A founder kept saying "if only we had money we'd do X." Money is not the fire. Money is gasoline you pour on a fire that already exists. You don't … - Garry Tan

About Garry Tan

Garry Tan is an American venture capitalist, designer, and engineer who serves as President and CEO of Y Combinator. He earned a BS in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford and was an early employee at Palantir, where he designed the company's logo. In 2008 he co-founded Posterous, a YC-backed blogging platform acquired by Twitter in 2012. He later joined Y Combinator as one of its first partners, where he wrote internal tools including Bookface, the network connecting YC alumni founders. After leaving YC in 2015 he co-founded Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture fund whose investments include Coinbase, Instacart, and Flexport, with its largest fund closing around $700M in 2021. He returned to Y Combinator as President and CEO in 2023 and is also the founder of Garry's List, a continuation service for Posterous users, and the creator of GStack and GBrain. He is based in San Francisco and publishes a popular YouTube show on startups and investing.