Legendary Consumer VC Predicts The Future Of AI Products

**Kirsten Green** (0:00)
It's almost the first question we get asked from every new founder that we work with, which is like, tell me how so and so did this for marketing, or what happened here. And I always kind of have to preface and say, I've got good news and bad news for you, which is, you've got to do everything. Why do they need your product? Why are they gonna come back to your product? Why are they gonna add another new thing into their already crowded lives? If you have to strip everything away, you don't have extra money or resources to do other things, like, nail your product.

**Garry** (0:37)
Welcome to another episode of The Main Function. Today, I have Kirsten Green, the co-founder and managing partner of Forerunner Ventures. She's a legendary investor who's done all of the great consumer startups over the last 15, 20 years, really. So it's really a pleasure to have you here. To name a few, Chime, Fair, Hims and Hers, Warby Parker and Dollar Shave Club. Kirsten, thanks for joining us.

**Kirsten Green** (1:03)
Thanks, Garry, it's a pleasure to be here.

**Garry** (1:05)
Prior to jumping on here, we were talking about, we want to see a lot more consumer AI. We're in the middle of an AI boom. What is the shape of that? Like, what do you think is going to happen? Why hasn't it happened quite yet?

**Kirsten Green** (1:17)
I think that it's inevitable, and I think that it's starting to happen. It makes sense that it's on the horizon, given that first you have to have the infrastructure built, first you have to have the technology formed, and then in business is typically and understandably, the first kind of call to action. It really runs off of competition. So someone starts a business as an outsider, an incumbent sees that someone's coming for part of their business, they respond, and competition goes from there. And on the consumer side, of course, you have competition once you have a marketplace built, but to get things started, you really have to deliver something like outstanding for the consumer. It has to be something that's meeting a need in a new way, and you have to draw them in, and it has to make it their choice. So it takes a little more, I think, nuance and a little more warm up time to get people to come around to that. One thing I would say about AI in particular is that I don't know that we've ever seen something so readily adopted by consumers. I think the consumers are voting overwhelmingly that they're here for the advancements they're seeing in technology. You know, you just look at the ChatGPT numbers, and it's like really astounding how many hundreds of millions of people are logging on daily there.

**Garry** (2:35)
Yeah, I think maybe that's the best example of the fastest consumer launch maybe in the history of consumer launches.

**Kirsten Green** (2:43)
I think without a doubt, right? Yeah, it's astonishing.

**Garry** (2:46)
And then, you know, the funniest story about that is, you know, if you spend time with Evan Morikawa, the original PM for that when they launched, it was a slog. It wasn't that easy to actually push it out into the world. Like, a lot of people actually didn't want that to happen.

**Kirsten Green** (3:00)
Gary, haven't you learned after this, nothing is really that easy.

**Garry** (3:02)
That's right.

**Kirsten Green** (3:04)
You know, the trick is making it look easy, but it's not, you know.

**Garry** (3:07)
That's right. Maybe that's one of the reasons why we're so excited. I mean, if opening-eyed can come out the gate with, you know, just this insane hockey stick, you know, where there's smoke, usually there's fire. There will be other new capabilities.

**Kirsten Green** (3:21)
I mean, I think, you know, first of all, I think it's shown us that we were just referencing that people are really here for it. And part of it is, is that it's relatable. It's actually even more natural to go online and ask a question than it is to just search a keyword. And so this novelty, which was a novelty to come online and be able to start having a conversation with technology in a way you hadn't before, is something we all do every day in our daily lives. So it was taking a behavior that is fundamental and now making it possible online. And I think that's one of the reasons why it's been such a quick uptick from the consumer. I think one of the reasons it's so exciting for business and for entrepreneurs is that this is really a platform shift. This is more than just the advancements of technology. I think it sets a whole new paradigm for what's possible. The way I simply think about it is that for the last two cycles, let's call it the internet and mobile, we've moved from outcomes and attention into an area of relationships and affection. I think that's much more dynamic and it's much more in the ordinary course of people's lives. I think the adoption curve is going to be really exciting. I think we just need to get the founders to start building.