Fundraising Fox

Lance Yan

Founder

Founder & CEO at Traverse

San Francisco, California, United States

FoundedTraverse · YC

About

Founder and CEO of Traverse, which develops training data for AI models on complex judgment and reasoning tasks.

LinkedIn ↗X / Twitter ↗
Latest on 𝕏

Lance Yan @lanceyyan

we are so back https://t.co/FgtIag6xbN

Jul 30, 2026 · ♥ 8

Lance Yan @lanceyyan

and here i thought doordash air meant ordering pasta straight from italy https://t.co/fbUki4z5rT

Jul 29, 2026 · ♥ 54 · ⇄ 2

Lance Yan @lanceyyan

when you're in startups it's easy to forget that sometimes adding more fuel doesn’t make the fire burn any brighter

Jul 24, 2026 · ♥ 18

Founder & CEO at TraverseYC W26

Intro paths

YC

Lance went through Y Combinator (Winter 2026) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.

GP

Their group partner at YC was Jared Friedman, YC Group Partner — the partner who ran Traverse's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗

→

In turn, Lance can intro founders to Traverse's investors below.

Traverse's investors · 2

Garage CapitalY Combinator

Experience

  1. TraverseFounder / CEO
  2. KalshiSoftware Engineer / Builder
  3. StealthFounding Engineer / Multi-Agent Infra
  4. WAT.aiMachine Learning Engineer / Lead
  5. StatespaceGrandmaster / Aimlabs

Education

  1. Y CombinatorW26
  2. University of WaterlooBachelor of Computer Science2025
  3. École Secondaire Moscrop Secondary SchoolDogwood Diploma2020 — 2025

Founder mafias

Y Combinator mafia8,668

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Sam AltmanPresidentFounded LooptFred EhrsamYC Summer 2012Founded CoinbaseMatt HuangYC Winter 2011Founded HotspotsTrae StephensYC Winter 2022Founded PursuitDelian AsparouhovYC Summer 2014Founded Nightingale +1Justin KanYC Winter 2018Founded Rye +3

+ 8,661 more

University of Waterloo mafia183

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Oleg KostourHonours Bachelor of Architectural StudiesFounded AtlasGrid +1Anton KrutianskyBachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.)Founded AtlasGrid +1Eric MigicovskyBachelor of EngineeringFounded Beeper +1Kevin LiengineeringFounded jo +1Eric BlondeelBAScFounded Samos Insurance +1Mike MillerFounded Epoch +1

+ 176 more

Kalshi mafia7

Also came through, then founded or led a company.

Matt HuangDirectorFounded HotspotsEric LiawInvestorFounded SageJustin WeiSoftware Engineer InternFounded PhindDaniel SunSoftware EngineerFounded Breez LabsZac SchulwolfSoftware Engineer InternFounded BiteSightYash RamchandaniProduct / EngineeringFounded Draft The Record

Same school

Also attended Y Combinator2,000

Leo LuInvestor at Foundation CapitalMaroof AhmedFounder at Octopus VenturesJustin SwartPartner at Bitkraft Esports VenturesVictor SantosVictor Scout at One Way VenturesSwapnil JainCEO, Observe.AI at EMERGENT VENTURESChase AdamPartner at Very Serious Ventures

+ 1,994 more

Also attended University of Waterloo343

Chamath PalihapitiyaFounder & CEO of Social CapitalKarim GillaniGeneral Partner at Luge CapitalRohan MongaInvestment Associate at Luge CapitalAndrew MiklasGeneral Partner at Y CombinatorAniTalent Team at Hummingbird VenturesAlex KolicichInvestment Team at 8VC

+ 337 more

Shared employers

Also worked at Traverse1

Zachary YuFounder at Belvedir

Also worked at Kalshi12

Alfred LinPartner at Sequoia CapitalYasmin RazaviInvestor at Spark CapitalEric LiawInvestor at IVP (Institutional Venture Partners)Alex KurlandPartner at Meritech Capital PartnersBill BaumelManaging Director at Ohio Innovation FundMike VernalPartner at Conviction

+ 6 more

Also worked at Stealth56

Tobi CokerDeal Partner at Felicis VenturesSiddharth RamakrishnanPrincipal at Scale Venture PartnersBarkha GvalaniSpecial Partner at Renegade PartnersArun IyerInvestor at Green FlagLiying Iris WangHead of AI at Red Dot Capital PartnersAryan SinhaSenior Analyst at Eximius Ventures

+ 50 more

Also worked at Statespace5

Samir KaulInvestor at Khosla VenturesZack SchildhornVenture Partner at Lux CapitalElliott RobinsonPartner at Bessemer Venture PartnersSherrard HarringtonGeneral Partner at EONXIAaron WilsonInvestor at EONXI