The CQ | Anti-Social Media from Social Media Giants. And, is AI a Scapegoat For Mass Layoffs?
The Forerunner Team's Must-Reads of the Week
The CQ is Forerunner’s weekly newsletter rounding up the top consumer news, plus bonus musings from our investment team and portfolio highlights. Subscribe to get the latest each weekend.
After leading the seed for Joy, we’ve doubled down on the series A to reshape how people everywhere navigate the ups and downs of early parenthood
Joy, which provides 24/7, text-based support to parenting coaches (feeding, sleep, behavioral, and more), has built a truly beloved product:
50k paying members in just over a year
On track to double paying members by early 2026
An embedded AI layer that’s 3x’ed engagement
Joy exemplifies how a human-in-the-loop approach to consumer AI can be so impactful, especially for an area of such deep nuance and cultural value as parenthood.
For more, see Joy’s feature in Forbes!
What We’re Talking About on Slack:
The age of anti-social media is here — but this time, social media is in on it. The Atlantic argues that we’ve moved from “social” media to anti-social AI, as Meta and other platforms are increasingly pushing their chatbots on users, whether for companionship or assistance. Now that chatbots and agents have evolved to have more human-like qualities, voices, and personalities, as well as the capability to store memory to personalize interactions, there’s a business model that’s more focused on return frequency rather than human connection — especially when AIs are known for a sycophant demeanor that never challenges and keeps users coming back for more. The founder of the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation explains, “Chatbots can create this frictionless social bubble. Real people will push back. They get tired. They change the subject…In the extreme, it can become this hall of mirrors where your worldview is never challenged.”
How AI became the scapegoat for the current wave of mass layoffs: Amid a surge of corporate cuts—150,000 jobs eliminated in October 2025—Amazon, Microsoft, Target, UPS, and Salesforce have cited AI as playing a role in reductions. But research from Yale and Brookings shows no significant rise in job losses have been tied to AI since ChatGPT’s 2022 debut, although a report from Stanford University did find early-career workers in jobs that are most vulnerable to AI disruption saw a 13% decline in employment. Many economists argue that AI’s true impact on employment remains limited and slow to materialize, and CEOs are using AI as a convenient excuse for layoffs, actually driven by overhiring, tariffs, and other economic pressures such as immigration. Blaming AI is also a way CEOs can show they’re innovating and keeping up. “It makes companies look good to their shareholders, to suggest ‘we are deploying AI so well [that] we are now cutting our labor costs.’”
High-risk consumer borrowers have risen to most since 2019. Bloomberg reports that the share of subprime consumer borrowers has risen to 14.4% in the third quarter, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth in the subprime category. At the same time, total credit card balances hit $1.11 trillion and unsecured personal loan balances have reached a record $269 billion. Perhaps stating the obvious: experts warn that persistent growth in subprime borrowing can signal deeper financial strain for vulnerable consumers.
How hormones became a wellness obsession: There’s a growing number of women in their 20s and 30s who are adopting a DIY approach to “balancing” their hormones through diet, supplements, exercise, “clean” skin care, and household products free of “endocrine disrupters.” Many influencers are promoting the trend on social, and a booming hormone-wellness marketplace has emerged. Birth-control pills are often made out to be a big culprit of poor hormone health, though doctors ensure the pill is safe and express doubt about the movement overall. Says one reproductive endocrinologist: “What’s hard is we don’t yet always have a solution to the things women are experiencing. That creates this space for approaches, tests, and products that are just not evidence-based.”
Men’s groups (not ‘boys clubs’) quietly emerge in big business. Men’s employee groups are forming at some major corporations to offer a space for male workers to discuss topics like mental health, masculinity, and fatherhood. “The idea of a workplace affinity group specifically for men can elicit an instant eye roll. After all, men remain overrepresented in leadership, making up about 90% of big company CEOs and controlling more than two-thirds of C-suite jobs in the US.” Considering the latest stats on men and loneliness, these men’s groups could be a step in the right direction. Women tend to have larger support networks than men, who have been living increasingly isolated lives: American men aged 18-30 spent an average of 6.6 non-sleeping hours alone each day in 2023, more than an hour longer than women did.
Why statistics aren’t reflecting the economy and everyday American life. Misleading statistics are the reason for the disconnect between how Americans feel about the economy vs. the official reports of a strong economy, according to the new book, The Mismeasurement of America, by Gene Ludwig, the former Comptroller of the Currency. Official data show a 4.3% unemployment rate, but Ludwig’s institute, LISEP, finds 24.7% of Americans are “functionally unemployed”—in other words, even if a person only works one hour a week, the government considers them “employed” and those who earn below-poverty wages are classified the same as those earning $1 million. Another example: Reported median wages exclude part-time and unemployed job seekers, so the official earnings measure shows an overstated wage that doesn’t reflect the reality for many low- and middle-income people. And because the Consumer Price Index (CPI) takes into account the prices of thousands of different items, including relatively stable luxury items like jewelry (up by about 39% over the past two decades) as well as essential goods (housing, food, and healthcare actually are up 97% in two decades), Ludwig argues that figures also understates real inflation.
U.S. small-business optimism dips to a six-month low on earnings due to weaker earnings and reduced confidence in the economy. The National Federation of Independent Business index slipped 0.6 points to 98.2, with earnings falling sharply due to slower sales and higher material costs. Fewer owners expect economic conditions to improve, with optimism about future activity at its lowest since April.
How an $11 billion beauty company built a suburban empire: Ulta Beauty combined the accessibility of big-box stores with high-end beauty offerings, positioning itself more like a “Home Depot of beauty” than a luxury boutique. Founded in 1990 on the idea of selling both drugstore and prestige brands under one roof, Ulta has found success in strip malls across the U.S. growing to 1,500 stores and becoming the nation’s largest beauty retailer, in part due to its loyalty program of 46 million members (which accounts for 95% of all purchases made through the retailer) and an emphasis on in-store experiences. The company hasn’t been affected much by the economy: “According to the company’s numbers, shoppers haven’t traded down to less expensive items or pulled back their spending overall—a demonstration of the ‘lipstick effect,’ the theory explaining why people keep splurging on certain affordable luxuries even during economic uncertainty.”
Portfolio Highlights:
The New York Times features Ash by Slingshot AI in a story about how AI therapy chatbots can support mental health.
Bloomberg reports that the Minnesota Timberwolves are selling seat upgrades during games to fans through the team’s ticketing platform, Jump, with quotes from Jump Co-founder and CEO Jordy Leiser and Co-founder Marc Lore.
CNBC writes about the new $27 million fundraise to help Arrived launch a secondary trading platform for shares of rental homes.
Dutch CEO Joe Spector relays his perspective on breaking into a complex market in Inc.
CNBC and Entrepreneur report that Oura could generate close to $2 billion in sales next year.
The Information recognizes Duckbill as one of its 2025 Top Startups to Watch.
Entrepreneur interviews Joe Spector, CEO of Dutch.
Job of the Week:
Senior Growth Manager at Teal Health, the market’s first at-home cervical cancer screen.
There are ~2300 open jobs at Forerunner portfolio companies — check ‘em out.