Forerunner

A venture capital firm dedicated to the modern consumer and the ambitious teams reshaping categories

[Forerunner @ForerunnerVC]

Humans in the Loop is back!

Join us on June 10th in SF. Space fills up fast. Apply to attend here!
https://t.co/TpKYWKxkKh

[Forerunner @ForerunnerVC]

"The NY @Mets are making the startup @Novig their official prediction-market partner, marking a first for Major League Baseball as the prediction-markets industry looks for a foothold in professional sports."

Huge win for Novig, huge win for the Mets 🔥
https://t.co/VqVKx30MJv

[Forerunner @ForerunnerVC]

Congrats to @depthfirstlabs on making @Forbes' list of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups.

Started by alumni of Google DeepMind, Block, and Databricks, depthfirst has big aims to secure the next era of software when intelligence creates more code than was ever imaginable.
https://t.co/0Y0DsrUTYh

[Sam O’Donnell @SamODonnell22]

We're running our first-ever @ForerunnerVC Summer Sessions- open office hours for seed and pre-seed founders, twice a week all August at our Presidio office.

1:1 feedback on your pitch, positioning, GTM, whatever you're stuck on, plus a room full of eager product testers. Bring something you're still figuring out- an early concept or a rough prototype you haven't shown many people.

[brad @bradkowalk]

We just solved the biggest UX problem in AI.

Today, we're releasing AI Autocomplete, a SDK that gives every text box a brain.

It boosts your conversions by 50%+ by guiding your users as they type with what your product can do, and 500+ companies have already signed up.

So check it out if you have a search box or assistant.

Add it in under 5 mins ↓

https://t.co/NLgwtQTgoh

(or comment your product name, and we'll reply with a demo of it working on your product)

[Forerunner @ForerunnerVC]

As a category, agentic payments don't "exist"—because the infrastructure isn't yet there.

@naturalpay is building these rails: payments that are agent-to-agent, business-to-agent, consumer-to-agent — and reverse.

We're proud to lead the $30M series A!
https://t.co/J3sImoKCKq

[Kirsten Green @kirstenagreen]

New platform shift, new rails.

Agentic payments aren't yet a thing, but @naturalpay has the team and ambition to build this new infrastructure. Payments that are agent-to-agent, business-to-agent, consumer-to-agent — and reverse.

Proud to lead the $30M series A ⚡️

[Forerunner @ForerunnerVC]

Congrats on the milestone @hellofora! Over $3B in bookings in just a few years. A prime example of a humans-in-the-loop model at scale:

https://t.co/vLM6V8C2Nd

[Lightspeed @lightspeedvp]

“What if AI could make a real clinical decision?”

Last month, Lightspeed had the privilege of co-hosting Humans in the Loop alongside friends at @ForerunnerVC.

On stage at HITL, @Doctronic co-founder Dr. Adam Oskowitz unveiled their master plan to build the best AI doctor:

“The hard truth is, there will never be enough doctors to meet the demands of patients. This is a human capital problem.”

“Utah just released the data. 97% agreement with human doctors. Zero adverse events.”

“That same system that orders prescription renewals, it can order and interpret labs. Based on those labs, it can stop something that’s not working, start something new.”

“All of a sudden, that human capital problem becomes a compute problem.” And we believe that problem is solvable.

Thanks Adam & @Doctronic for joining us.

CC: @f_fatemi21, @BrentonFargnoli, @mattpavelle

[Shan Reddy @rshanreddy]

Was a blast sharing about @hey_aristotle's progress these past few weeks. These last few weeks have been incredible.

Thanks to @kirstenagreen + @ForerunnerVC team for hosting, and @trueventures for nominating us! And @Erinlens + @CCgong for the photos 📷

[Kirsten Green @kirstenagreen]

https://t.co/cqMz9p9jMz

[Kirsten Green @kirstenagreen]

I left Humans in the Loop last week more convinced than ever that AI's narrative problem is solvable

[Anvisha @anvisha]

Last week I presented at Humans in the Loop, @ForerunnerVC's consumer AI conference

I talked about AI slop.

This debate pops up on X every few weeks.

For me it's pretty simple:

1. Any single model - no matter how good - leads to aesthetic mode collapse.

2. Without humans in the loop is how you end up with sameness. Sameness = slop.

3. We have to acknowledge that agents will be creating software and artifacts on the fly, and give them tools to do so tastefully.

