About Jack Phan

Jack's life reads as a series of crossings. He came to the United States as an infant Vietnamese boat refugee. He taught himself to code at the dawn of the web and built the first algorithm to match homeowners with contractors online — work that became part of Angi. He co-founded and exited ReliableRemodeler.com to QuinStreet, then spent years deliberately reinventing his own role — engineering, marketing, operations, the CEO seat — across Digital Trends, Money Crashers, AGEIST, AirDeck AI, and PhanZu.

In 2019 a single keynote tweet made him #ONCEUncle to the global TWICE fandom — an accidental lesson in how one small signal can resonate across a worldwide community. Today he is Founding Director of the Oregon AI Accelerator, a Google-backed program championing human-centered, responsible AI and underrepresented founders.

Ferrari brain, bicycle brakes

Jack describes his mind as a Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes — a late-recognized neurodivergent lens that reframes the whole arc: the restless reinvention and relentless pattern-hunting are features of the same engine. (The framing traces to Hallowell & Ratey's ADHD 2.0; Jack uses it as personal narrative.)