Ryan Sells

Background

Ryan Sells is a Partner at Pear VC, the Palo Alto-based pre-seed and seed fund founded by Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson ¹. He joined Pear in August 2025, transitioning from a decade of startup operating roles and his own fund into institutional venture ².

Sells holds a BBA from The College of William & Mary, where he double majored in Finance and History and played Division I soccer ¹. He began his career at JP Morgan, progressing from intern through analyst, associate, and VP roles before relocating to San Francisco in 2016 ².

After leaving JP Morgan, Sells became the first go-to-market hire at three consecutive venture-backed startups in sequence ¹:

• Second Measure (YC S15, acquired by Bloomberg): Employee #7 and Head of Business Development ¹. After the acquisition, he led alternative data strategy within Bloomberg’s Office of the CTO ¹.
• Pipe: Employee #8 and VP of Revenue at the revenue-based financing platform ¹.
• Turnstile: VP of Revenue at the First Round Capital-backed revenue automation startup ¹.

In 2020, Sells co-founded Dash Fund alongside Tom Seo (a former Citi Ventures investor), launching with a $3.3 million microfund ³. The fund grew to raise and deploy approximately $25 million across two funds and 57 portfolio companies, with an exclusive focus on fintech at the pre-seed and seed stages ¹³. Dash Fund will not raise a third fund ². Notable Dash Fund portfolio companies include Pave (compensation benchmarking platform; became unicorn in 2022), Laika (compliance-as-a-service; raised $50M Series C), Finary (personal finance), and Jericho Security (deepfake fraud prevention) ⁴⁵⁶⁷.

Pear founders Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson approached Sells directly, and he was drawn to the firm’s early-stage track record (DoorDash, Dropbox, Gusto, Vanta) and what he described as their “relentless founder-first focus” rather than asset growth ². He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children ¹.

Stated Thesis

Sells publicly describes his investment focus as “new markets and the products shaping them — especially now, in the midst of a generational shift in tech” ⁸. He frames venture as fundamentally a services business: “Venture is, at its core, a services business. We exist to serve the founders we back and the LPs who trust us.” ⁸

At Pear, he has articulated a specific interest in two infrastructure categories in his Request for Startups contributions ⁹:

1. Financial-grade agent infrastructure — the trust, policy, identity, authorization, and audit layers required for AI agents to operate with real signing authority in production financial systems. His framing: “AI agents are already useful. But they’re useful in the way a smart advisor with no signing authority is useful.” ⁹

2. Intent-native commerce infrastructure — the API, pricing, and transaction-primitive layers for agent-driven purchasing, where traditional click-based e-commerce architecture breaks down. His view: “The entire infrastructure needs to be rebuilt around intent, not clicks. The infrastructure powering this transition is a generational platform opportunity, and it’s early.” ⁹

He was selected to speak at the GSB Fintech Forward Summit at Stanford University Graduate School of Business on how AI is reshaping financial services and enabling production deployment beyond pilots ¹⁰. He has also participated as a panelist in Pillsbury Law’s “Show Me the Money: Founders + Funders” event series on VC market dynamics and QSBS regulatory changes (October 2025) ¹¹.

During his Dash Fund years, Sells stated publicly that “we truly are best within our lane and our lane is fintech,” emphasizing deep domain expertise in financial services as the fund’s differentiator ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 1 verified Pear VC investment (Socratix AI) and 10+ Dash Fund investments attributable to Sells. The Pear portfolio is too new (Sells joined August 2025) for reliable sector percentages; Dash Fund data provides the most meaningful behavioral signal.

Dash Fund-era patterns (pre-Pear, 2020–2025):

Sells’ confirmed Dash Fund investments span: fintech/compensation data (Pave), compliance-as-a-service (Laika), personal finance (Finary), AI cybersecurity (Jericho Security). The fund’s overall portfolio was 19 of 25 tracked investments in fintech and 16 in enterprise applications ¹². This signals a dominant fintech focus with a secondary lean toward enterprise software — consistent with Sells’ stated thesis but also reflecting that his fintech definition extends to security, compliance, and HR-tech tools used by financial companies.

Pear VC era (August 2025–present):

The one confirmed Sells-led investment at Pear is Socratix AI (October 2025), an AI coworkers platform for fraud and risk teams at banks and fintechs ¹³. This is directly in the agentic-fintech-infrastructure category he articulates as his core thesis — autonomous AI operating in production financial systems. The co-investors (YC, Twenty Two Ventures, Transpose Platform) suggest early-stage deal dynamics with strong YC network overlap.

