Leah Busque

Who they are

Leah Busque is General Partner at Fuel Capital — she founded TaskRabbit in 2008 as an SMS-based errand service out of Boston and ran it for eight years before selling it and moving to VC.

Person

Leah graduated from Sweet Briar College in 2001 and started her career as a software engineer at IBM — a grounding in technical craft before any founder ambitions surfaced. In 2008 she left IBM to start what she originally called RunMyErrand, a Boston-based SMS service that became TaskRabbit: a gig-economy marketplace connecting people with local freelancers. She ran it as Founder and CEO for roughly eight years, then moved to Executive Chairwoman before the company was acquired. She joined Fuel Capital in 2017 as its second general partner, arriving when the firm had roughly $45M across two funds and 70+ portfolio companies. The through-line is marketplace thinking at each stage — building one, operating it for nearly a decade, and now backing others. Alongside her VC work she runs Precedent Collective, an initiative supporting early-stage investors from underrepresented groups. She writes on Medium and LinkedIn about the founder experience, early-stage investing, and marketplace dynamics, and has spoken at Stanford eCorner, the World Economic Forum, and Lightspeed events on the gig economy.

Company

Fuel Capital's most recent move is the October 2025 appointment of Selene Casabal as General Partner and Chief Venture Officer — the firm's first Silicon Valley director — paired with a stated target to deploy over $100 million into AI companies. That push is backed by a $300 million Flagship Fund II launched in 2025. Earlier in 2025 the firm led a $4.5 million pre-seed round into Aracor AI, a female-led legal-operations company, signaling where the AI thesis is landing. Portfolio names include Betr Holdings, Tradeshift, Soundtrack Your Brand, Terran Orbital, and Taxfyle, spread across fintech, SaaS, healthtech, and adtech. The firm describes itself as managing approximately $550 million in assets across five funds as of 2025.

Market

Fuel Capital operates in the early-stage venture market, competing with seed and Series A funds for deals in a broad technology remit — fintech, SaaS, healthtech, foodtech, and now AI. The 2025 AI investment push puts it alongside many established and emerging funds racing to back AI infrastructure and application companies. Its differentiator has historically been founder-operator credibility, with Leah's TaskRabbit background central to that positioning.

Network

Her closest professional anchor at Fuel is Chris Howard, her co-GP who publicly announced her joining the firm. Jamie Viggiano, CMO at Fuel Capital, followed her over from TaskRabbit where Viggiano was VP of Marketing — a carried relationship that signals she builds tight, durable teams. She is also a member of Broadway Angels, a women angel investor network.

Chris Howard· Co-General Partner, Fuel Capital
Jamie Viggiano· Chief Marketing Officer, Fuel Capital (previously VP of Marketing, TaskRabbit)
Selene Casabal· General Partner and Chief Venture Officer, Fuel Capital

How they likely show up

Eight-year tenure building and running TaskRabbit (founder through executive chair) → she thinks in long arcs and is likely patient with companies that take time to find their footing.
Moved from software engineer at IBM to founder to VC → she can operate at the level of code, company-building, and capital allocation; she'll notice when a founder is hand-waving on product specifics.
Founded Precedent Collective alongside a full-time GP role → high agency, carries initiatives forward without institutional cover.
Active public writing on Medium and LinkedIn about the founder experience and early-stage investing → comfortable being on the record; likely responds well when you engage directly with something she's written.
Hybrid role pattern (operator-turned-investor) → her instinct in meetings is probably to ask 'how does this actually work in practice?' before 'what's the TAM?'
Brought Jamie Viggiano from TaskRabbit to Fuel Capital → builds teams around trusted relationships; loyalty and track record matter more to her than credentials alone.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific Medium or LinkedIn post she's written — she writes candidly about the founding story and early-stage investing, and acknowledging the specifics shows you did more than a name search.
→ Ask about the TaskRabbit-to-VC transition on her terms — the 2017 move is well-documented but she's written about it herself; lead with her framing, not a reporter's.
→ She founded a marketplace from scratch in 2008 before 'gig economy' was a phrase — if your context touches marketplaces or labor platforms, that's a genuine shared language worth using.
→ Precedent Collective is a real project she manages, not a line on a bio — if diversity in early-stage investing is relevant to your conversation, engage with the initiative specifically.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on Precedent Collective — she serves as managing director of an initiative specifically designed to support early-stage investors from underrepresented groups, a project she runs in addition to her GP role, which signals where she's putting discretionary energy.
Reference the Fuel Capital Fund II and AI pivot — a $300 million flagship fund launched in 2025 with a stated $100M+ AI deployment target and a new Silicon Valley GP hire is a live strategic moment worth unpacking.
Lead with the RunMyErrand origin — TaskRabbit started as an SMS-based errand service in Boston in 2008, before app stores or the gig economy had names; that specific founding detail tends to open up a real conversation about what early product conviction looks like.

Discovery questions

When you evaluate marketplace companies now as an investor, what do you look for that you wish you'd known when you were building TaskRabbit's supply side?
Fuel Capital's new AI focus is being led out of Silicon Valley with Selene Casabal — how are you thinking about where the firm's founder-operator identity fits inside an AI thesis that's moving fast?
Precedent Collective is designed to broaden access to early-stage investing — what's the biggest structural barrier you've seen for the investors you're trying to support?

Avoid

Don't treat the TaskRabbit acquisition as the climax of her story — she has spent nearly a decade since then as an active GP and initiative founder; framing her primarily as 'the TaskRabbit person' will land flat.

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