INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite
1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for a reported $20 million in 2009), and launching the educational nonprofit
Code.org with his twin brother Hadi
Together, they also became early investors in tech giants like Facebook, Airbnb, and Dropbox.While industry insiders have long viewed the
This wider recognition stems from Neo, his eight-year-old venture firm that promised from the outset to revolutionize how exceptional talent
invest in the decentralized social network Bluesky, which was reportedly valued at $700 million in a January funding round, and Kalshi, an
2017, Truell, then a freshman at MIT, was interning at Google when a fellow student suggested he meet with Partovi
During that hour-long sitdown, Partovi gave Truell a handwritten coding test that he completed in 15 minutes
When investing with his brother, the two commonly ran teams through a tech interview as if they wanted to get a job at Google
conversations.The moment was also the start of a relationship that could prove lucrative for both Partovi and Truell
Indeed, years later, backed first by Partovi, Truell co-founded Anysphere, maker of the popular AI-powered coding editor Cursor, which is
(Thirty people are chosen yearly.) In 2022, for early-stage startups, Partovi additionally set up a more traditional accelerator program
In addition to Anysphere and Kalshi, Neo scholars have gone on to found the coding assistant company, Cognition, which was recently valued
at $4 billion; Pika Labs, which makes a text-to-video Generative AI tool and is currently valued at $700 million; and Chai Discovery, which
noted when we talked.When evaluating potential superstars, Partovi largely focuses on three key qualities: technical ability,
entrepreneurial inclination, and willingness to challenge the status quo.Technical ability matters not because founders will code all day,
students who became legendary business leaders.Past entrepreneurial experience signals risk-taking propensity and a hunger to build products
quality Partovi considers perhaps most crucial: magnetism
Applications to both Neo programs have doubled annually, according to Partovi, who added that while many venture firms would expand to
accommodate demand, Neo made a deliberate choice to maintain selectivity over scale
The philosophy extends to fund size
slightly more than the $235 million in capital commitments it collected in 2023
all three previous Neo funds combined
said the second fund has more than doubled from the Anysphere investment alone.As for a chilly exit market and how he advises founders to
navigate it, Partovi said he instead encourages founders to build enduring value
