Summary
Gary Lin is a product-oriented software leader and former founder with nine years of experience building customer-facing analytics and embedded data products. He co-founded and scaled Explo (YC W20), shipping white-labeled dashboards, AI-powered report builders, and flexible data delivery that accelerated customer analytics while reducing engineering lift. After leading product at Omni post-acquisition, he now serves as a Member of Forward Deployed Staff at OpenAI, hiring and mentoring FDEs and bridging deep technical work with customer impact. His background includes hands-on forward deployment at Palantir for DoD and commercial clients, internships at Google[x] and Amazon, and teaching advanced programming at Columbia, reflecting a blend of startup grit, enterprise delivery, and technical mentorship. Not obvious from titles: he has a track record of turning complex data workflows into low-code, self-service experiences that empower end users rather than just backend teams.
9 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
W20, W20 at Y Combinator
Valedictorian
Policy Debate (3rd in CA, 5th in US)
Student Government (ASB), Valedictorian
Policy Debate (3rd in CA, 5th in US)
Student Government (ASB) at Leland High School
Computer Science, Computer Science at Columbia Engineering
Chinese