The Truth About Consumer Investing: Why the Best Ideas Feel Uncomfortable at First w/Kirsten Green

Forerunner Ventures founder Kirsten Green - early backer of Oura Ring, Hims, Dollar Shave Club, Glossier, and dozens of iconic consumer brands - breaks down the real risk in consumer: the “say/do gap.”

People say one thing, but their behavior tells a different story.

Across two decades of pattern recognition, Kirsten has built a $3B consumer fund by training intuition, sensing emerging behaviors early, and backing the founders who see what others overlook.

What you’ll learn in this conversation:
Why the “say/do gap” misleads even great consumer teams
How Forerunner identifies latent behaviors before they go mainstream
The CQ (Consumer Quotient) framework - and why intuition is a trainable skill
Why discomfort is the earliest signal of a real insight
How emotional data reveals truths consumers can’t articulate
Why relying on “experienced patterns” is dangerous in fast-changing markets
How early investing in Oura Ring, Hims, and Dollar Shave Club shaped her worldview
What consumer founders get wrong about product-market fit
The new wave of consumer behavior Forerunner is tracking right now

Whether you’re a consumer founder, PM, brand builder, or investor, this episode offers a rare look into how Forerunner reads human behavior - and why the best insights aren’t found in the data, but sensed in the moment.

🔗 Want to go deeper? Chat with Kirsten on Delphi and explore her Digital Mind:
https://www.delphi.ai/kirstengreen

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:30 - Nonlinear Career & Finding Your Path
5:15 - Intuition vs Data in Startup Decisions
7:45 - Overnight Success Myths in Venture
9:10 - Launch Fast: Why Perfect Is the Enemy
11:30 - Consumer Behavior, “Weird” Ideas & New Norms
13:30 - Start Narrow, Earn the Right to Expand
15:50 - Distribution, Attention & Growth Strategy
19:40 - The Say/Do Gap: Understanding True User Needs
25:20 - Darkest Career Moments & Resilience Lessons
30:35 - AI-Driven Consumer Shifts (Natural Language Search)
36:10 - Future Bets: Robotics, AI Products & New Experiences