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Garry Tan

Garry Tan (Chinese: 陳嘉興; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Ka-heng; born 1981) is an American venture capitalist and executive who is the CEO of Y Combinator and a founder of Initialized Capital. He previously co-founded Posterous and Posthaven. He was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, and previously a partner at Y Combinator. Tan is also known for his engagement in San Francisco politics, both as a commenter on social media and as a political donor.

Early life and education

Tan was born in 1981 to a Chinese Singaporean father and a Burmese-Chinese mother in Winnipeg, Canada. The family settled in Fremont, California in 1991, and Tan graduated from American High School. He started programming at 14 and found his first job by cold-calling the Yellow Pages.

He attended Stanford University from 1999 to 2003, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Systems Engineering.

Career

Tan worked at Microsoft and then became the 10th employee at Palantir Technologies. In 2008, Tan co-founded Posterous, a blogging platform, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012 for $20 million. He co-founded Posthaven after the shutdown of Posterous. He joined Y Combinator in 2011 as a designer in residence and partner. At Y Combinator, Tan helped compile a directory of "the best and the brightest interaction designers and visual designers" and wrote Coinbase’s first seed round check in 2012. While at Y Combinator, Tan and fellow Y Combinator partners raised $7 million in venture capital funding to support Y Combinator alumni companies, including Instacart and Coinbase.

Tan was a founder of Initialized Capital, a venture capital fund. In 2012, Tan raised $7 million for Initialized Capital’s first funding round. In 2013, Tan, Harjeet Taggar, and Alexis Ohanian raised $39 million for Initialized Capital. In 2016, Initialized Capital raised a $115 million third fund. The latest fund was closed in December 2021 for $700 million. Through Initialized, Tan led investments in Instacart, Coinbase, and Flexport.

Tan has been listed on the Forbes Midas List from 2018–2022.

In August 2022, Y Combinator announced that Tan would become president of the company in January 2023, replacing Geoff Ralston.

Politics

Tan, a registered Democrat as of 2023, has been noted for his involvement in San Francisco politics, both by directing attention to various topics via his social media presence (with 362,000 followers on Twitter/X and around a quarter million subscribers on YouTube, as of September 2023) and through donations (having contributed over $278,000 to political campaigns from early 2021 to September 2023). Tan self identifies as a "moderate Democrat", endorsing a larger police force, better schools, and more housing in San Francisco.

Tan has donated to YIMBY groups such as the San Francisco Bay Area Renters' Federation, YIMBY Action, and YIMBY Law. In 2020, Tan said in an interview that he followed San Francisco housing news, and supported housing of all kinds, including market-rate housing, affordable housing, and homeless shelters.

Tan donated at least $54,500 to GrowSF, a San Francisco pro-growth political group. He promoted and raised funds for the recall of members of the San Francisco School Board. Tan himself donated $20,000 to the campaign, and fundraised from friends like Cyan Banister. He promoted the recall and raised money from his Twitter following.

Tan supported the 2022 recall campaign against progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Tan donated at least $100,000 to the effort. Tan blamed Boudin for physical attacks on Asians. Tan alleged that Boudin failed to hold violent criminal offenders accountable and failed to protect the general public, particularly the least advantaged. After the recall campaign succeeded, Tan supported the election of appointed District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and appointed Supervisor Matt Dorsey.

In 2023, Tan implored tech leaders to participate in San Francisco local politics, highlighting substance abuse, public education, and housing as key issues.

In 2024, Tan attracted criticism for a profane tweet wishing death on seven of the 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In a later apology, he said he was referencing a rap track.

Tan is known for having blocked tens of thousands of accounts on Twitter/X, including public figures and journalists who have never interacted with him.

Tan called Y Combinator a "prototype model" of Balaji Srinivasan's Network State, which Gil Duran described as an anti-democratic, pro-plutocratic movement in an April 2024 piece for The New Republic.