She immigrated to the U.S. and was sleeping in her car as a single mother–now, her candy company brings in over $9 million a year

When Gia Huynh immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in 2016, like many other immigrants, life for her wasn't easy. For years, she worked 14-hour days at nail salons to stay afloat.

At the time, she was in her 20s with just $50 in her pockets, Huynh told CNBC Make It. "I was working at a nail salon pretty much seven days a week, from morning to night, 14 hours a day," she said. At one point, Huynh found herself homeless, living out of her car as a single mother with a 5-week old son.

"I was facing homelessness, and with a baby in my arm. I had nothing," she said.

Today, she is the founder of Silky Gem, an online candy company known for their handmade crystal-like confections, also known as 'kohakutou' in Japan or 'mứt rau câu' in Vietnam. Her business brought in over $9 million in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Huynh was born in Dong Nai, Vietnam, and grew up in Ho Chi Minh City. She says she was the youngest of four siblings and grew up in a poor family.

"My dad used to just go in the jungle to chop bamboo and wood and things like that to sell. He's never home, really. He's always working. And my mom just, you know, worked [however] she [could] to put food on the table," she said.

As a kid, Huynh's parents always had to work so they would often leave her in the care of their neighbor, who she called "uncle" at the time.

"It was a rough childhood," said Huynh. "I [became a] domestic and sexual harassment victim [at age] four ... That was my first childhood memories, basically. It was under the man I call uncle."

In school, she was often made fun of for her skin color and she didn't finish fifth grade.

"I was always got bullied, [people] called me names, just because I had darker skin, basically," said Huynh. "Because I didn't graduate fifth grade, family and friends [would] always belittle me."

This environment created mental scars for Huynh. She says she felt very underestimated and this manifested in her being very quiet and never speaking her mind. It wasn't until recent years that she's learned her own worth, she said.

In 2016, Huynh immigrated to the U.S. with her husband and lived in Florida. She says that the first few years in the U.S. were extremely difficult and in some ways, life was easier back in Vietnam.

"In Vietnam ... even if I make a little money, it's still plenty for us to take care of our lives there. But [when] we moved [to Florida], it was a lot of struggle, because I was the main [source of] income for the family, and we were living out of my mother in law's house," she said.

After about a year in the U.S. together, in 2017, Huynh and her ex-husband separated, largely due to financial struggles and conflict, she said. After that, she met her ex-boyfriend and had her first son.

"I had my son in 2019 with my ex-boyfriend and that was a very abusive relationship," said Huynh. "I ended up losing everything on that relationship. I lost my job, I maxed out all [my] credit cards. I took my son out of [my ex-boyfriend's] house when he was only five weeks old and lived out of my car."

After a few weeks of living out of her car with her newborn baby, Huynh decided to move to Maryland and got a job working at her sister's nail salon. However, since it was Covid, Huynh says she was barely making enough to get by and she had to be separated from her son for ten or more hours a day.

She was determined to create a better life for her family and son, so she began to experiment with online business ideas.

On top of taking care of her son and working at the nail salon during the day, Huynh would experiment with her business ideas after she got home from work. From selling handmade soaps to bikinis, she says she tried out about six other online business ideas before landing on the idea of Silky Gem.

In late 2021, Huynh was scrolling on social media when she saw a few videos showing creators eating crystal candy.

"I recognized the candy because we used to make it back home with my great grandma," said Huynh, adding that it was something they had during special occasions like Lunar New Year. "I asked my mom, and she said ... we had the recipe for it. So that's when I started practicing."

She was inspired to recreate the candy she loved as a child in Vietnam, and ultimately spent $500 on ingredients to start experimenting with the recipe in her own kitchen.

"After I come back from the nail salon, I play with my son, put him to bed and pretty much [make candy] from midnight to three, four in the morning," she said, adding that she'd then wake up at 6 a.m. to go to work the next day.

By early 2022, she started selling her candy creations on Etsy and quickly began to make money.

"The first three months was hardest ... we were making like I would say, $600 to $1,000 a month, [but] I was so happy. That's enough for my son's diaper and milk," she said.

In March that year, she landed her first influencer post, which went viral and brought in $3,000 that day. From there, sales grew quickly, said Huynh. In the first nine months in business, Silky Gem brought in over $1.8 million, she added.

Today, Huynh has been able to hire both of her parents, and they all help to run the business together.

"It has just been amazing ... It really changed what I view about myself," she said. "My whole life, I believed that I'm worthless, useless. I don't have the skills, I don't have the education for any of this."

One of the biggest lessons she's learned is that: "You are your own enemy. You are the reason that you would fail in life," she said.

"I was blaming all the people about my confidence, my education and everything else. I was playing the victim card for my whole entire life," she said. "But that's not true. You can do it if you put your mind [to it]. I didn't go to language school. I didn't graduate fifth grade, but because I put my mind to this, I make it work."

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