Init Intelligence Atlas

Pejman Nozad

7 min read

Pejman Nozad

Snapshot

  • Role: Co-Founder & Founding Managing Partner of Pear VC (since 2013). Pre-seed/seed; “bet on the human first.”
  • Focus: Founder-quality over product/market at the moment of investment — famous for committing on people, fast. Sector-agnostic; heavily AI-anchored now.
  • Location: California (Menlo Park / Pear SF).
  • The 1-liner: “Tech’s most unlikely venture capitalist” — an Iranian immigrant who arrived with $700 and no English, sold Persian rugs to Sand Hill Road VCs, and built it into a seed-investing career that put him #1 on the Forbes Midas Seed List three years running (2023, 2024, 2025).
  • Handle: X/Twitter @pejmannozad.

Background

  • Origin: Born/raised in Tehran, Iran, during the Iranian Revolution + Iran–Iraq War. Attended a German school in Tehran (closed by the conflict). Wrote a sports column at 16, hosted a sports radio talk show at 18.
  • Soccer: Played professional soccer in Iran for three years, then moved to Germany on a soccer scholarship in the 1980s. Has attended 6 FIFA World Cups (two as an accredited journalist).
  • Immigration: Came to the U.S. in 1992 with ~$700 and little English. Worked a car wash (San Jose), then a coffee/yogurt shop (Redwood City) — lived in a small room/attic above the shop to save money, studying English at night.
  • The rug gallery: Answered a Persian-TV/newspaper ad and joined Medallion Rug Gallery (downtown Palo Alto, University Ave — “the mecca of entrepreneurship”), owned by fellow Iranian immigrants Rahim & Saeed Amidi (also founders of Plug and Play Tech Center). Became their top seller — moved $8M of rugs in his best year. Home visits to wealthy clients (incl. Sequoia’s Doug Leone as an early customer) became his on-ramp into Silicon Valley; he hosted VC/founder cocktail mixers at the gallery (“at five o’clock the rugs would go up and flat screens would come down”).
  • Amidzad Partners (1999): Co-founded with the Amidis (name blends Amidi + Nozad). Started with 200K (paid from his rug commissions) for a one-third stake. First big bet: $400K into Danger (Andy Rubin, future creator of Android) — “I would invest in that guy if he was selling red balloons.” Early wins: Dropbox, Lending Club, SoundHound, Zoosk, Vudu.
  • Pear VC (2013): Co-founded with Mar Hershenson as “Pejman Mar Ventures.” He spent ~4 years convincing Mar to leave operating to start a fund with him. First fund 800M AUM / $432M Fund IV.
  • Honors: Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2014) for his contribution to America as an immigrant. Forbes Midas List 2021–2025; #1 Forbes Midas Seed List 2023, 2024, 2025.
  • Notable seed investments: DoorDash, Dropbox, Gusto, Guardant Health, Branch, Aurora Solar, SoundHound, AppLovin, CourseHero, Lending Club, Affinity (he met Affinity’s founders at Pear’s “Garage” hacker house).

Investing

  • Thesis: “Bet on the human first.” Markets and tech change; extraordinary people are the constant. Famously committed to Gusto’s Josh Reeves in ~15 minutes without seeing the product — “I believe some founders are from Mars and he’s one of them.”
  • What he looks for in founders: visionary 10–20-yr thinking · deep authentic passion for the problem · humility paired with resilience · talent magnetism (can recruit/inspire top people) · long-term builders (not flips) · “healthy paranoia” (question assumptions without losing conviction). Wants to know founders as humans — dinners, personal conversations, shared history.
  • Style: Relationship/network-driven sourcing; fast conviction on people; pre-seed/seed lead; deeply hands-on (“an extension of the founder’s team”). Mike Moritz reportedly said “a call from Pejman is a call he will always take.”
  • Track record: Companies he’s backed are collectively worth **170B+”).

Public voice (EXHAUSTIVE)

Writing:

  • “Tech’s Most Unlikely Venture Capitalist” (LinkedIn Pulse, 2016) — his own first-person rug-shop essay. Key line on why rugs taught him VC: “selling high-end rugs requires trust. It requires a strong relationship… I became friends with my customers. I went to their homes. I spent time with their families.” And: “The idea was to invest in people as much as technology… make them part of our family — sticking with them through good times and bad.”

