Founder Profile
Sam Yam
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Sam Yam?
Sam Yam is a founder of Patreon, Inc., which was founded in 2013 with Jack Conte.
- Company founded
- Patreon, Inc.
- Founded
- 2013
- Co-founders
- Jack Conte
Background
Software engineer and tech entrepreneur.
Founding Story
Sam Yam co-founded Patreon in 2013 alongside his Stanford roommate Jack Conte. While Conte was the creative musician deeply frustrated by YouTube's terrible ad payouts, Yam was the brilliant technical architect. He built the entire initial Patreon platform in just six weeks, creating the highly robust payment backend that allowed fans to reliably subscribe directly to creators. Sam Yam was born in 1983.