6 ms·

Silicon Valley 40 under 40: Garry Tan

114 points by pg 13y ago

chollida1 13y ago
I'm not going to lie, once I read the title I immediately looked to see if it was Garry who submitted the article, Even thought I didn't expect it to be him:) I feel bad about that. In all seriousness, Congratulations, this is a big honor!!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
codegeek 13y ago
Here is the entire list/slideshow in case anyone is interested http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/10/40-under-40-yahoo-ebay-netflix-and.html?s=image_gallery http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/10/40-under-...
zmitri 13y ago
Winnipeg? G Tan! I never knew you were Canadian brethren.
kn0thing 13y ago
Yeehaw! Much deserved, Garry.
anandkulkarni 13y ago
Go Garry!
tslathrow 13y ago
Congrats Garry!
ajju 13y ago
Garry is not just an awesome investor and advisor, he is one of the best human beings I know! I don't think I have ever had a conversation with Garry where I didn't leave more energized.
stevenj 13y ago
It'd be cool to have a Q&A with the YC team on HN!
undoware 13y ago
Really, in our industry, is it necessary to specify an upper age bound? It's not like we're nurturing new circuit court justices. Why not, "Top 25 over 25?" We all know what happens when the taurine receptor count starts to tank...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- wahnfrieden 13y ago
  It's a journalistic hook. It doesn't come from within our industry.
  - hyperbovine 13y ago
    I think The Onion put it best: http://www.theonion.com/articles/40-numbers-under-40,32809/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/40-numbers-under-40,32809/
  - undoware 13y ago
    It is and it isn't. Here in Vancouver (Canada) I occasionally see meetups at GrowLab (our off-brand Canadian Y Combinator) for e.g. 'innovators under 30'. Presumably there is at least one such event being held elsewhere in the world, meaning it's not local to the Canadian tech scene. Moreover, if it's sculpting your networking opportunities, it's definitely more than a 'hook'. Journalistic hooks are a lot like API hooks. They point the ways to power.
- kadabra9 13y ago
  For me, these "Top X under Age X" articles always used to create these needless benchmarks and comparisons in my head, as if I had some expectations to live up to by a specific age. I'd read the "30 under 30" and think to myself, "Crap, I'll be thirty in a few years. I need to get on the ball". On one hand, reading about all these people doing great things is both inspiring and motivational for the reader to get out there and make something happen. On the other hand, its easy to look at yourself perhaps a bit too critically when you compare yourself to the folks listed in these articles. Focus on your own projects, career, business, etc not about whether you get there by 25,35 or 40. Back to the article... I've never met Gary, but have enjoyed his writing and he's always struck me as a class act. It's great to see him get some more recognition.
hooande 13y ago
garrytan is one of the best people I have ever met. There are many different functions for evaluating "good person". Some look to kindness, compassion and trust. Raw intelligence or creativity. Wealth and influence. You name it, garrytan has it. Of course no one is perfect. But some people are inherently good. Garry is a true nerd, a social maven, a serial helper. He's the kind of person that you want beside you in a foxhole. It's worth making an effort to get to know him. There's a reason that he keeps showing up in these "N under N" things. It's good to see a nice guy finish first for once. And I believe that his best work is yet to come.
- mrtron 13y ago
  Additional data point: Garry helped me prepare for my YC interview in 2008. He was happy to help and provided great feedback.
- joe_the_user 13y ago
  "Personal testimony + superlative = win!" - for some marketing creep, I'm sure. "X is one of the best Y's I've ever met" is one of the most annoying piece of public relations blather I know. I can only hope that now it's getting enough exposure to go the heck away. Not even to say any bad about this Garry person but this kind of empty rhetoric is more than a bit annoying. Edit, see: "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_%281962_film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_%28196...
cktsai 13y ago
Awesome, congrats Garry!
alexdmoore 13y ago
Go Garry!
moron4hire 13y ago
Dear BizJournals.com, what could you possibly be doing in order to serve up text and pictures that would cause my browser to freeze for 10 seconds?
- dba7dba 13y ago
  Not sure about this specific case, but I remember NYT.com completely freezing up Mac one morning few years ago. I opened up NYT and noticed some fancy ad done in flash on the page. And then I noticed my Mac was just crawling. After a few minutes I thought maybe flash was the cause. Updating flash plugin in firefox took care of the problem. With auto update of flash in chrome, no more issues with flash related stuff.
jmtame 13y ago
Congrats Garry! Well deserved.
zbruhnke 13y ago
Aside from Garry almost always being the one YC Partner we could guarantee would show up at every drink up during our batch of YC I always enjoyed his straight to the point feedback and awesome design opinions on our product. It's an honor well deserved. Congrats Garry!
Gaussian 13y ago
Woot!
whackedspinach 13y ago
Garry is awesome.
Jun8 13y ago
OK, maybe I'm self-centered by I want to see a "SV 40 over 40 newcomers/founders" list! Or at least a 50 under 50
sama 13y ago
Garry is among the best people I've ever worked with--he's both a very smart and helpful investor and a great guy. Extremely well deserved.
brendanlim 13y ago
Congrats Garry!
rbanffy 13y ago
The good thing about being older is that it becomes easier to figure in lists like this. Had I played my cards right, I could be in the 50 under 50 list right now, but, in just a couple years, my odds of being in the 60 under 60 list will be 20% higher even if nothing else changes.
collinjackson 13y ago
I think Garry may be the nicest guy I have ever met. He is incredibly helpful. I have nothing but good things to say about him.
fourstar 13y ago
This guy was cool. I pitched my idea to him for this winter batch of YC and didn't make it, but he was one of the ones in the room that I felt was most interested about the idea. I'd like to cross paths with him again some day.
thomaspun 13y ago
Congrats to Garry. hooande has said it best.

