A pioneer in the gig economy, Leah Solivan joins Masters of Scale host Jeff Berman to share scale lessons from founding Taskrabbit. Hear how a need for dog food on a snowy night grew into a global business acquired by IKEA. She also reveals how her experience as an entrepreneur is shaping her next act as an early-stage investor.
Chapters:
00:00 Inside the IKEA acquisition
01:54 Why Leah Solivan became a VC
05:43 How AI is changing how Leah Solivan invests
06:31 The origins of Taskrabbit
08:12 Leaving IBM to start Taskrabbit
12:45 Advice for leaving your career to become an entrepreneur
14:30 Early days of developing Taskrabbit
17:03 Learnings from the beta version of Taskrabbit
18:21 Joining the Facebook Fund for early stage founders
20:13 Stepping down as the CEO of Taskrabbit
22:17 “Everything broke at 50 people”
25:34 Learnings from bringing Stacey Brown-Philpott in as the COO
26:12 How a partnership with IKEA led to an acquisition
30:11 Stepping away from Taskrabbit after a decade
31:39 The question that Leah Solivan wished she asked investors