Visionary Investor, Entrepreneur & Innovation Leader
Shervin Pishevar is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has been instrumental in creating or championing eleven groundbreaking industries, including Hyperloop, the OnDemand 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. As such, Pishevar brings unparalleled insight into innovation, disruption, and early-stage investing, drawing from a career that has reshaped industries. He is a compelling keynote speaker for business leaders, tech audiences, founders, investors, and anyone seeking a rare, insider perspective on how breakthrough ideas scale globally.
Fireside Chat with Shervin Pishevar | Upfront Summit
Shervin Pishevar at the UCB Newton Series
In Conversation with Shervin Pishevar | Techsylvania Conference
Shervin Pishevar has reimagined what venture capital can be—founding new models through Edison Fund, Edison Labs, and Sofreh Capital that accelerate breakthrough companies from concept to global impact. As a venture studio pioneer, he has helped launch paradigm-shifting businesses including Hyperloop, Telly, SLAI, and others. At Sherpa Capital, which he co-founded, Pishevar managed $650 million across three funds, raised an additional $500 million in co-investments, and ushered in the modern era of SPVs—driving more than $2 billion in additional profits for investors and over $3 billion in fund distributions. With portfolio leaders such as Airbnb, Robinhood, SpaceX, Slack, IonQ, DraftKings, Ipsy, Astra Space, OpenDoor, Rent the Runway, Quip, OpenGov, and Curology, his track record stands among the strongest in the industry.
Audience Takeaways:
How venture studios and new investment structures are reshaping the future of venture capital
Lessons from backing category-defining companies at their earliest stages
Why SPVs and co-investment vehicles have transformed investor participation and returns
The innovation principles that drive Pishevar’s approach to building multibillion-dollar portfolios
As the founder of Silicon Foundry, Shervin Pishevar created a powerful corporate innovation advisory firm and incubator that brought together enterprise leaders like Salesforce, eBay, Comcast/DreamWorks, and Condé Nast. Under his leadership, Silicon Foundry ideated and incubated high-impact companies including Do.com—spun out of Salesforce and later sold to Amazon—and Brandless, one of Silicon Valley’s most recognizable consumer brand experiments. The firm ultimately became a corporate innovation powerhouse acquired by Kearney. Pishevar’s forward-looking vision continued as he took quantum computing pioneer D-Wave (QBTS) public through his SPAC, DPCM Capital, raising $300 million and elevating the company to a valuation exceeding $1 billion with partners such as Emil Michael, Eric Schmidt, and Peter Diamandis.
Audience Takeaways:
How corporations can partner with startups to unlock transformative innovation
Proven strategies for building ecosystems that generate breakthrough ideas and new ventures
A behind-the-scenes look at taking deep-tech companies public—including D-Wave’s journey
What emerging technologies mean for the next decade of corporate and entrepreneurial growth
Shervin Pishevar’s influence extends far beyond entrepreneurship and investment. Through the Pishevar Institute, he has committed deeply to expanding opportunity—endowing a professorship at Howard University and supporting global organizations including Build.org and the Malala Fund. President Barack Obama appointed him to the Fulbright Board in recognition of his global leadership in innovation, education, and diplomacy. Before his business career, Pishevar was a scientist at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Labs, producing groundbreaking research that led to patents on malaria treatment and publications in JAMA and Neuroscience Letters. At only 19, he helped create the Istanbul Protocol—establishing international standards that prohibit medical professionals from participating in torture.
Audience Takeaways:
How philanthropy, science, and entrepreneurship intersect to create lasting change
The importance of “freedom technologies” and democratizing economic opportunity
Lessons from a career that spans humanitarian leadership, scientific research, and global innovation
How values-driven leadership can shape institutions, communities, and entire ecosystems
With a career defined by bold bets and transformative ideas, Shervin Pishevar continues to shape the industries that will define the future. From pioneering quantum computing and reimagining transportation to funding the next wave of disruptive technologies, he brings a rare ability to forecast what comes next—and build the teams capable of making it real. For Pishevar, innovation is not a catchphrase but a deeply held ethos: a belief in connecting talent, capital, and courage to accelerate human progress.
Audience Takeaways:
A forward-looking view of the technologies that will reshape society in the next decade
How to build organizations that stay ahead of exponential change
The leadership mindset required to catalyze breakthrough innovation
Practical insights for anticipating disruption and identifying future-defining opportunities
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.
Since 2011, Pishevar’s early investments have generated over $7 billion in value, with more than $3 billion distributed in profits—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, including Parse (acquired by Facebook) and Scan (acquired by Snap).
As an angel investor, Pishevar has backed over 200 companies, 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 to IKEA), 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 of IVF.
He also hired and trained the future founder of TrueBill and 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.
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