Pejman Nozad

Everything Pejman Nozad said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

Y COMBINATOR Insight

Nozad warns waiting for seed funding before quitting is a bad sign

“Typically, if they're waiting to the seed round to be raised before they drop their job, I think it's not a good sign for me, and that, I think this is very obvious among the best founders.”

Pejman Nozad Mar 8, 2018 ▶ 47:49 Elad Gil and Pejman Nozad - Startup Investor School Day 3 · Y Combinator

20VC Disclosure

Nozad committed to his largest angel investment, Gusto, in 15 minutes

“It's my biggest, single biggest angel investment ever, and when I met Josh, it took me like 15 minutes to commit, and I didn't see even one page of the product he's building”

Pejman Nozad Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 3:11 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

Y COMBINATOR Disclosure

Nozad was the first investor in Andy Rubin's Danger

“I actually was the first investor in Danger in that room. Andy Rubin started Danger, and as you know, he went on and created Android.”

Pejman Nozad Mar 8, 2018 ▶ 40:29 Elad Gil and Pejman Nozad - Startup Investor School Day 3 · Y Combinator

Y COMBINATOR Disclosure

Nozad made the introduction to SoftBank for DoorDash's $500 million round

“DoorDash, another amazing Y Combinator company, which actually I met the founder at Y Combinator Demo Day just raised five hundred million dollars, and I made that intro to SoftBank.”

Pejman Nozad Mar 8, 2018 ▶ 42:42 Elad Gil and Pejman Nozad - Startup Investor School Day 3 · Y Combinator

Y COMBINATOR Disclosure

Nozad passed on Facebook's Series B investment over office lease terms

“So part of the investment was, ah, they wanted to lease one of our offices on University Avenue, ah, for five years. So we went back and forth, and we didn't agree on the lease terms, and we didn't invest in Facebook.”

Pejman Nozad Mar 8, 2018 ▶ 44:17 Elad Gil and Pejman Nozad - Startup Investor School Day 3 · Y Combinator

Y COMBINATOR Insight

Investors should not lose outlier founders by overanalyzing minor deal terms

“When you see an exceptional founder, those outliers who, Are actually from Mars. Do, do not overanalyze the situation. Just get on the rocket ship and go. And two never let those extra four cents distract you. You have to see the forest through the trees.”

Pejman Nozad Mar 8, 2018 ▶ 44:34 Elad Gil and Pejman Nozad - Startup Investor School Day 3 · Y Combinator

Y COMBINATOR Disclosure

Nozad sourced early deals by cold-emailing Persian Stanford CS students

“I remember in, when I started in late nineties and I didn't know how to find founders I was going on Stanford computer science actually school looking at every name that looked Iranian or Persian and sending an email and inviting them for tea. And I ended up i…”

Pejman Nozad Mar 8, 2018 ▶ 1:02:53 Elad Gil and Pejman Nozad - Startup Investor School Day 3 · Y Combinator

20VC Disclosure

Nozad's fund was the first investor in Andy Rubin's Danger

“We managed to be his first investor in Danger”

Pejman Nozad Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 9:11 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

20VC Disclosure

Nozad was one of the first investors in Dropbox

“I actually became one of the first investors in In Dropbox”

Pejman Nozad Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 11:02 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

20VC Disclosure

Nozad notes his top investments like Dropbox feature Iranian co-founders

“And if you look at my portfolio, your company, some of the best company I've ever invested founders are Iranian, you know, naming it Dropbox, one of them, Sound Hunt, the other one, and then current fund has few amazing Iranian founders.”

Pejman Nozad Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 19:08 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

20VC Disclosure

Nozad funded his first $2M tech fund via carpet sales commissions

“I, we started, he asked me to put, I exactly remember, we started with two million dollars, majority of his money, and he said, you put 10% of it, and this is in the late nineties. I didn't have any money. I said, I don't have it. He said, okay, every month we…”

Pejman Nozad Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 8:41 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

20VC What-if

Nozad missed massive returns by not maintaining pro-rata ownership in Danger

“Had we participated and kept our ownership after the initial investment, we would have made a lot of money through a half a billion dollar acquisition of Danger by Microsoft.”

Pejman Nozad Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 16:54 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

The other half of the tape: Pejman Nozad's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 42 times in 9 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 27Drew Houston 7Mar Hershenson 5Misha Esipov 1

Statements about Pejman Nozad, by other people (1)

20VC Assertion Partly supported

Nozad went from undocumented immigrant to backing 200+ companies worth $20B+

“It reads, I was once an undocumented immigrant. Now, I'm a VC. I've backed over 200 companies worth over twenty billion, and I've created thousands of jobs.”

Harry Stebbings Feb 20, 2017 ▶ 1:06 20VC: Pejman Nozad: Tech's Most Unlikely VC: From Yoghurt Shop To Investing In Startups Now Worth $20Bn+

Every mention by year

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Pejman's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
20VCLEDGER	Founding Managing Partner, Pear VC	1	6	—	full record on 20VC →
Y COMBINATORLEDGER	Founding Managing Partner, Pear VC	1	6	—	full record on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast →