Lerer Hippeau and VC’s Consumer to Enterprise Pivot

This week made it clear that venture capitalists have given up on the idea that they’ll make their career finding the next hit consumer marketplace, retail brand or media company.

We reported that the core consumer team at Andreessen Horowitz, a firm known for bets on Pinterest, Instacart and Airbnb, has dissolved. Connie Chan, a longtime consumer general partner at the firm, said she was leaving the firm. She was the last of the four general partners who led a battery of consumer deals in 2021 to leave or turn to other roles. It seems like most of the firm has been directed to make artificial intelligence investments.

The changes got me thinking about other firms known best for their consumer bets, such as Lerer Hippeau, a New York venture capital firm that made early investments in Allbirds and Warby Parker. As it turns out, Lerer Hippeau is also putting more money into enterprise than consumer technology these days, according to managing partner Ben Lerer, who returned to the firm full time in 2022 after selling his media company, Group Nine, to Vox.