# James Hawkins

> James Hawkins is the co-founder and co-CEO of PostHog, the open-source product analytics platform built for engineers. He pivoted five times inside Y Combinator's W20 batch before landing on PostHog, then turned a Hacker News launch and a single tweet into a developer cult following and a $1.4 billion valuation. A former marketing operator and self-described 'very bad developer,' Hawkins runs PostHog on radical transparency, tiny autonomous teams, and a refusal to be boring.

- **Role:** Co-founder & Co-CEO at PostHog
- **Organizations:** PostHog, Y Combinator (W20), c2o Media, Arachnys
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** BA, Economics, University of Cambridge
- **Known for:** Co-founded PostHog, an open-source product analytics platform used by tens of thousands of companies, Built PostHog into a unicorn with a $1.4B valuation and roughly $172M+ raised, Raised a $70M Series D led by Stripe off a single tweet

## Career timeline

- **pre-2020** — Marketing consultant at Arachnys; built and ran a new department at c2o Media, growing the team from 1 to 50 people in a year and reaching profitability in the first month of sales
- **2020** — Joined Y Combinator's W20 batch with co-founder Tim Glaser; pivoted five times before building PostHog in roughly four weeks ahead of Demo Day
- **2020** — Launched PostHog as an open-source product analytics tool; posted on Hacker News and hit ~300 deployments within days
- **2021** — Raised a $70M Series D led by Stripe - sparked by a single tweet
- **2025-09** — Raised a $75M Series E at a $1.4B valuation (led by Peak XV Partners), making PostHog a unicorn

## Achievements

- Co-founded PostHog, an open-source product analytics platform used by tens of thousands of companies
- Built PostHog into a unicorn with a $1.4B valuation and roughly $172M+ raised
- Raised a $70M Series D led by Stripe off a single tweet
- Created PostHog's distinctive hedgehog brand and 'build in public' culture
- Pioneered a transparent, handbook-public, tiny-autonomous-teams operating model

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — PostHog raised a $75M Series E at a $1.4B valuation, becoming a unicorn.

## Links

- Website: https://posthog.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-hawkins/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/james406

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/james-hawkins
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-12