The CQ | Fora’s Series C, Superpower’s Series A, and The Expert’s New CEO
Plus the Forerunner Team's Must-Reads of the Week
The CQ is Forerunner’s weekly newsletter rounding up the most pressing consumer news and analysis, plus some bonus musings from our investment team. Subscribe now to get the latest edition in your inbox every weekend.
There’s been no shortage of portfolio news and momentum this spring, including new funding rounds, as well as leadership and growth milestones.
This week’s highlights:
Superpower announced its series A
We led the series A for Superpower, the digital clinic that puts consumers in control of their health with proactive insights and actionable plans — so people can live longer, prevent disease, and feel their best. Superpower is doing justice to all the potential inherent to starting a consumer health company today: it’s preventative by default, painstakingly comprehensive and integrated, and AI-powered for deeper personalization, accessibility, and efficiency. The debut product helps consumers fully understand what’s happening in their bodies through biannual blood tests that analyse over 100 biomarkers across 21 personal health categories — about 10x more in-depth than the average physical — along with 24/7 AI-enhanced clinical guidance for always-on support. For more on Superpower, see our blog post and TechCrunch’s article.
Fora raised its series C led by Thrive Capital
For those who are unfamiliar, Fora is reinventing the composition of the dated travel agency model to cater to younger demographics who see travel as an indispensable part of their lives and overall identities. Their approach enables anyone with a passion for travel to monetize their expertise by becoming a travel advisor as a part-time side hustle or a full-time gig, tapping into consumers’ growing desire to work for themselves and pursue flexible, dynamic work. Some of the most interesting marketplaces open up supply and demand where it didn’t exist before, and in the case of Fora, 97% of its travel advisors are new to the role. Fora has now crossed $1B worth of bookings on its platforms since launching just a few years ago and booked over 2 million room nights. For more, see Fora’s story in Fortune.
The Expert announces a new CEO
Some leaders are tailor-made for certain high-stakes opportunities — and that was exactly the case for Lee Anne Blake, former Chief Growth Officer at Babylist, who’s now stepping into the CEO role at The Expert. After growing Babylist from <$100M to almost $500M in revenue in a few years, Lee Anne brings deep expertise in scaling digital-first commerce platforms and a clear, ambitious view for how The Expert will become the go-to marketplace for the design trade. Read more in Business of Home.
What We’re Talking About This Week:
From Bloomberg: Eight charts show men are falling behind, from classrooms to careers. By age 5, boys are 16 percentage points less likely than girls to be school-ready, and by 2023, girls led boys in high school graduation rates in every U.S. state except Vermont. The gender gap continues through higher education and the workforce. The share of women in STEM grew from 9% in 1970 to 24%, while the share of men in HEAL jobs (health care, education, administration, and literacy — all industries primarily dominated by women) dropped from 31% to 22% in the same period. Between 2023 and 2033, 1.6 million HEAL jobs are expected to be created—500,000 more than in STEM—with women capturing most of the gains due to fewer men entering these sectors.
Bloomberg also explores why U.S. men think college isn’t worth it anymore, taking a close look at how fewer young men are pursuing college degrees — a trend particularly prevalent among working-class communities across the U.S. Nationwide, nearly all of the 1.2 million drop in college enrollment since 2011 has come from men. Factors include rising tuition costs, the lure of immediate income, influencers downplaying the value of college, and the allure of trade work. The long-term impacts are vast—men without college degrees aren’t just linked to lower rates of employment, but lower wages and lower likelihood of marriage, and social connection.
Americans haven’t found a satisfying alternative to religion. Over the past few decades, around 40 million Americans have left organized religion, and about 30% of the U.S. population now identifies as having no religious affiliation. Despite this, 92% of Americans still hold some form of spiritual belief, and research shows that religious individuals are generally happier, healthier, and more socially connected. Many “nones” left religion because they disagreed with something in it politically or socially, and turned to secular alternatives like wellness, community groups, or mindfulness practices — though many felt these substitutes lack the same community or guidance offered by religion. “I would love to find a way to have what I had then without compromising who I am now.”
A new Pew Research Center survey on teens, social media, and mental health finds nearly half of teens age 13 to 17 (48%) say social media negatively affects their peers, up from 32% in 2022, though only 14% believe it impacts them personally. Girls report more negative effects than boys, with 25% saying social media hurts their mental health, compared to 14% of boys, and 50% say it affects their sleep. Despite these concerns, 74% of teens say social media helps them stay connected with friends, and 63% feel it allows for creative expression. Still, 45% of teens say they spend too much time on social media—up from 36% in 2022—and 44% say they’ve tried to cut back on usage.
The new science of aging can predict your future. While efforts to reverse aging are advancing, they remain risky. The more promising approach, says cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol in the New York Times, is to focus on extending health span—the years lived free from cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s, which are largely preventable. Scientists are now developing advanced tools, such as proteomic organ clocks, to track how specific organs age and predict disease onset more accurately. Combining this information with AI, doctors may soon be able to create individualized disease prevention plans that go beyond the traditional age-based screenings that we do today. “This is also where AI models can best benefit medicine. These models are improving in accuracy and reasoning and could one day incorporate data from our gut microbiomes or immune systems to make disease predictions even more precise.”
Value retailers have been waiting for the higher-income consumer. They’ve arrived. In late 2024 and into 2025, stores like Academy Sports & Outdoors, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General have noticed that while their core value shoppers were pulling back, higher-income customers have been increasingly shopping at their stores. To keep these shoppers and attract new ones, Academy, for instance, is expanding its mid- and high-tier product offerings, including adding Nike’s Jordan line.
The Atlantic: Like the Millennial lifestyle subsidy that provided cheap access to Uber, ClassPass, and DoorDash in the 2010s, the Gen Z lifestyle subsidy is serving up two months free of ChatGPT Plus, just in time for finals. Anthropic, xAI, Google, and Perplexity are offering deep discounts, and Anthropic even launched “campus ambassadors” programs to lure students. Despite the losses from these and other promotions, AI companies are betting that early adoption will lead to long-term dependency and future revenue. “The Millennial lifestyle subsidy eventually came crashing down as the cheap money dried up. Investors who had for so long allowed these start-ups to offer services at artificially deflated prices wanted returns. So companies were forced to raise prices, and not all of them survived. If they want to succeed, AI companies will also eventually have to deliver profits.”
AI generates loads of carbon emissions. It’s starting to cut them, too. Data centers powering AI are projected to more than double their energy use by 2030. And a new report from BloombergNEF estimates that over the next decade, two-thirds of the additional power needed for data centers will come from fossil fuels. Now, companies are using AI to try to address climate change. For example, Waymo’s self-driving cars can cut emissions by improving driving efficiency and using EVs. Pano AI’s fire-detecting cameras assist in early wildfire detection. Avalo’s AI accelerates the development of crops that can withstand drought and heat, cutting breeding time from 15 to 3 years. What’s tricky, though, is quantifying AI’s environmental impact, especially since developers rarely track carbon footprints, and any benefits are often hard to measure in emissions alone.
Portfolio Highlights:
Fast Company takes a look at how Marc Lore’s Wonder intends to revive Seamless.
Forbes, TechCrunch, and Fierce Healthcare report that Superpower raises $30 million.
Oura is a Webby Award winner for Connected Products & Wearables, App Features (Apps & Software).
Job of the Week:
Senior Performance Marketing Specialist at Prenuvo, the most comprehensive full-body MRI scan.
There are ~770 other open jobs at Forerunner portfolios companies — check them out.