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.
> He’s one of the few people I like to think of when I think of Silicon Valley at its best.
Seriously, because the way SC people describe each other constantly would make one think the place is filled to the brim, exclusively, bursting with the nicest most generous people in existence!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
>It's been a great time and I wanted to thank everyone for being awesome. PG, Jessica, Trevor, and RTM have built an enduring organization and I can't wait to see where my friends and partners take it.
Based on that line, I'd say he is stepping away from YC. The " I can't wait to see where my friends and partners take it"- He excluded himself.
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!
Garry is unbelievably caring and helpful (I'll never forget his casually brilliant omnigraffling). We're all lucky that the world contains Garry Tan :)
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. ;)
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.
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!
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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 =/
People who haven't run into Garry personally have still likely been positively affected by his quiet influence on some of the products they use :)
It's not bootlick. If it were bootlick, you'd see a list of trite goodbye messages. Instead, we're seeing genuine emotion from the multitude of people he's touched.
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!