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💫 Heartcore Consumer Insights

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💫 Heartcore Consumer Insights

Edition #91

May 27, 2022
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Hi there,

Welcome to the 91rst edition of Heartcore Consumer Insights. Curated with 🖤 every two weeks by the Heartcore Team.

If you missed the past newsletters, you can catch up here. Now, let’s dive in!


Winning at B2C Subscription - Lenny Rachitsky

  • Learnings & patterns from founders and leaders at successful B2C subscription companies (Calm, Spotify, Noom, Duolingo, Grammarly).

  • Pattern #1: obsession with efficiency: the most common thread across every company was an obsession with efficiency - staying small, keeping costs down, and getting profitable. They all stayed lean until they found strong PMF and, in many cases, far beyond that. Nikhil Jhunjhnuwala (VP of Growth at Noom) mentions:

  • Pattern #2: strong alignment between product strategy and acquisition strategy: surviving in B2C is all about finding an efficient (aka cheap) growth channel. All of these teams found a way to grow very efficiently - either through word of mouth or highly optimized paid ads:

  • Pattern #3: a magical, sticky product through rapid iteration and endless optimization. The bar for a sticky consumer subscription app is high. People get bored and quickly look for the next shiny thing. Every one of these apps did something unique to keep people coming back. For Duolingo:

My Framework for Evaluating Early-Stage Consumer Companies - Gaby Goldberg

  • Simple four-part framework potentially helpful to assess consumer businesses:

  1. Why do people come? What gets users on the platform? Can this be distilled down to a single sentence? Who is your (precise) customer, and what do they want? Related: Is Your Product a Vitamin or Painkiller?

  2. Why do people stay? This question is all about user retention. In consumer businesses, frequency and time spent are key. What are the features or actions that receive the most user engagement? What are the switching costs? Is there lock-in? When looking at cohort retention, is the absolute size of the cohort growing? How does behavior change as cohorts grow? Do cohorts stabilize, and if so, when? Do newer cohorts perform the same, better, or worse than older ones? Related: What is good retention?

    Twitter avatar for @andrewchen
    Andrew Chen 🎮 @andrewchen
    Magic metrics indicating a startup probably has product/market fit: 1) cohort retention curves that flatten (stickiness) 2) actives/reg > 25% (validates TAM) 3) power user curve showing a smile -- with a big concentration of engaged users (you grow out from this strong core)
    6:12 PM ∙ Oct 15, 2019
    2,191Likes402Retweets
  3. Why do people share? Is there a propensity to share the product or platform via social media or word of mouth? A key concept here is virality when a product spreads from one user to another through direct customer-to-customer contact.

    Twitter avatar for @scottbelsky
    scott belsky @scottbelsky
    My first answer, always, is intentional virality - when users get more value from your product by populating it, everyone wins. And we've seen skip-waitlist hacks (Robinhood), exclusivity-driven-demand (Clubhouse)...what else should today's consumer founders consider?
    2:43 PM ∙ Jul 24, 2020
    46Likes3Retweets
  4. Why do people pay? Consumer businesses typically fall under one of three categories: (a) Marketplaces: facilitating transactions between buyers and sellers, (b) Platforms: usually free UGC media/content platforms with indirect monetization (c) Products & Services: consumers pay for something the company produces. How will economics change over time? What drives differentiation — price, service, brand? Is it sustainable and defensible?


  • CashApp - bringing culture to finance

  • 12 Great Copywriting Examples

  • How to Launch a Customer Referral Program in 6 Steps

  • How to retain your best customers

  • Curated growth flywheel

  • Virtual Beings: a new internet-native medium for storytelling

  • BlitzFail: How Not to Go Off the Rails

  • Why Crypto Gaming Is Not The Future


🇪🇺 Notable European early-stage Consumer rounds

  • Aumio, a Germany-based sleep & mindfulness app for kids, raises $3.2M with Partech - link

  • Lassie, a Sweden-based pet insurance company, raises $11.6M with Felix - link

  • Knowunity, a Germany-based digital learning platform, raises $12.8M with Redalpine/Stride/Project A - link

  • Bliq, a Germany-based startup empowering gig workers in the transport industry, raises $13.5M with NEA - link

🇺🇸 Notable US early-stage Consumer rounds

  • Pique, a US-based virtual sexual health clinic, raises $4M with Maveron - link

  • StartPlaying, a US-based platform allowing players to find tabletop role-playing games, raises $6.5M with a16z - link

  • Parcl, a US-based virtual real estate investing platform, raises $7.5M with Fifth Wall/FJ Labs - link

  • BubbleHouse, a US-based NFT social marketplace, raises $9M with Cassius - link

  • Highlight, a US-based no-code toolkit allowing anyone to create a Web 3 community with NFTs, raises $11M with Haun Ventures - link

  • Branch, a US-based web3 gaming studio, raises $12.5M with Polychain/Dragonfly - link

  • Locale, a US-based curated food delivery startup, raises $14M with a16z - link

  • Azra Games, a US-based play-and-earn role-playing games studio, raises $15M with a16z - link

  • Parallel Learning, a US-based special education assessment & tutoring startup, raises $20M with Tiger - link

  • Turquoise Health, a US-based startup helping to reduce the expense and complexity of healthcare, raises $20M with a16z/Bessemer/Tiger - link

  • Metatheory, a US-based studio developing Web3 games and virtual worlds, raises $24M with a16z - link

  • Arrived, a US-based startup providing rental home investment services, raises $25M with Forerunner - link

  • Legacy, a US-based digital fertility clinic for men, raises $25M with Bain Capital/FirstMark - link

🔭 Notable later stage Consumer rounds

  • Zolar, a Germany-based startup democratizing access to solar energy, raises $105M with Energy Impact Partners/GIC & Heartcore 🖤 - link

  • FINN, a Germany-based company offering monthly car subscriptions, raises $110M with Korelya/Keen Ventures & Heartcore 🖤 - link

  • Caribou, a US-based fintech helping consumers take control of their car payments, raises $115M with Goldman Sachs - link

🍭 Notable Consumer Exits

  • Flink acquires Cajoo for approximately $100M. Cajoo is a France-based quick delivery startup - link


Heartcore Consumer Insights is a weekly newsletter covering notable consumer rounds and exits and top content in the B2C space.


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