The CQ | Consumer Is So Back
Plus 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.
By Kirsten Green, Founding Partner
Thursday was electric.
The event we cohosted, Humans in the Loop, was a celebration of founders, ambition, creativity, and the undeniable energy building around consumer AI. What started as an idea for a simple gathering quickly became something much bigger.
Founders flew in. Investors from all corners of the ecosystem showed up. Over 900 builders and operators filled the room — and hallways, patios, and side rooms. Every corner was buzzing with curiosity, connection, and momentum — from the moment when we opened the doors at 2p to when we wrapped up for the reception at 6p.
We’re incredibly grateful to the visionary founders who took the stage and shared bold, personal, high-conviction stories about what they’re building. Their ideas weren’t just visionary, they were practical and real, representing the early formations of how AI can change daily life today. We’re also deeply grateful for all the cohosting firms, who not only brought the day to life by nominating the companies to present, but by sharing our overall belief in the Consumer AI opportunity ahead.
Reid Hoffman, legendary investor and founder, and Mike Krieger, Chief Product Officer at Anthropic and Cofounder of Instagram, also took the stage to offer hard-earned wisdom and inspire us to keep swinging big. Eurie Kim, Sequoia Partner Alfred Lin, and Adverb Partner April Underwood brought sharp clarity about what it will take to build enduring companies in this next era. And, Daniel Lurie, SF Mayor and our surprise guest, reminded us why SF is still the best place to build a company.
Most of all, we’re grateful to every founder, future founder, builder, and investor who showed up with real energy and engaged like this moment matters. Because it does.
Some of the biggest companies born in past times of tech transformation—Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple—started with a focus on the consumer. They earned trust early, iterated quickly, and expanded relentlessly. We think this wave will be no different.
We’ll have more updates from the event to share soon, including videos and other highlights, but for now our team is feeling extra thankful for this creative ecosystem we’re a part of.
What We’re Talking About on Slack:
What broke teenage romance? Gen Z teenagers and young adults are navigating love, dating, and intimacy in ways that are markedly different from previous generations. While media narratives often accuse them of being "puriteens"—disinterested or even hostile toward sex and romance—the reality is more nuanced. Many young people want love and connection, but their pathways to those goals are changing and often confusing. Rates of sexual activity and dating have dropped significantly over generations. E.g., in 1991, 54% of high schoolers reported having had sex; by 2021, it was 30%. Similarly, fewer Gen Z adults say they had teen relationships than Gen X or Baby Boomers did. Despite this, surveys show the desire for love remains strong: 90% of Gen Z daters on Hinge in 2024 said they hope to find love.
ChatGPT may be eroding critical thinking skills, according to a new MIT study. A new (but not yet peer-reviewed) study from MIT’s Media Lab suggests that using large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for schoolwork may undermine critical thinking and learning, especially among younger users.
Researchers observed that participants who used ChatGPT to write essays showed reduced brain activity, less originality, and declining effort over time compared to groups using no tools at all.
Instagram wants Gen Z. What does Gen Z want from Instagram? Instagram, once the defining app for polished photo-sharing, is struggling to stay relevant with Gen Z. Despite being the third most-used social platform among U.S. teens (behind YouTube and TikTok), younger users aren’t using Instagram the way Meta wants them to. In response, Meta launched its most expensive brand campaign ever, featuring stars like Rosalía and Tyler, the Creator. The goal is to reposition Instagram as a creative launchpad for scrappier, younger artists, rather than a corporate giant facing an antitrust trial.
20-somethings are taking up grandma’s favorite hobbies. Young Americans are embracing traditionally “old-fashioned” interests like knitting, needlepoint, scrapbooking, and journaling—activities stereotypically associated with retirees. Shopify sales data (May year-over-year) show that cross-stitch pattern sales are up 89%, and needlecraft canvas sales are up 88%. This movement, often called “granny core,” reflects a collective desire to slow down, disconnect from screens, and cultivate more mindful, creative, and social experiences.
Americans are side-hustling like we’re in a recession. The share of Americans with multiple jobs reached 5.3% to 5.5% in early 2025—levels not seen since the early 2000s recession, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Deloitte reports that about 4 in 10 millennials and Gen Zers have side hustles. And an Indeed survey found 52% of respondents cited making ends meet as the primary reason for holding a side gig. A notable shift is that instead of pursuing a passion as a side gig, many are choosing a more practical line of work on the side to hedge their bets against potential layoffs or reduced earnings. “It’s a testament to our collective unease and further evidence that careers will look very different than they used to. Holding one job at a time is on the way to becoming antiquated, or a luxury, for emerging generations.”
