Breaking Precedent

During our summer break, we’re revisiting powerful conversations about breaking precedent. In this episode, host Leah Solivan explores the courage, vision, and persistence it takes to be the first—to make a crack in the system and let the light in. You’ll hear from artists, innovators, and leaders including Eric Ryan, Windy Chien, Tamara Rojo, Alejandra Campoverdi, and Aaron Holiday as they share their unique journeys, the sacrifices of being first, and the inspiration that keeps them moving forward.

Their stories reveal what it truly means to challenge expectations, redefine success, and create space where none existed before.

Listen to the full episodes here:

• Breaking Dawn: How Eric Ryan of Method, Olly, Welly, transforms boring products into billion dollar brands
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Broken Records: Windy Chien on changing paths, tying stories into knots, and designing a new language of possibilities
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Breaking Pointe: San Francisco Ballet’s Tamara Rojo with Her Bold Vision for a Vibrant Future
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Breaking the Narrative: Award winning author of First Gen, Alejandra Campoverdi, on breaking generational cycles
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Breaking the Bank: Aaron Holiday on 645 ventures' data-driven approach to sourcing deals and bringing the invisible to life
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

Resources:

• Legally Blonde on IMDb
• de Young Museum Official Site
  
  

Notes:

(00:00) – Introduction to Breaking Precedent
(00:30) – The Power of Vision: Seeing Change Before It Happens
(01:00) – Unique Journeys: The Knot Metaphor and Personal Stories
(01:30) – The Role of Art and Creativity in Society
(03:00) – Sacrifices and Scars: The Cost of Being First
(05:30) – Inspiration from Family, Friends, and Art
(07:00) – “They didn’t break precedent to be admired. They broke it to make something better.”

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

During our summer break, we’re revisiting powerful conversations from Season One of Breaking Precedent. In this episode, host Leah Sullivan explores the many forms of disruptive change—framed as sunrises, tides, and rainbows. Leah is joined by a range of precedent-breakers across disciplines, including Eric Ryan, who reimagined consumer goods; Pete Flynn, who rides the waves of market shifts; and Justice Steven Breyer, who reflects on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade. We also hear from Patrick Brown, founder of Impossible Foods, and Kara Golden, who challenged the beverage industry with Hint Water. The episode concludes with artist Trevor Paglen, whose work uncovers hidden systems and challenges perception.

Listen to the full episodes here:

• Breaking Dawn: How Eric Ryan of Method, Olly, Welly, transforms boring products into billion dollar brands

      Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

• House Broken: Pete Flint on Disrupting Real Estate and Building Trulia— Pete Flint

      Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

• Breaking Precedent: Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on what is precedent?

      Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

• Breaking the Food Chain: Pat Brown’s Mission to Transform the Meat Industry with Impossible Foods

      Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

• A Water Break: The Undaunted Journey of Kara Goldin and Hint

      Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

• Breaking Cover: Trevor Paglen with a bold artistic approach to challenging societal thinking and setting new precedents

      Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

Resources:

Method Products

Impossible Foods

Hint Water

Trulia

Show Notes: 

(00:00) – Introduction to Breaking Precedent

(00:30) – Sunrise Breakers: Predicting and Shaping Trends

(05:00) – Tide Breakers: Returning to Forgotten Truths

(07:30) – Rainbow Breakers: Defying Expectations

(10:30) – Conclusion: What Kind of Breaker Are You?

(14:00) – “We not only created a product…We set a new precedent in the industry.”

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

During our summer break, we’re revisiting powerful conversations from Season One of Breaking Precedent. In this episode, host Leah Solivan explores the paradox of venture capital—a system designed to fund innovation but resistant to change. Featuring Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate, Pete Flint of NFX, and Aaron Holiday of 645 Ventures, this episode exposes the subtle forces that shape who gets funded, whose ideas are considered “viable,” and what it really takes to break into the inner circle of VC. From early Lyft experiments to navigating legality and bias, these precedent breakers challenge the notion that disruption ends with the product—sometimes, you have to disrupt the system itself.

Ann Miura-Ko is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Floodgate, an early-stage venture capital firm known for backing iconic startups at their inception, including Lyft, Refinery29, and Twitch. Often described as one of Silicon Valley’s most respected investors, Ann is a self-proclaimed "precedent breaker"—someone who thrives in ambiguity and seeks out founders who challenge conventional wisdom.

