searching for my place in the world, I took part-time jobs and started backpacking solo at 16. As a fearless and ignorant teenager, I ventured into the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, Thailand during a coup, and Myanmar under martial law.

I took pictures of children along the streets and wrote as often as I could. Writing and recording acquainted me with the world, and with myself.

Penn

I studied humanities in high school and got into Penn with a scholarship from the Singapore government, intending to study anthropology. I was the only non-Singaporean awarded the scholarship that year.

It was a dream come true, since my family could not have afforded even a single year of tuition, and six years of working in the civil service in exchange did not faze the teenager eager to see the world.

At Penn, my first CS class changed my entire trajectory. It was sweet torture staying up till 4am, when the decrypted Shakespeare from the Caesar cipher smiled upon me.

Many other nights, I lay awake, dreaming of startups and products I would build, knowing it was futile. I had signed away my career before college even started, and then I changed my mind.

Building anyway

I went on to build, even though the future was uncertain. I created Lunch.ours, a web app that matched 160+ students for blind lunches, with discounts I negotiated with campus restaurants around Penn and Columbia. It was my small first step toward the campus social app I had dreamed up.

I also founded Soulsmile Club, a Chrome extension that received affiliate commissions from online shopping and donated them on behalf of its users, so they could donate without spending extra.

I finished my double major in CS and Philosophy in three years, interned at Google, and did my CS master’s at Harvard.

The bond

Breaking my bond with the Singapore government was the biggest decision I had ever made.

My parents, long divorced, came together and used all they had to make it possible. They let go of the steady future the scholarship had promised me, and chose to do everything they could for their daughter, who wanted to venture further and dream beyond the path laid out for her.

Work

After graduation, I gave up my offer from Google to join Moveworks, an enterprise AI startup, as one of 18 product fellows selected for the Kleiner Perkins Fellows program that year.

Three years later, I left to learn the craft of consumer products, guided by my vague but certain dream of creating products that bring solace to people.

I am now a PM at Meta. I have gotten what many others wish for, what my parents hoped for, and what I thought I wanted, but I cannot forget some of my first dreams.

AI is turning software into a commodity, as commonplace as words. Still, I know it is time for me to search within myself for what I want to share with the world.

It doesn’t matter that words abound and poems are everywhere. It matters that someone, once, spoke them this way.

Now

Now, I’m building Kept, a home for everything you want to keep, and anything you choose to share.

To me, a meaningful life is made of experience, love, and expression. I hope my own thoughts and experiences are gently kept, and I want to build that space for others.

It matters that we were here: that we thought and spoke, saw the sun shine, and felt the cold waves.