Episodi

  • Break the Backboard: Festus Ezeli on Championships, Reinvention, and Life After the NBA

    Break the Backboard: Festus Ezeli on Championships, Reinvention, and Life After the NBA
    Oct 22 2026
    What happens when the kid who scored his first basket on his own team becomes an NBA champion, and then has to start over again?On Breaking Precedent, Leah Solivan talks with former Golden State Warrior Festus Ezeli about a journey nobody could have scripted. Festus grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, finished high school at 14, and moved alone to Yuba City, California, to live with his uncle and chase a dream of becoming a doctor. Strangers kept asking the 6'4" teenager if he played basketball. He didn't, until he scored his first basket on his own team and got cut from his high school team. With a mentor who believed in him before he believed in himself, he embraced being a beginner, turned down Harvard for Vanderbilt, switched from pre-med to economics, and became a first-round NBA draft pick. He shares what he learned from Steph Curry's early-morning work ethic and a Warriors team where nobody cared who got the glory.Then came the injury: early retirement and six months in a wheelchair, a year after playing in the NBA Finals. Festus opens up about his mom's lesson on moving mountains, finding his voice again in media and storytelling, and the work he's building now: schools in Nigeria and Sacramento, leadership and basketball camps in Africa, Festus Feasts and The Vision Table supporting local restaurants, and his push to rewrite what life after sports can look like.Key InsightsBeing a beginner can be a superpower when it makes you listen and do whatever it takes to improve.Sometimes you have to believe in someone else's belief in you until yours kicks in.Greatness lives in small daily habits that nobody sees.It's amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the glory.A career-ending injury doesn't have to be a life-ending one. The skills transfer.Privilege comes with a responsibility to create opportunity for others.Timestamps00:00 Cold Open: “God Gave You Your Mountains” 01:10 Leah’s Introduction 02:40 Welcome and Reunion 03:10 Ballet Night Backstage 04:20 Bread and Tea in Nigeria 05:55 Growing Up in Benin City 08:15 The Tortoise and the Hare 09:40 The Meaning of Ifeanyichukwu 11:10 Moving to America Alone at 14 15:40 “Do You Play Basketball?” 17:20 Scoring on His Own Team 18:40 The Mentor Who Believed First 20:40 Being a Beginner as a Superpower 22:40 Turning Down Harvard for Vanderbilt 24:45 Choosing Basketball over Medicine 26:40 Two-Time Most Improved 27:45 Trusting Your Intuition 28:40 Steph Curry's Work Ethic 31:05 Nobody Cares Who Gets the Glory 32:00 Injury and Early Retirement 32:55 Finding Joy in Storytelling 36:15 Six Months in a Wheelchair 37:10 “This life is short, and it's our job to take advantage of the moment while it's here.” — Festus Ezeli 38:50 Mom's Mountain Lesson 40:55 A Podcast About Comebacks 41:45 Schools and Camps 44:50 The Kid Who Showed Up Early 47:10 The Ripple Effect 49:25 Festus Feasts 52:25 The Vision Table 54:15 Rewriting Life After Sports 54:50 Why Kids' Education Is Urgent 55:35 Women's Sports 58:30 Legacy and Final TakeawaysThank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!Justworks: justworks.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcast Squared Away: gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcast TaskRabbit: taskrabbit.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastLeah 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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.Connect with Leah Solivan:Website: breakingprecedent.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_solivan/ X: https://twitter.com/labunleashed?lang=en
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    1 ora e 10 min
  • Breaking Up the Boys' Club: Stephanie Cartin on Building the Entreprenista Movement

    Breaking Up the Boys' Club: Stephanie Cartin on Building the Entreprenista Movement
    Oct 15 2026

    What does it take to quit your job, skip venture capital entirely, and build two seven-figure businesses on relationships alone?

