Reimagine the accelerator

Hi Neo family,

Today we unveiled Neo Accelerator, a startup launchpad for an intimate cohort of exceptional technical founders. It redefines the essence of an accelerator with a 4-week residential campus, a demo day focused on hiring, and the most generous funding deal ever, with a new kind of safe and $20M floor valuation.

Neo Accelerator will welcome 20 diverse teams of recent grads with at least one strong technical founder (see our past screening philosophy). We believe in young technical leaders' potential to create the epochal companies of the future.

If this describes you, apply to Neo today and maximize your potential. We’ll support you through every challenge and connect you with Neo’s prestigious community of star engineers, tech veterans, and iconic founders. 

We’ll prioritize diverse teams with conviction around an idea, while helping you iterate on your idea. If you’re a solo technical founder, we’ll help you build your team.

Future founders: join our list to get notified about our Neo Scholars program, including priority admission for Neo Accelerator. Work with leaders at top startups and gain experience for starting your own one day.

We’ve reinvented every aspect of an accelerator to align with today’s demands:

1. Residential “Campus.” Our 3-month program starts with four weeks at an all-inclusive mountain retreat in Oregon and ends with a final week in San Diego. Live and work alongside mentors and other founders, bonding over meals, hikes, and other activities.

2. Demo Day for hiring engineers. Pitch a diverse audience of all-star engineers and get meetings with prospective candidates. Recruiting engineers is an existential challenge for tech startups, and we’ll help you crush it. 

3. $625K on unparalleled terms, incl $20M “Floor” valuation. Our deal includes a new type of uncapped safe, the most generous of all: the valuation can go higher but not lower than the floor. (Details below)

4. Founder profit share. We’ll give all founders an incentive to help each other: economic participation in our fund equivalent to the profit from $10,000 of “money at work.” This vests after 1 year, as long as you’re still full-time as a founder or join another Neo company.

5. Diversity as a pillar. To date, 49% of our capital has backed female or underrepresented minority CEOs. From our team to our mentors to the companies we’ve backed, diversity is an intentional practice at Neo.

6. Lifelong veteran community. Since 2017, we’ve brought together tech veterans and iconic founders who share our passion for helping tomorrow’s leaders. Our funds come mainly from this community, which means they’re invested in your success.

Neo Accelerator brings together a diverse group of resident mentors including star operators, domain experts, and experienced builders. Learn from successful founders like Erik Goldman (Vanta) and prominent execs like Camille Rickets (Notion), Kyle Parrish (Figma), and more.

We invite world-class investors to join us: retweet this announcement if you’re a VC or angel who wants engage with early-stage startups and build authentic relationships with founders at Neo Accelerator.

Unparalleled funding terms

We offer a better deal than any other accelerator, in two parts:

• $125K for 2.5% ($5M post-money valuation safe)

• $500K Safe with $20M Floor Valuation

This deal includes a Neo Safe with Floor Valuation, a new kind of uncapped safe. The valuation won’t go below the Floor even if your subsequent round is at a lower valuation; it goes higher when you raise more in a qualifying subsequent round within 6 months.

Note: we automatically grant the $500K Safe with Floor to all teams that complete the Neo Accelerator program, except we reserve the right to withhold it from teams that lose a founder or solo founders who haven’t hired anyone by program end.

If you finish Neo Accelerator without enough conviction to continue, we’ve got your back unconditionally. We’ll celebrate your work and help you find an awesome new path, including joining other rocketship companies.

Please help us make Neo Accelerator awesome by sharing your opinions: what are the best and worst things about other accelerators that we can learn from?

I’m excited to see what the next generation of builders will create. If you’re a founder interested in pitching us, please retweet this announcement and submit your application today. To learn more, visit Neo.com and join an info session.