Problems to Profit Podcast

Host: Preston Brown
Guest: Tulin(h) Tran
Episode: Refugee to Angel Investor: Tulinh Tran's Journey
Date: October 9, 2025

Episode Overview

In this gripping and inspiring episode, Preston Brown sits down with Tulinh Tran, an investor and entrepreneur whose journey stretches from escaping post-war Vietnam as a refugee to achieving multiple lucrative exits as an angel investor. Tulinh opens up about her roots—growing up poor in New York, her early forays into the stock market, massive risk-taking in angel deals, and how she rebuilt her life after personal and financial catastrophe. Together, Preston and Tulinh explore what it takes to turn life’s problems into profits, discuss the unique strengths women bring to the investing world, and dissect the strategies and mindsets that helped Tulinh thrive against enormous odds.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tulinh's Backstory: From Refugee to Investor

• Early hardship: Tulinh's family fled Vietnam in a perilous journey, eventually settling in New York City.

  • "We were refugees from Vietnam... after the war because my father had fought for the South Vietnamese army, the losing side." (09:08)
  • Life in the outer boroughs was challenging: government assistance, shared apartments, and after-school hours at the public library shaped her early years.

• First investments:

  • The library became Tulinh's first investment mentor: "My first investing teachers were like Peter Lynch, Charlie Munger, you know, like, books that I had borrowed from the library." (06:52)
  • She started investing at 17, choosing tech stocks like Amazon out of a mix of intuition and personal curiosity—years before it was “cool”.

2. The Role of Intuition and Play in Investing

• Playfulness as edge:
  • “The play part… removes a big barrier to investing. And that is the fear part.” (20:17)
  • Loving and intuitively using products, or perceiving trends firsthand, often led her to investment decisions before they hit the mainstream.
  • Her framework, "Intuitive Investing," leverages real-life experience and personal passions to spot winning trends—like her early investments in Amazon and Netflix, both deeply tied to her interests.

3. Skill Building: The Real Work of Investing

• Beyond Picking Winners:
  • "There's also, like, knowing when to sell and managing your own cash position so that you're not being forced to sell." (04:09, 28:11)
  • Deep dive into risk management, handling emotions, understanding “forced sales,” and why scared money rarely prospers.
    • “If you are afraid of judgment, if you're afraid of fear, that really does impact the way you see the world, whether it's the playground or to investments.” (23:14, 24:15)

4. Angel Investing: Lightning-in-a-Bottle Successes

• Two Back-to-Back Exits:

  • Both her first and second angel investments achieved exits—one via private equity acquisition, the other via IPO, an extraordinary feat.
    • "So I've had two exits, and these were my first two angel investments. So two out of two, which is, like, almost unheard of." (03:27)

• The Gold Chain Company: Extreme Risk, Extreme Reward

  • Tulinh invested “half” her 20 years’ savings into a brash, niche men's jewelry startup.
    • “I took half of my stock market profits and put it into this company… and I moved them to Miami.” (35:37)
    • Survived disasters: one founder’s crash into addiction, betrayal by later partners, and still exited successfully.

• The Web Marketing Firm:

  • A second “knowing,” this time recognizing creative genius and explosive industry growth, led to another huge “all-in” bet.
    • The start: $2M in revenue; Exit: $150M, with an IPO.
    • “When I found them, they were making, I think about 2 million annual revenue. And then last year it was 150 million.” (62:04)

5. Personal Tragedy and Reinvention

• Loss of Husband:

  • Sudden death, probate hell, inheritance lockdown.
    • “So the biggest loss, and this is not related to investing, is the death of my husband in 2019… everything got locked up, like, immediately. And I had no access to cash or credit cards.” (66:34)
  • Credit destroyed by partners running up company debts under her name. Had to rely on friends for groceries, eventually sold her wedding ring to restart.

