Ali Partovi grew up in Iran and immigrated to the US, where he built his reputation as one of Silicon Valley's super-connectors with a personally curated network spanning undergrads to billionaires, treating relationships rather than capital as his core asset for founders. At Neo, he has created an intentionally redesigned network with explicit behavioral norms and a deliberately diverse community, while focusing on identifying and supporting standout engineers early in their careers through programs that let founders choose from different testing formats and compete directly with traditional accelerators by helping technical recent grads recruit talent rather than immediately fundraise. Ali Partovi grew up in Iran and immigrated to the US, where he built his reputation as one of Silicon Valley's super-connectors with a personally curated network spanning undergrads to billionaires, treating relationships rather than capital as his core asset for founders. At Neo, he has created an intentionally redesigned network with explicit behavioral norms and a deliberately diverse community, while focusing on identifying and supporting standout engineers early in their careers through programs that let founders choose from different testing formats and compete directly with traditional accelerators by helping technical recent grads recruit talent rather than immediately fundraise.