Garry Tan

Garry Tan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Y Combinator, based in San Francisco, California. He holds a computer systems engineering degree from Stanford University and began his professional career as an early engineering manager and designer at Palantir Technologies. Tan later co-founded the blogging platform Posterous, which was acquired by Twitter for $20 million in 2012. Before returning to lead Y Combinator in 2023, he co-founded the early-stage venture firm Initialized Capital, where he directed seed investments into various high-growth technology companies. Throughout his career, he has advised more than 35 unicorn startups, reviewed over 6,000 accelerator applications, and worked with portfolio companies holding a combined valuation exceeding $226 billion. His current professional focus centers on early-stage venture capital, startup acceleration, and developing internal software infrastructure to support global founder communities.