consumers

also referred to as: consumer · the consumer

26 statements across 23 episodes · 11 bullish · 4 bearish · 22 people on the record · first statement Mar 18, 2016 by Puneet Mehta · across every show →

Everything said about consumers, oldest first

Mar 18, 2016 bullish
Prediction Held up
Mehta: Consumers will transact directly with conversational AI assistants
“Not only would consumers be talking with an AI They would actually transact with one.”
Puneet Mehta Mar 18, 2016 ▶ 13:31 Pre-YC Demo Day: Msg.ai's Puneet Mehta on The Rise of AI, The Potential For Messaging and Life As A Current YC Startup
Apr 21, 2017
Insight
Fine: High furniture costs drive repeat room-by-room redecorating cycles
“And then there's the fact that when you move into a space, you're going to go through and you're going to decorate one room at a time because of how expensive furniture is. So people are coming to us and they're typically starting with one of their public spac…”
Leura Fine Apr 21, 2017 ▶ 18:03 20VC: Back To Back Female Led IPOs & Why It's Harder To Be A Female CEO Than A Male CEO with Leura Fine, Founder & CEO @ Laurel & Wolf
May 29, 2017
Insight
Zaveri: VC operational help works faster in enterprise than consumer startups
“On the enterprise side where you can do customer introductions, maybe add value to the top line revenue side. I'd say even on the consumer side, there's a lot one can do, but it's probably much more explicit or sort of much more, you know, you can realize it s…”
MZ Zaveri May 29, 2017 ▶ 7:21 20VC: Kleiner Perkins' MZ Zaveri on Why Success In Venture Is About The 3 F's, How VCs Can Manage Deal Heat & Is There Too Much Venture Dollars At Seed
Jun 19, 2017 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fenton: Free and open consumer distribution channels evaporated by 2017
“One of the major oxygen supplies For consumers, especially, is free and open distribution, and I think we could say pretty emphatically that that has evaporated in the last five years”
Peter Fenton Jun 19, 2017 ▶ 7:36 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on How To Differentiate Between Good & Great VCs, Why Ownership Is A Bigger Determinant Of Returns Than Valuation & What Makes A Truly Exceptional Board Member
Jan 3, 2018
Insight
Thau: Consumer investing is harder than B2B due to adoption risk
“Anything in consumer is very, very hard because you're betting on a big market adoption versus, say, a B to B company with recurring revenue and enterprise clients.”
Kevin Thau Jan 3, 2018 ▶ 17:56 20VC: Why VC Is A Game of Maximising Serendipity, How VCs Can Characterise Their Approach To Working & Product Lessons from Jack Dorsey & Sonos' John MacFarlane with Kevin Thau, General Partner @ Spark Capital
Jun 7, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Perret: Fintech competition is driving down rates for consumers
“And the collective competition between all of them means that consumers are winning. There are more options. There's more fintech products. The rates are going down.”
Zach Perret Jun 7, 2019 ▶ 6:00 20VC: Plaid's Zach Perret on Why You Have To Hire For Spikes and What That Really Means, Fintech Predictions From Incumbent Entrants To The Rise of Europe & The 2 Big Questions That CEOs Should Ask Themselves
Jan 13, 2020 bullish
Insight
Kaul: Consumers will pay premium prices for healthier food and alternative protein
“People will pay more for food. They'll pay more for what they put in their bodies. They'll certainly pay more for what they put in their kid's body.”
Samir Kaul Jan 13, 2020 ▶ 30:00 20VC: Khosla Ventures Founding Partner, Samir Kaul on Why Pro Rata Is A Cop Out, Why He Likes Technical Risk and Does Not Take Market Risk & How To Approach Time Allocation Across The Portfolio In Venture
Jan 13, 2020 negative
Insight
Kaul: Consumers refuse to pay price premiums for green energy or fuel
“And we learned that consumers won't pay more for power. Consumers won't pay more for fuel for their cars.”
