Potamopyrgus antipodarum is a species of freshwater snail native to New Zealand that has invaded every continent aside from Antarctica and Africa. While native P. antipodarum populations are characterized by frequent coexistence between obligately sexual and obligately asexual individuals, only the asexual snails are known to invade other ecosystems. Despite very low genetic diversity and the absence of sex, invasive asexual P. antipodarum are highly successful. Here, I quantified variation in three key life-history traits across invasive P. antipodarum lineages and compared this variation to already documented variation in these same traits in asexual native lineages to provide a deeper understanding of why some lineages become invasive. In particular, I evaluated 1) if invasive lineages of P. antipodarum could be successful because they represent life-history variation from native ancestors that is optimal for invasions and 2) if invasive populations with higher genetic variation would display more phenotypic variation than populations with lower genetic variation. I found that the distribution of phenotypic variation between the native and invasive snails was different, with invasive snails growing more slowly and maturing more rapidly than their native counterparts. I did not find any significant differences in size at maturity between the invasive and native snails. These results, and are consistent with expectations of a scenario where invasive lineages represent a subset of native variation that is beneficial in the setting of invasion. Nevertheless, there was no evidence for a relationship between genetic and phenotypic variation, indicating that increased genetic variation does not necessarily translate into greater phenotypic variation, and consistent with earlier studies suggesting an important role for phenotypic plasticity in invasion. Together, these results provide new insights into the mechanisms driving the worldwide expansion of invasion populations of these snails.