Barcelona-born Mar Hershenson started seed stage firm Pear VC with former rug dealer and fellow Midas List investor (and soccer-fanatic) Pejman Nozad in 2013. Before that, she founded three startups and taught engineering at Stanford for nearly a decade.Pear's early bet on DoorDash propelled them onto the Midas List for the first time in 2021, this is her fourth consecutive year on the list. In 2022, portfolio companies Senti Bio and voice-assistant provider SoundHound went public via SPAC.She earned a PhD from Stanford University in electrical engineering, where she also teaches entrepreneurship in the engineering school. To date Hershenson has registered 14 patents.She also serves on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College and the Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. Dedicated to promoting women in investment and tech, Hershenson cofounded the event Equity Summit, organization All Raise and Pear's Female Founder Circles program.