4. At the same time, there will ALWAYS be humans doing design.

[GV @GVteam]

Last week, @ForerunnerVC brought together the consumer AI community for this year's Humans in the Loop.
@MotherGamesgg and Divanny Lamas took center stage to share what they're building, and it was exciting to see founders pushing the boundaries of consumer AI.

[david lietjauw @davidfromkansas]

I'm in San Francisco this week and got the chance to drop by @ForerunnerVC Humans in the Loop showcase for Consumer AI founders!

my takeaways:

1️⃣ AI is becoming a collaborator that works with you in real-time.

Apps are evolving beyond chat into interactive workspaces where users collaborate with AI agents and watch outputs take shape in real time – from travel itineraries to polished brand assets. User Interfaces are becoming more dynamic, proactive, and ambient as agents adapt to your intent and help you achieve your goals.

2️⃣ Every app is vying to be the source-of-truth context layer for AI.

Apps are all racing to turn unstructured user content/behavior into context that powers smarter, more personalized experiences. For @buildyourcorner, that means transforming restaurant reviews and photos into rich interest graphs for better recommendations than Yelp. For Alta , it means digitizing your messy wardrobe so it can help you plan outfits and discover new looks. For Indexed Labs, this means ingesting your overflowing email inbox and busy calendar to organize your life.

3️⃣ Text Messages are becoming the new go-to distribution channel for consumer apps.

The hardest problem in consumer is getting users to download a new app. Every extra step adds friction, and friction kills adoption. That's why more startups are embedding themselves into existing apps & workflows instead of trying to invent new behaviors. For example, companies like @interaction use iMessage as their primary distribution channel because it's already where users spend their time chatting.

At the end, OpenAI's Nick Turley advised all founders to ask themselves: "How does my product get better as models get better?"

It's a GOATED question. But I still believe the top priority is solving real, important customer problems that meaningfully improve peoples' lives. If you can do that -- going really deep and doing it exceptionally well -- then your product's value will only compound as AI model capabilities continue improving!!!

[Jacob Fortinsky @j__fort]

https://t.co/eCXH7w9c94

[Connie Biel @conniebiel]

Lots of fun seeing emerging AI consumer products and demos at the @ForerunnerVC humans in the loop

Excited about progress and whitespace of problems worth building in:

1/ New form factors for AI. Beyond the iphone and existing modalities, how can we reimagine how intelligence will be distributed? Could there be more diverse hardware in the home, personalized existing devices, and multimodal (visual, voice) interfaces? @eraworlds @monogram_ai

2/ AI is still not a tastemaker. We have to teach it to understand our taste and preferences before trusting its recommendations IRL (i.e. shopping, travel planning, social activities). Similarly, AI is flattening creative choices like design (many AI-generated websites and apps look similar). There's a notable gap in teaching systems to create novel (and also consistent) designs @buildyourcorner @trymoda @OdessiaTravel

3/ Leveraging intelligence to know ourselves more deeply - if we allow AI to ingest our entire life context, how can we better reflect and understand ourselves? User representations move beyond clicks, purchases, demographics, and cohorts but into nuanced beliefs, motivations, and stories. @mother__tech

4/ Big idea categories: healthcare, personal productivity @townai @extradotemail , family life @LizaGurtin , entertainment, trip planning, personal software @wabi, shopping, education.

Notably, fintech was missing. I'd be interested to see more founders building in personal financial management

ty @fawzitani @kirstenagreen @eurie_kim for the spotlight on consumer AI!

[ꕥ Amber Atherton @AmberAtherton]

We’re still absurdly early on the AI interface.

The most valuable AI companies of the next decade may not look anything like ChatGPT.

Dream outside of the chat.

@nickaturley @kirstenagreen

[Ben Glenney @ben_glenney]

Had an awesome time at Humans in the Loop today! Congrats @jgreze on the killer pitch and a huge thank you to @kirstenagreen and the entire @ForerunnerVC team for hosting such a great event!

Lots of great companies on display!

[Cristin Culver @CristinCulver]

Awesome day at Humans in the Loop today! Kudos to the @ForerunnerVC team for a stellar event, and to @TownAI CEO @jgreze for kicking off the showcases.

[Jess Lee @jesskah]

“Rizz is the only moat.”

@clairevo on human moats in an AI world, in convo with @eurie_kim at Humans in the Loop