How Vu Van found a voice through her AI app

A self-identified “hard-core operator” and tireless entrepreneur, Vu Van is the co-founder of Google-backed ELSA, the world’s smartest AI assistant for pronunciation training and language learning. Recently recognized by Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards 2020 in the AI and Data category and part of SOSV’s MOX batch 2 startups, ELSA is helping 11 million people from 101 countries learn English. Yet Van doesn’t come from a technical background, and her entrepreneurial story is an unusual one, despite the double Stanford degree and an international management consulting career.

At Stanford, Van found herself lacking the confidence to speak up. For…