Leah Solivan: The Entrepreneur's Journey to the Boardroom.

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

(0:00) Intro.

(1:10) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(1:57) Start of interview.

(2:40) Leah's "origin story."

(3:41) Her time at IBM.

(4:48) Her founding story of TaskRabbit (Boston, 2008).

(12:43) The evolution of her board at TaskRabbit, and how to think about (startup) board composition and scaling.

(20:31) First CEO succession (after $12m Series B in 2012).

(25:10) Her return as CEO, raising a Series C, and adding 3 strategic independent directors.

(26:13) On hiring Stacy Brown-Philpot as COO, and successor to CEO role.

(30:45) Distinguishing between startup directors (management, investor, and independent directors).

(36:01) Transitioning to investing as a general partner at Fuel Capital. Motto: "We're on your corner, not in your kitchen"

(40:55) On the role of CEO coaches (vs board directors or advisors).

(42:44) About YPO. "It has been a hugely influential organization for me."

(45:21) Her thoughts on boardroom diversity. Reference to the LCDA.

(48:42) Innovation in the boardroom, risks and opportunities of AI.

(51:29) Books that have greatly influenced her life:

1. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston (2007)
2. Books by Adam Grant.

(51:51) Her mentors.

(52:25) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by.

(52:50) An unusual habit or absurd thing that she loves.

(54:15) The living person she most admires.

Leah Solivan is a General Partner at Fuel Capital, a Silicon Valley-based seed stage venture capital firm. Prior to that, she was the founder, CEO and Executive Chair at TaskRabbit.

You can follow her on social media at:

Twitter: @labunleashed

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License