2021: the year the startups won.
Hi Neo family,
We’re excited to share a remarkable stat about the exceptional college students we’ve been mentoring: of those who have chosen a job, 74% will be joining startups.
This is our single most important metric, both personally (we’ve spent thousands of hours with these inspiring students), and for Neo’s business: while we earn nothing directly from this work, it is our edge in investing.
More importantly, this small step for Neo is a giant leap for startups and a harbinger of progress for the tech world. For decades, most top CS grads have joined big companies. When Neo began in 2017, the majority of Neo Scholars joined big companies. Each year, we’ve moved the needle towards startups and entrepreneurship, while maintaining a consistent emphasis on diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our work.
Last summer, we launched Neo Startup Connect with one mission: to help America’s top CS students make bolder decisions in their careers. After rigorously screening hundreds of applicants, we selected about 100 and spent months helping them navigate the startup world via workshops, Q&As with startup leaders, and 1:1 mentoring.
In August, we held the first personalized career fair, Startup Connect, where each student had a custom schedule of private meetings with startup leaders. Since then, we’ve worked individually with each student to help them evaluate their options and maximize their potential. We’ve given particular attention to candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, for whom joining a startup might pose extra challenges, such as finding role models to identify with.
The results convey an incredible embrace of entrepreneurship by America’s top students. As of year end, most Neo students (86%) had accepted a job offer for 2021 (full-time or internship). These break down as:
74% are joining startups (with almost 90% of those via Neo’s introduction).
5% are joining mid-size companies (e.g. Asana, Stripe).
21% are joining large, established companies (e.g. Google, Facebook).
Of the students who haven’t chosen a job:
50% are yet undecided / pending.
35% are working on starting their own company or side project (and we’ll be eager to support them).
15% are going to graduate school.
Each student is unique, and every path is valid. Unfortunately, the path of joining an awesome startup has structural impediments that inhibit many students from exploring the startup world (doubly so for women and underrepresented minorities). We set out to remove these obstacles, and we’re proud of the results so far. Comments from participants have been encouraging too.
We have a long road ahead, and we’re not alone in this. Our contribution towards diversity in tech stands on the shoulders of many other efforts and is far from finished. While we focus narrowly on the top ~100 CS students in North America, other groups such as Human Capital and Contrary Capital are also doing great work to connect more students to startups. Neo’s mission is to help others maximize their potential. We can’t wait to see today’s students grow into the next generation of tech leaders.
P.S. This photo is from 2019. We look forward to the day we resume in-person events.