Forerunner

Investing in Faire’s series A in 2018 could have seemed like a fool’s errand. The ecommerce shift had reached late majority, with two of the most powerful global companies (Amazon and Walmart) in the throws of a battleground for online shopping, all while big-box retail only got bigger. The opportunity in indie retail felt foreign to Silicon Valley. But it wasn’t just the market — it was, perhaps primarily, the marketplace model that was out of favor. In 2018, the tech industry had just come off of a major boom in marketplace startups, all of which were vying to follow in the footsteps of Airbnb and Uber. But as opportunistic waves of enthusiasm can often go, many attempts never reached meaningful scale. Investors have since strayed from the category, with investments into series A marketplaces dropping 85% in the past 7-8 years. The model was dubbed inefficient, capital-intensive, and inherently challenged. As consumer investors, we are no strangers to committing to models and industries when they are out of favor (in fact, this is exactly when we love to double down). It’s undeniable that marketplaces can be the most powerful way - and only way - to solve some key consumer problems, even if the model isn’t known for its simplicity. During this quieter time for marketplaces, we’ve made investments that have proven to be incredibly impactful and true change-makers within the massive markets that they operate: apart from Faire (the backbone of Main Street), there’s Fay (scaling nutrition care for consumers and dietician SMBs), Fora Travel (reimagining the composition of the travel agency), Atticus (the modern consumer-facing public interest law firm), Headway (the leader in insurance-covered mental healthcare), Leland (the career coaching destination uniquely focused on outcomes), as well as The Expert, Table22, Pavilion, Daydream, and more. With the momentum we’re seeing in marketplaces across our own portfolio, our research team felt inspired to dig into the data on how marketplaces are performing across public markets, M&A, and company building — all to bring objective data to an otherwise amorphous narrative about the model. See our deep dive on how marketplaces have evolved over time, how they stack up to other business models, what public company data tells us about the opportunity, and what fundamentals will define tomorrow’s marketplaces: https://lnkd.in/gGRCayvA

📣 Introducing Forerunner's Source of Truth on Marketplaces 📣 The marketplace business model has undeniably stood the test of time. Some of the largest public consumer tech companies are marketplaces, and with over $190B total revenue and $570B total valuation, marketplaces have produced a breadth and depth of small- and large-cap outcomes that rival software. However, the model has fallen out of favor with investors in recent years — marketplaces that went on to raise a Series A are down ~85% since the 2015 peak. We know not all marketplaces are created equal, but we believe the slow down may be detached from public market data and see marketplaces as the ideal, and perhaps only, model to deliver on certain consumer value propositions at scale. We analyzed data for 30+ public and 80+ private marketplaces to put our hypotheses and market sentiment to the test. We looked at how marketplaces stack up to each other as well as leading subscription and software public companies. What did we find? 💰 Marketplaces are rewarded in the public markets even when they are not capital efficient pre-IPO 🏆 Service and product-based companies can both be successful, though the latter is often challenged when holding inventory 🤝 Medium to high degree of management typically strikes the right balance of value creation and value capture 💫 Marketplaces with supply variety as a feature are more common and typically have more compelling financials Curious to learn more? Link to our full report in the comments. Thank you to Dan Hockenmaier, Casey Winters, and Bill Fox for trading notes with us as we created the report.

The travel industry continues to boom despite all odds. Soaring airfare prices, higher-for-longer rates — nothing is stopping the growth of tourism, particularly as millennials and Gen Z increasingly believe travel to be an essential part of their lives and identities. Mindtrip, Inc. is recreating the travel planning experience to leverage best of AI and cater to younger travelers: “What if planning a trip was as fun as taking it? Mindtrip is best positioned to make this a reality." https://lnkd.in/gmx2eV5G

Roon is a company that immediately grabbed us upon hearing their story and how they’re approaching an extremely well-known problem: there’s a deluge of healthcare misinformation online, an increasingly overburdened healthcare system, and no shortage of consumers needing trusted answers quickly for navigating some of life’s most complicated moments. Roon is what you’d get if you combined webMD and Perplexity, but created only with doctor-created content: envision a vast repository of searchable answers, videos, and guides straight from top medical experts related to a deep range of healthcare concerns, from ALS to Fertility, Dementia, Endometriosis, and more. As investors, we know companies have been trying to disrupt “Dr Google” for decades — an estimated 7% of google searches are health related, and AI can either compound misinformation or be a solution. Why Roon stands out: Doctors *love* it. They are flocking to it. They see it as an essential tool for educating patients and caregivers, building their personal brands (in a non-performative way, in contrast to Instagram/TikTok), and saving time and effort with an accessible, efficient format for answering the questions they get every week in their clinics. Finally, Roon fits in with a theme we’re tracking closely at Forerunner: the shift from Search to Service, where the static, unilateral search experience is being replaced by AI-driven, context-aware services that feel much more interactive and personal. There’s arguably no better team than former Pinterest leaders and highly respected clinical physicians and experts to drive this kind of thematic shift in health. Let’s go Team Roon! Deeper investment thesis linked in comments! Vikram Bhaskaran Rohan Ramakrishna, MD Arun Ranganathan