    On Breaking Precedent, Leah Solivan talks with Stephanie Cartin, co-founder of Socialfly and Entreprenista, about the day she and co-founder Courtney quit their jobs, May 4, 2012, after ten months of building a social media agency on nights and weekends. Stephanie traces the thread from performing as a child actress in the Washington, DC area, to a Disney Vacation Club presentation at age 11 that led her to Cornell's hotel school and a career at Marriott, to spotting social media's business potential as an early Facebook user. She explains how one networking group, mentor Carrie Kerpen, and the book Built to Sell shaped a fully bootstrapped, all-women agency that grew to seven figures without outside funding.

    Stephanie then shares why she split from the agency in 2021 to build Entreprenista into a media company and membership community, the Entreprenista League, now 4,500 members strong, focused on connection, resources, and visibility. She and Leah dig into what still holds women founders back, alternative paths to capital, why AI is leveling the playing field for small businesses, and why she believes real human connection, and in-person community, is the opportunity AI can't replace.

    Key Insights

    • A calculated leap is different from a reckless one: Stephanie and Courtney built for ten months on the side and made a plan before quitting.
    • Relationships compound. A contact from age 11, a friend's mom's old client, and one networking group opened nearly every early door.
    • You don't need to be the smartest person in the room. Learn from people who have already built businesses, even in other industries.
    • Bootstrapping is a real strategy. Most women-owned businesses are not venture-funded, and debt can work when it funds real growth.
    • Build a sellable asset, not just a job for yourself.
    • AI can level the playing field on operations, but it can't replace human connection.

    Timestamps

    00:00 Welcome To Breaking Precedent

    00:47 Meet Leah And Stephanie

    02:59 Broadway Dreams To Hospitality

    05:01 Disney Spark And Cornell Path

    07:09 Spotting Social Media Early

    10:29 Gut Instinct And Trend Timing

    11:40 Theater Skills In Business

    13:39 Going All In On Socialfly

    16:01 First Clients Through Networking

    18:30 Bootstrapping And Women Led Agency

    20:36 Mentorship With Carrie Kerpen

    22:56 Selling Socialfly Tease

    23:17 Building to Sell Mindset

    24:49 Why EntrepreNista Started

    25:47 Pandemic Pivot and Split

    27:32 League Solves Founder Gaps

    29:31 Writing a Credibility Book

    32:13 What Still Holds Women Back

    36:47 AI Tools and Human Connection

    39:54 Future Vision and IRL Growth

    43:38 Next Gen Rules to Break

    45:52 Closing Reflections

    Resources Mentioned

    Entreprenista: entreprenista.com

    Thank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!

    TaskRabbit: taskrabbit.com

    Justworks: justworks.com

    Squared Away: gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent

    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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.

    Connect with Leah Solivan:

    Website: breakingprecedent.com

    Instagram: instagram.com/leah_solivan

    X: twitter.com/labunleashed
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    47 min
  • Breaking the Feed: Kass and Mike Lazerow on Building, Selling, and Betting Together

