This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we're joined by Ali Partovi, a technology investor, entrepreneur, and mentor who is the CEO of Neo, a startup accelerator, mentorship community, and venture firm.

Neo's accelerator this week announced a new AI track, working in collaboration with OpenAI and Microsoft to help startups build businesses on newly emerging artificial intelligence capabilities.

Partovi, who grew up in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war, sold his startup LinkExchange to Microsoft in 1998, was an early investor in companies including Airbnb, Dropbox, Facebook, and Uber, and 10 years ago co-founded Code.org with his twin brother Hadi Partovi, who continues to lead the computer science education nonprofit.

On this episode, Ali Partovi discusses the role that AI will play in the startups, Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI, his experience at Microsoft reporting to a young Satya Nadella as his manager, Neo's approach to identifying and supporting a diverse group of technical and entrepreneurial leaders, the backdrop for the Silicon Valley Bank meltdown, and more.

 

 

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