Aaron Epstein
General Partner at Y Combinator
Aaron Epstein is a General Partner at Y Combinator, where he became a partner in April 2020 after four batches as a Visiting Partner. He co-founded Creative Market, a marketplace for graphic design assets that Autodesk bought in 2014 and that he spun back out as an independent company in 2017. Before that he built ColorSchemer, a color software business, and co-founded COLOURlovers.
Y Combinator
Creative Market
- Online marketplaces
- Design tools
- Early-stage startups
- Now
- General Partner, Y Combinator1
- Founded
- Creative Market (listed by YC as W10)1
- Exit
- Creative Market to Autodesk, 20147
- Education
- University of Maryland, BS in Business1
Experience
- General Partner2020 – now
Joined as a partner in April 2020 after four batches as a Visiting Partner, announced by then-president Geoff Ralston.2
- Visiting Partner2016 – 2020
Visiting Partner for four batches; first named one of three Visiting Partners for the Winter 2017 batch in November 2016, alongside running his own company.3
- Co-founder and CEO2017 – 2018
Led the company as it spun out of Autodesk with a $7 million Series A led by Accomplice, with Autodesk keeping a minority stake.8
- Co-founder and VP of Product2012 – 2014
Started the marketplace for fonts, icons, photos and templates with Chris Williams and Darius Monsef, and was VP of Product when Autodesk bought it.7
- Director, MarketplaceFeb 2014 – Jul 2017
Led marketplaces for Autodesk's Media and Entertainment group after the Creative Market acquisition.6
- Co-founderSep 2009 – Jan 2014
Co-founded the color and design community, which by his account grew to more than 6 million members.6
- FounderMar 2000 – Jan 2014
Built and bootstrapped color software for PC, Mac, iOS and the web to more than $1 million in sales, handling design, development, marketing and support himself.6
Education
BS, Business; Honors Program6
Milestones
- Started ColorSchemer, his color software business6
- Became a co-founder of COLOURlovers, the color and design community6
- Relaunched COLOURlovers with his co-founders after going through Y Combinator9
- COLOURlovers bought Forrst, a design and developer community10
- Creative Market raised $1.3 million from SV Angel, CrunchFund and others, bringing its total funding to $2.3 million9
- Autodesk acquired Creative Market; he joined Autodesk to lead its marketplaces6
- Named a Y Combinator Visiting Partner for the Winter 2017 batch4
- Creative Market raised a $7 million Series A led by Accomplice to spin out of Autodesk8
- Named a Y Combinator Visiting Partner again, for the Winter 2019 batch5
- Became a partner at Y Combinator2