Garry Tan, the CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator and a deep-pocketed donor to moderate politics in San Francisco, seemingly wished a slow death for seven supervisors last night in an apparent drunken online tirade.
“Fuck Chan Peskin Preston Walton Melgar Ronen Safai Chan as a label and motherfucking crew,” he wrote in a since-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter, to his 408,000 followers during the early morning hours of Saturday. “Die slow motherfuckers.”
When a user noted that Tan seemed drunk, he responded he was. “You are right,” he replied, “and motherfuck our enemies.”
Tan also posted a picture of a private liquor cabinet — containing two $350 bottles of Balvenie and Macallan whisky and two $32 bottles of Roederer Estate sparkling wine — above a plaque emblazoned with his name: “Garry Tan ‘SF Social Media Troll’ Twitter Menace.”
The named supervisors were none too pleased. Board President Aaron Peskin said the comment was “unacceptable violent speech that should not be condoned in our society from anyone, particularly a tech millionaire.”
“The thing that we’ve learned from Donald Trump is that violent words actually have a terrible outsized impact on angry people in our society,” he added.
District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said the comments were “shocking and scary” and that they “can’t be taken lightly.”
District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, whom Tan has pledged $50,000 to unseat through a “Dump Dean” effort, called Tan “toxic and hateful” and asked whether Tan “wants me to die because I stop evictions, house homeless families, and tax the rich?”
“People should stop treating him like a serious person,” Preston said.
Other supervisors did just that when asked for comment.
“Don’t waste my time,” replied District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “Never heard of him,” said District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton. “I wish him the best.”
Added District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan: “I will waive rent for living in his head.”
District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar said the comments were “rattling” as a mother. “I don’t know what I did to get on this guy’s list,” she said. “I’ve never met him.”
Tan became the CEO of Y Combinator last year after a long career as a tech venture capitalist and founder. Within San Francisco political circles, he is infamous for a short temper and a long block list — on X, he has blocked tens of thousands of politicians, journalists, activists and others, including those who have never interacted with him.
His position as the CEO of Y Combinator, one of the most successful tech incubators including Airbnb and Instacart, gives him an outsized following and prominence.
On Saturday morning, Tan apologized about the death wish in a subsequent post, saying he was simply referencing a lyric in Tupac Shakur’s “Hit ‘Em Up,” but that it “wasn’t a good call” regardless. The notorious diss track famously added fuel to the fire of East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry, leading to Shakur’s murder in a drive-by shooting just three months after its release.
“Sorry!” said Tan. Hours later, he followed up more fully, apologizing directly to the supervisors and writing “There is no place, no excuse and no reason for this type of speech.”
Tan is heavily involved in local moderate campaign giving: He gave more than $50,000 to a political action committee of GrowSF, a political pressure group, in 2022 and sits on the group’s board; he also gave at least $100,500 towards the 2022 campaign to recall the former district attorney, Chesa Boudin, and at least $20,000 to the 2021 school board recalls.
He is a staunch opponent of the city’s progressive faction and has convened political gatherings in his Mission District home featuring District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, supervisorial candidates Marjan Philhour and Trevor Chandler and an alphabet soup of moderate political groups.
Chandler, for his part, said it was “never okay to advocate violence,” while Philhour said “threats to one’s life or safety have no place in political discourse.” Jenkins did not respond for comment.
Tan has also attacked the city’s police commission, even while seemingly misunderstanding how it functions.
In the past, Tan has not been receptive to jokes about him: When commenting on San Francisco community organizer Julian La Rosa, who had said that “millionaires and landlords should be guillotined,” Tan seemed to take the jest deadly seriously.
“This is not a joke,” he posted. “This guy wants to guillotine people.”
“This kind of stuff should have zero place in San Francisco politics,” he later said. He has repeatedly gone back to La Rosa’s joke as evidence of violence among San Francisco’s left.
This is not the first time Tan’s posts have embroiled San Francisco supervisors in threats. In October, in response to a post from Tan lambasting Peskin, Elon Musk said: “Prison for Peskin.” Musk had earlier called for the jailing of Preston — twice.
Tan could not be reached for comment.