Pejman Nozad

Background

Pejman Nozad is the Co-Founder and Founding Managing Partner of Pear VC, one of Silicon Valley’s leading seed-stage venture capital firms. He co-founded the firm with Mar Hershenson in August 2013 under the name Pejman Mar Ventures; the firm rebranded as Pear VC approximately three years later ¹².

Nozad was born in Tehran, Iran, circa 1969 ³. As a teenager, he began writing a sports column for a Tehran magazine at age 16 and hosted Iran’s most popular sports radio talk show by age 18 ³. He played professional soccer as a midfielder for prominent Iranian clubs and completed three years of compulsory military service on the army soccer team ³. He attended Shahid Beheshti University but dropped out after two years ³. He has attended six FIFA World Cups, two as an accredited journalist ⁴³.

In 1992, at age 23, Nozad immigrated to the United States with $700 and minimal English skills, arriving on a journalism visa ³⁴⁵. He initially washed cars at an Iranian-owned business in San Jose, then lived in an attic above a yogurt and coffee shop in Redwood City while attending evening English classes at a community college ³⁵⁶.

In 1994, Nozad began working at Medallion Rug Gallery on University Avenue in Palo Alto ³⁷. He grew the rug business from 4-5 employees to 25 employees, reaching $8 million in annual sales ³. Crucially, the location on University Avenue — the same street where Facebook, Google, Palantir, and PayPal got their starts — put Nozad at the epicenter of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial network ⁷. He began hosting networking events at Medallion that brought together entrepreneurs and investors ⁴. Among the early attendees were Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi (who went on to found Dropbox) and Andy Rubin (who created Android and sold it to Google) ⁴.

In 1999, Nozad co-founded investment firm Amidzad Partners with Rahim and Saeed Amidi, who also owned Medallion Rug Gallery and Plug and Play Tech Center ³⁴. The initial fund was $2 million, investing $25,000 to $1 million per deal ³. A notable early investment was a $400,000 seed round in Danger, Andy Rubin’s company, which Microsoft later acquired for $500 million ³. By 2007, Amidzad had invested in 40+ companies with 7 acquisitions ³. Amidzad wound down around 2013 as Nozad transitioned to Pear VC ³.

Forbes profiled Nozad as “Silicon Valley’s hottest VC” in March 2012 ⁸. He was included in the Forbes Midas List in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, and was ranked #1 on the Forbes Midas Seed List three consecutive years (2023, 2024, 2025) ⁴. He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2014 for his contributions to America as an immigrant ⁴. He is also an investor and board member of Sheffield United Football Club in the UK ⁴³.

Nozad lives in Atherton, California, with his wife Mania and their two children ³⁴.

Stated Thesis

Pear VC publicly describes itself as a specialist in pre-seed and seed investing, with the mission of partnering with founders “at ground zero” to help them build “category-defining companies” ¹². Nozad has stated: “We want to build the best seed fund ever existed in the history and we want to help founders build category defining companies” ⁹.

Nozad emphasizes founder character over specific ideas, saying: “We like founders who have deep domain knowledge about the market, the type of customer and the pain” ⁹. He also values founders who “can attract talent” and who “truly believe the company and their team is above anything else, including themselves” ⁹.

The firm’s investment approach is explicitly relationship-driven. Nozad has described spending “months of multi-hour dinners and deep, family-centered conversations” with founders before investing ¹⁰. He has said: “You don’t see these entrepreneurs during happy hour… they spend time with their team and customers” ⁶.

Nozad also emphasizes the importance of specialization: “Pick one thing that you can become the best in… then build momentum around it” ⁶. Despite fund growth to $432 million, he has stated Pear will remain a pre-seed and seed specialist ⁶.

On his investment mindset, Nozad has said: “I wake up every morning and I think we’re going to go out of business by the end of the day. So that’s the mentality. It doesn’t matter if you have $400 million or $4 million or $4 billion. I want to stay on my toes” ¹¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 30 verified investments in the portfolio table below (out of 300+ total investments claimed across Nozad’s angel and Pear VC career, with over 200 companies in Pear VC’s first decade ³), the following patterns emerge. Note: this sample represents a fraction of Pear VC’s full portfolio; the actual distribution may differ.

Sector Allocation (computed from 30 verified portfolio entries)

• Enterprise SaaS / B2B Software: 8 companies (27%) — Gusto, Vanta, Addepar, Affinity, Solvvy, Federato, Cardless, Tandem
• Healthcare / Biotech: 5 companies (17%) — Guardant Health, Viz.ai, Senti Bio, BioAge Labs, Recora
• Consumer / Marketplace: 4 companies (13%) — DoorDash, Zoosk, Path, Young Alfred
• AI / Machine Learning: 3 companies (10%) — SoundHound, Counsel, Piston
• Climate / Energy: 3 companies (10%) — Aurora Solar, Pearl Street (acq. by Enverus), One Concern
• Fintech: 2 companies (7%) — Lending Club, Nova Credit
• Mobile / Hardware: 2 companies (7%) — AppLovin, Danger
• Developer Tools / Infrastructure: 1 company (3%) — Branch Metrics
• Cloud / Productivity: 1 company (3%) — Dropbox
• EdTech: 1 company (3%) — Course Hero

With only 30 of 200+ portfolio companies verified, these percentages are directional only. The true distribution likely skews more heavily toward enterprise/B2B based on the firm’s stated focus and portfolio page ¹⁴.