Explore Floodgate: https://www.floodgate.com
Connect with Ann Miura-Ko on X: https://x.com/annimaniac

Pete Flint is a General Partner at NFX and the Founder of Trulia, one of the most successful real estate platforms in the U.S., which IPO'd and later merged with Zillow in a multi-billion-dollar deal. Now a leading venture capitalist, Pete channels his experience as a founder into mentoring startups with world-changing potential..

Learn more about NFX: https://www.nfx.com

Connect with Pete Flint on X: https://x.com/pflint

Aaron Holiday is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 645 Ventures, a venture capital firm backing early-stage startups led by visionary, often underestimated founders. With a background that bridges entrepreneurship, systems thinking, and institutional investing, Aaron takes a high-conviction, hands-on approach to venture capital.

Explore 645 Ventures: https://645ventures.com
Connect with Aaron Holiday on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronholiday

Listen to the full episodes here:

• 
  Breaking Tradition: Co-Founding Partner of Floodgate, Ann Miura-Ko, on innovations in Venture Capital — Ann Miura-Ko
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• House Broken: Pete Flint on Disrupting Real Estate and Building Trulia— Pete Flint

Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

• Venture Capital: Aaron Holiday on 645 ventures' data-driven approach to sourcing deals and bringing the invisible to life — Aaron Holiday

Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

Resources:

TaskRabbit

Lyft (originally Zimride)
Uber

Trulia

Show Notes: 

• (00:00) Introduction to venture capital's paradox
• (00:30) Inside the pitch room: personal experiences
• (01:30) Breaking precedents: Ann Marico's story
• (02:00) The Zimride to Lyft transformation
• (06:00) Challenges and innovations in venture capital
• (07:00) Aaron Holiday: redefining access and experimentation
• (11:00) The future of venture capital: diversity and resilience
• (11:50) "Venture has a branding problem." — Pete Flint, founder of Trulia
• (14:30) Conclusion: reframing venture capital

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

The Precedent Spectrum: From Law to Art

During our summer break, we’re revisiting powerful conversations from Season One of Breaking Precedent, in this episode host Leah Sullivan explores how precedent shapes everything from law to art. Leah starts with Justice Steven Breyer discussing the landmark Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education, which broke the 'separate but equal' precedent. The episode also features Bismarck Lepe, founder of MiSalud Health, who revolutionized healthcare access for the Hispanic community, and Kara Golden, who disrupted the beverage industry with Hint Water. Other notable guests include Eric Ryan, who transformed the consumer products market; Ann Miura-Ko, a venture capitalist with a keen eye for 'super thinkers'; and Shiza Shahid, co-founder of the Malala Fund. The episode concludes with artist Trevor Paglen, who redefines art by pushing its boundaries. Each guest’s journey illustrates how breaking precedent, though risky, can lead to significant societal advancements.

Listen to the full original episodes here:

• Breaking Precedent: Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on what is precedent? — Justice Stephen Breyer
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Breaking Tradition: Co-Founding Partner of Floodgate, Ann Miura-Ko, on innovations in Venture Capital — Ann Miura-Ko
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Piercing the Veil: Shiza Shahid on co-founding the $1B Malala Fund to transforming kitchenware with Our Place — Shiza Shahid
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Breaking Dawn: How Eric Ryan of Method, Olly, Welly, transforms boring products into billion dollar brands — Eric Ryan
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Breaking Cover: Trevor Paglen with a bold artistic approach to challenging societal thinking and setting new precedents — Trevor Paglen
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• Rompiendo Precedente: Bismarck Lepe on Breaking Barriers from the Fields to Google to Founding Mi Salud Health — Bismarck Lepe
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 
• A Water Break: The Undaunted Journey of Kara Goldin and Hint — Kara Goldin
    Listen here: Apple | Spotify 

Show Notes:

(00:00) Introduction: The Power of Precedent

(01:00) The Legal Bedrock: Precedent in Law

(04:30) Healthcare Innovation: Breaking Barriers with MiSalud

(08:30) Entrepreneurial Grit: The Story of Hint Water

(13:00) Revolutionizing Industries: Method, Ollie, and Welle

(15:30) Empowering Change: Shiza Shahid and the Malala Fund

(18:30) Art and Innovation: Challenging the Status Quo

(21:00) Conclusion: The Impact of Breaking Precedent

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: https://www.breakingprecedent.com/  

