The CQ is Forerunner’s weekly newsletter rounding up the most pressing consumer news and analysis, plus some bonus musings from our investment team. Subscribe now to get the latest edition in your inbox every weekend.
Congrats to Craftwork on their series A! We led the seed round last year based on the team’s vision to build the first iconic consumer brand in home services, a $500B+ industry. Craftwork vertically integrates as a digitally native franchise, providing a trusted, reliable, tech-enabled source for home repairs, starting with house painting — while also reshaping this SMB sector to be more equitable and lucrative for its many hardworking craftspeople.
More from our portfolio this week:
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The Wall Street Journal traces the rise of OURA: “How a little-known Finnish company became one of the world’s hottest gadget startups.”
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Flip debuted its $100M Creator Fund, rewarding creators for helping drive the success of the platform. See more in TechCrunch.
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Inc. names Wonder one of the 16 companies to watch in 2025.
What We’re Talking About This Week:
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Gen Z’ers are becoming pet parents because they can’t afford human babies — so now, the veterinarian is one of the hottest jobs of 2025, says Indeed. Facing housing and financial challenges, young people are increasingly considering pets as companions who can offer emotional support without the same responsibilities as children. About 46% of U.S. households own dogs, and about 32.1% own cats, and Gen Z spends an average of $178 per month on their pets, compared to the monthly spend of millennials ($146), Gen X ($115), and baby boomers ($90). With Gen Z so heavily prioritizing pets, the demand for veterinarians has surged and job shares increased 124% between 2021 and 2024.
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Cancer’s new face: younger and female. A new report from the American Cancer Society shows that six of the top 10 most common cancers are seeing an uptick including breast, uterine, colorectal, pancreatic, melanoma, and prostate cancers. Notably, women are being affected more than men and they’re being diagnosed at younger ages: Cancer rates are increasing among women under 50 and among women 50 to 64. Also significant: New cases of cervical cancer are on the rise, particularly among women aged 30 to 44, reversing decades of progress due to delayed pap smears (and we can’t not add that our recent investment in Teal Health targets this very problem). Says one oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: “I think that the rise in not just one but a variety of cancers in younger people, particularly in young women, suggests there is something broader going on than variations in individual genetics or population genetics. It strongly points to the possibility that environmental exposures and our lifestyles in the U.S. are contributing to the rise of cancers in younger people.”
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There’s a coach for that: We’re talking coaches to help you snag a promotion, decide whether or not to have a baby, navigate a midlife crisis, and even assimilate into American culture. Bloomberg reports on how the life coaching industry is booming, with a 54% increase in coaches from 2019 to 2022. In 2023, the U.S. market was worth $1.5 billion and is projected to grow 4.85% a year through 2030. The pandemic played a key role in this boom, as more people turned to coaching during lockdowns and remote work, and since the industry’s largely unregulated, it made it easy for anyone to become a coach. Our recent investment in Leland plays into this shift, particularly with regards to outcomes-based career growth.
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From Time: We are on the precipice of a grievance-based society. The report reveals a dramatic shift in public sentiment with widespread concern about job loss, inflation, and the impacts of automation and globalization. This has been fueled by a widening divide in trust among the top and bottom income brackets (low-income respondents have significantly less trust in institutions than the top quartile), a lack of optimism for the future (only one-third think the next generation will be better off), a breakdown in the media (nearly two-thirds cite difficulty determining fact from fake news), and a belief that capitalism has failed (53% believe it does more harm than good). “Such grievances stem from a conviction that the system is unfair, business and government make things worse, and the rich keep getting richer. A growing sense of alienation is so profound that nearly two-thirds of respondents now fear being discriminated against, up 10 percentage points from the previous year. Even high-earners are increasingly worried about being made a victim—up 11 points to 62%.”
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The American worker has lost all leverage, says Bloomberg. Despite a low 4.1% unemployment rate, Bloomberg reports that the hiring rate, which dropped to 3.3% in November, is “sending a very concerning signal” that the labor market is in a deep recession. The Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes aimed at curbing inflation have caused both unemployment to rise and hiring to fall. As a result, employers have regained power, and return-to-office mandates are becoming more and more the norm, making “working from home a privilege that has to be bargained for at the expense of, say, a bigger raise. The mandates are not that different from the reports of companies pulling back on generous paid family leave. What a collective surge in worker power made a given, a shift back to employers makes a privilege—again.
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You’re being alienated from your own attention: In an essay for The Atlantic, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes compares attention to a precious resource and a commodity, and those who know how to capture our attention—at times, even against our will, whether by politicians, tech companies, or advertisers—gain the wealth, power, and influence in our society. “Public discourse is now a war of all against all for attention. Commerce is a war for attention. Social life is a war for attention. Parenting is a war for attention. And we are all feeling battle weary.”
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Gen Z thinks they need almost $9.5 million to be financially successful after anxiously watching their parents unretire. Financial anxieties stemming from the pandemic, inflation, student loan debt, and a tough housing market are making it harder for Gen Z to see the “American dream” as achievable. While Gen Xers think a net worth of $5,295,072 is enough, Gen Zers estimate they’l need nearly twice that at $9,469,847. Still, younger generations remain optimistic. A large majority (71%) of Gen Zers believe they’ll reach their financial goals, more than Gen Xers (53%) and baby boomers (45%).
Job of the Week
Sales Manager at Pavilion, the marketplace that dramatically simplifies procurement for government entities.
There are other ~625 jobs currently available at portfolio companies, check ‘em out.