Forerunner

We just closed a $75M Series B. 50x volume growth since launch. ~55 people. NYC. We're hiring engineers: → Frontend: Own the entire client experience. React Native, real-time data, the kind of UI problems you only get when milliseconds matter and real money is on the line. → Backend: Distributed systems, Rust, low-latency event-driven architecture. You're scaling the matching and pricing infrastructure for a real-time financial exchange, not just another CRUD app. Small eng team. You will build systems to support millions of traders and billions of trading volume. Reach out to jobs@novig.com.

There's a new playbook in vertical AI: building one compounding engine with two interfaces. In prior cycles, B2C and B2B evolved in distinct waves. Google and Amazon first built massive consumer audiences. Then, over years (decades), they exposed capabilities as infrastructure to the market. AWS didn't follow S3...it took time. The cycles were long and sequential. What we're seeing now is a compression of that happening in real time. Consumer and infrastructure aren't sequential anymore. They're simultaneous. The arc looks something like: • Launch as a consumer-facing assistant or tool • Build differentiated intelligence or interaction layer • Realize the leverage in embedding that layer elsewhere • Expose APIs / SDKs / agent capabilities as a natural extension of what the consumer surface already built • Evolve into both product and infrastructure My working hypothesis: Consumer builds... • Data • UX iteration • Brand • Real-world feedback loops Infrastructure builds.... • Revenue durability • Distribution hedge • Strategic leverage • Added valuation multiple In other words, consumer AI may increasingly function as the front-end acquisition, while infrastructure becomes an economic moat. They're not two separate businesses — they're one compounding engine. We’re seeing early versions of this pattern: @mindtripai — an AI travel planner now building an agent-first layer that can be embedded via API or integrated agent-to-agent. The consumer product builds the travel identity graph; the infrastructure ambition is to own the decision layer. @shopondaydream — a consumer visual shopping experience now powering visual search and recommendations directly on brand websites, decoupling the intelligence layer from the consumer UI. @duckbillai — a human concierge now introducing MCP to bring human-in-the-oop trust into broader agent ecosystems. @tryheroapp — a proactive daily assistant now extending AI Autocomplete as enterprise infrastructure embedded in third-party text boxes. The same predictive intelligence powers both surfaces. These companies aren’t just adding enterprise as a monetization path, but aiming to become vertical control planes — the intelligence layer others depend on — especially in a world where distribution may concentrate around a few dominant AI interfaces. If OpenAI wins distribution, you want to be the vertical brain it calls. If distribution fragments, you want to own the daily habit directly. Not all vertical AI → infra expansions are equal. The real question: is there a single intelligence core compounding across surfaces — or simply two adjacent products under one roof? The latter is just operational complexity, but the former is a control plane.

Better healthcare. All 50 states. @TealHealth is pioneering at-home cervical screening for all women, providing an easier, more comfortable, and convenient option than the current standard. That means better adherence and better health for all. forbes.com/sites/brucelee…

After leading @koahlabs' seed round last year, we've reinvested in the team's $20.5M series A as this team scales the essential monetization layer for the consumer AI wave. This team is relentless and entirely customer-obsessed: koahlabs.com/blog/theory-ve…

There is no consumer AI wave without new monetization channels for consumer AI businesses. @koahlabs is AdSense for AI. In 13 months, they've processed 170M queries and 35M native ad impressions. @nicoleahjohnson led the seed last year and we've now invested again at the A ⚡️

AI apps are leaving billions on the table because there's no good way to monetize them. We're fixing that. $20.5M Series A funding led by @Theoryvc With participation from @ForerunnerVC, @southpkcommons, @AndrewKaram

For more on our investment last year: forerunnerventures.com/perspectives/i…

Congrats to @Novig ⚡️⚡️⚡️ Novig stands out as the first peer-to-peer approach to prediction markets, a more transparent, dynamic, and equitable offering. The traction speaks for itself! fortune.com/2026/02/18/spo…

