Leah Solivan
- General Partner
- Fuel Capital
- Independent Board Director
- Founder and Executive Chairwoman
- TaskRabbit
Travels From
California
Leah Solivan, TaskRabbit - Startup Lessons from TaskRabbit
Have Big Hairy Audacious Goals and Take Baby Steps
Fuel Capital's Leah Solivan on Her Shift from the Startup World to VC
Leah Solivan Speaker Biography
For nearly 20 years, Leah Solivan has devoted her career to building and scaling technology products that have improved the lives of millions of people around the globe.
Leah is a General Partner at FUEL Capital, where she invests in early-stage startups across a variety of sectors including consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. She’s passionate about finding founders and teams who are taking on world-changing ideas, and providing the support they need to maximize their potential.
Leah relates so well to founders because she is one herself. She created one of the most widely recognized new consumer technology brands of the past decade with TaskRabbit, the pioneering on-demand marketplace company she founded in 2008. As TaskRabbit’s CEO for eight years, Leah scaled the company into an international business with operations in 44 cities and more than $50 million in venture capital funding. In 2016, Leah transitioned into the role of executive chairwoman, and in 2017 oversaw TaskRabbit’s successful sale to IKEA, the multinational home décor corporation.
Prior to founding TaskRabbit, Leah began her career as a software engineer at IBM, where she worked for seven years on products including Lotus Notes and Domino. She earned a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Sweet Briar College, where she has served on the Board of Directors.
Leah serves on the Board Directors for PetMeds (NASDAQ: PETS), the San Francisco Ballet, and is Chair of the Board for the YPO Pacific US Region.
Proud of her Latina heritage, Leah is devoted to increasing diversity in technology and business. She has been a frequent speaker on topics such as entrepreneurship, the future of work, and women in technology at events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit. Leah’s achievements have been featured in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Time, and Fast Company named her one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” She's a frequent guest on nationally ranked podcasts, top media outlets, and an in demand keynote speaker globally.
Breaking Precedent
Based on her new podcast, Breaking Precedent, Leah Solivan has shattered barriers on many levels, from reimagining the Future of Work with TaskRabbit, to challenging the Venture Capital industry as a young Latina, to advocating for more women in technology and engineering. She is passionate about sharing her journey and highlighting other’s unprecedented journeys as well.
Imagine a world where the boundaries of what’s possible are constantly being pushed, where societal norms are challenged, and where new precedents are made every day. This is the world we will explore in Breaking Precedent, a dynamic presentation dedicated to uncovering the stories of those who dare to innovate, trailblaze, and redefine the status quo.
Throughout this presentation, we will delve into the lives of extraordinary individuals who are not just thinking outside the box but are completely dismantling it to create new standards and pathways in their respective fields. From technology and art to social justice and beyond, we will share their journeys of breaking barriers and making precedent.
Each segment of Breaking Precedent will offer you an intimate look into the motivations, struggles, and triumphs of these pioneers. We will provide a platform where groundbreaking ideas are not only discussed but are also celebrated as catalysts for change.
This presentation is also about equipping you with the tools and strategies to break precedents in your own life and work. We will explore practical applications that will empower and inspire you.
Entrepreneurship: From Engineer to Entrepreneur, 5 Lessons Learned
After 8 years as a software engineer at IBM, Solivan quit her job to found TaskRabbit. With no prior business experience, no MBA, and by withdrawing $20,000 from her IBM pension account, it was a cold winter night when she had the idea for founding TaskRabbit. After bootstrapping the company for 18 months, maxing out credit cards, and building the business from the ground up, Solivan was able to raise over $50 million dollars in venture funding, expand the company internationally, and propel TaskRabbit as a leader of the sharing economy movement. Then in 2017, Leah oversaw TaskRabbit’s successful sale to IKEA – the multinational home décor corporation's first step into the on-demand platform space.
There were many lessons learned along the way, and in this dynamic speech, Solivan will share five important lessons that changed the game for her life and her business. From having “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” to discovering ideas, instead of inventing them, Solivan will explore how anyone can be entrepreneurial and drive innovation for their team, business, or organization, ultimately achieving greater happiness for themselves and truly loving what they do.
The Sharing Economy and The Future of Work
Mom always told us not to talk to strangers, but are there really any strangers today? Five years ago it was unthinkable to flag down a random car and hop in for a ride, but today, with the use of technology, we don’t hesitate in sharing rides with people we don’t know. We are willing to hire a handyman through an app, such as TaskRabbit, and we are renting out rooms in our own houses to people we’ve never met before. How did the sharing economy begin and what will it evolve to next? In this dynamic speech, Solivan will share her story of starting TaskRabbit and why 2008 was a pinnacle for the beginning of the sharing economy.
Over the last 8 years, this new trend has evolved into mainstream adoption and continues to grow and scale in new ways that are changing the future of work. Solivan will explore how businesses, large and small, will need to evolve to support this new fragmented workforce, and how, despite the skeptics, providing more flexibility and entrepreneurship in our work environments will drive innovation, support diversity, and ultimately translate to stronger, longer lasting companies.
