# Harj Taggar

> Harj Taggar is a Managing Partner at Y Combinator and serial founder who went from Oxford law to Silicon Valley startup culture. He co-founded Auctomatic with the Collison brothers (Patrick and John, later of Stripe fame) in 2007, sold it for $5M in under a year, then became YC's first non-founder partner in 2010. He co-founded Initialized Capital with Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian, co-founded technical hiring platform Triplebyte in 2015 (acquired by Karat in 2023), and returned to YC in 2020 as a Group Partner before becoming Managing Partner. He has advised over 1,000 companies across 17 YC batches and worked with more than 20 unicorns including Coinbase, Instacart, and Gusto.

- **Role:** Managing Partner at Y Combinator
- **Organizations:** Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, Triplebyte, Auctomatic
- **From:** United Kingdom
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** BA Jurisprudence (Law), University of Oxford
- **Known for:** Co-founded Auctomatic with Patrick and John Collison (future Stripe founders); acquired for $5M in under a year, Became Y Combinator's first non-founder Partner in 2010, Co-founded Initialized Capital with Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian - now manages over $3.2 billion in assets

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Jurisprudence; moved to Silicon Valley instead of practicing law
- **2007** — Co-founded Auctomatic with brother Kulveer Taggar and Patrick and John Collison (later founders of Stripe); company was accepted into Y Combinator
- **2008** — Auctomatic acquired by Live Current Media for $5 million
- **2010** — Joined Y Combinator as a Partner - the first non-founder partner in YC's history
- **2011** — Co-founded Initialized Capital with Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian
- **2013** — Initialized Capital raised $39 million initial fund
- **2014** — Left Y Combinator to focus on new startup ideas
- **2015** — Co-founded Triplebyte, a technical hiring platform, with Ammon Bartram and Guillaume Luccisano; went through YC S2015
- **2018** — Triplebyte raised $10 million Series A
- **2020** — Rejoined Y Combinator as Group Partner
- **2023** — Triplebyte acquired by Karat
- **2024** — Became Managing Partner at Y Combinator

## Achievements

- Co-founded Auctomatic with Patrick and John Collison (future Stripe founders); acquired for $5M in under a year
- Became Y Combinator's first non-founder Partner in 2010
- Co-founded Initialized Capital with Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian - now manages over $3.2 billion in assets
- Advised over 1,000 companies across 17 YC batches
- Worked with 20+ unicorn companies including Coinbase, Instacart, Benchling, and Gusto
- 5 companies he advised have gone public
- Co-founded Triplebyte which helped 1,000+ engineers get hired at top companies before being acquired by Karat in 2023
- Early backer of Coinbase, Instacart, Rippling, GOAT, Flexport, and Opendoor through Initialized Capital

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — Announced YC's Summer Fellows Grants program for college students
- **2025-02** — Announced YC's newest Visiting Group Partners for S24 batch
- **2024-12** — Shared observations about AI startups with steep growth trajectories
- **2024-04** — Made investment in Enki, an educational software company

## Links

- Website: https://harjtaggar.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harjtaggar/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/harjtaggar
- GitHub: https://github.com/harj

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/harj-taggar
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-09