• Miraculous Recovery:

  • With a tiny nest egg, Tulinh again trusted her intuitive investing sense:
    • “I sold my wedding ring... and I put it back into the market.” (71:44)
    • Saw the opportunity in Netflix just before the COVID lockdown, executed successfully, and rebuilt her wealth from scratch.

6. Women and Investing: Untapped Power

• Unique Strengths:

  • “Women are like you said, they're innately built to be good investors because of the common sense and the caring part.” (57:35)
  • Women interface with the world in more varied ways, often forecast trends with greater accuracy, yet remain under-confident in finance.
  • “If they were empowered to understand that, hey, how I'm built actually makes me suited for investing, then, you know, they might not be as fearful.” (60:18)

• Preston’s Insight:

  • “When they're talking, y'all are... better at common sense and better at caring... and that makes you better investors.” (53:12)
  • The need for more women to step up, trust their intuition, and recognize their hidden superpowers in the financial arena.

7. Framework & Upcoming Course

• Intuitive Investing:
  • Tulinh announces her "Pillars of Investing" course, teaching her process for identifying winners and managing investments using intuition plus practical rules-of-thumb.
    • “I teach a lot of kids how to invest… I'm going to do it again live. It might be the last time that I do live.” (78:29)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Scared money don’t make money.” — Tulin Tran (24:26)
• “My first investing teachers were like Peter Lynch, Charlie Munger... books I had borrowed from the library.” — Tulin Tran (06:52)
• “If you are afraid of judgment, if you're afraid of fear, that does impact the way you see the world, how you look at investments.” — Tulin Tran (00:09, 24:15)
• “You can't be angry without the need to be right... And you can't need to be right or feel righteous if you're removing ‘What about me?’” — Preston Brown (00:00, 22:11)
• “I had so much belief in myself that I made a lot of mistakes... but I remember thinking, well, it's my money and I am me. There's no way I would let it fail.” — Tulin Tran (37:46)
• “I took half of my stock market profits and put it into this company... I teach differently.” — Tulin Tran (35:37)
• "My friends would, like, Venmo me like, a hundred dollars... So what I did was I sold my wedding ring... and I put it back into the market." — Tulin Tran (71:44)
• "You did whatever it took." — Tulin Tran (45:59)
• “Women are like you said, they're innately built to be good investors... because they have common sense and caring part." — Tulin Tran (57:35)
• “You have bigger balls than any man I've ever met.” — Preston Brown (72:13)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Tulinh’s Refugee Origin Story & Early Investing: 05:03–11:25
• Intuition, Play, and Investing Philosophy: 17:00–24:26
• Pivotal First Angel Investment Story: 35:37–47:05
• Second Angel Investment, Digital Marketing Growth: 49:08–65:11
• Personal Loss and Rebuilding from Scratch: 66:34–73:17
• Women’s Unique Edge in Investing: 54:57–61:11
• Tulinh’s Investing Course Announcement: 78:29–81:39

Tone, Style, and Vibe

Lively, candid, and deeply vulnerable. Tulinh combines wisdom and humor with resilient optimism, while Preston delivers energetic encouragement, sharp insights, and a touch of irreverence. The conversation is unfiltered and authentic, offering a treasure trove of life and investing lessons, wrapped with personal stories and infectious enthusiasm.

Summary Takeaways

• Problems are potential profits in disguise—Tulinh’s journey exemplifies turning adversity into opportunity.
• Investing is a game of intuition, observation, and emotional mastery (not just numbers).
• Women are uniquely suited to investing, often held back only by unfounded fear—not lack of ability.
• Massive risk can pay off—if embedded in conviction, love, and direct action (and sometimes a little luck).
• True resilience is about learning, reinvention, and doing “whatever the fuck it takes”.
• Financial education and courage are key; anyone—especially those underestimated—can win big, again and again.

For listeners wanting to learn more about Tulinh's Intuitive Investing framework or enroll in her upcoming course, stay tuned to her official channels and the Problems to Profit Podcast.