Party Crashers: How Selina Tobaccowala created Evite, scaled SurveyMonkey, and is transforming where you live with HomeBoost
In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan is joined by Selina Tobaccowala, a pioneering tech entrepreneur whose journey began with co-founding Evite and scaling SurveyMonkey to new heights. Selina shares how her childhood fascination with computers, combined with an insatiable drive for problem-solving, led her to break boundaries in Silicon Valley. From navigating the dot-com bubble to her latest venture, HomeBoost, she reveals the principles that have guided her success, including her father’s three essential questions for career decisions. Leah and Selina explore the intersection of technology and impact, the challenges of raising venture capital as a female founder, and how AI is transforming residential energy efficiency.
Guest Bio and Links:
Selina Tobaccowala is a tech entrepreneur and innovator who co-founded Evite, served as President and CTO of SurveyMonkey, and is now revolutionizing home energy efficiency with her latest company, HomeBoost. Selina has a deep passion for using technology to solve real-world problems and she has built and led companies that have transformed industries.
Listeners can connect with Selina Tobaccowala on her IG @sootle
Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(0:00) Leah introduces guest and entrepreneur, Selina Tobaccowala
(4:30) “ I think it's like different between how you might perceive yourself versus how others might perceive you.”
(6:00) Selina’s early life and childhood inspirations
(7:30) Discovering computer science
(9:00) The accidental basketball captain
(11:45) Choosing Stanford for college
(16:00) The birth of Evite
(22:00) Navigating rapid growth, venture capital, and the reality of selling a startup
(28:30) Evite's unconventional sale
(30:30) Joining SurveyMonkey
(35:00) Lessons from SurveyMonkey
(37:30) ”There's always this culture act like an owner, but if people don't feel empowered to take that risk, you can't act like an owner. And so you have to balance those things together.”
(39:45) New project: HomeBoost
(46:00) The simplicity and future of home energy
(51:00) Advice for non-traditional founders
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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
