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Garry Tan Profile picture
@garrytan
Jul 28, 2019 • 3 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Antelope Canyon is an Instagrammer’s dream. But look at how insane it is to pay almost $300 to take the exact same photo as hundreds of others next to you

To mimic a $6.5M photograph!

#doingitforthegram

Desire is truly mimetic

Full video by @fstoppers—
This is Phantom by Peter Lik which sold for a record setting $6.5M in 2014. Beautiful and haunting.

Photography is truly an instrument of desire in more ways than one. The act of photography itself inspires others to want to have photographed it.
Reminds me of this crazy lineup to summit Mount Everest. These people are risking their lives in the death zone, and this was one of the most deadly seasons at Everest ever.

Yes it is an achievement but not what it once was when it gets commodified like this.

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More from @garrytan

Garry Tan Profile picture
Jan 9
Larry and Sergey can’t stay in California since the wealth tax as written would confiscate 50% of their Alphabet shares.

Each own ~3% of Alphabet's stock, worth about $120 billion each at today's ~$4 trillion market cap.

But because their shares have 10x voting power, the SEIU-UHW California billionaire tax would treat them as owning 30% of Alphabet (3% × 10 = 30%). That means each founder's taxable wealth would be $1.2 trillion.

A 5% wealth tax on $1.2 trillion = $60 billion tax bill, each.

That's 50% of their actual Alphabet holdings—wiped out by a "5%" tax.

Section 50303(c)(3)(C) of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act states: "For any interests that confer voting or other direct control rights, the percentage of the business entity owned by the taxpayer shall be presumed to be not less than the taxpayer's percentage of the overall voting or other direct control rights."

This means if a founder holds shares representing only 3% of economic interest but 30% of voting control (through Class B supervoting shares), the tax would presume their ownership stake is at least 30% for valuation purposes, not 3%.

The wealth tax is poorly defined and designed to drive tech innovation out of California.Image
The law is so poorly written. While the lawyers who drafted it claim it doesn’t apply to publicly traded shares, they designed a legal trap where Class B voting shares would count as private shares and therefore considered ownership.

It’s so dishonest. Image
The specific tell is this passage in the text: “provisions of this Part shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes”

In other words capture as much tax as possible
Read 6 tweets
Garry Tan Profile picture
Dec 27, 2025
This CA “billionaire” tax is an unrealized gains tax. A unicorn startup founder becomes a paper billionaire around $5B val. At YC we avg 2 to 4 per year (!)

This will kill startups and innovation in California since a founder is illiquid while instantly on the hook for $100M
Fast growing startups grow up to be major tech firms. California benefits from tech creating prosperity massively.

But the money is massively misspent and somehow special interest groups are pushing to kill the golden goose of tech. Image
This is coming from the same place as SF Supervisor Jackie Fielder who recently tried to ban R&D and laboratories (including cancer research and AI research) in her district.

They hate tech so much they want us to leave. But we will vote them out instead. Image
Read 7 tweets
Garry Tan Profile picture
Jun 7, 2025
PSA notice to founders considering YC

Doing YC more than pays for the 7% equity you give up

When you combine that with the clear speed up and community that helps you (and that your % likelihood of success goes up a lot more too) this means YC is clearly worth it Image
The “avg ARR” stat is completely useless as a metric because the vast majority of YC startups start with just an idea or with no revenue. This means the vast majority of ARR at YC demo day pitches was done in 10 weeks

Your avg non-YC deal has revenue from 10 months not 10 weeks
Objects in motion stay in motion.

Objects at rest stay at rest.

Net net as an investor you want to be in the startup that grows fast (slope) instead of has a high ARR number (y intercept)

Basic and obvious
Read 4 tweets
Garry Tan Profile picture
May 28, 2025
San Francisco schools is trying its absolute hardest to make sure all middle income families who could move out of the city do so right away

“Grading for Equity” is going to be a real disaster and I guess this is a boon for SF private schools and Burlingame housing prices Image
Image
For education bureaucrats who ruin our public schools with the most unfair and anti-merit polices: BUSINESS IS BOOMING

Someone needs to investigate the Schools of Education that spawn these policies because it is a real danger to public schools everywhere
Image
Read 4 tweets
Garry Tan Profile picture
Jan 31, 2024
What metrics did it take to raise Series A in 2023? On average:

6X annual rev growth
80% gross margin
Image
Image
It’s not a fast money time. The bar is high and will remain high.

news.crunchbase.com/venture/seed-t…
Burn multiple matters: you can’t just sell $20 bills for a discount anymore

Read 4 tweets
Garry Tan Profile picture
Jun 28, 2023
Maximum Karen energy

The wife of the creator of Farmville pictured below doxxed my home address and forced me to move because I got politically active

Let’s work hard to vote out their favored elected officials and root out their corrupt cronies
In 2019 The Richmond Democratic Club honored her with some kind of award alongside Peter Lauterborn, a manager in the SF Ethics Dept

Having friends in the Ethics dept is awfully handy if your political machine might need the dept to look the other way

This was the same event with a truly rotten cast of corrupt politicians including Allison Collins who was recalled for making instruction worse for kids, removed Algebra from middle schools and merit from Lowell (and calling Asians house n-words)
Read 9 tweets

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