Title
Fire and Fuel: Founders and FundersCatalog Number
102740327Type
Moving imageDescription
How do a founder and a funder take an idea and build a pioneering company? Before there was Uber or Airbnb, TaskRabbit helped birth the sharing economy. Leah Busque’s entrepreneurial fire has taken her from IBM software engineer to founder of TaskRabbit to venture capitalist. Ann Miura-Ko is a star early stage funder, advisor, and mentor who has fueled the growth of disruptive firms. Their partnership propelled TaskRabbit from early concept and pivoting to scaling in 40 markets before it was acquired by IKEA in 2017.On a cold winter night in 2008, Leah Busque realized she was out of dog food. What if she could create a way to find and pay someone in her Boston neighborhood to run the errand? After coding for 10 weeks straight, she finished the online site for her startup that became the online marketplace TaskRabbit.
Leah moved to Silicon Valley and connected with funder and advisor Ann Miura-Ko. A technologist turned venture capitalist, Ann took an early bet on TaskRabbit then served on the firm’s board for many years. She has been founding investor board member for other successful firms from Lyft to Modcloth, earning her a place on the 2017 Midas List of top 100 venture capitalists.
Venture capitalist Ann Miura-Ko and Leah Busque, founder of TaskRabbit and general partner at Fuel Capital, speak with the Exponential Center’s Marguerite Gong Hancock about pursuing audacious goals, igniting high impact teams, scaling companies, facing dark moments, creating productive partnerships, and hacking value.
Date
2018-05-16Participants
| Busque, Leah, Speaker |
| Hancock, Marguerite Gong, Moderator |
| Miura-Ko, Ann, Speaker |