The CQ | The Two-Speed Economy and Hot Investment With a 3,000% Return
The Forerunner Team's Top 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.
What We’re Talking About on Slack:
The two-speed economy is back as low-income Americans give up gains. High-income and older Americans are continuing to build wealth through home equity and stock market gains, while low-income and younger workers are seeing their financial progress reverse. Wage growth for the bottom third of earners fell to just 0.9% in August, the smallest gain since 2016, compared to 3.6% for the top third. Spending among low-income households rose only 0.3% versus 2.2% for wealthier ones. The top 10% of earners now account for 49.2% of total consumer spending, up from 45.7% a decade ago. Housing has become less accessible, with home prices up 50% since pre-pandemic levels, and the median age of first-time buyers reaching a record 38 years. “The cooling labor market is probably fueling much of that divergence,” says one economist who notes that the booming stock portfolios of high-income households are also contributing, “providing higher earners the confidence to spend more.”
Why teens are dropping hundreds on back-to-school ‘hauls’: Back-to-school shopping has turned into a social media event with teens showing off trendy purchases from brands like Lululemon, Adidas, and Free People in ‘haul’ videos. On TikTok, the hashtag #backtoschool saw a 100% increase in posts from June 25 to August 25 compared to the same time last year. Total U.S. spending on back-to-school shopping in 2025 is projected to hit $39.4 billion, up from $38.8 billion in 2024. “From the outside, their ‘haul’ videos on TikTok might seem like inordinate displays of wealth and status, but for the people who make and consume them, they’re a rite of passage. Teens and tweens watch to figure out how to fit in and cultivate their personal style. A tale as old as time, just now with a smartphone.”
The hot investment with a 3,000% return? Pokémon cards. A recent analysis reveals that Pokémon trading cards have seen a 3,821% monthly cumulative return since 2004, outperforming the S&P 500's 483% jump and Meta’s 1,844% climb over comparable periods. This surge, fueled by nostalgia and pandemic-era disposable income, has attracted amateur investors. One collector looks at the cards as investments similar to his Roth IRA retirement and Vanguard brokerage accounts, while another plans to bequeath his cards to his kids. High-value cards can fetch millions ("Pikachu Illustrator" sold for $5.3 million in 2022), depending on rarity, condition, and authentication. Despite the market's incredible gains, there are concerns about a potential bubble due to a lack of regulation, inconsistent pricing, and unknown circulation numbers, although some enthusiasts believe Pokémon cards are a safer investment than baseball cards because fictional characters can’t get an injury.
AI agents are getting ready to handle your whole financial life. Major firms like Vanguard and BlackRock are investing billions to develop agentic AI that can offer financial advice, rebalance portfolios, and execute transactions across multiple accounts. BlackRock’s Asimov can already scan financial data, track news, and plug insights directly into models, significantly increasing analyst productivity. Brokerage company eToro launched a new suite of AI tools that allow individual investors to code a specific trading strategy with AI, and then have AI execute that strategy on their behalf. These tools could scale financial advice to tens of millions, offering a more accessible option for middle-class investors. There are concerns about liability and risk, especially for tools that make autonomous decisions or handle sensitive financial transactions, so brand-conscious companies like Vanguard are being careful rolling out systems with guardrails, but lesser-known startups may not be as cautious. “Few are predicting that AI will replace financial advisers. Human relationships and trust are hard to replicate. But there’s no doubt the technology will disrupt the industry.”
How to find love when dating has gotten so expensive: For Gen Z, finances are affecting how they approach dating. Just over half report that they don’t spend money on romantic dates, and 28% spend less than $100 per month, according to a Bank of America report from July. A 2024 LendingTree survey found that 67% of daters wouldn’t mind if someone took them on a free date; however, some traditional expectations persist: 32% of Gen Z think men should pay for the first date, while 31% believe the cost should be split, though it can be tricky to determine who pays what.
AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula—No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun, reports The Wall Street Journal. A new wave of 20-something AI founders in San Francisco who glorify extreme work habits and a more stringent, and even wholesome, way of living: no alcohol, no partying, a 9-9-6 schedule. Related: Burning Man is for the olds, says this new class of company-builders.
Podcasts (and Plastic Surgery) Are Shaping Male Beauty Standards. Male beauty is increasingly shaped not by Hollywood alone but by podcast personalities and plastic surgery culture, merging performance science with cosmetic intervention. Chatter about strength, supplements, and jawlines is no longer fringe, it’s remapping male self-image. Cosmetic procedures, once stigmatized, are now seen as part of the same continuum as working out, dieting, or supplementation. “There’s no longer a stigma on vanity for men.”
AI Is Coming for YouTube Creators, reports The Atlantic. At least 15 million YouTube videos, including how-to and educational clips, have been scraped without permission to train AI video tools. This raises major copyright and fairness issues, with lawsuits already underway. Tech giants like Google, Meta, and Nvidia are developing products that could flood platforms with AI-generated videos, potentially displacing human creators. For YouTubers like Jon Peters, whose woodworking tutorials built a loyal following, the dilemma is whether to keep creating authentic content or risk being overshadowed by machines.
Portfolio Highlights:
Decagon co-founder and CEO Jesse Zhang goes on the No Priors podcast
John Hu, Stan, co-founder and CEO, and Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia CEO, visit Bloomberg’s “The Close” to discuss the creator economy.
More coverage on Glossier’s new CEO, Colin Walsh, from Inc., AdWeek, and RetailDive.
Fortune’s The Future 50 list recognizes Faire (#21) and Chime (#43).
Ritual Founder and CEO Katerina Schneider visits the Superwomen with Rebecca Minkoff podcast to talk about how she got her start and building her brand.
Fay is teaming up with Amazon to offer personalized, insurance-covered dietitian services through Amazon's Health Benefits Connector.
There are ~1700 open jobs at Forerunner portfolio companies — check ‘em out.