Gustaf Alströmer
General Partner at Y Combinator
Gustaf Alströmer is a General Partner at Y Combinator, where he has worked with startups since 2016. Before YC, he started Airbnb's product growth team in 2012 and ran growth at Voxer, a voice messaging app. He co-founded Heysan, a free mobile messaging service from YC's Winter 2007 batch, which Good Technology bought in 2009.
- Venture capital
- Growth
- Climate tech
Y Combinator
Airbnb
- Now
- General Partner, Y Combinator1
- Based
- San Francisco Bay Area2
- Founded
- Heysan (YC Winter 2007)3
- Studied
- Hyper Island2
Experience
- Independent Board Member2021 – now
Board seat at the battery-electric aircraft maker since July 2021.2
- Angel Investor2012 – now
Investments he lists include Notion, Linear, Lovable, Mapbox, Veriff, Tictail (now Shop) and Heart Aerospace.2
- Product Lead, Growth2012 – 2017
Started Airbnb's product growth team in 2012. By his account it grew to more than 120 people over five years and came to cover SEO, referrals, onboarding, retention, internationalization and email engagement.2
- VP of Growth2010 – 2012
Led growth at the push-to-talk voice messaging app, which launched in spring 2011.2
- CEO and Co-founder2007 – 2009
Free messaging between phones and computers, later with a mobile community. Went through YC's Winter 2007 batch, raised a seed round from Khosla Ventures and Atomico, and was acquired by Good Technology in May 2009.3
Education
New Media Business & Management2
Milestones
- Heysan joins Y Combinator's Winter 2007 batch, with Alströmer as founder and CEO3
- Heysan raises a seed round from Khosla Ventures and Atomico3
- Good Technology acquires Heysan3
- Joins Voxer as VP of Growth2
- Joins Airbnb and starts its product growth team2
- Joins Y Combinator as a Visiting Partner2
- Y Combinator introduces him as its newest partner4
- Holds YC online office hours for startups and nonprofits working on climate issues6
- Joins the board of Heart Aerospace as an independent member2
- Talks about working with 600+ YC startups on Lenny's Podcast5