    Breaking the Feed: Kass and Mike Lazerow on Building, Selling, and Betting Together
    Oct 8 2026
    How do you keep going when your biggest success comes with losing almost everything along the way?On Breaking Precedent, Kass and Mike Lazerow discuss their book Shoveling Shit: A Love Story and what happens when entrepreneurship and marriage collide, especially while raising three kids. They recount their early entrepreneurial roots, meeting in the mid-’90s internet era, and building Golf.com. They sold it to Chipshot during their honeymoon period, lost access to everything when Chipshot ran out of money, then rebuilt and ultimately sold Golf.com to Time Warner amid Tiger Woods’ rise.They describe starting Buddy Media in 2007 while juggling a newborn, scaling it, and selling to Salesforce for $745M, yet feeling strained, unhealthy, and disconnected afterward. Now investors, they outline their “Go Gauge” framework for evaluating ideas, argue there’s no perfect time to start, push back on bias against married co-founders, and emphasize embracing the “shoveling” reality while using AI to stay competitive.Key InsightsEntrepreneurship is less about avoiding failure and more about learning to keep moving when things fall apart.The hardest parts of building a company often happen in the messy middle, when uncertainty, sacrifice, and setbacks become part of the journey.Success can look very different behind the scenes, especially when professional achievements come with personal and family costs.Complementary strengths between partners can become a powerful advantage when building a company together.Setbacks can become turning points when entrepreneurs keep working through the problem instead of staying focused on what went wrong.There may never be a “right” time to take the leap.Timestamps00:00 Welcome 02:49 On the Entrepreneurial Journey07:24 Early Hustles And Roots10:45 Mike Learns Freedom13:17 Meeting In Web One18:17 Golf Dot Com Crash22:24 Shoveling And Lucky Breaks26:03 Buddy Media Sacrifices27:53 Credit And Co Founder Balance31:42 Exit Aftermath Feelings33:26 Health Wake Up Call35:31 Writing The Real Story36:52 From Founders To Investors39:25 Go Gauge Framework43:11 Messy Middle Mindset44:55 AI As Operating System48:33 Rethinking Venture Rules51:09 Venture Capital Reset55:12 Legacy And Precedent59:57 Closing Thanks Resources MentionedShoveling Shit: A Love Story: https://www.shovelingshit.com/Golf.com: https://golf.comSalesforce: https://www.salesforce.comWarner Media: https://www.warnermedia.comThank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!Squared Away: gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastTaskRabbit: taskrabbit.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastJustworks: justworks.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastLeah 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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.Connect with Leah Solivan:Website: breakingprecedent.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_solivan/X: https://twitter.com/labunleashed?lang=en
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    1 ora e 2 min
  • Breaking the Capital Ceiling: Erin Harkless Moore on Who Gets Funded and Why

    Breaking the Capital Ceiling: Erin Harkless Moore on Who Gets Funded and Why
    Oct 1 2026

    What happens when a $648 billion market goes uncounted, and who decided it wasn't worth measuring in the first place?


    This episode follows Erin Harkless Moore from the breakfast table in San Antonio, through Goldman Sachs, Cambridge Associates, and Princeton's endowment, to Pivotal, the organization founded by Melinda French Gates, where she builds an investment program aimed at the people and markets capital has overlooked. It's a conversation about who gets funded, who gets to decide, and what changes when you start measuring what finance has ignored.


    Leah Solivan interviews Erin about starting her career in a Goldman Sachs group with no female partners, earning the CFA so no one could question her technical credibility, and cold-emailing Harvard Business School alumni to find her way to the allocator side of the table. She shares the index card her husband pushed her to write, a single line about changing how capital is allocated and who is in the room, and how it led to a job she half-thought was a prank, interviewing virtually as Seattle became an early COVID epicenter.


    Erin explains why reframing the bar isn't the same as lowering it, using the example of GP commitment requirements that can screen out fund managers who don't come from wealth. She walks through Pivotal's approach of using investing, philanthropy, and advocacy together, how DEI headwinds are showing up in fundraising right now, what she has learned from watching Melinda French Gates prepare for every meeting, and where she sees the next overlooked markets, from women's health to women's sports.


    She closes with what she'd write on the index card for the next generation of women building where capital hasn't looked yet.


    Key Insights

    • Reframing the bar isn't lowering it. It's asking whether you're measuring the risk you actually care about.

    • A market nobody has measured is easy to dismiss. Sizing it can make it undeniable.

    • Diligence rules like large GP commitments can screen out strong managers who didn't start with wealth.

    • Writing a one-line purpose down makes it easier to say no to the wrong opportunity.

    • No single tool moves a big problem. Investing, philanthropy, and policy work better together.

    • When data alone doesn't change minds, a better story often has to.

    • Conviction backed by homework and data is what carries you through the doubt.


    Timestamps

    00:00 Welcome to Breaking Precedent

    02:09 Her Grandma’s Index Card

    04:20 San Antonio Roots

    08:15 Breakfast and Family Rituals

    12:40 Math to Wall Street

    17:37 Women in Finance Reality Check

    22:29 Writing the Career Index Card

    26:35 The Call From Pivotal

    29:37 Betting on the Care Economy

    31:21 Choosing the Leap

    34:30 Sizing the Care Economy

    37:33 Reframing the Bar

    39:41 Living the Thesis

    42:16 All Tools Strategy

    45:36 DEI Headwinds Returns

    49:41 Lessons From Melinda

    51:51 Next Invisible Markets

    55:21 Breaking Precedent Legacy

    57:13 Conviction for Builders


    Resources Mentioned

    Pivotal Ventures: https://www.pivotalventures.org

    Magnify Ventures: https://www.magnifyventures.com

    Cambridge Associates: https://www.cambridgeassociates.com


    Thank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!

