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Kirsten Green’s early bet on direct-to-consumer commerce brands keeps paying off

Green is No. 91 on the Recode 100.

By Dan Frommer
Part of The Recode 100

Kirsten Green, the founder of Forerunner Ventures, continues to look brilliant for her early, prescient bet that the golden era of e-commerce would favor new, internet-savvy, direct-to-consumer brands.

Green has built an impressive portfolio of them, from Away (luggage) and Rockets of Awesome (children’s clothing) to Glossier (makeup) and Hims (men’s wellness). Most won’t pay off huge — that’s the venture capital model — but Green’s name now carries a sought-after seal of approval.

This year, Walmart acquired Bonobos, a prototypical Forerunner portfolio company, for more than $300 million. But it was nothing like 2016, when Forerunner experienced two giant exits: Dollar Shave Club ($1 billion to Unilever) and Jet.com ($3.3 billion to Walmart).

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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