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
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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
