Forerunner

"In our view, many future AI winners will look more like historical offline stalwarts of the services world than the sexier SaaS-powered solutions that have dominated the past decade. That’s because — as technologies mature and AI-driven knowledge work moves up the stack to more nuanced tasks — there will be far less proprietary value in selling AI-generated outputs into firms, and thus far greater incentive for new firms to centralize AI productivity in-house alongside the irreplaceable, uniquely human aspects of the business." In our latest thesis, Brian O'Malley and Alex Brussell suggest: don't just sell AI tools into services firms, *be* the firm.

"We believe the next evolution of search won’t look much like search at all. Rather, discovery will take the shape of tailored, dynamic services, where users can not only access information but interact with a highly personalized, actionable edit of what’s uniquely relevant to them." Our Founding Partner Kirsten Green shares her perspective on the evolution of search to service, where the diminishing value of search engines is being eclipsed by new AI-driven discovery services that are context-aware and actionable. Our investment in Daydream marks an early iteration of this shift: https://lnkd.in/gmcXMXin

If Generative AI has exposed anything, it’s that the prevailing search experience is post peak. Traditional search engines have long served as gateways to the internet for people looking for information, products and services, but as the volume and complexity of options has grown, this value has rapidly deteriorated. The experience is chaotic and ineffective, where ads and SEO take precedence over true personalization. The need for contextual, intelligent discovery is evident. But when it comes to the evolution of search, we believe the future experience won’t look much like search at all. Rather, discovery will take the shape of tailored, dynamic services, where users can not only access information but interact with a highly personalized, actionable edit of what’s uniquely relevant to them. We imagine vertical-specific portals to the world of options: imagine a discovery platform that can book itineraries, style outfits, scrapbook research, turn a mosaic of health insights into tailored action plans, and present financial data in the context of personal realities and goals. Our investment in Daydream marks an early iteration of this shift, where the diminishing value of search is eclipsed by personal, actionable discovery services. Daydream, which opened its waitlist yesterday ahead of launching later this year, is a new approach to shopping. Led by retail visionary Julie Bornstein, the Daydream founding team - including Matt Fisher, Lisa Yamner Green, Richard Kim, and Dan Cary - has spent over a decade operating at the intersection of commerce and AI, hailing from Microsoft AI, Google, YouTube’s Gen AI division, Sephora, Nordstrom, StitchFix, Farfetch and more. We are pleased to share that we are leading the $50M seed funding alongside Index Ventures' Vlad Tenev and Danny Rimer, with participation from GV (Google Ventures)'s Frederique Dame and David Krane and True Ventures' Jon Callaghan. Not only is Daydream poised to transform shopping, we believe it has the potential to inspire the new standard in how people seek out what they want. https://lnkd.in/gWTgMFCg

Amongst the most successful VCs in consumer in the past decade has been Kirsten Green at Forerunner So I asked her all about how startups can navigate the 70% reduction in consumer investing & why now might be the best time for VCs to look harder at the category. I loved this discussion. I always learn something from Kirsten. Click below to watch / listen https://lnkd.in/g3kiMPD5

Market sentiment might indicate that enterprise investments are better bets than consumer, but we at Forerunner wanted to dive deeper into this assumption focused on data instead of anecdotes. So earlier this year, we reviewed over 12,000 post series B startups and categorized 7,800 as consumer and enterprise to analyze performance data. We found that: • Consumer startups are as likely to go public as enterprise startups • Consumer startups are as likely to fetch >10x revenue multiples at IPO as enterprise startups • Consumer startups are more likely to surpass the Rule or 40 than their enterprise counterparts We saw a tremendous response to this report, including requests for more information and further discussion. So today, we’re open sourcing the larger body of underlying research we did to produce the analysis, so people can flip through the data themselves and get a more granular view of how startups fare in both markets. https://lnkd.in/emaDce6S Evaluating enterprise vs. consumer is a more nuanced effort than any one report can show (even one based on 7,800 companies), but if we were to give a TL;DR on what we learned, it’s that the consumer startups that muscle their way to a series B go on to perform just as well — if not better — than their enterprise counterparts. It’s true that there are more public enterprise companies than consumer companies, but also, there are more enterprise startups that get early-stage funding. Now with AI, consumer is *especially* well-positioned: the companies are known for their agility, adaptability and business model variation, and the top ones are almost always born out of a major technological shift. That means the next set of generation-defining consumer businesses are being built right now. Check out the full report and let us know what you think: https://lnkd.in/emaDce6S

Our Founder and Managing Partner Kirsten Green is on Forbes Midas List for the 8th (!) year in the running, recognized as an early support of Chime, Faire, hims & hers and many more. Here's to many more years of partnering with the category-defining companies that advance consumers' way of living. ⚡ https://lnkd.in/gWKpCaup

"In an era often characterized by digital saturation and homogenized trends, Main Street’s resurgence emerges as a beacon of authenticity and the enduring nature of local character. These small businesses are meeting a growing demand for cultural connection and community by providing personalized experiences that stand out in a landscape dominated by impersonal shopping." We recently commissioned a consumer survey that uncovered that Americans love their local neighborhood shops so much that they are willing to spend $150 more each month to support them. These findings are a reminder of just how important Main Street businesses are to consumers. We are happy to play a role in facilitating this important community connection. Read on in Fast Company for more insights on the research from Faire co-founder and CEO Max Rhodes: https://lnkd.in/ghRyvzHu

Fay is emerging from stealth this week with $25M funding— and tremendous early momentum and resonance with its audiences. Fay comes at a time when America is clearly at a critical moment with nutrition across health, public interest and culture, as mounting evidence points to nutrition as the foundation for the majority of personal health concerns and chronic illnesses. The platform enables consumers to access registered dietitians (RDs) at little to no cost through insurance while empowering an overlooked, lesser-served sector of healthcare providers–RDs–to build their personal businesses on their own terms. Sam Faycurry, Mark Stefanski and the entire Fay team are a force — the initial market reception speaks for itself. Very proud to partner with this company (and Holly Maloney & General Catalyst) as they reshape Americans’ relationship to nutrition and restructure how RDs scale their practices through a unique digital franchise model. https://lnkd.in/gPJC4cva

Fay is emerging from stealth today with $25M in funding, including a $20M series A led by our Partner Nicole Johnson. Fay's platform enables consumers to access registered dietitians at little to no cost through insurance, while empowering an overlooked, lesser-served sector of healthcare providers — registered dietitians — to build and scale their personal businesses on their own terms. This digital franchise model for nutritionists is proving to be especially impactful: Fay has achieve tremendous growth in a relatively short period of time and is seeing immediate resonance with its customers. We're proud to partner with Fay amid a time when nutrition is at the crux of many of the most pressing health, culture, and public interest conversations: https://lnkd.in/gVBzdXda

The [pre-IPO] companies right now are metal tested. They've been through so much the last couple years. So I suspect we'll have a really great class of companies going public in the next ~24 months that are able to shine in public markets." Our Founder and Managing Partner Kirsten Green took the stage at the Bloomberg Tech Summit today to talk all things State of VC: the thawing IPO market, the AI surge, fund strategy, and more: https://lnkd.in/gx3PCQ-y