Instagram: @labunleashed - https://www.instagram.com/labunleashed/ 

X: @labunleashed - https://twitter.com/labunleashed?lang=en 

In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan sits down with Julie Rice, co-founder of SoulCycle and Peoplehood, to discuss how she helped redefine not just boutique fitness, but the modern experience of community. Julie shares how her background in theater and talent management laid the foundation for one of the most iconic wellness brands in the world. Together, they unpack the emotional blueprint behind SoulCycle’s five-part class design, the revolutionary decision to prioritize instructors as full-time talent, and the power of scaling human magic. With Peoplehood, Julie is channeling her obsession with connection into relational health designing group experiences that teach how to actively listen, support, and feel seen.

Guest Bio and Links:

Julie Rice is a serial entrepreneur and community-builder best known as the co-founder of SoulCycle and now Peoplehood, a platform for relational fitness and guided group conversation. Her work centers on designing experiences that build human connection at scale.

Listeners can learn more about Julie Rice through LinkedIn @julierice

Check out Julie’s latest venture Peoplehood, and learn more about Soulcycle   

Show Notes: 

• (0:00) Leah announces fall 2025 launch of Breaking Precedent!
• (4:30) Leah welcomes founder of Soulcycle, Julie Rice  
• (5:00) How precedent breaking shows up for Julie
• (6:00) The intentionality behind building a fitness community  
• (8:00) Love of theatre and connecting a stage to Soulcycle
• (14:00) Meeting Elizabeth, Julies business partner
• (16:00) The napkin math that started Soulcycle
• (20:00) Opening the Bridge Hamptons studio
• (20:45) “ It was always supposed to be something that helped you feel empowered, that made you feel like you could be more than you thought you could, that made you feel good in your body, that allowed you to want to communicate differently with support other people.” - J.R
• (23:00) What sets Soulcycle apart from other fitness classes and gorups
• (28:30) Scaling Soulcycle out of cultivating human experience
• (31:00) The number one most important investment - the instructors 
• (32:30) The culture of ‘yes’ as a business principle 
• (36:00)  ”There is a simplicity in knowing people. That is really the biggest gift that people want.” - J.R 
• (36:30) Why they never franchised SoulCycle
• (37:30) Partnering with Equinox - the pros and the tradeoffs
• (42:00) Julies’ emotional transition out of Soulcycle 
• (44:00) Introducing Peoplehood - realtional health 
• (47:00) The art of active listening
• (48:00) SoulCycle and Peoplehood - Are they a sunrise, tide, or rainbow 

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan dives deep into the life-altering journey of Sarah Hoover, author of 'The Motherload.' Sarah discusses how her rage and postpartum depression propelled her to write a raw and honest memoir that challenges societal norms about motherhood. Leah and Sarah unpack topics such as postpartum trauma, the inadequacies of the medical system, and the unique challenges faced by working mothers. Sarah’s story doesn’t just break precedent, it dismantles the silence around maternal mental health and invites us to question the rigid norms we've long accepted.

Guest Bio and Links:

Sarah Hoover is an art historian, writer, and former director at Gagosian Gallery whose work centers around the cultural intersections of womanhood, art, and maternal identity. Her debut book The Mother Load dismantles the myths of motherhood through raw honesty and wit. She lives with her husband and two kids in Manhattan.

Listeners can learn more about Sarah Hoover on her website, and on IG @sarahhoov

Sarah’s book - The Motherload: Episodes from the Brink of Motherhood

Show Notes: 

• (0:00) Intro
• (2:00) Leah introduces guest, Sarah Hoover to Breaking Precedent
• (2:30) Icebreaker - child yelp reviews
• (5:00) Sarah’s roots - ballet, art, and indiana 
• (7:30) Connecting over ballet 
• (13:00) “ I have a very standard birth, but I found it violating and scary and terrifying, and it left me really broken. When my son was born after 19 hours of labor, I felt so assaulted by what I had been through in that delivery room.”
• (15:00) Turning rage into purose
• (20:00) Cultural conditioning and the female burden
• (24:30) Failures of modern medicine and the edinburgh scale
• (31:30) Sarah’s acknowledged the need to seek help
• (32:00) Another layer of stress - entrusting a nanny to help parent
• (33:00) Medical history of maternal care
• (35:30) Trauma-informed care - what needs to change
• (39:00) AI medical care becoming preferred over human medical care?
• (40:00) Leah shares her surrogacy experience and seeing birth from the other side
• (43:00) What writing has taught Sarah
• (50:45) Question:  What's one piece of parenting advice you think is bullshit?
• (53:00) Breaking precedents - you can’t have it all (at once)

