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Shervin Pishevar

Co-Founder, Sofreh Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderexecutive@shervin ↗pishevar.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Pishevar is an early tech investor who led Menlo Ventures' Series B investment in Uber and backed companies including SpaceX, Airbnb, and Warby Parker. He also co-founded the venture firm Sherpa Capital and co-founded Virgin Hyperloop One.

49statements → 27claims → 14claims resolved → 57%fully supported → 4.18/5average certainty → 2.78/5average debate potential → 3.9/5argument clarity · the sources → 2said about them ↓

8 supported 3 partly supported 3 contradicted 10 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 27 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 predictions · 19 assertions · 8 opinions · 1 insight · 10 disclosures · 3 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 27 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 14 are resolved, 10 are not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Shervin argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Pishevar: Holder's investigation report found no personal wrongdoing by Kalanick
“And the report, by the way, didn't find anything wrong that, you know, Travis did, or I did, or there was nothing, nothing in there about, you know, him, you know, directly and the recommendation was like to go hire a Sheryl Sandberg, like a chief operating of…”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 39:29 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Pishevar: Bill Gurley hired PIs and met weekly to oust Travis Kalanick
“We found out in our investigation that he hired Some private investigators had weekly meetings about how do we get rid of Travis.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 0:24 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
50% certainty 3
67% certainty 4
83% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

3.9 / 5 directness 3.6 · coherence 3.8 · precision 4.3 · compression 3.2

redirected or did not address 6 of 30 assessed questions (20%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

218 words/min while actually speaking · 54.6 um and uh per 1k words · 27.9 false starts per 1k · 27% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 12,083 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 3/10
setup questions received 70%

