Neehaar joined NEA in 2026 as an investor on the Technology team and focuses primarily on growth-stage investments. Previously, he spent time at Fifth Wall and The Raine Group where he supported companies across the physical world and TMT ecosystems, respectively. Neehaar graduated from Yale University, where he played Rugby, was an editor of the Yale Daily News and earned dual degrees in Statistics & Data Science and Environmental Studies.
What draws you to working with founders?
Honestly? The learning.
The best founders I've worked with have always taught me more than I've taught them. That's the whole point— find people building things you can't stop thinking about, and figure out how to be helpful.
I also believe that we owe it to future generations to leave things better than we found them, and you can't do that with a closed mind. Human potential is boundless, and getting to witness that up close every day makes curiosity second nature.
What’s been the most helpful piece of advice/feedback you’ve received from a colleague?
Don't strive to be the smartest person in the room. Strive to be the most useful. You learn by doing, you sharpen by being around people better than you, and you earn the right to have strong opinions by putting in the work that most people aren't willing to.
What personal values do you share with the NEA team?
Playing football for over a decade taught me that the best outcomes happen when everyone is working as a team, not chasing individual glory. NEA embodies that. Success here is collective, and the culture rewards making the people around you better. That alignment is rare, and I think that shows up in how we partner with the founders and companies we back.
What’s something that you geek out about or obsess over?
Trees. There's so much beauty in the natural world that we walk past every day without noticing. Slowing down to appreciate it has taught me more than I expected, and somewhere along the way I picked up the names of several hundred species.