Today, we’re thrilled to announce our $15M Series A to provide a compassionate, reliable health guide for everyone. This round is co-led by Rick Heitzmann from FirstMark and Eurie Kim from Forerunner, with continued support from early investors, including Soraya Darabi from TMV and Jess Lee from Sequoia Capital More than any name or number, I’m so proud of this milestone because we’re building with a team of truly mission-driven people My personal experience as a caregiver to my father during his battle with ALS inspired me to build Roon. Navigating the complexities of the healthcare system opened my eyes: At some point, we’ll all face the challenge of caring for ourselves or a loved one through difficult health issues. And I knew there had to be a better way than turning to "Doctor Google."My co-founders Rohan Ramakrishna, MD, and Arun Ranganathan shared this vision as doctors and caregivers. Many of our investors have a meaningful personal connection to our mission. And most inspiringly, thousands of leading physicians in the country have joined us, eager to make their expertise more accessible and fix how the Internet often falls short for health information. Their enthusiasm to scale their impact beyond their clinics at places like Weill Cornell, UCSF, Harvard, Stanford or Columbia has been deeply encouraging. Finally, thank you to our incredible team Joshua Lang, Fatima Alvi, Alice Chen, Naintara (Tara) Rajan, Mackenzie C., Chelsey Larson, RN, BSN, Patrick E Porché Jr, Kelvin De Los Angeles, Koonal Bharadwaj, Ben Powell, Enid Hwang This funding marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter. With it, we’ll expand our platform to cover hundreds of conditions, including critical areas like women’s health, cancer, neurology, metabolic health, and pediatrics. Roon is more than just a company – it’s a movement to reimagine how we care for ourselves and one another. If you’re passionate about creating a better future for health, we invite you to join us. We are actively hiring! Check out our jobs page here: https://lnkd.in/eMeAbKs3 If you're a doc and want to share your expertise, please drop us a note here: https://lnkd.in/eEKfmKZQ Featured in Techrunch today: https://lnkd.in/eyD8C3pu

The tech industry has long espoused the value of founders building from a place of first-hand experience and passion for the problem they're out to solve. Few builders illustrate this more than Aizada Marat, who is building a modern immigration law firm underpinned by AI. Her recent post on her immigration story is well worth a read. Some highlights: - Her journey from being raised in a village in Kyrgyzstan to raising $5.5 Million in seed funding for Alma - Immigration hiccups and how they helped define the trajectory of her life - How Britney Spears helped her realize her American dream (her words!) - The journey from lecture halls to courtrooms to consulting to founding a startup, and hosting Silicon Valley icons in her backyard—a rollercoaster of events leading up to now https://lnkd.in/gkeUHhcS

When the momentum speaks for itself: Huge congrats to team ŌURA on the fresh $75M at a $5B valuation, including a partnership with Dexcom to deepen care within metabolic health! https://lnkd.in/ggVeE3Ku

“The problem is information overload. The amount of input that human brains are getting every second of every day is something the human species has never experienced — too many pages, too many products. At Daydream, the way we’re thinking about solving this problem is creating what’s in essence ChatGPT for shopping. If you have the ability to ask anything you want, we have the ability to help you.” Julie Bornstein and the Daydream are uniquely suited to transform the way we shop for the AI era, a massive opportunity given that the experience hasn't meaningful changed in decades. Look out for Daydream, formally debuting next year! https://lnkd.in/ggCq9fDS

Announcing Leland's $12M Series A led by Forerunner! Forerunner has an incredible track record of backing iconic consumer brands and marketplaces like Warby Parker, Chime, Glossier, Inc., ŌURA, Faire, Zola, The Expert, and others. We couldn't be more excited to welcome Eurie Kim to the board and partner with her and Forerunner to take Leland to the next level. Also participating in the round are GSV Ventures, inVest Ventures, and our early investors like FJ Labs, Contrary, Peterson Ventures, and GSBackers. We’re also proud that dozens of Leland coaches and customers participated, in addition to leading marketplace founders, operators, and angels from companies like Instacart, Handshake, LinkedIn, Pluralsight, Mercado Libre, and others. With this fresh capital and support, we're well positioned to accelerate our vision of unlocking human potential by making the world's expertise more accessible. In the past year alone, our coaches have helped hundreds of thousands of people in over 70 countries break into top schools or companies, develop new skills, prepare for interviews or tests, and pursue goals across dozens of unique categories. While a fundraise is never a destination, it certainly represents an opportunity to reflect on the progress we’ve made and thank the community who has helped us get this far. So, THANK YOU! We know the biggest opportunity is ahead of us, and we’re excited to be building a world-class team to go after it. If you want to join us, we're hiring. if you want to partner with us, shoot me a DM. And if you are interested in working with a coach or coaching the next generation, we'd love to have you in our community. Big thank you to Deborah Quazzo, Ben Capell, Kyle Harrison, Eric Tarczynski, Jason Bornstein, Lauri J. Moore, Karen Chi, Glenn Borok, Jeff Weinstein, Jose Marin, Jen Yang-Wong, Jason Chen, Taylor Jones, ilana stern, Aaron Skonnard, Gary Williams, Martin Rudigier, and the many others who have made this possible through your support! Here's to the next chapter of helping people reach their most ambitious goals. (TechCrunch coverage in comments)

Yesterday I joined Chris Britt at Money2020 for a keynote discussion on how he’s steering Chime into one of the most durable, important fintech companies of our time. Many don’t realize that 60% of our nation lives paycheck-to-paycheck, a majority demographic that is very poorly served by the legacy banking industry. Chris often says that he’s not out to disrupt banking, but rather operate within the highly regulated existing banking system to make it work better for everyday Americans. In doing so, Chime has been the pioneer of innovations that are increasingly adopted by larger banks, whose hands are being forced into order to remain competitive. Chime was the first to offer fee-free overdraft features (SpotMe), helping members avoid over $30B in potential overdraft fees, as well as the newly introduced MyPay — an instant payment feature that helps members avoid high-interest credit cards, payday loans, or overdraft fees while waiting two weeks for paychecks to clear (which is 70%+ of the $10 trillion in wages and salaries). By doing the right thing for consumers — and building from a place of fundamental empathy and firsthand experience, with meticulous regulatory standards — Chime has become a generational company. And plenty more innovation, scale, and milestones for this company to come!