Stage distribution: Consistently pre-seed and seed across both Dash Fund and Pear VC careers. Dash Fund check sizes were $100K–$1M ¹²; Pear VC seed program writes $1M–$6M checks ¹⁴.

Founder profile preferences: Sells repeatedly emphasizes founders with deep domain expertise earned through direct operational experience, not just technical pedigree. His Socratix investment cited co-founders who had worked inside fraud operations at DoorDash and Unit21 ¹³. His Dash Fund investments in Pave (founder previously at Lyft) and Laika (compliance domain) reflect the same pattern of backing operators who experienced the problem firsthand.

Geographic focus: San Francisco Bay Area concentration based on Pear VC’s location and Sells’ personal base, but Dash Fund had national scope.

Co-investor patterns: At Pear, co-investors confirmed in Socratix round include Y Combinator and Twenty Two Ventures ¹³. Dash Fund co-invested alongside Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer, Bain Capital, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity, PayPal Ventures, and Lux Capital across portfolio companies ⁴⁵⁷.

Notable patterns: Sells is one of few Pear partners who came through the GP/fund-manager path rather than founder or pure operator. His thesis is unusually precise for a broad pre-seed/seed fund — the agentic finance infrastructure framing is specific enough to filter deal flow, suggesting he intends to become a category specialist within Pear’s generalist pre-seed platform.

Portfolio

The table below covers Sells’ confirmed investments. Pear VC investments are post-August 2025. Dash Fund investments (2020–2025) are included given they were co-led by Sells as GP and reflect his personal investment judgment.

Notes: - Pave: Dash Fund joined Series A ($16M, a16z-led) in December 2020 ⁴. Pave reached unicorn status in 2022. - Finary: Dash Fund participated in $3.2M seed round led by Aditi Maliwal, April 2021 ⁶. - Laika: Dash Fund confirmed as existing investor in Laika’s $35M Series B (J.P. Morgan-led, November 2021); initial entry stage not independently confirmed ⁵. - Jericho Security: Dash Fund joined $15M Series A (Era Fund-led, April 2025) ⁷. - Socratix AI: Pear led $4.1M seed round, October 28, 2025 ¹³. - Dash Fund invested in approximately 57 companies across two funds; only entries with independently verifiable sources are listed here.

In Their Own Words

On venture as a services business:

“Venture is, at its core, a services business. We exist to serve the founders we back and the LPs who trust us. Learning alongside them and helping them succeed is most rewarding.” ⁸

On what draws him to his work:

“One of the best parts of venture is spending time with brilliant people building the future. I’m fascinated by new markets and the products shaping them — especially now, in the midst of a generational shift in tech. The way software is built and consumed has fundamentally changed, creating near-limitless opportunities for founders.” ⁸

On why he joined Pear:

“LinkedIn, it’s been a minute… [Pear’s] track record with early-stage investments (DoorDash, Dropbox, Guardant, Gusto, Vanta) and their relentless founder-first focus rather than pursuing asset growth” drew him to the firm. ²

On the agentic AI infrastructure opportunity:

“AI agents are already useful. But they’re useful in the way a smart advisor with no signing authority is useful.” ⁹

“The entire infrastructure needs to be rebuilt around intent, not clicks. The infrastructure powering this transition is a generational platform opportunity, and it’s early.” ⁹

On the Socratix AI investment:

“At Pear, we’re drawn to founders who combine deep technical ability with real earned insight. Riya and Satya know firsthand how fraud and risk teams operate, and where existing systems break down. Socratix is building AI coworkers that make those teams faster, smarter, and more resilient. We’re proud to back them as they help define the next era of agentic software in financial services.” ¹³

On Dash Fund’s positioning:

“We truly are best within our lane and our lane is fintech.” ³

On Dash Fund’s early days:

“The world was melting. It was awful… but I think it actually ended up being a tailwind for us.” (on launching the fund in April 2020) ³

“A year ago, a lot of VCs were taking a step back. As a small and nimble fund making quick decisions, we had an advantage.” ³

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials naming Ryan Sells as an individual investor were found across Twitter/X, podcasts, press coverage, or Product Hunt searches conducted for this profile. The Pear VC website does not currently feature founder testimonials specifically attributed to Sells, who joined the firm in August 2025.

Sources