Shervin Pishevar is the epitome of the American dream. In Silicon Valley, there are only a few entrepreneurs that exhibit the same level of drive.
Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber, sought out Shervin’s expertise to help raise funding in the early stages of the startup’s growth. He is also well-known for investing in companies such as Kissmetrics, Machine Zone, Mr. Number, Shaker, and Tumblr.
Journey to a New World
Shervin emigrated to the United States from Iran with his parents in 1976. The experience of seeing his father earn a master’s degree but move back to Iran later to participate in the 1978 revolution exemplified the high level of sacrifice his parents made to create a lifetime of opportunity for the family.
Shervin Pishevar’s journey in academics saw him become a cellular biology major at the University of California-Berkeley. In his senior year, he was the editor in chief for the Berkeley Scientific. This research journal was the first peer-reviewed scientific journal in the United States. At the young age of 20, he used his talent in scientific writing to write an article expressing a need for change when it comes to human rights. This article later influenced the formation of the Istanbul Protocol.
The Start of an Entrepreneurial Journey
Shervin Pishevar started WebOS in 1997 as his first company at 23 years old. The business gained the interest of Grotech Capital and Dell’s Impact Venture, which raised $10 million in venture capital. WebOS served the developer community as a web application that changed the face of web computing.
WebOS was the inspiration of HyperOffice, a project management tool used by over two million professionals. Shervin is a shareholder of HyperOffice with a portfolio that includes Vistaprint, which purchased Pishevar’s previous venture, Webs.com, for $117.5 million.
As a strategic angel investor, Shervin has successfully funded 50 companies that include Gowalla which was acquired by Facebook, Rapportive which is now owned by LinkedIn, Aardvark sold to Google, Task Rabbit and Socialcam which were acquired by Autodesk. Furthermore, he was a co-founder of Hotprints, an online platform for people to create personalized photo books.
Pishevar used his political presence to promote the Startup Visa Act and influence the US Congress to provide international business owners with a temporary employment visa. However, the act was never passed.
Travis Kalanick, the founder of Getaround and Uber, car rental company that prides itself on offering peer-to-peer service, met Pishevar in 2008 and was impressed with his personality. He had confidence in Pishevar because of the track record of success with other tech startups he had in Silicon Valley.
Active Social Media Influencer
Shervin is a man of many talents, which includes sharing his passion for finances on social media. He often talks about entrepreneurship, cryptocurrency, and blockchain on his Twitter.
Dedication to Politics
Pishevar was an entrepreneurial ambassador for the US Department of State delegation for several opportunities when traveling to the Middle East and Russia. He also sat on the board of the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council and received an award for being an “Outstanding American by Choice” in 2012.
Shervin Pishevar had the pleasure of being a keynote speaker in Algeria for the President Obama Summit. As he was an advisor to the Obama administration and he developed a personal relationship with President Obama
Dedication to Philanthropy
Shervin is the definition of a man that serves the international community. He actively participates as a volunteer using his venture capital skills to raise awareness and money for charities. He has provided support to organizations like Invisible Children, which seeks to provide families in Africa with clean water.
Leader in Business and Education
In 2013, Shervin shared with the public a $100,000 grant called The Cyrus Prize to technology innovators of Iranian descent. In an interview with TechCrunch, he stated, “Human capital is the greatest untapped resource. Iranians’ talent is worth more than all the oil and gas reserves in Iran. However, it is still untapped.”
He was elected to be the vice president and supporting member of Pro Tempore of the Montgomery County Board of Education located in Maryland. Shervin used his power to manage educational institutions that taught over 120,000 students and had 15,000 teachers. The success of his involvement helped the board maintain an annual budget of $1 billion.
Shervin Pishevar has also helped several educational organizations succeed as a member of the American Association of School Administrators (AASSA), Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE), National School Boards Association (NSBA) and the National Federation of Urban-Suburban School Districts (NFUSSD).
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