Garry Tan thinks President-elect Donald Trump can clear the way for 1,500 major new tech companies every year — if his administration focuses more on Little, not Big, Tech.
As CEO of Y Combinator, the famed Silicon Valley startup accelerator, Tan’s business is trying to help tech startups take off. And, as one of the biggest Valley figures trying to muscle in on Big Tech lobbying, Tan sees the D.C. game as part of the work.
That’s why we wanted to talk to Tan about what promise his industry sees in Trump, the policy legacy of Big Tech and the place of advanced technology in world affairs.
“I think that there is a bipartisan hope, actually, that the new administration can bring in technology and have it actually serve the people of America in a much more fundamental way,” Tan told us.
Tan emphasized he’s “a San Francisco Democrat” who hasn’t met Trump. Yet he explained that he sees an administration that’s open to competition enforcement that protects AI startups and is ready to install regulators that’ll let crypto flourish.
“While there are things that I think everyone is a little bit worried about, on the other hand, there’s a lot to be hopeful for in this transition,” Tan said.
Focus on Vance: Tan is particularly enthusiastic about Vice President-elect JD Vance, a former venture capitalist. The CEO met the then-Ohio senator in May and brought in Vance to speak on the importance of policies friendly to upstarts.
Tan said he hopes Vance “has really a very deep influence on what the Trump administration does.”
For Tan, it’s all about what he calls Little Tech — startups and, frankly, plenty of medium-sized firms, especially in AI. He sees Big Tech as sucking up the most useful data and channeling crucial research to its own computers.
To Tan, Little’s Tech’s flourishing is all but dependent on knocking all that back.
Hence the 1,500 companies: Tan said 20 years ago, Silicon Valley focused on the roughly 15 firms per year that were poised to reach a $100 million valuation and go public. Now it can be 100 times that, and even more in the future, if policy-makers help.
“I don’t want, you know, seven companies worth a trillion dollars,” he said. “I want thousands of companies that give consumers choice.”
Y Combinator sets founders up with funding, training and networking, usually for a piece of the company. It had a hand in Airbnb, Coinbase, DoorDash, Instacart and Cruise (now owned by GM).
Tan took over at the beginning of 2023 and began trying to get D.C. on the side of startups. Tan didn’t pioneer lobbying for smaller companies or criticizing big ones, and he admits he’s still developing his priorities. He was, however, early to the wave of VC-aligned, Big Tech-skeptical, AI-first advocacy that’s now undeniably rising.
Despite his optimism, Tan is wary that Trump’s tech-related nominees — for posts like Federal Trade Commissioner — may be too closely tied to the current giants. Here’s his take:
All about AI: Tan also does sometimes sound like a Big Tech lobbyist. He complains that policymakers, especially at the state level, “need to consult with founders who are actually building real AI services before just forging ahead with these overly burdensome regulatory frameworks that try to promote AI safety.”
A top priority in AI is open-source technology — non-proprietary systems that other researchers can build on, a boon for startups. Safety advocates often worry that being able to freely repurpose applications gives too much power to bad actors.
Tan’s view is that current laws can tackle a lot of what’s worrisome. “Creating bio-terror weapons is already illegal,” he said.
And he’s aware that lawmakers aren’t quite ready to regulate AI.
“Just leaving things to the Congress will be a challenge, because it just takes many years for something like that to happen,” he said.
Crypto craze. Tan’s optimistic, too, for an era after Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, the industry’s bogeyman under President Joe Biden.
“We think that Gensler hasn’t… given a fair shake to what is a very bright part of the American economy,” Tan said.
Tan called stablecoins in particular “actually very useful, very viable.” Here’s more from Tan:
International affairs. Tan talks about wanting tech — and Trump’s administration — to help Americans at home and protect U.S. strategic interests abroad.
Still, China-U.S. dynamics have gotten hostile, he says.
“I sort of hope that maybe there can be a thaw,” Tan said. “The invective is pretty high these days.”
Talks on high-skilled immigration need to come back too, said Tan, who is a naturalized American citizen.
“We should get a ‘staple green card to diplomas’ sort of conversation restarted,” he said. “I think skilled immigration should be something that fits very tightly with ‘What does it look like to make the most vibrant America?
