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32 Facts About Ali Partovi

1.

Ali Partovi is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and angel investor.

2.

Ali Partovi is currently the CEO of Neo, a mentorship community and venture fund he established in 2017.

3.

Ali Partovi was born alongside his twin brother Hadi Partovi amid the White Revolution of Iran and the Iran-Iraq war.

4.

Ali Partovi's mother studied Computer Science in Boston, and his father Firouz Partovi was a founding member of the Sharif University of Technology and the second employed professor.

5.

Ali Partovi's father influenced Ali and Hadi to care about education and found code.

6.

Ali Partovi worked as a Software Consultant at Oracle from August 1994 to April 1996.

7.

Ali Partovi worked on the Interactive Tv project as a field engineer, helping deploy trials for telco and cable companies.

8.

Ali Partovi joined Tony Hsieh and Sanjay Mandan in 1996 to co-partner in the establishment of the internet company LinkExchange.

9.

Ali Partovi says that he was recruited for his computer programming skills and his business management skills.

10.

Ali Partovi worked in sales, marketing, finance, and business management until Microsoft acquired the company in 1998 for $265 million.

11.

Ali Partovi was one of the first people to recognize the paid search opportunity because he saw how badly small business owners wanted their businesses to show up on search results.

12.

Ali Partovi had bought the assets of GarageBand in 2002 and had saved it from bankruptcy.

13.

However, Ali Partovi lost the acquisition by telling Steve Jobs that they were worth three times as much as Jobs was offering.

14.

Ali Partovi refers to the Steve Jobs encounter as one of his "most painful memories".

15.

Ali Partovi helped establish Hour of Code, a tutorial that introduces students to programming.

16.

From 1998 to 2017, Ali Partovi has backed major tech companies, including Facebook, Airbnb, Dropbox, Uber, and Zappos.

17.

Ali Partovi was afraid of betting on a search engine since there was too much competition.

18.

Once Ali Partovi was having lunch with a Wall Street journalist and Brian Chesky was at the table next to them.

19.

Brian propositioned Airbnb because he overheard that Ali Partovi was an angel investor, but Ali Partovi didn't follow up.

20.

In 2017, Ali Partovi founded Neo, a community of mentors meant to accelerate the development of leadership in the tech environment.

21.

Ali Partovi stopped Angel Investing around this time as this new company includes a venture fund.

22.

Ali Partovi identifies top Computer Science students and accelerates their careers by introducing them and investing in their startups.

23.

Ali Partovi observed how basketball agents and coaches scouted for the best players in varsities and high schools.

24.

Ali Partovi would identify the most brilliant engineers, recruit them, and introduce them to the mentorship community, made up of veteran technologists.

25.

In one recorded session with recruits, Ali Partovi encourages them to avoid not taking risks.

26.

Between 2000 and 2001, Ali Partovi wrote a screenplay with his friend Alan Shusterman.

27.

In 2021, Ali Partovi published an article in which he highlights the challenges that startups face when they are presented with acquisition deals.

28.

Ali Partovi grew up playing the piano with his brother, and has since been shown to be an avid musician.

29.

Ali Partovi has been shown to enjoy rock climbing and going to the gym.

30.

Ali Partovi has claimed to have faced problems obtaining travel documents since his first job due to his Iranian heritage.

31.

Ali Partovi has spoken out about the restrictive consequences of the recent immigration bills passed in the United States.

32.

Ali Partovi's cousins include Dara Khosrowshahi, Amir Khosrowshahi, and Farzad "Fuzzy" Khosrowshahi.