Ali Partovi pitches Neo, a community that has produced founders of billion-dollar AI companies like Cognition and Cursor. Neo is retiring its Accelerator program, shrinking cohorts, and betting bigger on fewer startups. Former TreeHacks officers became Neo Scholars and went on to lead companies with direct access to leaders like Sam Altman and Satya Nadella.
Chapters
Give it up for me! Get up! Get up! Get up! I love Hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers, hackers. I don't hear you. Give it up for me. All right. I got three words for you. I love Treehacks! Yeah!
I love hackers, and I love community. Treehacks is a community, and my company Neo— Neo is a community, and there's a special relationship between Neo and Treehacks. Almost every year since the very beginning, at least one officer of TreeHacks has become a Neo Scholar. Give it up for Amey Jadav, last year's TreeHacks CFO. Amey is a Neo Scholar. And going backward in time, meet Gershon, meet Kathy, Yash, Rhythm, Michelle, Matthew, Ann Parker, Jason, Andrew, Emily, Christina, and Russell Kaplan, the founder of Treehacks. I love every one of these Neo scholars. Each one of them who started their own company has been backed by Neo. Russell today serves as president of Cognition. A multi-billion-dollar NEO-backed startup. We identify future tech leaders when you're still in college, and we help you maximize your potential. I've been part of many awesome communities in tech. NEO is the best because of the people. People in the NEO community are kind to each other because our cohorts are tiny, and you're able to build meaningful relationships with each other. We back the best AI startups. We identify superstars consistently. And if you want to be part of NEO and meet tech leaders and become a tech leader, follow the QR code. Now, when Russell was a college student here at Stanford, he became a NEO Scholar. Here he is back 7 years ago in the back at this meetup we had with Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk. Look how many other future billionaires are in this tiny room. Tarek and Luana from Kalshi graduated MIT. We led their seed round, and when they were still unknown, we put them up on stage for a fireside chat with another unknown MIT grad. Michael Truehl had just started Cursor. another NEO-backed company. He and Aman Sangar had been NEO Scholars since they were sophomores. We led their seed round, and today Michael likes coming back to meet the next generation of NEO Scholars. We help you meet your heroes, whether they are just a couple years older than you or tech titans like Satya Nadella, who visited the NEO office to meet the newest cohort of NEO Scholars. Here sitting next to Russell Kaplan is Michelle Lim, CEO Flint. Flint is absolutely crushing it. After us, they raised money from Sheryl Sandberg. How did Michelle meet Sheryl Sandberg? Well, at Sheryl's house. This is our whole cohort visiting Sheryl's house. When we take our cohorts to meet tech leaders, our cohorts are so small that you actually meet and engage with your heroes. This is our whole cohort visiting Sam Altman. at Alfred's house. And today I have some news to share with you. It's not public, it won't be public until next week, but we are making our cohorts even smaller. We're so confident about our ability to attract and identify superstars that we are betting more money on fewer startups. Also, Neo Accelerator, our best-known program, Neo Accelerator is over. We're replacing it with something better. that is for both college students and startups. If you want to learn about it and get access a week before the rest of the world, follow the QR code. Finally, meet Walden Yan. I love Walden. Walden was a NEOS scholar. We saw the greatness in him. We put him on stage when he was a Harvard student here with Susan Wojcicki. He dropped out of Harvard to co-found Cognition, now a multibillion-dollar AI giant. Walden is here tonight. He and I are hosting a Q&A at midnight back at Huang. Join us. We want to hear your questions. We want to share our stories. We would love to meet you.
I love you.
Enjoy Tree Hacks. Meet me at midnight and apply to Neo. Thank you.