High end, bespoke match making services are $$$ and prime for AI. Finding love/connection = a category consumers are willing to spend against. @ForerunnerVC led the $10M seed for Known, launching today! @Celesteamadon is a force ⚡️ fastcompany.com/91484596/every…

we've been paying humans to make phone calls nobody wants to make since before @AlexanderTw33ts discovered the concept of labor 344,799 calls. some legal. most ethical. a few that keep me up at night. MCP drops tomorrow. my lawyers are very tired. whattheduck.ai

Loved working with @benln and @nextplayso on this post about the career-making consumer AI startups that are hiring now. Hard to pick just 50! open.substack.com/pub/nextplayso…

Today Known dating launches to the world — and i have to say, we need it now more than ever. Known us @ForerunnerVC first-ever investment in a dating platform with @CelesteAmadon and @theAsherAllen leading the relationship revolution. Known starts as any great relationship starts: with listening — literally. Their AI-first, voice-based onboarding is designed to understand your values, intent, and interpersonal chemistry, not just a checklist of add ons at a store. At a time when loneliness is rising and connection feels harder than ever, I’m deeply optimistic about what happens when AI is used to humanize experiences rather than automate them. The future of dating isn’t more matches. More quality dates. Love is in the air 💗 💫

Nicely done @DecagonAI 🚀 CRM has long been a multi-billion dollar industry, but ironically, the software has been all-but-beloved by customers. Decagon is making traditional CRM a thing of the past. Enter: concierge care. Just ask our portfolio superfans: OURA, Chime, + more

Decagon has raised an additional $250 million, tripling our valuation to $4.5 billion in less than six months. We’re on a mission to help every company create concierge customer experiences. We believe every customer deserves support that is personal, proactive, and always there. If you’re the customer of something, it should feel like you’re the only one, 24/7. This round was co-led by new investors @CoatueMGMT and @IndexVentures, with participation from @Chemistry, @Definition_Cap, and @StarwoodCapGrp. It also includes continued support from @a16z, @A_StarVC , @Accel, @AvraCap, @BainCapVC , @EladGil, T.Capital, @ForerunnerVC, and @RibbitCapital. Read more on the raise and what we’re building next in our blog below.

Introducing a new category of app: Your Daily Assistant Unlike other apps, @hero_assistant is the first daily assistant to run your life: 1) Brings your entire life into *one app* 2) Briefs you every morning with what you need to know 3) Tells you exactly what's coming up, with 'SuperAlerts' that take over your lock screen 4) And blocks social media when you have things to do Why? Because if you jump between apps all day, eventually you'll blow up 😉 👇 see the new way to live

We're proud seed investors in @humansand, a team for former Anthropic, Google, and xAI researchers with a simple and bold view: AI can make us more human, lot less.

finally announcing i’ve started humans& w/ amazing friends @gharik & @YuchenHe07 & @TheAndiPenguin & @noahdgoodman & many other world-class folks. we're optimists: it’s possible to rethink how we build ai, to empower people to accomplish more together tldr: love is all you need

humans& captures so much about what we @ForerunnerVC care about most in 2026. In the past 3 yrs, the technology shift has had a major narrative problem. Cost-cutting, job automation, efficiency – that is a massive market, but it has a ceiling, and it's not vision. There is a real future where AI helps us be more human, not less, and it’s a lot more interesting than where much of the market is spending time today. It was a clear yes to invest at the seed: nytimes.com/2026/01/20/tec…

Founders: every rule (about fundraising and everything else) is artificial and meant to be broken. For example, consider the oft-cited “rule” that the lead investor should invest at least X% of the entire round. It’s BS. For example, the amazing Kirsten Green led Bonobos’ $30m Series C round with $1m (and helped the founder raise the remaining $29m). Ignore the so-called rules. Do the right thing for your company. Be the exception.

The team @thewebAI, led by @Davidstout, is building infra for AI to run directly on devices, bypassing the cloud for the sake of increased privacy, performance, and energy efficiency. A huge unlock for @ouraring and other enterprises where data security is imperative: