Latest news with #Partovi
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Health care AI revolution starts with building trust
In today's CEO Daily: Diane Brady on building patient and doctor trust in AI. The big story: Stellantis names a new boss The markets: Taking a breather after Tuesday's jump Analyst notes from Morningstar on Nvidia earnings; Convera on the Fed; and UBS on Trump's tariff swings. Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune. Good morning. From diagnosing illness to reducing paperwork, AI is already reshaping health care. But only 48% of U.S. patients surveyed in the 2025 Philips Future Health Index (FHI) believe AI will improve outcomes, vs. 63% of clinicians. That trust gap is hardly surprising in a country where many of us experience delays, unforeseen expenses, denials and general frustration in accessing the health care system. As Philips chief innovation officer Shez Partovi has noted, it's an issue we need to address to realize the potential gains of AI adoption. As we discussed at a recent Fortune dinner with Partovi and a dozen leaders of major health care systems around the country, closing the gap is a multipronged challenge. Public trust in the U.S. health care system fell from 71.5% in 2020 to 40.1% in 2024, in part due to COVID, and more than a third of Americans say they've skipped or postponed care because of the cost. Add in concerns about discrimination, as well as how personal health data may be used, and it's understandable why patients may not welcome AI. My colleague Jason Del Rey spoke about that challenge at the dinner with Partovi; Northwell Health chief medical officer Jill Kalman; and David Reich, chief clinical officer of the Mount Sinai Medical System. Kalman and Reich agreed that the first step for them was to build trust with professionals. 'When you obsessively build AI into workflows in ways that make people's jobs better, then you develop that trust,' Reich said. 'To give an example, when we developed an algorithm that predicted severe malnutrition in the hospital, dietitians at first were a little skeptical, but they were involved in the process, and they are now three times more likely to diagnose and treat severe malnutrition than before.' Kalman added that there's a generational element to trust in technology—indeed the study found one third of patients over 45 are optimistic that AI can improve health care vs. two thirds of those aged between 18 and 44—and argued that transparency is key. 'You have a health system that has all of these huge reams of data,' she noted. 'Who owns it? Who monetizes it? Who wants it?' On the plus side, she says Northwell now uses AI to streamline prior authorization: 'There's no risk to the patient and the operational value is incredible.' More news CEO Daily via Diane Brady at This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Two more heavy hitters join StrictlyVC's star-studded lineup in Menlo Park
Mark your calendars: June 18 just became a can't-miss event. We're thrilled that Ali Partovi and Russell Kaplan will be joining us for what's shaping up to be a fantastic night of ideas and conversation in the heart of Silicon Valley at our next . Partovi, the longtime investor and former operator who's making serious waves with Neo, will take the stage to discuss his ambitious mission that's giving Y Combinator a run for its money. Neo isn't just another platform and fund; it's a systematic approach to identifying up-and-coming engineering and leadership talent before the rest of Silicon Valley even knows they exist. If anyone understands how to spot the next generation of tech titans, it's Partovi. Joining him will be Russell Kaplan, president of Cognition, the buzzy coding assistant company that was recently valued at $4 billion and that counts Neo among its first backers. This pairing offers a rare glimpse into the investor-founder dynamic in real time, especially as enjoys some of the ups and downs of earlier startups on an accelerated timeline. (Such is the life of today's AI startups!) They'll be joined by Baiju Bhatt, the Robinhood co-founder who's now channeling his fintech expertise into something entirely different as founder and CEO of Aetherflux -- a move that clearly has investors excited. The San Carlos, California-based startup, which came out of stealth last October and aims to eventually launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that can collect and transmit solar energy directly to 'ground stations,' closed on $50 million in Series A funding last month. These conversations matter because they bridge the gap between big ideas and real-world impact, turning abstract concepts into actual companies and products. That's exactly why StrictlyVC exists: to bring thought leaders into closer contact with the investors, founders, and news junkies who want to understand how tech is reshaping everything in real time. More programming highlights are coming soon, but we wanted to share this news while extending our deep gratitude to Mayfield, the storied early-stage venture firm that's co-hosting this evening with us. It's their partnership that's making this event possible. The gathering takes place at The Quad in the center of Sand Hill Road, the perfect backdrop for a night of essential conversations, and plenty of networking -- plus drinks and nibbles! (Because the best insights often happen in the spaces between the formal programming.) Stay tuned for more speaker announcements. This is shaping up to be an evening you won't want to miss. Register here before your seat is taken. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Mayor
