Superpower Raises $30M Series A Led by Forerunner

**Jacob Peters** (0:00)
The word Superpower has a certain connotation to it. Once you realize there's a whole parallel world of a better way to do medicine, you can't unsee it.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:06)
88% of people are metabolically unhealthy. This is the healthiest hoodie ever, correct?

**Jacob Peters** (0:12)
It's veritably the world's healthiest hoodie garment that has ever been made.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:16)
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You have a team member in Dubai that went to Kuwait. That is commitment, relentless execution, and long-term vision.

**Jacob Peters** (0:25)
I almost lost my life due to poor health incentives. As a result of what happened to me, I have to take these things every 40 minutes. We are genuinely aligning ourselves with people and trying to help them create a sense of control, and data creates control.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:44)
Jacob Peters, welcome to the pod.

**Jacob Peters** (0:47)
Molly, stoked to be here.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:49)
Well, congratulations on your $30 million Series A. This is huge.

**Jacob Peters** (0:54)
It's definitely huge.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:55)
Also, I have to address the elephant in the room. This is extremely awkward. I don't know if you guys are watching online, but we're matching. We're wearing the same sweatshirt. This is the healthiest hoodie ever, correct?

**Jacob Peters** (1:09)
It's veritably the world's healthiest hoodie garment that has ever been made, yes.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:13)
It's lovely. I love it. Okay. Anyways, back to the fundraise. Okay. $30 million Series A. Could you tell more about the round? Who led it? What are you doing with the money?

**Jacob Peters** (1:24)
Yeah.
So, something that I believe to be true is you build as big as your vision. And in the limit, we think every person in America, and frankly the world, will have an AI doctor in their pocket, and consumers will fully disintermediate the existing health care system as it stands. And this is already sort of happening today, right? People go to ChatGPT or Google or WebMD before they talk to their doctor. And that's a trend that's only going to accelerate, and Superpower is obviously, as we'll get into, building some interesting tools to make this future a little bit possible. So, this is a really exciting milestone and an important part of the journey, because once you get past the embryonic stage and you get to a capitalization like this, capital no longer becomes quite as much of a constraint, and you have the freedom to execute. So, we're currently hiring eight engineers and building as fast as we can.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:27)
Love it. So, who are the investors involved in this round? How did it come together?

**Jacob Peters** (2:32)
So, we were fortunate enough to be able to team up with Kirsten Green, who's the founder of Forerunner Ventures, to join the board and be a part of this round. So, Forerunner was the lead investor. Almost all of our existing, basically every single one of our major existing investors doubled down. The round was almost double oversubscribed, which is one and a half times oversubscribed. I don't want to overstate. Okay.
Which is great. And I think just indicative of the excitement behind the tailwinds in this category. And something that I think is particularly exciting about working with Forerunner and Kirsten is their ability to uniquely underwrite the power of brand. I think most investors and even founders are just people building companies. Brand is a very mispriced concept to them. And I think in the limit, in a world where AI and vibe coding is only proliferating, and making it easier to replicate products, brand is possibly one of the most powerful moats, and defensible aspects of a business. And it, I think, ultimately creates higher LTV and market cap. Good example of this, take any commoditized product category, gyms. You have Equinox and 24-hour fitness. Functionally the same underlying commoditized product, except one has a much sexier, splashier brand, Equinox, and they have 10x the ability to charge, right? $30 a month versus $300 a month. 3x differential and market cap of those types of companies. So brand is a very powerful thing when done right. And I think the thing that attracted me and the team to Kirsten Forerunner the most was just their unique intersection of being a Silicon Valley native tech-focused investor, but also understanding the power and the resonance of what an iconic consumer brand can become.

**Molly O'Shea** (4:34)
So can we talk more about the brand because you guys have done that really well. You created a little hype storm on the internet and on socials. I'm wearing the healthiest hoodie that's ever existed. It's incredibly soft and I'm not just saying that. But could you share more about your brand strategy and how you got to that point?