Pear VC

Investment decisions are led by Founding Managing Partners Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad. They are supported by a large partnership group that includes Ajay Kamat, Pepe Agell, Eddie Eltoukhy, and Kathleen Estreich, among others. The partnership model prevents any single partner from dominating the portfolio while ensuring operator experience is distributed across the investment committee.

Pear VC runs an in-house program called PearX that embeds the firm with founders for several weeks before a seed round, co-building pitch materials and go-to-market plans. The firm also operates a university-focused initiative led by Partner & Head of Dorm, Khalil Fuller, targeting technical founders still in school. This combination of accelerator-style support and campus scouting gives Pear early visibility into companies that have not yet formally raised.

Pear VC blends venture capital with an embedded operational platform. It employs in-house recruiters who have made over 175 hires for portfolio companies, runs founder-led sales coaching with tailored playbooks, and offers pitch-deck and fundraising preparation. The firm describes its model as 'founders-and-operators turned-investors,' and the non-investment headcount reflects a deliberate resource commitment to company building beyond the check.

Pear VC focuses almost exclusively on direct pre-seed and seed investments, writing first checks into software and tech-enabled startups. The firm's own materials make no reference to fund-of-funds commitments or investing as a limited partner in other venture funds. Its entire platform, including PearX and in-house recruiting, is designed around direct company formation.

Pear VC is highly specialized in pre-seed and seed-stage investing. The firm's public positioning expressly states this focus, and its operational programs are designed for founders at the earliest point of company formation, sometimes before incorporation. While Pear may follow on in subsequent rounds, its primary underwriting mandate is the first institutional capital into a company.

Pear VC does not list explicit sector exclusions, but its portfolio reveals a heavy concentration in enterprise software, AI/ML, digital health, fintech, and mobility. There is no public evidence of Pear investing in hard-tech, deep science, or capital-intensive climate hardware at the seed stage. The firm appears to gravitate toward software-centric business models where early product-market fit can be tested quickly.

Pear VC's early-stage posture means it often anchors or co-leads seed rounds, but the firm's public materials do not describe a formal co-investment program alongside later-stage general partners. Its model is built on being the first institutional check, so syndicate dynamics tend to involve angels and micro-funds at formation, with later-stage co-investors joining only in subsequent rounds.