Ajay Kamat

Ajay is a Partner at Pear and first joined the Pear family as a portfolio company founder. Previously, he was CEO of Wedding Party, a company he scaled and ran for 5 years before selling to Instacart. As an entrepreneur, he has built products that have failed, and others which have scaled to millions of users.

Ajay joined Pear in 2015 and has focused on a number of verticals including consumer, fintech, digital health, and Web3. He helps run PearX and works closely with our portfolio founders as they are just getting off the ground and finding product market fit. He has represented Pear on a number of boards including Aaptiv, Young Alfred, The Coterie, and Instaread. He is passionate about supporting founders as they do the impossible, building world-class companies.

Ajay holds a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from UC Davis. He and his wife are based in the East Bay and are the parents of two children.

What is your most used emoji?

👏, but 🥃🍺show up more than I thought! 😅

What's your favorite book?

The Hard Thing About Hard Things was the only book that I’ve ever had to pause reading because it took me back to the anxieties and stresses of being a founder. I finally finished it a few months later, and maintain it gives one of the more honest accounts of running a company.

What career path did you want to pursue when you were a kid?

When I was very young, I wanted to be an engineer because I thought it meant working on car engines. In high school we had the opportunity to shadow people in different careers and I was the only one to sign up for the venture capital track.

What are your favorite sports teams?

WARRIORS!

What are your hobbies outside of work?

I love cooking and eating. You can frequently find me smoking meats in my yard, even if only for myself, and am my own biggest fan and harshest critic.
I will take any opportunity to be outside, sitting under the warm sun.
I love history and will consume any historic content from any period. After visiting Rome, I came home and listened to 200 hours of podcasts on the history of Rome.
I love spending time with my family.