Investing in Consumer Change

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[00:02:50] - [First question] - The insights gleaned from studying consumers in the modern era

[00:07:17] - Whether or not the shift in consumer behavior will unlock the potential for new businesses or force the existing ones to change their paradigms 

[00:10:13] - Which of her hypothesis going into the research was proven most wrong

[00:11:46] - The leading persona archetype that drives consumer spending 

[00:14:13] - Thoughts about her investing focus after doing all of this research 

[00:16:40] - How much the digital world is good and bad for community

[00:19:05] - Positive and negative impacts digital access has on children

[00:21:32] - The investing criteria that she and her firm have developed for founders and business models they find desirable 

[00:29:37] - An example of the middle of the spectrum between tailwinds and headwinds that may result in them passing on a business

[00:32:15] - The beachhead problem for entry points, encouraging good focus and entry point selection, and who’s done it well 

[00:35:48] - The history of the consumer of how they buy and sell and where the shifts in power have been 

[00:40:02] - Other interesting trends she’s seeing in the seller empowerment era

[00:43:50] - How different her investing models are for linear product businesses

[00:47:00] - Frameworks she’s developed for evaluating a brand early on 

[00:50:12] - The most defining moment in Forerunner’s history and the hardest lesson she’s had to learn 

[00:53:28] - Ways she’s fostered and mentored young investors at Forerunner 

[00:54:19] - What the most underappreciated thing is today about the consumer

[00:55:05] - User and customer development strategies that work well for early stage products

[00:56:41] - Three businesses young investors should study to educate themselves on great consumer businesses; Shoe Dog

[01:00:06] - Where they find the companies Forerunner tends to invest in, and how to build and effective deal flow pipeline 

[01:05:22] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her