    Justworks: justworks.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcast


    Squared Away: gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcast


    TaskRabbit: taskrabbit.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcast




    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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.


    Connect with Leah Solivan:

    Website: breakingprecedent.com/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_solivan/

    X: https://twitter.com/labunleashed?lang=en
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    1 ora e 4 min
  • Breaking the 9-to-5: Gary Swart on the Future of Work, Freelance Nation, and Betting on Founders

    Breaking the 9-to-5: Gary Swart on the Future of Work, Freelance Nation, and Betting on Founders
    Sep 24 2026
    What happens when you turn down an early job at Netflix, back when it was still just an idea about mailing DVDs, and then spend the next decade proving that work doesn't have to happen in an office?This episode follows Gary Swart from running a parts middleman business in New Jersey to leading oDesk for nearly ten years, the company that later merged with Elance to become Upwork. He explains the criteria he now uses for big career decisions, why weighing the people differently might have sent him to Netflix, and how oDesk made hiring talent anywhere feel normal long before the pandemic forced the issue.Leah Solivan interviews Gary Swart, now an investor at Polaris Partners, about the forks in the road that shaped his career. Swart recounts auditioning for a sales job at Reed Hastings' Pure Software without knowing how to use a mouse, the "battlefield promotions" that followed, and leaving IBM for a startup so low on cash that he refused to mislead a customer about whether it would survive. He explains how a Sigma Partners investor sent him to oDesk, where he went from COO to CEO within weeks and had to pick between staffing firm and marketplace.Swart shares the frameworks he still leans on: reversible versus irreversible decisions, people, PowerPoint and Excel for evaluating founders, and hiring for personal characteristics before skills. He walks through cutting oDesk's take rate from 30% to 10%, guaranteeing work quality, and Reed Hastings' warning that 90% of CEOs are under-focused. He also looks ahead at a future of work that is atomized, more specialized, and augmented by AI, including the app he built himself in an afternoon.And at an age when many of his peers are winding down, he explains why he's still looking for uncomfortable positions, starting with writing a book.Key Insights• If a decision is reversible, make it. Waiting for certainty usually costs more than being wrong.• The people matter more than the title. Swart says he would take a demotion to work with the smartest people he knows.• Two directions is no direction. A company pulled between two business models has to declare a major.• Customers who won't recommend you because you're their "secret weapon" are telling you something good.• Short-term revenue pain, like cutting a take rate, can buy a position competitors can't undercut.• Hire for personal characteristics first, then motivation, skills, and domain knowledge last.• Most founders are under-focused. The current market is usually big enough.Timestamps00:00 Welcome to Breaking Precedent02:35 Turning Down Netflix06:37 Career Decision Framework09:51 Early Hustle in Manufacturing11:30 Moving West Into Tech13:16 Pure Software Baptism16:19 Frameworks Built From Mistakes21:50 Finding oDesk and CEO Leap23:54 Marketplace Versus Staffing26:38 Remote Work Unlock and Impact31:59 Tailwinds Behind Remote Work35:01 Geography and Global Opportunity36:28 COVID Validation and E Commerce37:24 Remote Work After COVID38:49 AI Atomizes Jobs39:53 Prototyping With AI41:07 How Investors Decide43:20 Scrappy Before Scaling46:07 Pricing Take Rate Shift49:10 Fixing Marketplace Trust51:17 Hiring For Traits First53:52 Backchannel References55:57 Founder Mistakes Focus59:26 On Demand Work Future01:03:06 Breaking Personal Precedent01:08:12 Closing ReflectionsResources MentionedUpwork: https://www.upwork.comPolaris Partners: https://www.polarispartners.comThank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!TaskRabbit: taskrabbit.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastJustworks: justworks.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastSquared Away: gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastLeah 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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.Connect with Leah Solivan:Website: breakingprecedent.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_solivan/X: https://twitter.com/labunleashed?lang=en
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    1 ora e 10 min
  • Breaking the Dress Code: Sali Christeson on Power, Workwear, and Dressing Women for the Room

