
Thank you, Y Combinator - doppp
http://blog.garrytan.com/thank-you-y-combinator
======
guiseppecalzone
Thank you, Garry Tan.

Garry is one of the nicest, most helpful people I know. 5 years ago, he took a
meeting with us, even though we had a barely functioning prototype, and helped
us prep for our YC interview. After our first meeting, he even offered to meet
up again. I was blown away by how generous he was with his time. We got into
YC and he’s been an incredible advisor ever since.

He’s one of the few people I like to think of when I think of Silicon Valley
at its best. He genuinely loves product and the creation process. He’s hugely
helpful and he’s a great person, through and through.

Look forward to seeing what he does next!

~~~
sinzone
Garry gave me one of the best advice over 6 years ago.

[http://cl.ly/image/1e3o2W450h3w](http://cl.ly/image/1e3o2W450h3w)

~~~
kowdermeister
It's one of the advices I couldn't do anything with. Good thing you could.

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rgbrgb
End of an era! While a lot of ex-founder partner/VC people seem to think
mostly about nation-building, vision, and the marketing buzzwords you'd find
on an analytics dashboard, Garry's advice is always extremely concrete and
close the the metal. When success came, he never rolled down his sleeves and
stopped building and that's something most of us around here can really
respect.

Enjoy your time away Garry, excited to see what you build next!

------
alexis
You're one of a kind, my friend. Our industry needs more Garry Tans. So... I
guess what I'm saying is make more babies!

------
Harj
Working with Garry at YC was one of the highlights of my career. He simply
cares more about other people than anyone I've ever met, which makes him both
a dream colleague and friend.

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7cupsoftea
Garry is an incredible person and like most remarkable people he is also
deeply humble. This kindness and approachable spirit, I think, allow him to be
a great student of founders, startups, and cultures. I've learned quite a bit
from Garry about how systems evolve and operate. He is a very rare person and
a gift to the startup world.

Thanks Garry for all that you've done for the YC community. I wish you the
very best in this next leg of your journey.

------
jasonshen
Garry was the partner we leaned on most at Ridejoy. He believed in what we
were doing, helped us cut through to the highest priority work, and gave us
tough love when we needed it.

Thank you Garry for being an amazing YC partner. I'm sure we'll be hearing
about what you work on next soon, and in the meantime, enjoy the well-deserved
R&R!

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ryanb
Garry's advice and support throughout YC (and afterwards) was unparalleled,
but more importantly, he's just a really good person. I'll never forget when
he broke out Photoshop during office hours and redesigned our app on the spot!

Congrats and enjoy some much deserved time away!

------
aacook
Hi Garry. I interviewed for W11 with my brother Andy. We flew out from Boston.
We rented an RV and lived in it for a week before the interview. That fall was
the first year the interviews were split between two rooms. We pitched a
startup that helped people rent things (bouncy castles, excavators, photo
booths etc) for temporary use. The interview didn't go well. I was fumbling
all over and remember feeling hopeless. Then you stepped in and asked a bunch
of optimistic product questions, driving the interview to a better place. We
didn't end up getting in, but to this day I still remember the experience I
had with you and consider the interview one of the best things I ever did.
Thank you.

------
dang
Garry really is as remarkable as all these comments are saying. He has an
original mind and a kind heart and that's a damn fine combination. I'm so glad
to know him. Yay Garry!

------
ritikm
Garry is one of the best human beings out there.

One fond memory that resonates well with how he thinks and works with other
people was in an office hour we had with him. I asked him why he does what he
does and his response was simple: "I do this to help people get out of the rat
race."

Thank you, Garry, for everything.

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jacquesm
Wow, that's a pair of shoes that will be very hard to fill. Enjoy your rest
and I'm really curious what you'll be doing next.

------
thiele
I don't know Garry super well but in our few conversations I found him to be
one of the smartest and most generous founders I've come across.