Stage Distribution

Pear VC invests at pre-seed and seed stages ⁶. The firm’s PearX accelerator program invests $250K-$2M at the pre-seed stage, while the main fund writes seed checks of $1M-$6M ¹⁴¹². The vast majority of Nozad’s investments have been at seed stage, with some pre-Pear investments as personal angel checks. Pear allocates 55-60% of fund capital for follow-on investments, indicating significant Series A participation ⁶.

Geographic Concentration

Pear VC is headquartered in San Francisco and Menlo Park, with a Stanford location for PearX ²⁹. The firm invests globally but is heavily concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, consistent with its proximity to Stanford University ¹⁰. Approximately 50% of Pear’s portfolio companies were founded by students, reflecting the firm’s strong university pipeline ¹⁰.

Check Size

Pre-seed (PearX): $250K-$2M ¹². Seed: $250K-$6M ¹⁰¹². Follow-on capacity up to $10M ¹². Nozad’s earlier angel investments via Amidzad were smaller ($25K-$1M per deal) ³.

Founder Profile Patterns

Nozad strongly favors founders with deep domain expertise and technical backgrounds. The firm’s university focus means many portfolio founders are Stanford-affiliated. Nozad has also emphasized investing in “unlikely” and underrepresented founders, including a strong focus on immigrant founders (reflected in the Pear Persian Founder Circles program) ³⁴. The firm runs a Female Founder Circle with 1,000+ applications per cohort ⁶.

Co-investor Patterns

Pear frequently co-invests with Sequoia Capital (Nozad’s early relationship with Doug Leone was instrumental to his career ¹¹). Other frequent co-investors include Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Pear often serves as the seed investor that larger firms follow into Series A and beyond ⁶.

Notable Gaps

The stated thesis emphasizes relationship-driven investing and founder character, but the actual portfolio is remarkably sector-diverse — spanning food delivery, biotech, fintech, climate tech, ad tech, and consumer social. There is no narrow sector thesis; the common thread is early stage and founder quality rather than market focus. Despite the “seed specialist” framing, the $432M Fund IV is among the largest seed funds ever raised ¹¹, and the 55-60% follow-on reserve means significant capital is deployed at later stages.

Portfolio

Note: Many investment dates are approximate, marked with “~”. Years use the best available estimate based on company founding dates and fund deployment timelines. Nozad’s personal angel portfolio (pre-2013) includes 100+ additional companies. Pear VC has invested in over 200 companies in its first decade ³; the full portfolio is available at pear.vc/companies ¹⁴.

In Their Own Words

On his journey to venture capital:

“I was driving every day for an hour, washing cars for 10 hours and come back.” ⁶

On persistence:

“Something was telling me, just keep going.” ⁶

On mastery:

“Whatever you do in life, if you become the master of it, something magical happens.” ⁹

On selling rugs vs. selling ideas:

“I never sold rugs itself. I always explain the impact of the rug in your home… storytelling selling is really impact.” ⁹

On building Pear VC:

“I thought, given my background, the network, the deal flow, the know-how, the relationship I have, there’s an opportunity to build an institution.” ⁵

On his partnership with Mar Hershenson:

“Mar and I, we are Yin and Yang… the respect we have for each other… was the foundation of Pear.” ⁶

On founder selection:

“We like people who truly believe the company and their team is above anything else, including themselves.” ⁹

On preempting deals:

“When you have this insane belief that this company is going to return their fund… that’s when you preempt.” ⁹

On fundraising advice to founders:

“In soccer, you can score minute one, or you can score at minute 90. Both of them [are] one goal and you can win the game. So, when you go to fundraise, don’t get disappointed if you hear a lot of nos, because the yes could be the last meeting after the whole two months.” ¹⁵

On staying hungry:

“I wake up every morning and I think we’re going to go out of business by the end of the day. So that’s the mentality. It doesn’t matter if you have $400 million or $4 million or $4 billion. I want to stay on my toes.” ¹¹

On supporting entrepreneurs:

“I think helping entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and ideas are like fruit, they need water, they need soil, they need farmers. And we are pairing with entrepreneurs.” ⁵

On his personal philosophy:

“Create your own opportunities.” ⁴

What Founders Say

Tony Xu, Co-Founder & CEO of DoorDash:

“When you first get started, you are always unsure of what you are doing. Pejman and Mar and the rest of the Pear team’s philosophy has always been first and foremost to bet on the people.” ¹³

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found beyond the Tony Xu quote above. Two quotes previously attributed to the Affinity blog ⁷ could not be verified at that source and were removed. Pear VC’s website features additional portfolio company testimonials, but these are firm-curated materials ¹⁴.

Sources