Forerunner

KiwiCo, Inc., one of our earliest investments, is an excellent example of the magic that happens from being heads-down building a fundamentally better product for a highly engaged set of consumers (in this case, moms who are invested in their kids' development). With only $10M raised in their trajectory, they've walked the walk on delivering real, durable growth (long before that was trendy). Congrats to this hardworking and endlessly impressive team! https://lnkd.in/g_tyDbpX

Personalization might sound like a trite concept in Silicon Valley. And it is — we’ve been talking about it for over a decade. But the promise of personalization has never really been delivered on. When I think of highly personalized digital experiences, Instagram’s ads and the TikTok feed are probably the most notable examples. There is still endless white space. With AI, builders have the opportunity to truly (and finally) deliver on the opportunity in personalized services. Because at its core, the promise of Gen AI is to effectively personalize our digital worlds, offering up insights with more comprehensive context than any one person could have themselves and taking broad swaths of legwork off of our plates by effectively performing tasks on our behalf. It was wonderful to join so many talented and ambitious women at The Information WTF Summit this week to share more about this opportunity, as well as the complicated yet optimistic point we’re at in venture, and why I think the exit market might look a lot more interesting over the next year. Well done Jessica E. Lessin and the entire Information team on such a thoughtful and energizing (can't-miss!) event, and thank you for having me and Amy Griffin on stage! https://lnkd.in/g96BCvms

"We’re building the next forever beauty brand, which means we’re playing the long game. We are profitable and the business is sustainable." Glossier, Inc. CEO Kyle Leahy on growth, profitability and selling one bottle of You every 20 seconds: https://lnkd.in/ed8Afk7V

A new kind of creator fund incentivizing a much-needed goal: more time together IRL, and more time making new friends. Well done Andy Dunn and the entire Pie team on innovating the model for this: https://lnkd.in/eSG9z-kw

Glossier You has been a unique kind of success. A few years ago, it would have been incomprehensible to think that people would buy a fragrance online before trying it themselves…but Glossier’s magnetic energy and lock-tight relationship with customers has flipped this on its head — so much so that upon launching in retail at Sephora, it instantly become the #1 selling fragrance at the retail giant. Today, Glossier is expanding the You universe with the launch of Rêve and Doux, two extensions of You that build on the same lovable base notes, but with distinct new scents. This team's sheer creativity and tireless execution continue to work wonders.

ōURA has become an absolutely generational consumer health company. Nearing $500m in revenue, growing 100%+, with cutting-edge hardware + the margin profiles of a software company, ōURA continues to push the boundaries of what the best in biometric data capture can do in enabling personalized health recommendations and truly improved outcomes. This is what category leadership looks like. Up next: much-anticipated 4th gen ring rumored to drop in Oct, new breakthroughs in supporting heart health, women’s health, stress and activity tracking, and overall longevity empowerment for all. Congrats to Tom Hale, Michael A. Chapp, MS, MBA, Dorothy Kilroy (she/her), Doug Sweeny, Avonte Campinha-Bacote, Sean Brecker, Holly Shelton, Judy Gilbert, and so many more of the A+ Oura team! https://lnkd.in/gkh2AjwZ cc: Forerunner

So many excellent consumer companies on this list, including our portfolio companies Fora Travel and Headway ? https://lnkd.in/USTopStartups2024

At our startup Pie we are on a mission to defeat social isolation. According to the surgeon general, we are spending 24 fewer hours per month together than we were 20 years ago. This is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We are building a social app to combat this problem. The job to be done is to make it easy to make friends. Our vision is for a world where doing things you enjoy with people you like should be as easy as calling an Uber. I am building Pie personally because I experienced the social isolation pandemic myself. As a new dad in a new city (Chicago), my life was filled with two forms of Greek love: eros (romantic love) and storge (parent/child love). But I was lacking in two others: philia (platonic love) and agape (the love of the tribe). I was digitally addicted. I felt frozen in amber. Here is my start with why: https://lnkd.in/gEa7WDXs This morning the The Wall Street Journal shared this exclusive story on our Series A round and our Chicago launch. The $11.5 million round was led by my friend and longtime collaborator Kirsten Green of Forerunner -- with meaningful participation from a mentor, friend and personal hero Ev Williams, cofounder of Twitter, and founding CEO of Medium. We were delighted that Jason Heltzer of Origin Ventures and Renata Quintini of Renegade Partners also participated meaningfully in the A. We're also grateful today to longtime investor Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures. My favorite quote in the article is from Ev: "Pie is competing for the time that people are off their screens—not on them." Our corporate motto is more social, less media. If you have a friend in Chicago who is looking for more in their social life, or if you are that person, our web and mobile app is here: https://plan.getpie.app/ My cup overflows with gratitude. Thank you to the IRL Pie team in Chicago that now is. Sam Burke Gustavo Casas Martha Glodz Beatriz de Souza Kauffmann Brittanie Jakubowich Hunter Husar Francisco Martinez Samir Mirza Bridget M. Thompson Thank you to the remote/hybrid Pie team that once was. Cofounder Jen Greenwood Halle Gold Eric Rubin Kishan Patel Rob Bruce Kinnara Anindita Ond?ej Korol Daniel Pecher and Wolasi Konu Thank you to (some of) our Pie angels and advisors. Evan Sharp Scott Belsky Sam Yagan Tim Kendall Nikita Bier Marc Lore Monica Royer and my parents Usha and Charley Dunn. Thank you to OG Pie cofounders Erik Allebest, Alixandra Freedberg and Becca Harris Lewy. There is no pumpkin in this Pie without you, is there? Thank you to our counsel Megan Baier of Wilson Sonsini. And thank you Manuela Zoninsein. You are my inspiration and the most tenacious entrepreneur I know.

The Business of Fashion dives into AI's potential to reshape the shopping experience, highlighting our recent thesis on the shift from Access to Edit: "Kirsten Green, a founder and partner at Forerunner, a consumer-focused venture capital firm, argued in a talk in July that consumers today feel overburdened by the amount of information available to them and are prioritizing technology that can sift through it for them, driving a shift in services from what she calls 'access' to 'edit.' 'As a result, we now see a refreshed desire for experts and services that edit the vastness of what’s available, present the best possible options instead of more options, and do things for us instead of enabling us to do it ourselves,' Green wrote in a post. AI, in her view, offers a solution." https://lnkd.in/gceuWjdD

Ritual continues to expand its women's health offering with the launch of Fertility Support, the only 3-in-1 supplement formulated to support conception outcomes, and designed in partnership with OB/GYNs and fertility specialists. Shop it today! https://lnkd.in/gZVK-Srs https://lnkd.in/gDR_B42K