Enjoy the time away, Garry!

------
jamescun
Every office hours session we had with Garry we came away buzzing, the man has
an amazing ability to inject raw enthusiasm when you are questioning yourself
the most.

I wish him all the best in his future endeavors!

------
mrtron
Garry, you provided feedback on a YC application in 2008. Thanks again for the
help then, and all the best moving forward.

------
dy
Congratulations on a great tenure at YC and best wishes for whatever's next!
Your advice and friendship at YC are one of my fondest memories of our time
there.

------
abbasmehdi
Garry is a hero. He is extremely nice, very kind, and has more empathy for the
founder than anyone I know. Whatever he does next, I wish him happiness and
success.

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asdf333
Garry, Thank you for your advice while we were there. I think I came in with
my startup around the same time you came in as a partner.

I was always impressed with your calm demeanor and thoughtful pointers. YC is,
in many ways a frenzied whirlwind for founders and it was great to have people
like you around who made me feel that everything was going to work out OK.

And it did.

Best of luck on your future endeavors.

------
jsnk
Thanks Garry. I met you once in Waterloo, Canada in 2011, and you convinced me
that I should start my own startup. I didn't start one yet, but I will be
doing that some day following your advice.

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tlb
We'll miss you, man. Enjoy your family time.

------
bobhaigler
Will definitely be missed. Garry is exceptionally kind, sharp, and helpful in
an organization full of exceptional, kind and helpful people. Hope to work
with you again, but love the decision you're making to spend time with family.
Can't go wrong with investing in family time!

------
eachro
So is this a sabbatical or is he actually stepping away from YC?

~~~
garry
I am actually stepping away. You can think most clearly when unattached.

~~~
pavornyoh
Garry, what about Quora? Will you still be active there? I am a bit of your
fan on there..

~~~
garry
Haha, I love Quora too. Yes, will do my best to help there.

~~~
pavornyoh
Ok. Great:).

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mikeg8
Never got a chance to meet Garry but always enjoyed following his blog and the
insights/advice he shared. He always seemed incredibly genuine and vested in
the success of others. Best of luck in this next chapter, Garry!

------
clevy
I will miss you so much Garry!

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RoboTeddy
Garry is unbelievably caring and helpful (I'll never forget his casually
brilliant omnigraffling). We're all lucky that the world contains Garry Tan :)

------
ckelly
Garry has been incredibly impactful to us, even after we graduated YC. Can't
wait to see what's next!

Enjoy your time abroad, Garry.

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jedberg
Having made the same choice and taking time off after my child was born, I
totally understand. Thanks Garry!

Although I then went and started a startup, so I guess slightly different. :)
Turns out starting the startup has actually given me a lot of time to spend
with the kid since I work from home! Hint hint. ;)

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zan2434
Garry was endlessly supportive and encouraging through all the tough times at
YC. He'll be missed!!

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cktsai
Garry is (and always will be) the man. Have fun in Europe!

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soci
Enjoy you time in North Spain Garry! You've choosen a very good destination.
Take care where you go in winter time, the weather (wind)is not always
outdoors/kids friendly as it is the rest of the year. Please, get in touch if
you need advice from a local.

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seddona
Big thanks for everything Garry, good luck in whatever comes next and enjoy
the well earned rest!

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vj44
Thank you Garry for everything you've helped me with. Good luck with your new
adventure!

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Adams472
Garry! Garry! Garry!

Thanks for all you do for YC and the community. Congratulations on your new
adventures!

------
brendanlim
The world needs more people like Garry Tan. He's one of the kindest, humble,
and most genuine people you'll ever meet. Garry helped us tremendously during
and after YC.

Can't wait to hear to see what you end up doing next! Thank you, Garry!

------
nzoschke
Thank you, Garry! Your perspective, advice and support was invaluable through
YC.

------
EGreg
Congrats Garry! Spending time with family. Thats what it's all about.