    Breaking the Dress Code: Sali Christeson on Power, Workwear, and Dressing Women for the Room
    Sep 17 2026
    What does it take to keep building a workwear brand for a decade after a top VC tells you, in writing, that utility doesn't belong in women's clothing?This episode traces Sali Christeson's path from a childhood split between a South Carolina farm and her father's rug shop in Istanbul's bazaars to building Argent, the workwear brand she's run for a decade, showing how a VC's rejection, a crisis handled in real time, and a refusal to accept easy either/or choices became the foundation for a company built on her own terms.Leah Solivan interviews Argent founder and CEO Sali Christeson about building a workwear company outside the traditional venture path after a top-tier VC rejected her pitch in writing with the line that would become fuel for everything that followed: utility doesn't belong in women's clothing. Christeson recounts a childhood shaped by a mother who insisted she build her own career and a father who ran a rug shop in Istanbul's bazaars, an MBA and a rotational program at Cisco that exposed her to gender inequity in real time, and the decision to quit and start a fashion company with no fashion background.She describes building her own cap table out of values-aligned investors rather than chasing the roughly two percent of venture funding that goes to female founders, being eight months pregnant when COVID hit in March 2020 and closing all four Argent stores within days, and turning a warehouse of unsold hot pink suits into a partnership with Supermajority that sold out in twenty-four hours. Christeson also discusses the decision to pull a planned partnership with Planned Parenthood, finding the right creative partner after years of holding on too tightly, and what a new generation of Gen Z customers is teaching her about Argent's next chapter.Ten years in, she gives her most honest answer yet to whether anything has actually gotten better for women at work.Key Insights• A rejection can be the clearest signal you're onto something: a VC calling an idea overdone often means the market is real and nobody has solved it yet.• Building a brand as a movement, not just a product, is what keeps customers coming back for a decade instead of a season.• Being chronically underfunded can sharpen a business by forcing more disciplined decisions than a well-capitalized competitor has to make.• Fast, decisive action under pressure, like closing every store within days of a crisis, protects the business you're trying to save.• Timing and story can move product faster than the product itself.• Knowing when to walk away from a partnership that no longer fits matters as much as knowing when to commit to one.• Ten years in, the honest answer to "have things gotten better" is rarely a simple yes or no.Timestamps00:00 Welcome to Breaking Precedent00:17 Meet Leah And Sally02:20 Roots And Style03:44 Work Ethic And Early Hustles06:10 Confidence Empathy And Ambition09:32 Structured Path To Founder12:18 Cisco Sparks The Idea15:15 Quitting To Build Argent17:18 VC Bias And Pocketgate19:31 Rewriting Fundraising Rules22:18 World Building The Brand26:07 Scrappy Funding Advantage28:50 COVID Shutdown Decisions31:53 Viral Pink Suit Campaign33:16 Finding Creative Partner35:07 Doubling Down Mission39:01 Gen Z And Community40:46 Authenticity Over Tradeoffs42:53 Advice For Women Founders44:35 Money And Investing Power46:27 Messy Middle Survival49:46 Closing ReflectionsResources MentionedSupermajority: https://supermajority.com?utm_sourcePlanned Parenthood: https://www.plannedparenthood.org?utm_sourceThank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!TaskRabbit: https://taskrabbit.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastJustworks: https://justworks.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastSquared Away: https://gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastLeah 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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.Connect with Leah Solivan:Website: breakingprecedent.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_solivan/X: https://twitter.com/labunleashed?lang=en
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    52 min
  • Breaking the Code: Anne Wojcicki on Genetics, Reinvention, and Rewriting Consumer Health

