People are people.
They fall in love. They fall out of love. They have kids... They have no idea what the fuck they’re doing. (They figure it out).
Okay.
I’m NOT having a mental breakdown.
I just wanna use today’s newsletter to talk about Kirsten Green.
The year is 2012.
And Kirsten is a venture capitalist. The products we buy are a reflection of our lives. SO, YEAH. Kirsten invests in trends around people being people. (Being human is universal... We’re all just really tired).
;)
Okay.
Kirsten is coveted. She literally reshaped the way people buy. She was the lead investor for Warby Parker and Glossier and Dollar Shave Club.
BUT.
Before Kirsten was coveted, she was 22.
The year is 1993.
And Kirsten works at Deloitte.
She doesn’t like it, but life isn’t a straight line. She’s a recent college grad, and Deloitte is foundational!!! (We live a thousand lives in our twenties. And most of that time is spent just trying to figure it out. It’s literally so chaotic). Kirsten gets her CPA. And she becomes an equity research analyst at Montgomery Securities studying retail trends across America.
Kirsten goes to the same four malls every Friday to make some observations. How many cars are in the parking lot? Do people have shopping bags? From what stores? She maps that data month over month, and it informs her process around developing an investment thesis.
The year is 2004.
And Kirsten’s job gets eliminated after her company enters into a merger agreement with Bank of America.
She figures - I’ve seen one retail cycle play out (the rise and fall of malls), how can I be apart of the next?
Kirsten starts a hedge fund with another person from the money management side of Montgomery. And I just wanna to clarify - she’s scared. She feels like a failure. But she gives herself a year. And that year turns into a decade of feeding her creativity.
In order to make her time productive, Kirsten holds X amount of conversations per week with industry leaders… Which turns into consulting work and diligence and clarity around that question of what do I wanna be when I grow up???
The year is 2006.
And Kristen stops the hedge fund. Sure. It posts above market returns.
But Kirsten’s passion isn’t with the public market. It’s with people. And working with people means investing in companies at the earliest stage (seed/series A).
OKAY.
Kirsten doesn’t have $1.5 million of her own money, so she raises it from friends & family. (All around this philosophy that the retail ecosystem is changing - from how we shop to the back end technologies that power those transactions).
In the past - Small business owners had to sign a lease, buy inventory, and hire people before knowing whether or not their business would work. Now we have so much data telling us what to produce and how to go to market.
It’s a real boots on the ground approach. Kirsten plays CFO. She writes business plans. And she learns how hard entrepreneurship is.
She invests in a company started by the founder of Hot Topic (which she covered as an analyst at Montgomery) and a sustainable retailer called Nau.
Then 2008 happens. And Nau goes bankrupt.
Kirsten feels like a failure.
BUT HEY! Life is a series of wins and losses. She learns something. And you can’t move forward without learning something. (Nau scaled too quickly. They literally opened a million stores and didn’t mature into their expense structure).
Okay.
The year is 2009.
And Kirsten meets the founder of BirchBox. She says - “I don’t have money to lose. But I have money to learn.” Good entrepreneurs know good entrepreneurs. So, YEAH. Kirsten hears about Dollar Shave Club in passing. And I call this her luck surface area. It’s what happens when you have a really great reputation. (Both companies are later acquired).
My favorite part about Kirsten’s journey is her return to work.
She can’t find a VC firm to hire her because she doesn’t have an MBA. Or an Ivy League degree. Or experience in venture/tech. So she starts her own - Forerunner Ventures (in 2012).
My point is - We don’t look at 40 year old women like we should. Between 30 and 40, Kirsten did a lot of painting, journaling, therapy, and thinking. She had kids. She lived the life of a consumer, THEN she started a VC firm. Timelines are made up, so stop letting them ruin your life. People are people!!!
Forerunner gets paid “carry” when portfolio companies IPO or sell. (Like when Dollar Shave Club sold to Unilever for $1 billion in 2016). In total, Forerunner has had 31 exits, and it’s why Kirsten’s been on the “Time 100” list four times.
A lot of people think that Kirsten only invests in DTC. But DTC is just a starting point since we no longer need a storefront to close a transaction. That’s why Glossier sells online and in Sephora.
So take one from Kirsten Green.
The best way out is through. The most important relationship you have is with yourself.
And that’s the skinny.
Love this take - a great example that life is never linear and it is OK to pivot if you feel your current job does not align with your passions and interests.
Great learning about this "Do-er" and love the concept of not buying into traditional timelines. Kirsten is an inspiration and validates the importance of understanding the market by being part of it!