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
From coding tests to billion-dollar startups, Ali Partovi's eight-year experiment is paying off
In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite limited name recognition. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate built an impressive resume early on — joining the founding team of LinkExchange (acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for a reported $20 million in 2009), and launching the educational nonprofit with his twin brother Hadi. Together, they also became early investors in tech giants like Facebook, Airbnb, and Dropbox. While industry insiders have long viewed the Partovi brothers' involvement in a startup as a strong signal, Ali's star is only now rising more broadly beyond tech circles. This wider recognition stems from Neo, his eight-year-old venture firm that promised from the outset to revolutionize how exceptional talent is discovered — and is developing some fairly convincing proof points. Among its bets, Neo was the first institution outside of Twitter to invest in the decentralized social network Bluesky, which was reportedly valued at $700 million in a January funding round, and Kalshi, an online prediction market whose surge in popularity began during last fall's U.S. presidential election. 'This year, for the first time, I can conclusively say that we are discovering the future superstars before anyone else,' Partovi, known for being equal parts gracious and tenacious to the point of pushy, told this editor on Friday. Neo's relationship with Michael Truell helps to tell the story. In 2019, Truell, then a freshman at MIT, was interning at Google when a fellow student suggested he meet with Partovi. During that hour-long sitdown, Partovi gave Truell a handwritten coding test that he completed in 15 minutes. The ask wasn't unusual for Partovi. When investing with his brother, the two commonly ran teams through a tech interview as if they wanted to get a job at Google. But it exemplifies Partovi's approach at Neo, where he uses technical evaluations not as rigid assessments but as foundations for deeper conversations. The moment was also the start of a relationship that could prove lucrative for both Partovi and Truell. Indeed, years later, backed first by Partovi, Truell co-founded Anysphere, maker of the popular AI-powered coding editor Cursor, which is now flirting with a $10 billion valuation and may become one of Neo's most successful investments. Like Y Combinator before it, Neo's approach represents a fundamental rethinking of venture capital. Rather than betting on specific themes or teams, Partovi focuses on identifying exceptional individuals, often while they're still in college, and nurturing their potential through mentorship before they've incorporated a company. For those college students, Partovi — with his partners at Neo, Suzanne Xie and Emily Cohen – run a 'Neo Scholars' program that provides a $20,000 grant to take a gap semester, no equity required. (Thirty people are chosen yearly.) In 2022, for early-stage startups, Partovi additionally set up a more traditional accelerator program that offers funding and guidance to 20 companies each year. 'I try to coax them towards taking a bit more risk, going outside their comfort zone, aiming higher than whatever they are aiming for right now,' Partovi explained. The strategy requires patience. Starting in Neo's earliest days, Partovi personally traveled the country, interviewing students and administering coding tests to find 'tomorrow's changemakers,' in his words. Others clearly think he's pretty good at it, and no wonder. In addition to Anysphere and Kalshi, Neo scholars have gone on to found the coding assistant company, Cognition, which was recently valued at $4 billion; Pika Labs, which makes a text-to-video Generative AI tool and is currently valued at $700 million; and Chai Discovery, which hasn't shared its post-money valuation but that raised $30 million from OpenAI and Thrive Capital last fall to fuel its multi-modal foundation model for molecular structure prediction. 