Breaking Precedent the Podcast

After a busy summer/fall (babies, birthdays, book deals [👋🏼 @bloomsburybooksus ].. you know, the usual), I’m so excited to share Season 2 of @breakingprecedent the Podcast is almost here. Here’s a sneak peek at the real stories of how to break the rules, rewrite the playbook, and bet on yourself. This season is about the messy middle, the leaps that don’t have a map, and the power of breaking your own precedent. We’re sitting down with bold leaders like @christinatosi of @milkbarstore , Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast @nastialiukin , Congressional Candidate @dr.thomasfisherforcongress , @samaramejiahernandez of @chingonaventures , @gaustinallison of @pacasohomes , @jurichlynn of @sunrunsolar (and more!). These leaders zig when everyone else zags - and they show what it really takes to lead, rebuild, and take the kind of risks that change industries. Our first full episode drops this Thursday. Check out the trailer and share the one line that stuck with you! #BreakingPrecedent #Founders #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Podcast

We tend to think breaking precedent starts with boldness. But I’m starting to believe it begins somewhere quieter. With honesty. With alignment. With the moment you stop performing and start becoming. So much of leadership is learned through adaptation. You study the room, understand what gets rewarded, and shape yourself accordingly. It works, until eventually it doesn’t. Not because you’re failing. Because something no longer feels true. One of the most important things Stacy Brown-Philpot said to me was: “The more you become who you really are, the more in touch you are with your soul and what’s right and what’s true for you. And then you break precedent.” That line stayed with me. Because the leaders who truly change industries, systems, and culture are often the ones willing to stop optimizing for acceptance. Not to be provocative. But to become fully aligned with what they actually see. That’s where the shift begins. Read in full on substack @precedentcollective

What if venture capital isn’t a meritocracy at all — but a system optimized around proximity to power? This week on Breaking Precedent, Leah Solivan speaks with Paige Hendrix Buckner, CEO of @allraiseorg about the hidden structures shaping who gets access, who gets trusted, and who gets overlooked. From classrooms to startups to venture capital, Paige shares how her lived experiences revealed the same pattern over and over again: talent alone is rarely enough. A powerful conversation on systems, storytelling, power dynamics, and expanding opportunity without lowering the bar. Episode now live.

AI’s biggest impact may not be efficiency — it’s perspective. Looking at problems differently. Designing beyond human intuition. Accelerating decisions with better data. What’s happening in space is just one example.

Talent is everywhere. Access is not. Tomorrow on Breaking Precedent, Leah sits down with @paigehbuckner CEO of @allraiseorg for a conversation about power, trust, venture capital, and the systems that quietly shape opportunity. From teaching in under-resourced classrooms to helping founders navigate venture capital, Paige brings a rare systems-level perspective to the question of who gets funded, who gets overlooked, and why. This is not a surface-level conversation about representation. It’s a conversation about proximity, pattern recognition, and the structures behind decision-making itself. New episode drops tomorrow.

There’s a quiet shift happening in venture capital right now. Not just in what gets funded — but in who gets believed, who gets access, and who gets to define what “institutional quality” even means. This week I hosted an Unprecedented Lunch focused on one big question: What precedents in venture are no longer serving innovation? Around the table: emerging managers multibillion-dollar funds university endowments family offices operator-investors impact allocators ecosystem builders Collectively representing well over $100B in capital. But what made the conversation powerful wasn’t the AUM. It was the willingness to challenge assumptions that have quietly governed this industry for decades. Questions like: — What signals of credibility are outdated? — Has venture become too consensus-driven? — If we rebuilt the industry today from scratch, what would we never design the same way again? — What patterns are being missed because they don’t fit the historical playbook? The future of venture won’t be built by people protecting precedent. It will be built by people willing to question it. That’s the room I want to keep building.

Most paths are designed for stability. Fewer are designed for what you actually want. Eiman Jahangir on recognizing when it’s time to move beyond the expected — and what it takes to follow through.

Stability is often the goal. @drejahangir built it — and then chose to move beyond it. A nuanced take on risk, expectations, and what it really means to break from the path you were given. Listen to this powerful episode on your preferred platform. 🎧

@drejahangir returns to Breaking Precedent to talk about what’s happened since — from going to space in 2024 to what he’s learned on the other side of that experience. This isn’t just about getting there. It’s about what changes after. Part 2 is live.

The difference between grit and delusion… is usually hindsight. @drejahangir on applying to NASA five times — and what it actually takes to keep going when there’s no clear signal to stop. Not blind persistence, but a willingness to evaluate, adapt, and keep moving forward. A grounded look at the balance between conviction and self-awareness. Part 2 drops tomorrow. Listen on your preferred platform.

We played the Break the Precedent card game with @drejahangir — and this one stuck: What precedent are you upholding out of habit, not intention? His answer went somewhere unexpected — parenting, expectations, and how easy it is to default to what we were taught. A good reminder: awareness is one thing… changing it is the real work.

I review thousands of deals a year. The signal problem is real. So I built an AI co-pilot to sit alongside my process—not to replace judgment, but to structure it. Every company I evaluate gets scored across the same dimensions: founder-signal, market opportunity, product, traction, go-to-market, and competitive landscape. Applying the same framework consistently removes a lot of the noise—and some of the bias—that creeps into how deals get evaluated. The result? Less noise. More pattern recognition. Better triage. I’m opening up a piece of that system for others to use. If you’re evaluating a deal and want a structured second read, you can forward it to [email protected] or drop it at dealscoreai.xyz. You’ll get back a clean summary and score using the same framework I use internally. I’ve found this works best when you’re looking at a set of deals, not just one. The real value comes from comparing signals and seeing how something stacks up relative to everything else you’re evaluating. The edge isn’t just access anymore. It’s how you process what you see.