"Neo’s returns are leaving the rest of the crowd in the dust"

Hi Neo family,

Today the WSJ recognized Neo as an outlier among VC firms based on our financial performance. Our 2018 and 2021 funds ended the year at 7.5x and 6.5x net multiple of invested capital, compared to median benchmarks of 1.6x and 1.0x for the industry.

Thanks to all of you who contributed to this accomplishment as Neo mentors and LPs. I’m proud that several hundred of you across our community will share in the upside. (We offer every founder and college student in Neo Residency a share of future fund profits.)

I’m also particularly proud of how WSJ framed our emphasis on merit and diversity:

This focus on engineering proficiency has resulted in a diverse portfolio. More than half of Neo’s capital has backed companies with a female or underrepresented minority co-founder, according to the firm’s data. Kalshi’s co-founder Luana Lopes Lara, for example, was named the youngest female self-made billionaire by Forbes last year.

“I don’t think these are coincidences. It’s because of being consistent around a belief in investing in people based on merit rather than pattern-matching,” Partovi said.

Besides Kalshi, the article also mentions many other great portfolio companies of ours, including Cursor, Chai Discovery, Ramp, Deel, and Cognition.