In the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley, where established names often dominate the spotlight, Ali Partovi has steadily built a remarkable legacy without the broad name recognition of his peers. An Iranian-born Harvard graduate, Partovi’s early successes included being part of the founding team at LinkExchange, which Microsoft acquired for $265 million in 1998, co-founding iLike, later sold to MySpace, and launching the educational nonprofit Code.org alongside his twin brother, Hadi. Together, the Partovi brothers also made early investments in companies that became household names, such as Facebook, Airbnb, and Dropbox.
Now, after nearly a decade of quiet groundwork, Partovi is stepping into a much wider spotlight through the growing influence of Neo, the venture firm he launched eight years ago with an ambitious mission: to change how the next generation of tech talent is discovered and nurtured. Neo’s recent wins are proving that Partovi’s unconventional approach can not only identify future leaders early but also build some of the most promising startups of this era.
Neo’s strategy focuses less on identifying the next hot startup idea and more on finding the people who will drive the next wave of innovation, often while they are still students. Instead of waiting for founders to approach venture firms with business plans, Partovi travels across the country, meets students, gives them coding tests, and engages them in conversations to assess their deeper potential. This method reflects his belief that the strongest predictor of future success is not just a great idea, but exceptional individual talent.
The success stories emerging from Neo’s early investments are compelling. Neo was the first institutional investor outside of Twitter to back Bluesky, the decentralized social network now reportedly valued at $700 million. It also invested in Kalshi, a prediction market platform that surged in popularity during the U.S. presidential election. Perhaps the crown jewel of Neo’s portfolio is Anysphere, creator of the AI coding editor Cursor. Co-founded by Michael Truell, whom Partovi first met when Truell was a freshman at MIT, Anysphere is now rumored to be approaching a $10 billion valuation.
The relationship between Partovi and Truell highlights the very essence of Neo’s philosophy. Their first meeting involved a coding test, completed in just 15 minutes by Truell, setting off years of mentorship and support. This reflects how Partovi uses technical assessments not as rigid gates but as starting points for long-term partnerships.
Through programs like Neo Scholars, Partovi and his team, including Suzanne Xie and Emily Cohen, offer students $20,000 grants to take a semester off college and explore ambitious projects — no strings attached. Since 2022, Neo has also been running an accelerator program, funding 20 startups each year, and helping them with mentorship, network access, and strategic advice.
Neo’s approach emphasizes technical ability, entrepreneurial spirit, a willingness to challenge established norms, and what Partovi calls “magnetism” — the quality that convinces other top talents to join a founder’s journey. This combination of factors has already led to an impressive track record: Neo Scholars have gone on to create companies like Cognition (valued at $4 billion), Pika Labs (valued at $700 million), and Chai Discovery, which raised $30 million from OpenAI and Thrive Capital.
As Neo’s reputation has grown, so has the competition to be part of its programs. Applications have been doubling each year, but instead of scaling up rapidly, Neo has deliberately kept its size modest to preserve the quality of its selection process. Even after closing a $320 million fund recently, only slightly larger than its previous $235 million fund, Partovi emphasized maintaining selectivity over expansion. Notably, he also increased his personal investment in Neo’s latest fund, putting in more of his own money than he had in all three previous funds combined. High-profile investors like Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, and Reid Hoffman continue to support the project.
In terms of returns, Neo’s early performance is strong. Its first fund has already tripled or quadrupled in value, with further upside potential, while its second fund more than doubled, thanks largely to Anysphere’s success.
Looking ahead, Partovi continues to advise founders to stay focused not on chasing quick exits but on building enduring, beloved products. In his words, success comes not from obsessing over money, but from obsessing over how best to serve others. The financial rewards, he believes, are the natural result of creating something people truly love.
Through Neo, Ali Partovi has not just created another venture firm; he has built a talent engine for the future of technology. By investing early in people, not just ideas, Partovi is reshaping what it means to build the next billion-dollar companies in Silicon Valley.