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan sits down with Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti, co-founders of The Last Mile, a groundbreaking prison education program that’s transforming lives behind bars through coding, entrepreneurship, and purpose. From venture capital success stories in Silicon Valley to walking the yards of San Quentin and Indiana State Prisons, Chris and Beverly share their radical journey into social innovation. They explore how tech education is breaking generational cycles of incarceration, lowering recidivism rates, and redefining second chances. Chris and Beverly share some deeply moving stories of transformation, including a woman who declined early release to finish the program, and a man who was once cellmates with his father.

Guest Bio and Links:

Chris Redlitz is a venture capitalist and former endurance athlete who co-founded The Last Mile after a pivotal visit to San Quentin prison. With a background in growing companies like Reebok and launching digital ventures, he now channels his entrepreneurial experience into transforming prison education.

Beverly Parenti is a veteran tech entrepreneur and innovator who co-founded The Last Mile to empower incarcerated individuals, particularly women, with marketable skills. As the first-generation daughter of Holocaust survivors, Beverly's life has been profoundly shaped by her father's experiences during World War II. Her father's story of survival became a guiding light in her life, instilling in her the values of resourcefulness, resilience, and relentless perseverance.

Learn more about The Last Mile at their website  

Connect with Chris Redlitz on LinkedIn @ChrisRedlitz, and on X @ChrisRedlitz 

Connect with Beverly Parenti on LinkedIn @BeverlyParenti and on X @thebev     

Show Notes: 

• (0:00) Intro
• (1:45) Leah introduces guests, Chris and Beverly to Breaking Precident  
• (2:10) Icebreaker - moments that changed everything
• (4:30) Beverly's journey - from retail to PayPal
• (7:00) Chris’s journey from sailing to Silicon Valley
• (10:00) The birth of The Last Mile
• (15:00)  ”What my father taught me was to be resourceful, to be resilient and relentless. and to this day, those three Rs are not only part of my mo, but also things that I teach others.” - Beverly Parenti
• (21:30) First steps - building trust in San Quentin
• (26:00) The business case for prison reform
• (28:00) Impact and success - reducing recidivism
• (31:30) Expansion and new programs
• (35:00) Culture shift - from infractions to aspirations
• (38:00) Rigorous application process
• (43:00) Stories of transformation - Billie and Darnell
• (44:30) Generational change through scholarships
• (46:30) Scaling and adapting the program nationwide
• (52:00) Social enterprises and equity for graduates
• (56:00) What they’ve unlearned
• (1:00:00) Reflections and tuture goals

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan sits down with Matteo Franceschetti, the visionary founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, to explore how sleep is becoming the most critical, and most overlooked dimension of human performance. From growing up in an Italian town to revolutionizing sleep technology in Silicon Valley, Matteo shares a remarkable journey of grit, ambition, and innovation. He opens up about the transformation from competitive athlete to tech entrepreneur, and why he believes the future of sleep lies in compression, personalization, and AI-driven health scans. The two dive into topics like sleep fitness, temperature regulation, global expansion, and even how sleep training parallels child development.

Guest Bio and Links:

Matteo Franceschetti is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, the sleep fitness company.Eight Sleep developed a proprietary technology which is redesigning sleep by developing cutting-edge AI and machine learning models to track bio signals during the night and optimizing body recovery and rest while asleep. The end goal of the Pod is to compress sleep and scan your body while asleep to monitor your health. Eight Sleep is currently used by pro athletes and top performers across multiple industries and was recognized as one of TIME’s “Best Inventions” in 2018 and 2019, was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” in 2018, and has raised over $150M in funding from leading investors, including Founders Fund, Softbank, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Valor Equity Partners, General Catalyst, Naval Ravikant, and Patrick Collison.

