Background on Shervin Pishevar

Shervin is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He came to America with his family with just $35 when they escaped the Iranian revolution. His father drove a taxi while getting his PhD, and his mother worked as a maid and cafeteria worker. His mother's interest in computer programming and her sacrifice to buy him his first Apple computer helped spark his interest in technology.

10 Most Surprising/Interesting Revelations:

• The Uber Investment Story: Pishevar chased Travis Kalanick for a year trying to meet him, finally got a meeting through multiple referrals, lost the initial deal to another firm, but then got a surprise call while in Africa. He flew immediately to Dublin where he wrote a term sheet for $290M valuation. His $20M investment ended up being worth around $7 billion.
• The Travis Kalanick Ouster Details: Pishevar revealed that Benchmark's Bill Gurley had allegedly hired private investigators and held weekly meetings about removing Travis starting in January 2017. They confronted Travis with a resignation demand letter during the week his mother died in a tragic boating accident.
• The Political Operative Connection: He uncovered that Fusion GPS (the firm behind the Trump-Russia dossier) was allegedly involved in creating fake reports to damage his reputation during the Uber conflicts. He's spent millions on legal investigations to uncover who hired them.
• SpaceX Investment: He got into SpaceX through his friendship with Elon Musk and through connections at Founders Fund. He invested at a $6B valuation in 2014 and believes SpaceX will become a trillion-dollar company.
• The Future of Human Longevity: Pishevar made the bold claim that within 20 years, we'll reach a point where people can live healthy lives for 150+ years due to advances in AI and quantum computing. He advises friends not to take unnecessary risks because we're so close to this breakthrough.
• The Network States Concept: He helped pioneer the concept of "network states" - new sovereign city-states that would be tokenized, with citizenship tied to ownership. He believes we'll see entirely new nations formed in our lifetime.
• Missed Opportunities: He passed on both Snapchat and Pinterest in their early rounds. With Pinterest specifically, he regrets doing the pitch meeting over phone instead of in person, violating his own "always get on the plane" principle.
• The Mother Connection: One of the most emotional parts was his discussion of recently losing his mother, the same week as billionaire David Bonderman passed away. His mother was his "first angel investor" who secretly put a laptop on her credit card when he was in college.
• The $5,000 Personal Investment: He revealed he turned a $25,000 investment in Chris Sacca's Lowercase Capital fund into $4 million.
• Uber's Potential: He believes if Travis and Emil Michael had stayed at Uber, it would be a trillion-dollar company today. He considers their removal "the greatest value destruction since firing Steve Jobs at Apple."

This interview provides a rare inside look at some of Silicon Valley's most dramatic moments, from the perspective of someone who was deeply involved in them. It's particularly interesting because Pishevar speaks very candidly about events that haven't been widely discussed before.