    Breaking the Code: Anne Wojcicki on Genetics, Reinvention, and Rewriting Consumer Health
    Sep 10 2026
    What did Anne Wojcicki see in healthcare that made her leave Wall Street and risk challenging an entire industry to put power back in patients’ hands? Welcome to the brand new season of Breaking Precedent where Leah Solivan interviews 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki about breaking medical “gatekeeping” by giving consumers direct access to their genetic information and using that data to drive research and prevention. Solivan shares learning she did not carry BRCA2 while pregnant, and Wojcicki recounts motivations shaped by her mother’s fierce self-advocacy, a Stanford community of inquiry, and an immigrant family history that emphasized purpose over materialism. After Yale (biology and a year of hockey) and a Wall Street career that exposed ethical problems in healthcare, Wojcicki drew inspiration from HIV patient advocates to build a platform for people to advocate for themselves. She describes co-founding 23andMe in 2006 with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza, early public skepticism, the unexpected power of ancestry, medical resistance to broad genetic testing, and how COVID-era telehealth and AI enable new prevention tools. Wojcicki explains buying 23andMe back via a nonprofit to better align incentives, scale research access, and build a subscription product integrating genetics with medical records, self-report data, wearables, and updated insights for personalized risk prediction and guidance.Key Insights• Questioning the status quo can become a foundation for leadership and innovation.• Unexpected experiences can reveal what truly matters and shape a person’s direction.• Advocacy can inspire people to create systems that empower others to speak for themselves.• Different perspectives can come together to create a more powerful and holistic idea.• Breaking precedent often requires challenging assumptions that others accept as normal.• Innovation requires understanding how people actually respond, not just what founders expect.• Responsible innovation means considering the ethical consequences of new technology.• Personal values can become the foundation of a larger mission to empower people and improve systems.• Purpose becomes more powerful when it extends beyond personal success and creates impact for others. Timestamps:00:00 Welcome to Breaking Precedent 00:42 Meet Anne Wojcicki01:58 BRCA Midnight Results03:27 Ashkenazi Screening Gaps04:32 Question Everything06:12 Mom the Advocate09:17 Rebel Teacher Mindset12:05 Debate and Free Thinking14:46 Stanford Community Roots16:52 Immigrant Purpose Drive19:42 Yale Hockey and Culture Shock24:25 Wall Street Detour26:13 Healthcare Ethics Wakeup28:21 HIV Activists Inspire31:24 Founding 23andMe34:55 Selling Genetics DTC38:36 Prevention Meets AI41:45 Nonprofit Mission Shift43:50 Drug Discovery Reality46:31 Paying for Prevention53:00 Closing ReflectionsResourcesHIV Activist Movement: https://www.hiv.gov?utm_source=chatgpt.com The Michael J. Fox Foundation: https://www.michaeljfox.org?utm_source=chatgpt.com 23andMe Research Institute: https://www.23andme.org/about/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 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 Solivan is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah Solivan 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 Solivan founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.Thank you to our Precedent Breaking Partners!TaskRabbit: taskrabbit.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastJustworks: justworks.com/?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcast Squared Away: gosquaredaway.com/breakingprecedent?utm_source=breakingprecedent&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=breakingprecedent&utm_content=podcastConnect with Leah Solivan:Website: breakingprecedent.com/ Instagram: @leah_solivanX: @labunleashed
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    55 min
  • Breaking the Script - Season 3

    Breaking the Script - Season 3
    Sep 3 2026

    Season 3 of Breaking Precedent is here.

    This season, Leah sits down with founders, athletes, and builders who refused to accept the world as it was handed to them. From a card game that turns into hard business questions, to rewriting the script for life after sports, to reimagining what healthcare could look like if someone actually believed in you — these are conversations about challenging inherited beliefs, collecting skills, and taking your future into your own hands.

    Welcome to Season 3.

    Connect with Leah Solivan
    Website: breakingprecedent.com
    Instagram: @leah_solivan
    X: @labunleashed
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    2 min