Podcasts & video (everything found):

  • 20VC / The Twenty Minute VC (Harry Stebbings), 2017 — “Tech’s Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+.” Quotes: on Gusto — “It took me like 15 minutes to commit and I didn’t see even one page of the product he’s building… I believe some founders are from Mars and he’s one of them.” On founder-support — “They make sure these founders grow as a human being, as a CEO, as a VP of engineering… that to me is phenomenal.” (Transcript/show-notes: thetwentyminutevc.com/pejmannozad ; deciphr.ai distillation.)
  • Talks at Google — “Immigrants & Big Ideas” (with Mar Hershenson), 2017 (~70 min). The fullest joint origin-story telling. Queued to transcript_queue.txt (jO-JVQ46-Ak).
  • Venture Unlocked (Samir Kaji) — “Building a $800MM+ AUM firm as an immigrant who sold Persian rugs before going into VC” — the firm-building / how-Pear-decides episode.
  • VITALIZE Podcast (Justin Gordon), Jan 2023 — “Fostering Authentic Connection in an Over-Networked Society.” Covers the 4-year courtship of Mar; raising Fund I while building community at Stanford.
  • “Who Got Me Here” — “Pejman Nozad: Use Your Differences.” Signature quote: “I wasn’t really afraid… I wasn’t afraid to jump into a community that I was not part of, ask a lot of questions, and I used my differences as my power.”
  • Divot Podcast (Derek Andersen), Mar 2025 — *“From 700 to Silicon Valley's #1 Seed Investor."* Confirms Pear "now manages over 430 million.” Clip queued to transcript_queue.txt (UpB1Gcwmsg8 — short clip; full episode on Spotify/Apple).
  • Forbes India / Forbes — “Pejman Nozad’s Rugs to Riches Story” (the canonical long-form profile).

Social: X/Twitter @pejmannozad · LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/pejmannozad.

Personal & interests (rapport)

  • Iranian-American immigrant story is his entire identity and brand. He explicitly “used his differences as his power.” ^[The Pejman→Arash hand-off carries cultural-network weight: both are Iranian-American (Arash is a Sharif University grad) — a shared-background bridge.]
  • Soccer is a lifelong passion: ex-pro player, attended 6 FIFA World Cups, and is an investor & board member of Sheffield United (historic English football club).
  • Family: lives in California with his wife Mania and their two children. (Public via Pear bio — keep to this; no private detail.)
  • Values: authentic relationship-building over transactional networking; service; resilience (“prepare to hear ‘no’ repeatedly — keep moving”); storytelling over selling; humility (“there’s a lot of humility in our culture” — re Iranian immigrant founders).
  • Evolution: sports journalist/athlete → immigrant laborer → rug salesman → angel (Amidzad) → institutional seed GP (Pear). The throughline is relationships as the real currency of Silicon Valley.

Fundraise Relationship (init.inc)

  • Status: Pejman met Sazzad 5/13 (“liked Sazzad”) and opened the door to thematic partner Arash Afrakhteh. His investing lens is “bet on the human first”; Pejman’s read functions as social proof inside Pear.
  • Conversation log (newest first):
    • 2026-05-13 — Met Pejman 1:30–2:00 PM at Pear SF. “He liked Sazzad.” Handing init.inc to Arash Afrakhteh for next steps.
    • 2026-05-01 — Khalil Fuller escalated directly to Pejman (intro made).
  • Mutual connections / warm path: Rishi + Isaiah → Khalil Fuller → Pejman → Arash Afrakhteh.
  • Personal & rapport notes: Soccer (World Cups, Sheffield United) and the immigrant-builder story are central to him — he responds to people who “use their differences as their power.” “Storytelling beats selling” is his stated belief.
  • Live stage: tracked in the CRM — handed off to Arash as of 5/13.

Cross-check vs existing wiki

  • No prior Pejman/Pear conflict in the wiki. See Pear VC for the firm-level adjacency note (Orby AI / Amari AI — back-office automation; not direct AI-ITSM/AI-MSP competitors).

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