Leah Busque
Leah Solivan[1] | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 15, 1979 |
| Education | Sweet Briar College |
| Occupation(s) | General Partner at Fuel Capital; Founder of TaskRabbit |
| Spouse | Michael Breyer[1] |
Leah Solivan[pronunciation?] (born November 15, 1979), the founder of TaskRabbit,[2] is an American entrepreneur.
Biography
[edit]Solivan graduated from Sweet Briar College in 2001, earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science.[citation needed] She previously served on the college's board of directors.[3] Prior to RunMyErrand, Solivan was an IBM Corp. engineer.[4]
Solivan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children.[citation needed]
In an interview,[5] she said that, based on "geeky conversations" with her ex-husband she "purchased the domain name runmyerrand.com" and "four months after that" left IBM "to build the first version of the site". When a chance to help the business grow required the family to relocate, they moved from Boston to San Francisco.[6]
TaskRabbit
[edit]TaskRabbit is an online and mobile marketplace that connects clients with "taskers" to outsource small jobs and tasks, such as cleaning, performing deliveries, assembling furniture, and more, to others in their neighborhood.[7]
The company was originally founded under the name RunMyErrand.[4]
In 2010, the company was renamed to TaskRabbit.[8]
From 2008 to 2016, Solivan served as CEO of TaskRabbit. During this time, she scaled the company to 44 cities and raised more than US$50 million.[8]
In April 2016, Solivan transitioned into the role of executive chairwoman.[8]
In September 2017, TaskRabbit was acquired by IKEA.[9]
Entrepreneur
[edit]Since the summer of 2017, Solivan has been a General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across the consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail sectors.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Playbook: The two profiles everyone’s talking about". Politico. .
- ^ Anand Giridharadas (June 1, 2012). "Is Technology Fostering a Race to the Bottom?". The New York Times.
- ^ "SBC Board of Directors".
- ^ a b Moore, Galen (2010-04-08). "RunMyErrand changes name to TaskRabbit". BizJournals.com (Boston Business Journal).
- ^ Shontell, Alyson (2011-10-10). "Founder Q&A: Make A Boatload Of Money Doing Your Neighbor's Chores On TaskRabbit". Business Insider.
- ^ Bruder, Jessica (2012-12-19). "A Wave of Start-Ups Helps Small Companies Outsource Their Tasks". The New York Times.
- ^ Moran, Gwen (2011-11-21). "Building a Business on Busy Schedules and Making Errands Pay". Entrepreneur.
- ^ a b c Rao, Lena (2016-04-14). "TaskRabbit Founder Leah Busque Steps Down As CEO". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
- ^ Swisher, Kara; Schleifer, Theodore (2017-09-28). "Ikea has bought TaskRabbit". Recode. Archived from the original on 2017-09-28. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
- ^ "TaskRabbit's founder has joined a VC firm, as the company continues to explore a sale". Recode. Retrieved 2017-11-27.