Garry Tan, CEO Y Combinator

Looking for the walls new technology breaks down

We had the pleasure of hosting Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator recently. We touched on many topics, but there was a through line as the night went on: How can founders tell where to innovate? I was struck by the maze analogy Garry used to answer this question.

Founders are all going through this maze trying to get to some definition of “success” on the other side. They might hit roadblocks and their ideas might fail - this is the equivalent of hitting a dead-end wall in the maze. The wall might be insufficient technology, or consumers' mindsets not adjusting enough to the idea yet. Over time, many founders come across the same wall and fail, forming a little pile of failed products. But with the invention of new technology, that wall might disappear. The problem space might be ripe for innovation, but founders are scared away by the failed products in front of the wall. Sometimes it blocks the (now nonexistent) wall from view. In the words of Garry, don’t let the failed products distract you if you sense this wall disappearing.

Garry also touched on the importance of mental health and went over some personal anecdotes that we loved and will leave to the attendees of the dinner to ruminate on. Thank you Garry for spending the evening with us, we had a lot of fun!