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Shervin Pishevar is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and venture capitalist. Pishevar was born in Tehran, Iran and immigrated to the United States as a child. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.
In 1998, Shervin Pishevar co-founded WebOS, Inc., a web-based operating system that utilized cross-browser Windows-like interfaces for the internet. Pishevar served as CEO until the company dissolved in 2001 and holds patents for technology developed by WebOS.
In 2001, Pishevar co-founded and served as a Director of Seges Capital, an early-stage venture capital and management company comprised of a consortium of universities. Also in 2001, Pishevar co-founded Ionside Interactive, which created the PC game Argentum. He served as director and president and worked in product development, business development, and sales at Ionside until 2005.
In 2002, Pishevar co-founded Application Corporation, later rebranded HyperOffice, and served as SVP of development and on the board of directors until 2005.
In 2005, Pishevar was named founding president, COO, and board member for Webs Inc., formerly known as Freewebs. Pishevar co-founded and served as the CEO of the Social Gaming Network (SGN), now JamCity, a mobile game developer, which was spun out of Webs in 2008. He remained on Webs' board of directors until 2012 and served as executive chairman of SGN until its acquisition by MindJolt in 2011.
In 2010, Pishevar was appointed chief application officer and general manager at Mozilla Corporation.
In 2011, Pishevar joined Menlo Ventures, a venture capital firm with over $4 billion under management, as a managing director. He left the role of managing director in 2013 but remained as a venture advisor to the fund until 2014.In 2011, he also joined Uber as a strategic advisor and continued to serve as a board observer until 2015.
In 2013, Pishevar co-founded Sherpa Capital venture capital firm, with Scott Stanford. During his tenure as managing director of Sherpa Capital Fund I, Sherpa Capital Fund II, and Sherpa Everest I from 2013 to 2017, the three funds raised and invested over $650M. Sherpa Capital investments included Uber, Airbnb, Munchery, ipsy, Shyp, Stance, Rent the Runway, Beepi, PillPack, Doctor on Demand, and Cue Health.
In 2014, Shervin Pishevar, along with Josh Giegel and Brogan BamBrogan, founded Hyperloop One, a transportation company founded to create a hyperloop, a proposed high-speed mass transportation system for passenger and freight transportation. Sherpa Capital led the first investment round for the company, raising $37 million. In 2017, the Richard Branson-led Virgin Group invested in Hyperloop One, which was rebranded as Virgin Hyperloop One.
Pishevar stepped down as both executive chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One and as managing director of Sherpa Capital in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which Pishevar and his legal team have denied and alleged were part of a "smear campaign" against him orchestrated by unnamed business rivals.
In 2017, Pishevar co-founded the private wealth management firm Sofreh Capital LP, where he serves as the managing director out of the family office in Miami Beach, Florida.
Shervin Pishevar has served on the board of directors of Uber, SIZZLE, Bolt Mobility, Snap, PillPack, Poshmark, Getaround, Wag Labs, Inc., Stealth Space Company, Brandless Inc., Munchery, Machine Zone Inc., Webs, and JamCity.
As an angel investor, Shervin Pishevar has invested in over sixty companies, including the following: Aardvark (acquired by Google), AngelList, Baby.com.br, Brit + Co, Cherry, Comprehend, DODOcase, Emerging Travel Group, Fab.com, Famous.AF/Stolen (acquired by Postmates), Getaround, Gowalla OG (acquired by Facebook), Homebrew, Klout (acquired by Lithium Technologies), Lowercase Capital, Milk (acquired by Google), Munchery, MZ, Oppa, OrderAhead, Parse (acquired by Facebook), Poshmark, Postmates, Qwiki (acquired by Yahoo), Shyp, SmartThings (acquired by Samsung), Socialcam, Solve Media, TaskRabbit, Tello (acquired by Urban Airship), TextNow, Uber, Warby Parker, and Washio.
From 2011 to 2013, Shervin Pishevar was appointed as one of ten members of the United Nations Foundation's Global Entrepreneurs Council. In 2012, Pishevar was named by the United States government as an "Outstanding American by Choice," which recognizes the achievements of naturalized American citizens. In 2015, he was appointed to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. In 2016, Pishevar was awarded an Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 2017, he was named on Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" list as well as the Forbes Midas List for the fourth consecutive year.
