Mar Hershenson
VCFounding Managing Partner, Pear VC
Pear VC co-founder investing from pre-seed
Background
Mar Hershenson is the Founding Managing Partner at Pear VC, which she co-founded with Pejman Nozad in 2013 (originally as Pejman Mar Ventures). She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and co-founded three startups across mobile/ecommerce, enterprise software, and semiconductors, accumulating 14 patents. She has over 13 years of founder experience and previously served as VP Product at Magma Design Automation. She is a Lecturer at Stanford teaching Lean Launchpad and serves on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College. She has been recognized on the Forbes Midas List from 2021 through 2025.
Investment Thesis
Invests at pre-seed and seed in AI, B2B, and consumer startups, leveraging deep technical and operational founder experience to partner with companies from idea to scale.
Investment Focus
Stages
Sectors
Based in: San Francisco Bay Area, USA (North America)
Notable Investments
DoorDash
IPO (DASH); flagship Pear VC success
Gusto
Unicorn; HR and payroll platform
Vanta
Unicorn; automated security compliance
Aurora Solar
Unicorn; solar design and sales software
Guardant Health
IPO (GH); liquid biopsy for cancer detection
Branch
Unicorn; mobile linking and attribution
Viz.ai
Unicorn; AI-powered care coordination for time-sensitive conditions