How starting a college social app led to raising $3 million – and changed my life

With Neo applications open for 2024, it's amazing to look back at how much we have accomplished in 12 short months

This story was originally posted on X by David Roselle, Founder of DoorList

Last week, when Neo opened to new applications, I looked back at what I’d submitted a year ago. Getting into Neo Accelerator in 2023 was a turning point that changed my life.

I’d started DoorList as a fun side-project while studying at UVA. I had no clue if anyone would use it. I didn't expect to end up doing it full-time, let alone raising money. But soon, it was obvious that we’d stumbled upon a big opportunity. Students were using DoorList to keep track of their social calendars, and we’d unlocked new forms of social engagement on our app.

On Feb 27, 2023, I applied to Neo. Ironically, my pitch tried desperately to justify our business as if we were a B2B SaaS product, burying what I was most excited about – the social engagement.

Somehow I got an interview, and before I knew it, I was pitching Ali Partovi directly. Thankfully, we didn't even go through my deck – he just wanted to learn about my story and hear what I was passionate about. I couldn't keep the B2B act up, and my enthusiasm for the social networking side showed through. We went well over the allotted time, talking about the gaps in social networking today and how DoorList had the ability to weave into the social fabric of college campuses. Later that day, I was accepted into the 2023 Neo Accelerator, and the 12 months that ensued have completely changed my trajectory.

Neo's network combined with their willingness to make introductions is the greatest advantage a startup can have

I was thrilled to see that this year, Neo is officially sharing compelling pitches with legendary investors and tech leaders like Henry Kravis, Sheryl Sandberg, and Spencer Rascoff. These connections were a major part of the value that Neo added during the last cohort, and it's great to see it expanded and advertised. In the past year, I’ve personally met with countless tech veterans. It’s rare that there’s anybody in the tech world that Neo can't connect our team with, and their generosity in opening their network to new startups has blown me away.

For example, it was important for us to learn what helped Facebook grow across campuses in the early days, so we reached out to Ali for advice. Within a week, we were meeting (often in-person, over dinner) with multiple of the very earliest and most influential Facebook employees. It didn't stop there-- three of these meetings led to investments in our seed round. Ari Steinberg, who was an early FB employee and then Director of Engineering at Airbnb, even came on as an advisor.

Ever since I was a child, I've admired Scott Forstall for his contributions to Apple and to humanity as the creator of the iPhone. It intrigued me to see his face on Neo’s website. Little did I know that I'd be sitting with him for 1:1 “office hours” soon after the Neo program started. I've since talked to Scott multiple times, and what started as mentorship eventually led to bringing him on as an investor.

Raising $3M for a consumer social app was no small feat, and it wouldn’t have happened without Ali's introductions and the whole Neo team's help in getting it across the finish line. The past year has been extremely exciting to me as a first-time founder, and I’m deeply grateful for the kindness that I've received. I couldn’t recommend Neo more emphatically for anyone looking to take their startup to the next level. I hope the story of our journey from an app at one school to a $3M Seed Round backed by some of the most exciting investors in the space encourages someone who is on the fence to go for it.

-David Roselle

CEO @ DoorList