Consumer

Portfolio spotlight

Our Portfolio
homelight
homelight

HomeLight is a marketplace for connecting home sellers with the best real estate agents.

Milestones
  • 2012 Founded
  • 2017 Partnered, Series B
homelight_graphic
chime_logo
chime_logo

Chime helps members avoid bank fees, save money automatically, and lead healthier financial lives.

Milestones
  • 2012 Founded
  • 2018 Partnered, Series C
poshmarkNASDAQ: POSH; later acquired by Naver
poshmark

Poshmark is a social commerce marketplace where people can buy and sell new or used clothing, shoes, accessories, and home goods.

Milestones
  • 2011 Founded
  • 2012 Partnered, Series B
  • 2021 IPO; NASDAQ: POSH
  • 2022 Acquired by Naver
poshmark_graphic
roku-logo NASDAQ: ROKU
roku-logo

Roku pioneered streaming TV, connecting users to content they love, enabling content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and providing advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers.

Milestones
  • 2002 Founded
  • 2008 Partnered, Series C
  • 2017 IPO; NASDAQ: ROKU
roku_graphic
rover NASDAQ: ROVR
rover

Rover connects dog and cat parents with loving pet sitters and dog walkers in neighborhoods across the US, Canada, UK, and Europe.

Milestones
  • 2011 Founded
  • 2014 Partnered, Series C
  • 2021 SPAC; NASDAQ: ROVR
rover_graphic
siriAcquired by Apple
siri

Siri was a voice recognition company spun out of the non-profit institute SRI International. It launched its Siri virtual personal assistant app in February 2010, two months before it was acquired by Apple.

Milestones
  • 2007 Founded
  • 2008 Partnered
  • 2010 Acquired
siri_graphic
uberNYSE: UBER
uber

Uber innovates at the intersection of mobile technology, transportation, and logistics. Uber provides mobility-as-a-service with ride-sharing, food and package delivery, couriers, and freight transportation.

Milestones
  • 2009 Founded
  • 2011 Partnered, Series B
  • 2019 IPO; NYSE: UBER
uber_graphic
warby_parkerNYSE: WRBY
warby_parker

Warby Parker is an online retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, conceived as an alternative to the overpriced and bland eyewear available today.

Milestones
  • 2010 Founded
  • 2011 Partnered, Series B
  • 2021 Direct Listing; NYSE: WRBY
warby_parker_graphic

Our perspective

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Back to Basics: Fundamentals for Building Breakout Consumer Companies

Economic downturns force us to get back to basics: The cost of new capital and low valuation multiples—even for top-performing public companies—force startups to make substantial progress per dollar to get a term sheet, much less an up round.

recession
How Key Sectors Might Fare During a Post-COVID Recession
Lightning in a bottle
Catching Lightning in a Bottle

Partnership
is our
purpose.

A Disruptive Vision Achieved: Celebrating Warby Parker’s Direct Listing
Rover IPO
Celebrating Rover: Best in Show with Nasdaq Debut
MVP tree
The Secret to Cracking the Minimum Viable Product

Our Investment in Riva Health: Building the Future of Cardiovascular Healthcare

Nearly half of U.S. adults—108 million people—have high blood pressure, which is the #1 controllable risk for both heart disease and stroke, the two leading worldwide causes of death.

Our Investment in Photomath: Changing the Future of Math Tutoring

A very real concern emerging from the pandemic is the impact of remote learning on students who require more hands-on, personalized instruction.

Congratulations to Poshmark on Its IPO: Presenting the Future of Shopping
The State of the Marketplace: A VC Digs into the Data As Several Marketplace Companies Prepare Their IPOs
Four Big Trends in Digital Health
Embracing Empathy to Build Products that Scale
Zach Smith, Chime

Customer Obsession: The Chime Way with Zach Smith, SVP of Product, Chime

I had the honor of co-hosting a Menlo Ventures Product Assembly Dinner with Zach Smith. He shared the lessons he learned throughout his career as a product innovator.

Join a
Menlo-backed
company.

Mapping the World’s Homes in 3D: Improving on Home Improvement
Back to Basics: Fundamentals for Building Breakout Consumer Companies

Economic downturns force us to get back to basics: The cost of new capital and low valuation multiples—even for top-performing public companies—force startups to make substantial progress per dollar to get a term sheet, much less an up round.

January 18, 2023Shawn Carolan and Katie Keller
How Key Sectors Might Fare During a Post-COVID Recession

As we consider the post-COVID economy, we reflect on previous recessions to inform our predictions about how various asset classes and business models might perform.

June 1, 2022Steve Sloane
Catching Lightning in a Bottle

How to align product with what customers want, differentiate from competitors, and win your market

October 13, 2021Shawn Carolan
A Disruptive Vision Achieved: Celebrating Warby Parker’s Direct Listing

Today we congratulate Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andy Hunt, Jeff Raider, and the entire Warby Parker team on becoming a publicly-traded company.

September 29, 2021Mark Siegel
Celebrating Rover: Best in Show with Nasdaq Debut

Today we congratulate CEO Aaron Easterly and the entire Rover team on becoming a publicly-traded company (NASDAQ: ROVR).

August 2, 2021Venky Ganesan
The Secret to Cracking the Minimum Viable Product

Startups fail when they don’t build a simple solution to a problem many people have. Many startups fall into the trap of building toward a “mission” rather than a minimum viable product (MVP).

March 25, 2021Shawn Carolan
Our Investment in Riva Health: Building the Future of Cardiovascular Healthcare

Nearly half of U.S. adults—108 million people—have high blood pressure, which is the #1 controllable risk for both heart disease and stroke, the two leading worldwide causes of death.

March 17, 2021Greg Yap
Our Investment in Photomath: Changing the Future of Math Tutoring

A very real concern emerging from the pandemic is the impact of remote learning on students who require more hands-on, personalized instruction.

February 18, 2021JP Sanday and Feyza Haskaraman
Congratulations to Poshmark on Its IPO: Presenting the Future of Shopping

Today we congratulate CEO Manish Chandra, co-founders Tracy Sun, Gautam Golwala, Chetan Pungaliya, CFO Anan Kashyap, and the entire team at Poshmark on going public (NASDAQ: POSH)!

January 14, 2021Venky Ganesan
The State of the Marketplace: A VC Digs into the Data As Several Marketplace Companies Prepare Their IPOs

The end of 2020 will be marked by a series of high-profile consumer technology IPOs, including several marketplace businesses.

December 16, 2020Venky Ganesan
Four Big Trends in Digital Health

The pandemic’s pressures compressed trends toward digital and virtual care that might otherwise have taken years into a few months.

October 9, 2020Greg Yap
Embracing Empathy to Build Products that Scale

It’s no secret that the tech industry has a diversity problem.

July 16, 2020Grace Ge
Customer Obsession: The Chime Way with Zach Smith, SVP of Product, Chime

I had the honor of co-hosting a Menlo Ventures Product Assembly Dinner with Zach Smith. He shared the lessons he learned throughout his career as a product innovator.

May 21, 2020Grace Ge
Mapping the World’s Homes in 3D: Improving on Home Improvement

On behalf of Menlo Ventures, I’m thrilled to announce our investment in HOVER, a startup using deep learning and computer vision to digitally map any home in 3D using pictures taken from a mobile phone.

April 25, 2019Matt Murphy
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