Everything Shervin Pishevar said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Pishevar: Bill Gurley was the wrong VC on Uber's board
“We had the wrong venture capitalists on the board. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it was Bill Gurley at Benchmark.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 0:17 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Pishevar: Bill Gurley hired PIs and met weekly to oust Travis Kalanick
“We found out in our investigation that he hired Some private investigators had weekly meetings about how do we get rid of Travis.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 0:24 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Pishevar: Benchmark Hired Private Investigators Against Naval Ravikant
“There's a history of VCs who have done this type of thing and in Benchmark's case, they did it against Naval. They hired private investigators and Naval Ravikant. He had a company called eGroups, and he got thrown out of it.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 57:39 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar names Benchmark as the most overhyped VC firm
“Benchmark.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:19:57 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Pishevar: Fusion GPS gave a fake police report to Fast Company
“We found out an investigation that two weeks after I won the case founding Partner of Fusion GPS was sitting at a cafe in DC with a reporter from Fast Company with a memory stick and a fake police report from London about me. And they gave it to the reporter.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 44:23 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Pishevar: Uber would be worth $1T if Travis Kalanick stayed
“I believe if Travis and Emil had stayed at Uber, Uber would be a trillion-dollar company by now.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 48:33 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Pishevar: Holder's investigation report found no personal wrongdoing by Kalanick
“And the report, by the way, didn't find anything wrong that, you know, Travis did, or I did, or there was nothing, nothing in there about, you know, him, you know, directly and the recommendation was like to go hire a Sheryl Sandberg, like a chief operating of…”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 39:29 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar: Firing Kalanick from Uber was tech's worst mistake since Jobs
“And so they got two, two of the greatest minds in Silicon Valley were taken out of the company. This is the greatest value destruction that's happened since firing Steve Jobs at Apple. And it was a massive mistake.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 48:12 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar: Benchmark ousting Travis Kalanick was one of worst VC decisions ever
“I believe that it was, you know, one of the worst venture, ah, decisions ever.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 54:39 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Pishevar spent millions investigating Fusion GPS smear campaign
“It was worth it to me to, you know, spend millions of dollars on a, legal fees and doing the, we filed seven, four, the latest one is against Fusion GPS, and the judge found with us last year, and is gonna force Fusion GPS to say who hired them”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 56:03 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar: Traditional venture capital model is dead
“Venture capital as it is today, especially with private equity coming downstream and what we've seen with the drunken era venture capital is dead. The venture capital that we grew up with and that we looked up to is that model is gone.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:00:45 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2035
Pishevar: Quantum and AI merger will cure all diseases within 10 years
“Quantum and AI, even at the chipset level, are going to merge. And then that's going to revolutionize all aspects of our lives. We'll find cures to every known disease known to mankind within, I would say, the next 10 years.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:08:32 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2045
Pishevar: Humans will achieve 150-plus year lifespan within 20 years
“Don't die in the next 20 years, because we're gonna reach a point of longevity where you'll be able to help, live a healthy life for 150 plus years.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:09:02 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar: Steve Ballmer was a terrible CEO despite massive wealth
“Steve Ballmer. You know, the decade that he was CEO of Microsoft, Microsoft was completely just flat, right? And he's now richer than Bill Gates, right?”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:11:21 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Pishevar: New nation states will be established and populated in our lifetimes
“We're gonna basically see new nation states, new countries be started in our lifetimes, and you're gonna see a lot of people opt in to those new, new nations.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:16:57 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Pishevar: Uber allies should have staged OpenAI-style employee revolt for Kalanick
“What I wish I had done or had the wisdom to know to do was what, you know, Sam and his allies did in getting the employees at OpenAI to back Sam and say, if he doesn't come back, we're gonna leave. . It was very powerful, and if we had done that at Uber, becau…”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:20:52 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Pishevar: Kalanick's six-month regulatory delay cost Uber 30% market share to Lyft
“Travis Basically for six months was like, you know, telling the taxi commission, the city, government, like, you know, hey, these guys are illegal, like, well, you know, why are you allowing it, et cetera, instead of launching it, you know, as well which was l…”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 20:06 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Pishevar: Uber nearly acquired Lyft, but Lyft demanded too much ownership
“Andreessen, having lost the Uber deal, ended up doing the Lyft deal, and we had, you know, Travis and Emil, you know, they were close to acquiring it acquiring Lyft which, you know but they wanted too much ownership so that luckily didn't work out”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 20:35 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Benchmark sued Travis Kalanick in Delaware court over Uber board seats
“About in early August They then sued in Delaware courts after they had already gotten rid of Travis. They then sued to get rid of him and his two board seats that he had gotten that he hadn't appointed yet. So three board seats. So they wanted, you know, effec…”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 42:02 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Delaware judge rejected Benchmark's effort to remove Uber board seats
“We make our arguments and the judge finds with us and rejects Benchmark's attempt to get rid of the three board seats.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 43:08 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Open
Pishevar: London police emails explicitly disavowed fabricated report to journalists
“And there were multiple emails from the London police telling the reporter, like, this is not our report.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 45:25 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Pishevar: Kalanick and Michael initiated SoftBank's $12B Uber deal
“So the SoftBank conversations, ironically, Travis and Emil started those conversations, the ultimate twelve billion dollar investment from SoftBank Vision Fund.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 47:48 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2029
Pishevar: Trump administration will open VC to non-accredited investors
“So I think in the Trump administration, we'll see changes in that direction of like opening it up. And so that model I think is gonna change.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:02:12 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar: Masa Son's thesis of $9T annual value from AI capex makes sense
“Massa in Saudi, one of the things he talked about is he did his calculations, and the numbers for me make a lot of sense that basically you need to spend, you know, trillions, single digit trillions, and then you're gonna get nine trillion of annual value comi…”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:06:09 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 24statements(25 left)

The other half of the tape: Shervin Pishevar's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Jason Calacanis 1

Statements about Shervin Pishevar, by other people (1)

Disclosure
Calacanis details early Uber investment alongside Bill Gurley and Shervin Pishevar
“I was the angel investor in Uber, Bill Gurley did the A round, Shervin did the B”
Jason Calacanis Jun 1, 2015 ▶ 14:56 Jason Calacanis: The World's Greatest Angel Investor

Every mention by year

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2015 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC wit Jan 13, 2025 1h 10m
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