Ali Partovi

Ali Partovi is a highly influential figure in the Silicon Valley venture ecosystem, renowned for his dual roles as a successful entrepreneur and a prolific angel investor. As the CEO and Founder of Neo, a venture firm and community, he has formalized his commitment to identifying and nurturing exceptional talent at the earliest stages. Prior to Neo, Partovi's entrepreneurial journey included co-founding LinkExchange, which was acquired by OpenText, and serving as an advisor at Dropbox, a company in which he was also an early investor. His extensive experience building and scaling technology companies provides him with a unique perspective on evaluating nascent ventures.

Partovi has established himself as a "super angel" with an impressive track record of early-stage investments in some of the most transformative technology companies of the past two decades. His personal portfolio boasts over 100 angel investments, including foundational stakes in industry giants such as Dropbox, Airbnb, Facebook, Uber, and Zappos. This history demonstrates a keen ability to spot disruptive potential and back visionary founders long before mainstream recognition. Through Neo, he continues this focus, leveraging a community-centric model to support founders not just with capital, but also with mentorship, network access, and peer learning.

Neo, under Partovi's leadership, typically focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage companies, often making initial investments ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. This strategic focus targets the critical early phase where capital and guidance can have the most profound impact on a startup's trajectory. Beyond his investment activities, Partovi is also a co-founder of Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science education, underscoring his broader commitment to fostering innovation and talent development within the tech community. His investment approach is characterized by a deep belief in the founders themselves, often prioritizing exceptional individuals and teams over specific market trends.