Equity · Friday, July 3, 2026
Leah Sullivan, founder of TaskRabbit and Prequel Ventures, shares a key insight gained from moving to the VC side: founders should be concerned about competition within their investor's portfolio. She explains that investors often prioritize backing companies that are already demonstrating significant growth, like Uber or Instagram, over their earlier-stage investments.
“Now I realize as an investor, that I should have been more interested/concerned about what the competition is in my investors' portfolio. Because my investors are actually making decisions about where to put their money next.”
“So I'm now TaskRabbit in a portfolio with Lift, Uber, and Instagram. Do you think I'm the one that's going to get their extra dollars? Or are they going to put them in Lift, Uber, and Instagram?”
“Right? Like it's just it's just a matter of like, where, what are the rocket ship deals? What are the rocket ship companies? And if you're in a portfolio of one of those, I think it's helpful to understand that your competition for dollars is those companies.”