CEO Y Combinator
CEO of Y Combinator since January 2023. Previously co-founded Initialized Capital and was an early employee (#10) at Palantir. Active in San Francisco politics, funding moderate candidates and recall campaigns. Controversial for 2024 social media post directed at SF supervisors.
Tan announced he was stepping back from local San Francisco political group GrowSF to 'focus on DC this year.' In interviews, he praised Trump's antitrust picks and expressed hope that J.D. Vance would have 'a really deep influence on what the Trump Administration does.'
Tan organized the 'Reboot 2024' conference in San Francisco which featured Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts discussing Project 2025. The conference brought together tech leaders with conservative policy advocates.
In a late-night social media post, Tan wrote 'Die slow motherfuckers' directed at seven San Francisco supervisors (Aaron Peskin, Dean Preston, Shamann Walton, Myrna Melgar, Hillary Ronen, Ahsha Safaí, Connie Chan). He later claimed it was a reference to a Tupac song and apologized. Police reports were filed and copycat threatening letters were sent to supervisors' homes.
Tan donated $100,000 to support the successful recall of progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The recall passed in June 2022.