Samir Kaul Jan 13, 2020 ▶ 29:00 20VC: Khosla Ventures Founding Partner, Samir Kaul on Why Pro Rata Is A Cop Out, Why He Likes Technical Risk and Does Not Take Market Risk & How To Approach Time Allocation Across The Portfolio In Venture
Jul 10, 2020 positive
Insight
Mather: Subscription business models force direct alignment with consumers
“Subscription is just one of these things that allows you to focus directly on the consumer”
Alex Mather Jul 10, 2020 ▶ 4:46 20VC: The Future of Subscription Media, Why Startups Need To Stop Blaming Facebook and Google & How Founders Should Think Through Customer Acquisition Channel Dependencies with Alex Mather, Founder & CEO @ The Athletic
Sep 8, 2020 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Strange: Personal financial lives will become increasingly automated
“And as we get better at this, and as consumers start to trust new software companies more, I think our financial lives will become more and more automated and just optimize in a much better way.”
Angela Strange Sep 8, 2020 ▶ 14:15 20VC: a16z's Angela Strange on Why Every Company Will Be A Fintech Company, How Founders Should Think About Niches and Optimal Insertion Points, How To Transition To Become The System of Record & Are We Entering A Period of Bundling Or Unbundling for Fint
Jun 2, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Glyman: Online shoppers leave billions on table from price drops
“Consumers were leaving billions of dollars on the table, literally, whenever prices would drop, like, a day, two days, a week after they bought items online.”
Eric Glyman Jun 2, 2021 ▶ 3:18 20VC: Ramp's Eric Glyman on Why You Should Never Take The Highest Price, Working With Venture Funds vs Crossover Funds and How To Determine What To Buy vs Build as a Founder Today?
Jan 24, 2022 positive
Insight
Wojcicki: Changing Healthcare Requires Empowering Consumers directly
“If you really want to change healthcare, in some ways you have to give power to the people, like get them to rise up.”
Anne Wojcicki Jan 24, 2022 ▶ 5:49 20VC: 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki on How To Approach Trust in Business and Personal Relationships, Leadership Lessons from Sheryl Sandberg and Reflections on How The Best Founders Manage Their Boards
Nov 2, 2022
Insight
Ilishayev: Delivery customers value consistency over raw speed
“People don't necessarily want a really fast delivery. They want a really consistent delivery. So they read that really have like a 30 minute average with, you know, a seven, eight minute deviation, then like a 20 minute average with a 15 minute deviation, righ…”
Rafael Ilishayev Nov 2, 2022 ▶ 17:56 GoPuff CEO Rafael Ilishayev: The Plan to Make GoPuff Profitable by 2024 | 20VC #944 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 6, 2023 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Joey Zwillinger predicts drop in consumer spending over next six months
“The consumer is in a more delicate and fragile situation than people understand and that it's going to be more difficult and there's going to be less spending than people think in the coming six months.”
Joey Zwillinger Nov 6, 2023 ▶ 42:15 Joey Zwillinger: From $4.1BN to $142M Market Cap;Why Public Markets Have Written Allbirds Off |E1078 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 6, 2023
Insight
Zwillinger: Employees tire of brand narrative much faster than consumers do
“Not getting tired of the story that you're telling to consumers before they do, which it takes a long time for consumers to get tired. It's much quicker for employees to get tired.”
Joey Zwillinger Nov 6, 2023 ▶ 46:12 Joey Zwillinger: From $4.1BN to $142M Market Cap;Why Public Markets Have Written Allbirds Off |E1078 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 22, 2023 neutral
Prediction Held up
Powers: Deckers avoids consumer-facing corporate branding, focusing Deckers name on investors
“Well, you know, we're holding company for the brands, right? We're not expecting or trying to get consumers to know Deckers. That's not our goal. We want investors to know Deckers, and they do, but we're not pushing the Decker's name to consumers.”
