Garry Tan

Garry Tan

From Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin by Rick Rubin

May 13, 2026 · 2h 2m · Episode 177

About this episode

Garry Tan discusses his journey in the startup ecosystem and his role at Y Combinator.

Garry Tan is the president and CEO of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator behind companies like Airbnb, Reddit, Coinbase, and DoorDash. He previously co-founded the financial technology company Posterous, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012, and later founded the venture capital firm Initialized Capital alongside Alexis Ohanian. Before entering venture capital, Tan worked as an engineer at Palantir Technologies, where he helped develop early infrastructure and design systems. Now, he continues to make investment and product decisions as a General Partner, having read more than 6,000 YC applications, while overseeing programs for sourcing, advising, and scaling early-stage startups. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: AG1 https://DrinkAG1.com/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://DrinkLMNT.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Squarespace https://Squarespace.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Lectio 365 https://Lectio365.com ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter

People in this episode

Host: Rick Rubin

Guest: Garry Tan

Topics covered

  • startup culture
  • venture capital
  • technology
  • entrepreneurship
  • investment strategies

Keywords

  • Garry Tan
  • Y Combinator
  • startup accelerator
  • venture capital
  • investment decisions

Sponsors

AG1, LMNT Electrolytes, Squarespace, Lectio 365

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Y Combinator, Posterous, Twitter, Initialized Capital, Palantir Technologies, Airbnb, Reddit, Coinbase, DoorDash

Products: AG1, LMNT Electrolytes, Squarespace, Lectio 365

More episodes of Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin podcast page.