Ali Partovi

CEO & Founder, Neo · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderinvestorexecutive@apartovi ↗LinkedIn ↗partovi.org ↗Wikipedia ↗

Ali Partovi is the founder and CEO of Neo, a venture capital fund and mentorship community. He previously co-founded LinkExchange, iLike, and Code.org, and was an early angel investor in companies including Dropbox, Uber, and Facebook.

26statements → 5claims → 2claims resolved → 4.08/5average certainty → 2.08/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 30said about them ↓

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 4 assertions · 4 opinions · 9 insights · 6 disclosures · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ali argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Steve Jobs offered to acquire iLike for $50 million in 2008

“Basically, we had raised money two years earlier for fifty million dollars, and he offered to acquire the company Four or fifty million dollars, so basically no change in valuation since our pre-launch, you know, fundraise,”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 20:13 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

none yet certainty 3

100% certainty 4

100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

244 words/min while actually speaking · 0.6 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Ali Partovi: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 24 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 6,176 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Ali Partovi is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 5/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10

setup questions received 50%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 5:49“Do you agree with that, and is there a stage of company where you don't need the best, and good is better than perfect?” ▶ 21:17“So I guess my question is, did you not follow the advice that we give so many, which is like, appear like you have leverage and have a position of power and strength.” ▶ 33:47“How do you feel about founders raising funds on the side?”

when Ali pushed back ▶ 9:04“It's an interesting question to post to me, so I would say it is my fucking job, so I am happy to be leaned on for that, but I would agree at the same time, most VCs are not good a…”

What they said26 What others said30 Episodes1

Everything Ali Partovi said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion

Partovi: Active startup CEOs cannot successfully run side venture funds

“I'm deeply skeptical of somebody who is a CEO of a startup being able to also run anything else.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 33:57 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: Startup success requires embracing risk rather than constantly de-risking

“But the big learning for me is that I think success in tech requires maintaining courage, no matter how terrified you are. And I think sometimes you have to go all in, even if you feel you have a losing hand. The path that I would say I took a lot as a founder…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 29:47 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Partovi: CoProcure could become the largest female-led company of all time

“An investment of mine that I'm super excited about. And I don't know if this will ever be a household name because it's a B to B type business, but it's a company called co-procure. I think it has a potential to be, could be the largest female led Company of a…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 36:52 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: Raw talent and potential matter more than resume experience

“Talent is more important than experience. I mean, they're both important, but if you have to choose, I would always rather bet on a brilliant, hardworking young person and their potential to Then somebody who has the resume and the experience, but may not have…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 5:03 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Candidates with minor interview flaws almost always turn out to be terrible

“It means your smaller team needs to work harder until you find the right people, and so, of course, there's a point at which you might need to make a compromise, but I've always found that if you're interviewing someone, and you're like, ah, They're not quite …”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 6:04 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Opinion

Partovi: Most venture capitalists are not good at recruiting for founders

“Most VCs are not good at that, and regardless, I don't want anyone, including myself, to be a crutch.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 9:05 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: Startup CEOs must focus on one thing instead of diversifying

“If you are a CEO, diversification should not be at all what you do. You should be a hundred percent concentrated on one thing”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 32:35 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Opinion

Partovi: Founder-investors earn higher returns angel investing personal capital over managing funds

“If you are a great angel investor as a founder, you can probably make more money just in angel investing. Why would you want to dilute your possibilities by taking on other money?”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 34:22 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Opinion

Partovi: The 'us versus them' founder-VC dynamic is unhealthy and false

“If there was one thing I would change, it's the us versus them attitude between founders and VCs. It's, I touched on this just earlier. I think it's just false. You know, it's an unhealthy, false implication that these are two different species, or that the go…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 35:52 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: Existing investors participating at fair market value signals company strength

“So I'm of the old school that letting your existing investors invest more is the best way to build a company. Not just to serve your old investors, it signals to everybody else what a great relationship you have and makes other people want to invest. But I wou…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 36:19 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: A startup's first 5-10 hires determine the next 100