Young investor demand for alternative assets is reshaping Wall Street's playbook. Millennial and Gen Z investors are increasingly moving away from traditional 60/40 stock-bond portfolios and into alternative assets like pre-IPO startups, real estate, crypto, and collectibles. Nearly three-quarters of wealthy investors under 43 plan to increase allocations to alternatives despite higher fees and liquidity concerns. Financial firms, such as Bank of America and Forge Global Holdings Inc., are catching on and offering alternative investment products, which has led to a doubling of BofA clients in alternatives since 2020 and a tripling of daily sign-ups at Forge after lowering investment minimums to $5,000. According to a CAIS survey, 80% of alternative asset managers plan to launch retail-friendly products, almost twice as many as three years ago. “For many, alts aren’t just about returns, they’re a form of rebellion. Even among those who have benefited from the market’s gains, there’s a lingering distrust in the institutions that helped deliver them. They view public markets and 60/40 strategies as fragile or even rigged, having come of age during the crashes of 2008 and 2020.”
Big spenders are losing their appetite for luxury. A new report shows a significant decline in luxury spending among high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) due to macroeconomic uncertainty, market volatility, and trade policy concerns, particularly in the U.S. HNWI optimism has dropped below that of less affluent peers for the first time, which could be a sign of slower luxury growth in the future. “HNWI panellists are now skewed towards a pessimistic outlook in aggregate. Other consumer sentiment surveys in the U.S. similarly suggest that the cushion of optimism that had buoyed the most affluent over 2024 has now largely deflated.”
High costs have ended America’s love affair with cars, says WSJ, Light-vehicle sales have dropped by about 1.7 million a year since 2016. The reason? Car owners are getting hit from all directions. The average annual expense to own and operate a vehicle rose to $12,296 in 2024, 30% higher than 10 years ago. New vehicle prices now average $48,883, while used cars cost around $25,500, which has driven many consumers to keep older vehicles longer—the average car age on U.S. roads is now 14.5 years. Insurance premiums jumped 10% in 2024 after a 15% increase in 2023, while average repair bills reached $838, a 43% hike over six years. Repair costs are also inflated because of design choices like plastic engine components and advanced driver-assist systems that overcomplicate repairs even in cases where there is limited damage.
Have middle-aged millennials jumped the shark? Often called the “unluckiest generation,” millennials have faced economic instability and high living costs that have led to delayed milestones of homeownership, marriage, and parenthood. Now, Bloomberg is pointing out that Gen Z may be following in their footsteps, as they’re also contending with a troubling mix of financial insecurity and toxic online culture. According to a May Credit Karma survey, nearly half of Gen Z believes saving for the future is pointless, highlighting widespread poor financial literacy, even though they’ve had the most access to digital personal finance tools.
Fast Company takes a look at the rise of the personal AI advisors. A survey shows that 61% of Gen Z and 53% of millennials said they prefer AI tools like ChatGPT over traditional search engines. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that while older users treat AI like Google, many 20- and 30-somethings “use it like a life adviser” for decisions on health, careers, finances, and relationships. That’s the shift that’s expected for the future: Each person will have a team of curated AI agents in specific domains, from a wellness coach to a financial advisor, that are trained on an expert’s knowledge, essentially enabling one expert to help thousands through their digital persona. Most helpful of all, the agent would remember everything about you, so the advice would be highly customized. “These curated agents promise trust anchored in expertise and personalization, something today’s general chatbots lack. A user might hesitate to take medical action based on a random internet answer, but advice from an AI trained by a respected doctor or a therapist carries more weight … And over time, the AI develops a richer understanding of a user’s needs and preferences. It’s the difference between asking a stranger for advice versus consulting a personal coach who’s been with you for years.”
Portfolio Updates:
Decagon’s series C is covered in Reuters, highlighting Forerunner’s investment in the company
Daydream’s launch is covered in TechCrunch, Fortune, WWD, Forbes, Fast Company, The Business of Fashion, Vogue Business, and Fashionista
Time names Oura as one of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025
Pie Founder Andy Dunn speaks to Fox Business about what led him to start his company
Forerunner Highlights:
Kirsten Green joins TBPN to recap Humans in the Loop
The Information publishes an interview with Kirsten about the state of consumer AI startups today
There are ~813 open jobs at Forerunner portfolio companies — check ‘em out.