------
squigs25
Enjoy Garry! I was just in the south of France, it was a very different world
and one of the best trips I've taken. Let me know if you're looking for any
recommendations.

------
argumentum
One of the greatest (and nicest) guys around. Best of luck Garry!

------
nickporter
Thanks for the help Garry, enjoy!

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chris_wot
I would love to be able to write software full time. Alas, without a Uni
degree, it looks hopeless. I wish software was my life's purpose :-(

~~~
yarper
Hey, you don't need a piece of paper from the man to tell you what you can do
:)

~~~
garry
Amen! No permission slip needed.

~~~
jmathai
I think you'll find that many of us don't have a college degree. There's no
ticket needed to play.

~~~
chris_wot
That's extremely encouraging :-)

My dream is still to do a University degree in Computer Science.

I'm currently swotting up on as much mathematics as possible. One of my
biggest issues is not with computing so much as math. I just cannot work at
the pace that a Uni course requires because I have to _understand_ it.

For instance, it took me some time before I realised that the determinant of a
matrix was really just the "size" of the matrix. And I couldn't get through
trigonometry till I worked out why the trig functions were called what they
were called - eventually with a bit of help from Dr Math (that guy is awesome)
I realised that you just create triangles in a unit circle and work out the
Latin meaning for each of the lines:

[https://sherlockchrisblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/trigfu...](https://sherlockchrisblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/trigfunctionlines4.png)

[https://sherlockchrisblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/trigonome...](https://sherlockchrisblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/trigonometric-
functions/)

I'm trying to put down my "discoveries" in a blog, but until now I didn't
realise that Wordpress allowed for LaTeX and included the ams package.

My blog is here:

[https://sherlockchrisblog.wordpress.com/](https://sherlockchrisblog.wordpress.com/)

I guess I'm doing this because I was heavily involved in Wikipedia years ago,
and I'd still like to contribute to society, even if I'm just rehashing
material.

I intend to finish documenting what I know about trigonometry, then I'm going
on to differential calculus and beyond. After that, I guess linear algebra and
then as much discrete mathematics as possible! In particular I'm interested in
Cantor's aleph numbers.

------
kurttheviking
Gary, our conversations were insightful and sharp. I always enjoyed the cut of
your jib -- you'll be missed. Enjoy your adventure!

------
ukd1
It was the best of times, <3 <3 <3!

------
razvanr
We'll all miss seeing you at YC Garry!

------
lettergram
Garry Tan provided some great feedback on my teams YC application, thanks man.
I wish you the best moving forward!

------
karamazov
Garry, thank you for everything!

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rgrieselhuber
Garry is amazing. All the best!

------
joeyspn
Nice choice of destination for family time and relax... Welcome to Spain
colega.

------
mark_l_watson
I like his priorities.

I got interested in the Meteor.js framework a while back when I saw a quote
from Garry something roughly like: this is what web development should be like

It must feel great for Garry knowing he has helped so many people.

------
Vekz
End of an Era.

------
anandkulkarni
Garry is one of the most incredible people we worked with at YC. Thanks,
Garry!

------
dmmalam
Garry is the real deal.

------
jseip
Congratulations Gary!

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pavornyoh
All the best Garry.

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mhartl
Best wishes to Garry on his new adventure!

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phxlady623
Looking forward to see what's next

------
kalvin
Garry, thank you for your kindness :)

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BinaryIdiot
Take care! One thing that I want to point out (and it's something I hate to
point out) but would it be a good idea to edit out the upcoming trip and how
long it'll be? Normally it's the best idea to not post, publicly, where you're
going and how long you'll be gone for and Gary is semi-well known.

Just throwing that out there.

~~~
BinaryIdiot
I'm curious why I was downvoted so much. This is a real safety issue that has
been used to break into many homes. Why would my suggestion be bad /
downvoted? I was hoping for at least ONE comment to tell me why they downvoted
me =/

