Shervin Pishevar is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has been instrumental in creating or championing eleven groundbreaking industries, including Hyperloop, the On- Demand Economy, Ride-Sharing, Cloud Computing, Cloud Kitchens, the Sharing Economy, App Stores, Social Gaming, Social Networking, Quantum Computing and AI, and New Cities–Network States industries.

From Humble Beginnings to Global Impact

Born in Iran, Shervin Pishevar immigrated to the United States with his family as a child, carrying with him the resilience and determination instilled by his parents. Arriving with just $35, his parents worked tirelessly—his father as a taxi driver and his mother as a maid—despite holding advanced degrees in their homeland. Their sacrifices enabled Pishevar and his siblings to access the education and opportunities that define the American dream.

This formative experience shaped Shervin’s unrelenting drive to create industries that empower others to thrive. His journey from humble beginnings to becoming a globally recognized innovator and investor earned him the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an accolade given to only 100 people, recognizing his profound contributions to American society and his embodiment of the immigrant ethos.

A Multi-Billion-Dollar Track Record

Since 2011, Pishevar’s early investments have generated over$7 billion in value, with more than $3 billion distributed inprofits—an astonishing 88% IRR. Forbes recognized his investing acumen, naming him to its prestigious Midas List of the top 100 venture investors for four consecutive years. He was also featured on the magazine’s cover. Pishevar has achieved over 93 exits in his 27-year career in tech.

As the early lead investor and board member of Uber, he played a pivotal role in transforming ride-sharing into a global phenomenon. Pishevar also helped introduce Travis Kalanick to the CEO of Baidu, which led to the joint venture creating Uber China. Pishevar invested $50 million to help launch Uber China and contributed another $50 million after its merger with Didi.

As co-founder and first Executive Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One, Pishevar introduced the world to a new era of high-speed transportation, building both a global brand and a new industry. Pishevar’s career is defined by a Midas touch. As Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, he was recruited to build their consumer practice, and he led investments in early-stage giants like Uber, Warby Parker,Machine Zone, and Tumblr. He also invested in Poshmark, Betterment, and Dropcam (acquired by Google). At Menlo, he established the Menlo Talent Fund, the firm’s first seed program, completing over 35 seed investments, includingParse (acquired by Facebook) and Scan (acquired by Snap).

Backing Transformative Founders

As an angel investor, Pishevar has backed over 200companies, including early investments in Facebook, Uber (seed and Series B), Hims, Casper, and seed rounds of Postmates (acquired by Uber), Dollar Shave Club(sold to Unilever for $1 billion), TaskRabbit (sold toIKEA), Cherry (sold to Lyft), Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty, Rapportive (acquired by LinkedIn), Aardvark(acquired by Google), Mercury Bank (Series A), and frontier deep-tech startups like Varda Space, Gambit AI(a defense-tech company), and Gameto, a reinvention ofIVF.He also hired and trained the future founder of TrueBilland seed funded it and housed him in our offices.TrueBill was sold to Rocket for $1.3B. Pishevar’s ability to identify transformative ideas and founders early has cemented his reputation as one of the most visionary investors of his generation. Pishevar has a knack for backing world-changing founders like Travis Kalanick, Brian Chesky, Elon Musk, Vlad Tenev, and more. He recruited talents like Anthony Casalena, whom he hired at 15 while at WebOS, his first startup out of Berkeley, and supported him in foundingSquareSpace. He also recruited the founders ofWebs.com and Quizlet, when they were teenagers, to work at Webs. At Webs, he hired the future founder of Instacart when he was 18 and the future founder ofTrueBill when he was 21.

Revolutionizing Venture Capital

Pishevar’s influence extends to founding new models for venture capital through Edison Fund, Edison Labs, and Sofreh Capital (his family office fund), which have become engines of innovation in venture capital and venture studio models. Through his venture studios, he has co-founded transformative companies like Hyperloop, Telly (Telly.com), SLAI (SLAI.com), and more. At Sherpa Capital, which he also co-founded, Pishevar managed $650 million across three funds, raised an additional $500 million in co-investments, and ushered in the era of SPVs with over $200 million in SPVs. His co-investments and SPVs have generated an additional $2 billion in profits for his investors, complementing the $3 billion distributed through his funds. His portfolio includes titans like Airbnb, Robinhood, SpaceX, Slack, IonQ, DraftKings, Ipsy, Astra Space, OpenDoor, Rent the Runway, Quip, OpenGov, and Curology, among others. Silicon Foundry and Beyond Pishevar also ideated and founded Silicon Foundry, a corporate innovation advisory firm and incubator, where he recruited Salesforce, eBay, Comcast/DreamWorks, and Condé Nast as founding members. At Silicon Foundry, he spun out and incubated Do.com from Salesforce, selling it to Amazon, and ideated and incubated Brandless. Silicon Foundry, which Pishevar built into a corporate innovation powerhouse, was later acquired by Kearney. In 2022, Pishevar achieved another milestone by taking quantum computing pioneer D-Wave (QBTS) public through his SPAC, DPCM Capital. Partnering with figures like Emil Michael, Eric Schmidt, and Peter Diamandis, he raised $300 million for the venture, propelling D-Wave to a valuation of over $1 billion.

Beyond Business: A Legacy of Impact

Pishevar’s influence extends far beyond the boardroom. Through the Pishevar Institute, his family charity, he has given back to the community, endowing a professorship at Howard University and supporting organizations like Build.org and the Malala Fund. President Obama recognized Pishevar’s contributions to global innovation and education, appointing him to the prestigious Fulbright Board. Pishevar is deeply committed to spreading economic opportunity and advancing democracy and freedom technologies. Before his entrepreneurial journey, Pishevar was a scientist at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Labs, where his groundbreaking research led to patents on malaria treatment and publications in esteemed journals like JAMA and Neuroscience Letters. At just 19 years old, Pishevar was instrumental in creating the Istanbul Protocol, which bans doctors from participating in torture. This achievement stemmed from a research article he published in JAMA.

A Vision for Tomorrow

With a career defined by innovation and a vision for the future, Shervin Pishevar continues to look ahead, shaping industries that will define the next generation of human progress. Whether pioneering quantum computing, reimagining transportation, or funding groundbreaking technologies, Pishevar remains a force for change, building bridges and connecting talent to realize tomorrow’s possibilities. For Pishevar, innovation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a deeply held ethos and a set of values he is actively shaping, one industry at a time.