In the era of artificial intelligence, the hardest question is no longer how to build but what to create. Part memoir and part practical guide, The Founders Journey reveals what separates a successful start-up from the rest.

Garry Tan, President and CEO of Y Combinator, also provides deeply personal insight on his own journey from a precarious childhood in Fremont to the center of Silicon Valley, where he has helped launch thousands of companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe.

Through real-world case studies and hard-earned lessons, this book teaches founders to develop the judgment to seize opportunities others miss—and the resilience to pursue them before they make sense to anyone else. It also confronts the human side of building: co-founder conflict, self-sabotage, and the psychological patterns that shape decision-making under pressure. In a moment when technology has unlocked unprecedented individual leverage, the future will belong to those who can decide what is worth building and act on it.