Garry Tan is an entrepreneur and the CEO and President of Y Combinator, which gives funding to early-stage start-ups.
But what is the story behind Tan and what is his net worth?
Who is Garry Tan?
Garry Tan was born in 1981 in Fremont, California to Singaporean immigrants.
Growing up, Tan moved around a lot with his dad struggling to keep down a job as he battled addiction.
He said: “My dad was kind of a raging alcoholic his entire life.
“The hard part is, we move eight or nine times. It’s funny because it probably gave me a lot of skills, which was just being able to make friends very easily. These things that almost break you also make you.”
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Tan went on to say his family had little income and “most of the money would go on rent and beer”.
He added: “I’m just so grateful for everything I have in my life now, and I never thought I would have any of that because we didn’t have money for food sometimes growing up and that’s because my dad couldn’t keep his job.”
Tan’s fascination with computers began he was 14 years old, as he started to learn to program.
He went on to study Computer Systems Engineering at Stanford University, graduating in 2003.
After graduating, he went to work at Microsoft and then for data analytics start-up Palantir Technologies.
In 2008, Tan took the plunge and started his own business.
Tan founded a blogging platform called Posterous, alongside Brett Gibson, which allowed users to write blogs that automatically post to Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook simultaneously.
Posterous was acquired by Twitter in 2012 for $20 million.
Months before the purchase, Tan joined Y Combinator, which gives funding to early-stage start-ups and helps develop their pitches to potential investors.
At Y Combinator Tan’s early-stage investments included Instacart and Flexport.
He also wrote the first-ever check for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
What is Garry Tan’s net worth?
Garry Tan is estimated to have a net worth of $750 million.