Ilian Bio Photo

Ilian Georgiev

Visiting Partner

Strengths are ten times more important than weaknesses. The best in the world are not good at everything; they are instead exceptional at just a few things.

Strengths are ten times more important than weaknesses. The best in the world are not good at everything; they are instead exceptional at just a few things.

Ilian is a Visiting Partner at Pear, where he helps our founders find product-market-fit faster, recruit, and fundraise.

Before Pear, Ilian co-founded Charlie Finance Co, a personal finance company that helps Americans get out of debt faster and worry less about money, which exited to Chime in 2021. Prior to Chime, Ilian worked in mobile gaming, as Product Manager at Pocket Gems and Head of Product at Chocolabs.

Ilian holds an MBA from Stanford University and degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Vassar College and the London School of Economics.

What is your most used emoji?

❤️, with 🦆 as a close second.

What’s your favorite book?

My favorite book is always the one I just finished. Currently that is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

But I often think of this quote from Shakespear’s Julius Caesar.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.”
It encourages me to confront anything I am afraid of head on and sooner.

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

One of my early memories is throwing rocks in a puddle, trying to figure out how the waves worked. I wanted to be a scientist like Newton who discovers a new natural law that gets named after them.

What are your favorite sports teams?

I do not have the gene for caring about sports teams. The only time I care about sports is when the World Cup is happening, once every 4 years.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

⛵. When our kids are in at least second grade, my partner and I plan to take off and sail around the world.

Previous Experience

  • CEO, Charlie Finance Co.
  • Head of Product, Chocolabs
  • Product Manager, Pocket Gems