The sun is out and Q2 is in full swing, so we're teaming up with our friends Adverb Ventures to bring founders together outside. If you're a founder or senior operator based in SF, join us at the Presidio Social Club on May 9th!
lu.ma/a70rrmq2

Founders and builders in SF! We’d love to meet you.

Come join us Adverb Ventures and our friends at Forerunner for a happy hour in the Presidio. 🌸 🌴

Thursday, May 9th. Sign up required: lu.ma/a70rrmq2

Scaling great food—and rethinking the very way that restaurants, chefs, technology, and delivery can come together—is perhaps an ambition only suited for an entrepreneur like Marc Lore .

More on what Wonder is out to achieve:
forerunnerventures.substack.com/p/the-cq-great…

.Wonder is reshaping the restaurant & delivery model so great food can (finally) scale.
It's secret ingredient for success? Chefs' approval. Says Chef JJ 'I talk to Bobby Flay about it all the time. He’s like, ‘JJ, I wish I had a Marc Lore at your age.’”
eater.com/24125349/wonde…

Announcing our investment in Stress-Free Auto Care, an evolution from Vertical SaaS to the tech-enabled service model. Like it or not, cars are still the primary mode of transportation in the US; Stree-Free will be the best way to keep your's running smoothly.

forerunnerventures.com/our-perspectiv…

The Forerunner 2024 trend report is amazing. Send to all the consumer operators in your life for a simple “value add” of the month.

(Illustrations are particularly great this year too)

forerunnerventures.com/consumer-report

Quality > speed in driving willingness to pay for AI. According to Forerunner , 53% of consumers report higher willingness to pay for higher quality results / outputs. Email-first AI (a.k.a Mindy) FTW! crazybuster Cuong Do

Today, Forerunner launched our inaugural Consumer Trends Report.

In it, over 200 meaty slides that cover our perspective on access, independence and rampant consumer spending - three consumer values we believe are evolving, but here to stay.

forerunnerventures.com/consumer-report

Announcing Forerunner 's inaugural Consumer Trend Report, a data-driven analysis rooted in what’s driving consumers, where consumers are heading, and where investment opportunities exist.
forerunnerventures.com/consumer-report

Consumer startups make for better businesses than enterprise SaaS.

I genuinely believe this.

And, as it turns out, there’s a lot of data to back this up. Recently, the team at Forerunner (@jasondbornstein Kirsten Green), published a deep-dive on the size and impact of

AI-powered SaaS that 'does the work' is becoming popular, but tech-enabled services businesses that depend on actual people are still considered a no-fly zone in venture.

We believe that’s about to change Forerunner.

The public narrative about consumer investing is detached from the potential. Last year, VC firms distanced themselves from the category and just 7% of seed capital went to consumer. But consumer company performance largely outpaces enterprise. My piece in The Information:

'Consumer startups are a better bet than enterprise startups'

Narrative violation? The data says otherwise.

Kirsten Green and Jason Bornstein write for The Information about why VC skepticism towards consumer is misguided: theinformation.com/articles/dont-…

🎧 New The Peel with Kirsten Green

We go behind the scenes of Kirsten’s multi-decade journey building Forerunner from scratch. She talks about her wins, mistakes, and lessons learned.

Kirsten also answers the most burning question of 2024: is consumer investing dead?

There is something for everyone in The Generalist's latest briefing featuring Kirsten Green, from reflections on personal growth, to the true meaning of success and embracing vulnerability:
generalist.com/briefing/moder…

'Kirsten Green continues to dominate in a male-dominated industry' 🔥

Our Founder on Forbes' Most Powerful Women List:
forbes.com/profile/kirste…

Way to go Tally Health and amplifymd on making Fast Company's list of The Next Big Things in Tech ⚡️
fastcompany.com/next-big-thing…

I couldn’t be more excited to partner with Nicole Leah Johnson and Forerunner on our latest round of funding, with support from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Jeff Jordan, and Evan Moore - read more about it on Forbes!

forbes.com/sites/brucerog…

We’re backing Craftwork, building the first iconic consumer brand in home services thru a trusted, reliable, tech-enabled source for home repairs — while also reshaping the SMB sector in this space to be more equitable and lucrative for its many hardworking craftspeople.

Fun catch up w/ dear friends Rebecca Kaden Nicole Quinn, sharing behind-the-scenes venture musings — Thanks @Harrystebbings for having us on for some no-BS banter on pricing, corrections, crypto, AI, consumer and more: open.spotify.com/episode/4BbXvY…