Leah Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on consumer, SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies dedicated to giving outsiders the inside edge through unrelenting commitment, authenticity, and hustle. Some of their investments include Bark, Flexport, Crowd Cow. Previously, Leah was the founder and CEO of Taskrabbit, which was acquired by IKEA.

You can follow Leah on Twitter @labunleashed.You are also welcome to follow your host @mikegelb and @consumervc for updates.

A book that impacted you personally and professionally is Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

On this episode, we discuss:

Why Leah left her job at IBM to start Task Rabbit? Her learnings from founding Task Rabbit and why she became a venture capitalist? Some of Fuel Capital’s strategic advantages and what makes Fuel unique?
The differences when analyzing consumer vs. enterprise businesses. Qualities in founders that she is focused on. How do you know when a company know they have found product-market fit? When should a company have product-market fit in relation to the fundraising round? How she thinks about traction and milestones.
In a pitch deck, an element that’s very important but often overlooked. When a fund says they need a lead investor, does it automatically mean bad news for the founder? How she thinks about online customer acquisition costs in today’s landscape? Consumer trends she’s focused on?
One thing she would change about venture capital and advice for consumer startups.

Leah Solivan (Fuel Capital) - The Importance of Passion, When a Company Should Have Product-Market Fit, and What Founders Should Pay Attention To In Their Pitch Decks