Discover your perfect sleep set up - Take Quiz

Connect with Matteo Franceschetti on X @m_franceschetti  

Show Notes: 

• (0:00) Intro
• (1:30) Leah introduces guest, Co-Founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, Matteo Franceschetti
• (2:00) Q: If you could sleep anywhere in the world, where would it be? 
• (3:00) Matteo’s early life and career as lawyer
• (9:00) The Birth of Eight Sleep
• (10:30) Innovations in sleep technology 
• (13:30) Redefining sleep as performance
• (16:30) Full-body scanning - the future of preventative health
• (19:00) Contrasts between italian and Silicon Valley cultures
• (26:00) The discipline of survival in hardware
• (30:00) Jet lag strategies and biohacking sleep
• (33:30) Early challenges in manufacturing
• (37:00) Sleep’s role in the health tech movement
• (40:00) Eight sleep's operating principles and startup discipline
• (40:30) “ I always push the team to think in terms of hours.”
• (42:30) Closing thoughts

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan dives deep with Founder of Trulia, Pete Flint. Pete opens up about his early days studying physics at Oxford and how his curiosity eventually led him into the fast-paced world of startups. He talks about his experience at lastminute.com, one of the UK’s hottest tech companies at the time, and what it was like navigating through the chaos of the dot-com crash and the aftermath of 9/11. After moving to Silicon Valley to attend Stanford, Pete shares the story behind the lightbulb moment that sparked Trulia—and how he broke into one of the most tightly regulated industries in the U.S. Now a partner at NFX, Pete reflects on what he's seeing in the next wave of startups, especially around AI, and how the rules of building and scaling companies are changing in real time.

Guest Bio and Links:

Pete Flint is a serial entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Trulia, steering the company through its IPO and a multi-billion-dollar merger with Zillow. Today, he's a General Partner at NFX, investing in early-stage companies that leverage network effects and cutting-edge technologies.

Listeners can learn more about Pete Flint at NFX, and on LinkedIn @PeteFlint

Trulia 

Show Notes: 

• (0:00) Intro 
• (2:00) Leah introduces guest and founder of Trulia, Pete Flint
• (2:30) Pete gives a brief background of himself 
• (5:00) Pete's childhood and early influences
• (9:30) How studying physics shaped Pete's thinking
• (12:00) Internships, London startups, and lastminute.com
• (17:30) Dot-com crash lessons
• (20:30) Transition to Silicon Valley and Stanford
• (24:40) The birth of Trulia
• (26:30) Launching during a market collapse
• (38:00) The role of technology in disrupting industries
• (42:00) The Zillow merger
• (44:00) Becoming an Investor
• (47:30) The future of startups and venture capital

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed

In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan dives deep with Dr. Patrick Brown, the founder of Impossible Foods, who left a celebrated career in science to take on one of the most urgent issues of our time - animal agriculture. Together, they discuss how a plant-based alternative could dismantle an outdated, destructive food system and catalyze planetary restoration. Brown shares the origin story behind Impossible Foods, recounting his bold pivot from Stanford professor to food-tech pioneer. He unpacks the global environmental costs of livestock farming and o

Guest Bio and Links:

Patrick Brown is a biochemist, former Stanford professor, and founder of Impossible Foods, a company revolutionizing the way meat is made by eliminating animals from the equation. Through science, sustainability, and purpose-driven entrepreneurship, he is working to replace the global animal agriculture system by 2035.

Listeners can learn more about Patrick Brown on his website, on LinkedIn @PatrickBrown, and on Stanford Profiles  

Resources:

Impossible Foods Origins 

Show Notes: 

• (0:00) Intro
• (2:30) Leah introduces guest and founder of Impossible Foods, Patrick Brown
• (3:30) How Patrick challenged the status quo
• (4:30)  ”Impossible Foods has been called a game changer, a disruptor, it's even been called a threat by the traditional meat industry.”
• (7:30) Early life and growing up with a father in the CIA
• (12:30) Patricks early career life
• (19:30) Patrick takes a sabbatical that sparked a revolution 
• (24:00) ”The basic problem is not that people love meat. It's that we're using the wrong technology to produce it.”
• (26:30) Reversing climate damage through food system reform
• (32:30) Mission over market - a scientist's radical path
• (37:00) Launching a meat revolution - Impossible Foods
• (39:00) Winning over chefs - Dave Chang and strategic launch
• (44:30) Declining Google’s buyout
• (45:30) Barriers to scale - cost, regulation, and disinformation
• (51:30) The 2035 vision - what it will take to succeed
• (53:00) Final thoughts

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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

Connect with Leah:

Website: breakingprecedent.com/ 

Instagram: @labunleashed

X: @labunleashed