Finbarr Taylor is a Scottish-born software engineer turned startup founder and investor, best known for co-founding Shogun, an e-commerce page builder platform that raised $115M and reached a $507.5M valuation. After nearly 11 years building Shogun - including roughly 8 as CEO - he transitioned to a board role in early 2026 and rejoined Y Combinator as a Visiting Partner. A prolific angel investor with 60+ portfolio companies including Deel and Fathom Video, Taylor is now a vocal advocate for lean, AI-enabled teams and the rise of what he calls 'nanocorns' - small but highly efficient companies capable of billion-dollar outcomes.
Kevin Hale is the co-founder of Wufoo, the online form builder acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011 for $35 million - a 30,000%+ return on just $118,000 raised. A fine arts graduate turned product visionary, he spent seven years as a Y Combinator partner shaping how thousands of founders think about product design, customer love, and growth. Known online as @ilikevests, he's an angel investor, startup educator, and one of the rare designers who built a profitable SaaS company before most people had heard the term.
Kat Manalac spent over 11 years at Y Combinator, where she built the Female Founders Conference, ran Startup School, and opened YC's doors to founders worldwide who had never heard of Paul Graham. She left YC in 2024 to join Convective Capital as Partner, where she now builds communities and tells stories at the intersection of technology and wildfire/disaster resilience.