'Last year, every one of OpenAI's new grad hires was a Neo scholar,' Partovi proudly noted when we talked. When evaluating potential superstars, Partovi largely focuses on three key qualities: technical ability, entrepreneurial inclination, and willingness to challenge the status quo. Technical ability matters not because founders will code all day, but because 'computer science really helps. It just helps you think,' Partovi explained, citing examples like Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, and Larry Ellison — all computer science students who became legendary business leaders. Past entrepreneurial experience signals risk-taking propensity and a hunger to build products people love. The third quality — challenging the status quo — speaks to founders' willingness to question fundamental assumptions. Yet there's a fourth quality Partovi considers perhaps most crucial: magnetism. Says Partovi: 'I ask myself, if [this individual] started something, how likely would their smartest friends be to join them?' (This was particularly evident in Truell, whose 'quiet confidence' convinced Partovi that 'his smartest MIT friends would consider joining him.') As Neo's reputation has grown, so has competition to get in. Applications to both Neo programs have doubled annually, according to Partovi, who added that while many venture firms would expand to accommodate demand, Neo made a deliberate choice to maintain selectivity over scale. The philosophy extends to fund size. While VCs who can raise ever-larger funds typically do, Neo — which earlier this month closed on $320 million in fresh capital — only raised slightly more than the $235 million in capital commitments it collected in 2023. Meanwhile, Partovi's personal stake in the newest fund increased significantly, with him putting more of his own money into this fund than all three previous Neo funds combined. (Others of Neo's backers include Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, and Reid Hoffman, who wrote one of the first checks to Neo back in 2017.) While Partovi is cautious about discussing unrealized returns when prodded, Neo's early funds are performing exceedingly well. The first fund is already between three and four times its value, said Partovi, with 'potential room for it to double or triple again.' He said the second fund has more than doubled from the Anysphere investment alone. As for a chilly exit market and how he advises founders to navigate it, Partovi said he instead encourages founders to build enduring value. 'I [tell] people not to obsess about making money and obsess more about serving other humans,' he said. 'Build a product that's so wonderful that other people just love it. Money is the result, not the goal.'
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From coding tests to billion-dollar startups, Ali Partovi's eight-year experiment is paying off
In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite limited name recognition. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate built an impressive resume early on -- joining the founding team of LinkExchange (acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for a reported $20 million in 2009), and launching the educational nonprofit with his twin brother Hadi. Together, they also became early investors in tech giants like Facebook, Airbnb, and Dropbox. While industry insiders have long viewed the Partovi brothers' involvement in a startup as a strong signal, Ali's star is only now rising more broadly beyond tech circles. This wider recognition stems from Neo, his eight-year-old venture firm that promised from the outset to revolutionize how exceptional talent is discovered -- and is developing some fairly convincing proof points. Among its bets, Neo was the first institution outside of Twitter to invest in the decentralized social network Bluesky, which was reportedly valued at $700 million in a January funding round, and Kalshi, an online prediction market whose surge in popularity began during last fall's U.S. presidential election. "This year, for the first time, I can conclusively say that we are discovering the future superstars before anyone else," Partovi, known for being equal parts gracious and tenacious to the point of pushy, told this editor on Friday. Neo's relationship with Michael Truell helps to tell the story. In 2017, Truell, then a freshman at MIT, was interning at Google when a fellow student suggested he meet with Partovi. During that hour-long sitdown, Partovi gave Truell a coding test that he completed in 15 minutes. The ask wasn't unusual for Partovi. When investing with his brother, the two commonly ran teams through a tech interview as if they wanted to get a job at Google. But it exemplifies Partovi's approach at Neo, where he uses technical evaluations not as rigid assessments but as foundations for deeper conversations. The moment was also the start of a relationship that could prove lucrative for both Partovi and Truell. Indeed, years later, backed first by Partovi, Truell co-founded Anysphere, maker of the popular AI-powered coding editor Cursor, which is now flirting with a $10 