5 Things I’ve Learned from One of the Best Seed Investors in the World

SuccessVP has been selected as one of three emerging manager funds to be part of Pear VC’s inaugural Emerging Managers in Residence program.

You can read more in this TechCrunch article.

Mar Hershenson has been a wonderful mentor as I’ve launched SuccessVP. She is one of the world’s top investors, and has been named to the Forbes Midas List every year since 2021.

Here are some things I’ve observed while working and spending time with Mar:

1. Be humble. There aren’t many investors as accomplished as Mar, or academics for that matter. Mar has her PhD in Electrical Engineering and has taught the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford for over 10 years. Between teaching, investing in, and building companies of her own, Mar likely has 5x the 10,000 hours required to be an expert on the topic of startup building. Despite the accolades and years of experience, Mar will humbly admit there are still parts of the profession in which she’s world-class that she’s still figuring out. The more you know, the more you realize there’s more to learn!
2. Give it a label. Mar is an amazing communicator. One thing she said to me that made a major impact was, “If you do something, give it a name.” Early on, when building SuccessVP, I used to say that my fund helped founders with Customer Success before they were able to hire their first Customer Success leader. Now I call this Founder-led Customer Success. Giving that critical gap between 0-1, where founders are doing everything in their power to make their customers successful and secure product-market fit, a name has helped me easily convey the differentiated edge SuccessVP brings to the investor landscape. It’s accelerated the trajectory of the fund!
3. Curiosity. Mar looks at everything like a Rubik’s cube. She’s a busy person, but you can tell that with every opportunity that comes her way, she takes that extra second to look at it from a different angle and quickly assesses the opportunity against patterns she’s seen before. I feel like she’s constantly programming and recalibrating her internal algorithm for spotting exceptional opportunities. More often than not, the companies that change the world break the patterns that have come before. Mar has a unique openness to what could be.
4. Work harder. Most investors don’t work as hard as Mar. We recently traveled together for a week, and every day, Mar gave a major presentation, either to Pear LPs or at a conference. The night before she presented with me at SaaStr, she probably didn’t get home from a cross-country flight until 1 in the morning, but you know what? She looked incredibly rested, and her session stole the show. Capacity comes from working hard. Just like a well-trained runner can maintain an incredible pace without seeming to break a sweat, the ability to do extraordinary things only comes from consistent hard work.
5. Make everyone feel special. Mar has a warmth that precedes her entry into the room. She has a way of making everyone she meets, even if it’s just for a moment, feel like the most important person. This is a superpower and one of the reasons I think Mar has been so successful. People open up quickly, and when they do, it gives Mar a chance to spot that thing in them that makes them uniquely great.

More about Pear VC’s inaugural Emerging Managers in Residence Program

The Emerging Managers in Residence Program is truly unique in that it gives SuccessVP access to everything Pear does — including LP introductions and early access to companies in Pear’s accelerator, typically reserved for partners at top firms like NEA, Lux Capital, and Sequoia Capital. Pear also made a direct and significant investment from it’s latest a $432 million fund.

Funds were chosen for their unique value-add to the early-stage ecosystem, with a particular emphasis on operating experience. Our community of world-class CS leaders was especially compelling.

Both Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad are perennials on the Forbes Midas List — needless to say, I’m honored and excited! 🍐

Me, Mar and Customer Success Meetup Co-host Monica Perez, Head of Customer Success at Notion, during our recent CCO Summit at SaaStr Annual