Geoff Ralston
Founder, SAIF
The man who built RocketMail, which became Yahoo Mail, later ran Y Combinator and is now focused on SAIF, a fund steering AI toward a good future.
- Born
- Buffalo, United States
- Now
- Founder, SAIF
- Studied
- INSEAD, Stanford University, Dartmouth College
Interesting facts
- Before AI
Created RocketMail, the email service that became Yahoo Mail, and went on to be Yahoo's chief product officer.
tryterra.co - Detour
Ran Lala, a cloud music startup he calls a precursor to Apple Music; a deal with Facebook fell apart before Apple bought it in 2009.
tryterra.co - Connection
Succeeded Sam Altman as president of Y Combinator after Altman left to go all in on OpenAI.
coeuscollective.beehiiv.com - Numbers
Started his AI safety fund with his own money in 2025; it has backed nearly 30 companies.
time.com - Turning point
In 2026 he launched a nonprofit behind a Bio Action Plan that calls for $2.5 billion in philanthropy to defend against AI-enabled pandemics.
time.com - In their words
Says that for the most part "every frontier lab is being incredibly irresponsible."
time.com
Career
- SAIFFounder2025 to now
- Y CombinatorPresident2011–2022
- Imagine K12Co-founder2011–2016
- LalaCEO2007–2009
- YahooChief Product Officer1997–2006
- Four11VP Engineering1995–1997
- Hewlett-Packard1982–1992
Education
- MBA, Business, INSEAD, 1992
- MS, Computer science, Stanford University, 1987
- BA, Computer science, Dartmouth College, 1982
