Shervin Pishevar, an investor who left Silicon Valley for Miami after being accused of sexual misconduct by a number of ladies in 2017, has resurfaced in a task that can appear acquainted to anybody who has tracked his profession. In keeping with a brand new report, Pishevar is now “vice chairman” of Yeezy, the patron model managed by Kanye West, who legally modified his identify to Ye final yr.
In a Fox Enterprise piece at present about Ye’s choice to finish his relationship with the Hole (he terminated their partnership early and plans to launch his personal retail shops), Pishevar was quoted as an government talking on Ye’s behalf, saying: “There is just one Ye . . . His fingerprints are throughout our trendy lives, our tradition, our garments, our units, our music. His affect has modified the very design of our trendy lives, and just one different one who I can consider has that capability, and that was Steve Jobs.”
Whereas there’s little question that Ye is the final word influencer, Pishevar has by no means been at a loss for sometimes grandiose language, as longtime trade watchers will know.
He’s additionally identified for hitching his wagon to energy gamers, and for flexing his personal attendant energy — generally in unsettling methods.
A serial entrepreneur who offered a cellular social video games firm in 2011 for an undisclosed quantity, Pishevar joined Menlo Ventures later that very same yr, persuading the agency to steer the Sequence B spherical of Uber. With Uber’s star on the rise, Pishevar — a self-promoter who has stated he put $4 million of his personal cash into the corporate — grew to become a type of de facto spokesman for the agency, routinely tweeting about his relationship to then-CEO Travis Kalanick (he continues to do this) and, lower than three years later, utilizing his fast-accruing wealth to cofound his personal enterprise agency, Sherpa Capital.
Issues had been very a lot going Pishevar’s manner — he was attracting extra and greater tales about himself on a regular basis within the media — till one among his tasks, Hyperloop One, backfired in a giant manner, with a lawsuit filed by his cofounder within the endeavor accusing Pishevar of nepotism and worse. (One of the crucial salacious claims made by the cofounder was that Pishevar’s brother, introduced aboard as the corporate’s high-paid basic counsel, threatened the cofounder by leaving a noose on his chair.)
Not lengthy after got here these assault accusations together with an allegation of rape in London. Pishevar was by no means charged with against the law; in the meantime, none of 5 ladies who talked with Bloomberg in 2017 about Pishevar, saying he used his more and more highly effective place within the tech world to pursue romantic relationships and undesirable sexual encounters, would determine themselves publicly for worry of repercussions.
Their worry was not unfounded, seemingly. Pishevar has been identified to be litigious. He can be intimidating, as this editor skilled firsthand earlier than an on-stage occasion with him in 2016. (Whereas Pishevar was charming main as much as the sit-down, as soon as backstage, Pishevar and several other of his associates encircled me as he warned in no unsure phrases that he would go away the stay interview if I requested sure questions on his enterprise dealings.)
Both manner, Pishevar left California after that, and he appears to have efficiently reinvented himself in Miami, dwelling lavishly, discovering a brand new viewers for his tales, and investing in startups, not all of which have labored out.
Most manifestly, Pishevar lists Bolt Mobility on his LinkedIn web page. However the startup, cofounded by famed Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, ran out of cash this summer time and deserted tons of of unusable electrical scooters and bicycles in at the least eight U.S. cities.
Attaching himself to Ye — a towering, combative determine that, like Kalanick, does issues his personal manner — completes the image in a manner. Now to see how lengthy it lasts.