About
Shayan Zadeh is a serial entrepreneur who has founded, built, managed, and turned around multiple companies in different industries.
Most recently, Shayan turned around beloved retail brands Pier 1 and Dressbarn out of bankruptcy and back on growth track.
Shayan Zadeh is also founder and CEO of Leap Rail, an artificial intelligence startup helping hospitals to run more efficient and streamlined operating rooms through power of machine learning and predictive analytics.
Previously, Shayan co-founded Zoosk, one of the world’s largest online dating platforms and a top 10 grossing app in the Apple App Store. Shayan led Zoosk as CEO, raising over $60M in venture capital and growing the company to over $200M in annual revenue. Zoosk was acquired for $258M in July of 2019. Prior to founding Zoosk, Shayan was a program manager and software engineer at Microsoft.
Shayan received a Master in Computer Science from University of Maryland and an MBA from University of Washington. He has been named to 40 Under 40 list by San Francisco Business Times and Alumni Hall of Fame by University of Maryland. His companies have received honors such as "The Next Big Thing" by Wall Street Journal and "Inc5000" by Inc Magazine. Shayan has been granted 8 patents by United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In addition, Shayan is an angel investor and advisor to startups including Huma (previously Medopad), Sherbit (acquired by Huma), PaperKarma (acquired by reputation.com), and Identified (acquired by Workday). In his free time, Shayan enjoys bicycling, tennis, and playing with his Doberman Pinschers, Ivy & Duke.