Pejman Nozad

When he's not lasered in on his job as a cofounder and managing partner of Pear, Pejman is frequently focused (or even obsessed) with soccer. Having played professionally in his native Iran, and having later covered two FIFA World Cups as a reporter, he frequently wakes up in the middle of the night to catch a game live on television -- much to his wife's dismay. To this day, he maintains his membership in the International Sports Press Association, and serves as editor-in-chief and publisher for Footballmedia.

Pejman did not enter the tech industry like most venture capitalists. Having immigrated from Iran, he lived in an attic above a yogurt shop and took a job at a rug store in the Valley, selling carpets to local clientele. But he immersed himself in what was happening at the vanguard of technology, noting the patterns that tended to predict a successful company. Slowly, with a few small investments, he developed a reputation both for identifying talent and helping take promising ideas to the next level. Eventually, from next to nothing, he built a $46B portfolio, investing in over 300 startups and seeding several multi-billion dollar companies such as Dropbox, DoorDash, Guardant Health, Lending Club, SoundHound, and Gusto.