Pear VC was founded in August 2013 as Pejman Mar Ventures by Pejman Nozad, an Iranian immigrant and former rug salesman turned angel investor, and Mar Hershenson, a Stanford-trained three-time founder, rebranding to Pear VC in 2016. Nozad's unconventional background shaped a genuinely distinctive sourcing edge from day one - the firm's defining early bet came when Nozad convinced a skeptical Hershenson to back a small food-delivery startup called DoorDash, turning roughly $1.9 million into more than $440 million at the company's 2020 IPO. That instinct for backing founders before consensus forms has defined Pear ever since: the firm invests from formation, sometimes co-founding companies from day zero, and has seeded more than 375 startups including Gusto, Guardant Health, Dropbox, Vanta, and Branch, with $800 million under management across four funds.
DoorDash's 2020 NYSE IPO under ticker DASH - Pear's roughly $1.9 million investment, made as one of the firm's first five deals in 2013, was worth more than $440 million at listing, a nearly 233x return on the firm's entire first fund