Dave Powers Dec 22, 2023 ▶ 56:06 Dave Powers: The Meteoric Rise of Hoka Running | E1098 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 19, 2024 positive
Insight
Social media audiences will figure out brand lore if entertained
“And I think it's trusting that our consumers are much smarter than we think they are. And even if we make them dive in deep, like, they can figure it out. They'll scroll back if they want to scroll back. If it's entertaining enough, people will figure it out.”
Zaria Parvez Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 10:50 Zaria Parvez: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers & How to Create Viral Content | E1105 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 30, 2024
Disclosure
Tang: SHEIN made a mistake by neglecting regulators when entering US
“Well, in the very beginning of the time that we paid more attention to the consumers, and I think to paying attention to stakeholders is a very important thing to do, and we should do it earlier and more often, and we still haven't done enough.”
Donald Tang Sep 30, 2024 ▶ 30:36 Donald Tang: How SHEIN Got So Big So Fast - The Fastest Growing Company in History | E1208 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 24, 2025
Insight
O'Driscoll: Consumer markets are winner-take-all, enterprise markets are oligopolies
“The data says consumer tends to be more winner-take-all and enterprises tend to be more oligopolies, right?”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 24, 2025 ▶ 1:02:45 How LP Deployment to Venture Will Change in 2025 & Are Endowment Funds in Trouble? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 5, 2025 positive
Insight
Alex Schultz: Retention is the only metric that matters pre-product-market fit
“Metrics, pre-product market fit, I think the only metric you care about In consumer and SaaS is retention. Like, that's the only metric that you should care about, is do you create a product that people keep using?”
Alex Schultz Sep 5, 2025 ▶ 6:23 20Growth: Meta CMO Alex Schultz on How All Founders Have to Change Their Marketing Playbook in a World of AI | Is AI Plateauing, What it Means if China Wins the AI Race and Why Zuck is a Generational Leader
Dec 31, 2025 positive
Assertion Contradicted
KPMG report found 60% of consumers use AI weekly
“KBMG had this report that 60% of consumers use this on a weekly basis”
Matt Fitzpatrick Dec 31, 2025 ▶ 44:01 Matt Fitzpatrick: Who Wins the Data Labelling Race & Why Al Needs Forward-Deployed Engineers · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 9, 2026 positive
Insight
Acharya: Willingness to be embarrassed is a competitive advantage in consumer tech
“I actually think conversely in consumer, having a beginner's mind and a high willingness to be embarrassed is a competitive advantage because so many consumer products feel embarrassing and, you know, they're immediately dismissed as embarrassing or impossible…”
Anish Acharya Feb 9, 2026 ▶ 52:10 a16z, Anish Acharya: Is SaaS Dead? Do Margins Still Matter? Why We Are Not in an AI Bubble? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 9, 2026
Insight
Acharya: Consumer software users want to spend time, not save it
“Most people don't want to save time. They want to spend time.”
Anish Acharya Feb 9, 2026 ▶ 20:50 a16z, Anish Acharya: Is SaaS Dead? Do Margins Still Matter? Why We Are Not in an AI Bubble? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 12, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Lemkin: Anthropic is a generational company whose only weakness is consumer
“Anthropic is, I mean, it's a generational, generational company. It changed coding. It changed everything. But the only place Anthropic is weak is consumer.”
Jason Lemkin Feb 12, 2026 ▶ 1:04:10 Anthropic's Super Bowl Ad: Who Won & Lost? | Sierra Hits $150M ARR: Is Customer Support Too Crowded? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 2, 2026 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
O'Driscoll: Most consumers will not pay $20 monthly for ChatGPT
“I don't think most consumers are going to pay 20 bucks a month for this”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 2, 2026 ▶ 12:48 OpenAI Kills Sora & Hits $100M ARR on Ads | Oura Going Public & Whoop Raises at $10BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 5, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Arora: Free consumers account for 70% of current AI compute demand
“I still posit 70% of the compute demand for AI is being consumed by consumers who are getting a free ride.”
Nikesh Arora Aug 5, 2026 ▶ 44:54 Leo Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Blows Up | Moonshot AI Raises $3.5B at $35B
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