“I realized that the people we hired made the difference between success and failure, and the first five or 10 are most important because they hire the next 50 to a hundred.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 4:13 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: Investor helpfulness naturally experiences exponential decay over time

“Any investor or mentor or advisor is going to have some sort of, you know, exponential decay in how helpful they can be because hopefully the founders and their executive team over time become greater than we are.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 9:33 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Disclosure

Partovi personally pitched nearly every early hire at Vanta and Kalshi

“In almost all my portfolio companies, if I didn't source their early recruits, I certainly helped close them. At companies like Vanta, Kalshi, Copercure, I think not a single person they hired was without a phone call, at least from me, to help convince them t…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 12:13 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Disclosure

LinkExchange received a $125 million acquisition term sheet from Yahoo

“We received a term sheet from Yahoo for them to acquire my company. It was a hundred and twenty five million dollar acquisition”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 13:48 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Insight

Partovi: Do not drink alcohol during major business discussions

“Do not drink when you're having major business discussions.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 15:40 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

What-if

Partovi believes Apple's iLike acquisition would have succeeded if he remained passive

“I keep thinking back that if I had just done nothing, things would probably have been fine.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 19:51 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Assertion Supported

Steve Jobs offered to acquire iLike for $50 million in 2008

Insight

Partovi: Negotiation strength comes from firm walkaway limits, not fake leverage

“Now, to be strong without misleading, all you need to do is to say, I won't accept that. You don't need to say why. You don't need to make implications for, I have a better offer or I don't. If you simply say, we won't do it for less than X, that's strength.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 22:13 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Disclosure

Partovi: VC strategy focuses on generational founders over business plan flaws

“Rather than trying to poke holes in their business idea, I'm trying to figure out, is this person the next Bill Gates, or the next Mark Zuckerberg, and if they are, let me just step out of the way and not mess it up, just try to support them to achieve their p…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 23:29 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Disclosure

Partovi passed on PayPal despite recognizing Max Levchin's genius

“At my first startup, LinkExchange, we had this brilliant contractor who was younger than us, so I was 25, Max Lefton was 22, and when we sold our company, he left to start PayPal. We all knew Max was, like, just a whole next-level brilliance. I mean, when he w…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 24:25 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Disclosure

Partovi passed on Google in 1999 due to competitive hubris

“One of my smartest friends from Harvard, Craig Silverstein, was probably the top guy in our CS program. He and my brother and I were probably always vying for which of us is the best coder in the Harvard class of 94 in computer science, and it was probably Cra…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 25:10 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Disclosure

Partovi passed on early Airbnb pitch, later invested at higher valuation

“I didn't invest in Airbnb the first time I met Brian. Brian was hustling because Airbnb was, this was pretty early on. I was at lunch with somebody else. I was having lunch with a Wall Street Journal reporter, Rob Guth, and Brian was at the table next to us. A…”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 26:12 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

What-if

Partovi: Defying Universal Music in 2007 would have risked iLike's existence

“I wish we had not folded. I wish we had stayed Strong basically told them to go fuck themselves. That would have risked our entire company.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 29:13 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Partovi: Dropbox spent over a year recruiting Head of Engineering Aditya Agarwal

“It took more than a year to convince Aditya Agarwal to join as a head of engineering, for example.”

Ali Partovi Jan 21, 2022 ▶ 6:49 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo

Show 2statements(2 left)

The other half of the tape: Ali Partovi's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 29 times in 10 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 18 Hadi Partovi 4 Emil Michael 3 Tarek Mansour 2 Dara Khosrowshahi 1 Dan Lewis 1

Statements about Ali Partovi, by other people (1)

Disclosure

Dan Lewis evaluated multiple business models with Hadi and Ali Partovi

“And I spent a lot of time actually with Hadi Partovi and Ali Partovi exploring some of these ideas early, my co-founder, Grant Goodale. And then we kind of came up with the right business model in addition to, you know, four or five other ones that we looked a…”

Dan Lewis Mar 23, 2018 ▶ 4:03 20VC: How To Strategically Build The Right Investor Base, Why Startup Timing is Like Surfing & How To Determine Whether Someone is Scaling with the Organisation or Not with Daniel Lewis, Founder & CEO @ Convoy