114 points by pg 13y ago

I'm not going to lie, once I read the title I immediately looked to see if it was Garry who submitted the article, Even thought I didn't expect it to be him:) I feel bad about that. In all seriousness, Congratulations, this is a big honor!!

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

codegeek 13y ago

Here is the entire list/slideshow in case anyone is interested http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/10/40-under-40-yahoo-ebay-netflix-and.html?s=image_gallery http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/10/40-under-...

zmitri 13y ago

Winnipeg? G Tan! I never knew you were Canadian brethren.

kn0thing 13y ago

Yeehaw! Much deserved, Garry.

anandkulkarni 13y ago

Go Garry!

tslathrow 13y ago

Congrats Garry!

ajju 13y ago

Garry is not just an awesome investor and advisor, he is one of the best human beings I know! I don't think I have ever had a conversation with Garry where I didn't leave more energized.

stevenj 13y ago

It'd be cool to have a Q&A with the YC team on HN!

undoware 13y ago

Really, in our industry, is it necessary to specify an upper age bound? It's not like we're nurturing new circuit court justices. Why not, "Top 25 over 25?" We all know what happens when the taurine receptor count starts to tank...

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
wahnfrieden 13y ago
It's a journalistic hook. It doesn't come from within our industry.
- hyperbovine 13y ago
  I think The Onion put it best: http://www.theonion.com/articles/40-numbers-under-40,32809/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/40-numbers-under-40,32809/
- undoware 13y ago
  It is and it isn't. Here in Vancouver (Canada) I occasionally see meetups at GrowLab (our off-brand Canadian Y Combinator) for e.g. 'innovators under 30'. Presumably there is at least one such event being held elsewhere in the world, meaning it's not local to the Canadian tech scene. Moreover, if it's sculpting your networking opportunities, it's definitely more than a 'hook'. Journalistic hooks are a lot like API hooks. They point the ways to power.
kadabra9 13y ago
For me, these "Top X under Age X" articles always used to create these needless benchmarks and comparisons in my head, as if I had some expectations to live up to by a specific age. I'd read the "30 under 30" and think to myself, "Crap, I'll be thirty in a few years. I need to get on the ball". On one hand, reading about all these people doing great things is both inspiring and motivational for the reader to get out there and make something happen. On the other hand, its easy to look at yourself perhaps a bit too critically when you compare yourself to the folks listed in these articles. Focus on your own projects, career, business, etc not about whether you get there by 25,35 or 40. Back to the article... I've never met Gary, but have enjoyed his writing and he's always struck me as a class act. It's great to see him get some more recognition.

hooande 13y ago

garrytan is one of the best people I have ever met. There are many different functions for evaluating "good person". Some look to kindness, compassion and trust. Raw intelligence or creativity. Wealth and influence. You name it, garrytan has it. Of course no one is perfect. But some people are inherently good. Garry is a true nerd, a social maven, a serial helper. He's the kind of person that you want beside you in a foxhole. It's worth making an effort to get to know him. There's a reason that he keeps showing up in these "N under N" things. It's good to see a nice guy finish first for once. And I believe that his best work is yet to come.

mrtron 13y ago
Additional data point: Garry helped me prepare for my YC interview in 2008. He was happy to help and provided great feedback.
joe_the_user 13y ago
"Personal testimony + superlative = win!" - for some marketing creep, I'm sure. "X is one of the best Y's I've ever met" is one of the most annoying piece of public relations blather I know. I can only hope that now it's getting enough exposure to go the heck away. Not even to say any bad about this Garry person but this kind of empty rhetoric is more than a bit annoying. Edit, see: "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_%281962_film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_%28196...

cktsai 13y ago

Awesome, congrats Garry!

alexdmoore 13y ago

Go Garry!

moron4hire 13y ago

Dear BizJournals.com, what could you possibly be doing in order to serve up text and pictures that would cause my browser to freeze for 10 seconds?

dba7dba 13y ago
Not sure about this specific case, but I remember NYT.com completely freezing up Mac one morning few years ago. I opened up NYT and noticed some fancy ad done in flash on the page. And then I noticed my Mac was just crawling. After a few minutes I thought maybe flash was the cause. Updating flash plugin in firefox took care of the problem. With auto update of flash in chrome, no more issues with flash related stuff.

jmtame 13y ago

Congrats Garry! Well deserved.

zbruhnke 13y ago

Aside from Garry almost always being the one YC Partner we could guarantee would show up at every drink up during our batch of YC I always enjoyed his straight to the point feedback and awesome design opinions on our product. It's an honor well deserved. Congrats Garry!

Gaussian 13y ago

Woot!

whackedspinach 13y ago

Garry is awesome.

Jun8 13y ago

OK, maybe I'm self-centered by I want to see a "SV 40 over 40 newcomers/founders" list! Or at least a 50 under 50

sama 13y ago

Garry is among the best people I've ever worked with--he's both a very smart and helpful investor and a great guy. Extremely well deserved.

brendanlim 13y ago

Congrats Garry!

rbanffy 13y ago

The good thing about being older is that it becomes easier to figure in lists like this. Had I played my cards right, I could be in the 50 under 50 list right now, but, in just a couple years, my odds of being in the 60 under 60 list will be 20% higher even if nothing else changes.

collinjackson 13y ago

I think Garry may be the nicest guy I have ever met. He is incredibly helpful. I have nothing but good things to say about him.

fourstar 13y ago

This guy was cool. I pitched my idea to him for this winter batch of YC and didn't make it, but he was one of the ones in the room that I felt was most interested about the idea. I'd like to cross paths with him again some day.

thomaspun 13y ago

Congrats to Garry. hooande has said it best.