billion valuation and may become one of Neo's most successful investments. Like Y Combinator before it, Neo's approach represents a fundamental rethinking of venture capital. Rather than betting on specific themes or teams, Partovi focuses on identifying exceptional individuals, often while they're still in college, and nurturing their potential through mentorship before they've incorporated a company. For those college students, Partovi -- with his partners at Neo, Suzanne Xie and Emily Cohen - run a "Neo Scholars" program that provides a $20,000 grant to take a gap semester, no equity required. (Thirty people are chosen yearly.) In 2022, for early-stage startups, Partovi additionally set up a more traditional accelerator program that offers funding and guidance to 20 companies each year. "I try to coax them towards taking a bit more risk, going outside their comfort zone, aiming higher than whatever they are aiming for right now," Partovi explained. The strategy requires patience. Starting in Neo's earliest days, Partovi personally traveled the country, interviewing students and administering coding tests to find "tomorrow's changemakers," in his words. Others clearly think he's pretty good at it, and no wonder. In addition to Anysphere and Kalshi, Neo scholars have gone on to found the coding assistant company, Cognition, which was recently valued at $4 billion; Pika Labs, which makes a text-to-video Generative AI tool and is currently valued at $700 million; and Chai Discovery, which hasn't shared its post-money valuation but that raised $30 million from OpenAI and Thrive Capital last fall to fuel its multi-modal foundation model for molecular structure prediction. "Last year, every one of OpenAI's new grad hires was a Neo scholar," Partovi proudly noted when we talked. When evaluating potential superstars, Partovi largely focuses on three key qualities: technical ability, entrepreneurial inclination, and willingness to challenge the status quo. Technical ability matters not because founders will code all day, but because "computer science really helps. It just helps you think," Partovi explained, citing examples like Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, and Larry Ellison -- all computer science students who became legendary business leaders. Past entrepreneurial experience signals risk-taking propensity and a hunger to build products people love. The third quality -- challenging the status quo -- speaks to founders' willingness to question fundamental assumptions. Yet there's a fourth quality Partovi considers perhaps most crucial: magnetism. Says Partovi: "I ask myself, if [this individual] started something, how likely would their smartest friends be to join them?" (This was particularly evident in Truell, whose "quiet confidence" convinced Partovi that "his smartest MIT friends would consider joining him.") As Neo's reputation has grown, so has competition to get in. Applications to both Neo programs have doubled annually, according to Partovi, who added that while many venture firms would expand to accommodate demand, Neo made a deliberate choice to maintain selectivity over scale. The philosophy extends to fund size. While VCs who can raise ever-larger funds typically do, Neo -- which earlier this month closed on $320 million in fresh capital -- only raised slightly more than the $235 million in capital commitments it collected in 2023. Meanwhile, Partovi's personal stake in the newest fund increased significantly, with him putting more of his own money into this fund than all three previous Neo funds combined. (Others of Neo's backers include Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, and Reid Hoffman, who wrote one of the first checks to Neo back in 2017.) While Partovi is cautious about discussing unrealized returns when prodded, Neo's early funds are performing exceedingly well. The first fund is already between three and four times its value, said Partovi, with "potential room for it to double or triple again." He said the second fund has more than doubled from the Anysphere investment alone. As for a chilly exit market and how he advises founders to navigate it, Partovi said he instead encourages founders to build enduring value. "I [tell] people not to obsess about making money and obsess more about serving other humans," he said. "Build a product that's so wonderful that other people just love it. Money is the result, not the goal." Pictured above, Partovi and his two partners at Neo, Suzanne Xie and Emily Cohen. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cultivating Young Tech Founders
Ali Partovi, CEO of Neo and early investor in Facebook and Airbnb, discusses how he identifies and mentors young founders of future billion dollar startups like Anysphere, the maker of Cursor. Partovi spoke about Neo's accelerator, a competitor to Y Combinator, with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Technology." Sign in to access your portfolio
