Consumer Investors Say Their Category Isn’t Dead. It’s Different.

Brief

Consumer investors are recalibrating: Eric Newcomer (Substack) reports on May 12, 2026 that a Menlo Ventures–hosted dinner with VCs like Faraz Fatemi, Kirsten Green, Saar Gur, Ivan Zhou, and Mike Duboe reflected a shift—the consumer category is evolving to encompass prosumer AI, including coding assistants and other productivity-focused AI tools—rather than being dead; full article is paywalled.

Why it matters

On May 12, 2026 Eric Newcomer reported that consumer-focused VCs—including Lightspeed partner Faraz Fatemi and dinner attendees Kirsten Green (Forerunner), Saar Gur (CRV), Ivan Zhou (Accel), and Mike Duboe (Greylock)—met at a Menlo Ventures-hosted gathering and signaled the consumer category is “different,” not dead.

Key details

VCs are explicitly broadening the definition of consumer investing to include prosumer AI products—notably coding assistants and other pro‑consumer/prosumer AI tools—shifting emphasis from pure consumer plays to AI-enabled productivity and pro-sumerization.

The piece appears on Newcomer (Eric Newcomer) on Substack and is behind a paywall; metadata shows it was created 2026-03-11, last updated 2026-04-04, and published May 12, 2026.

VCs are shifting their definitions to include coding assistants & other prosumer AI tools

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Consumer Investors Say Their Category Isn’t Dead. It’s Different.

Tom Dotan

May 12| | | ∙| | Preview

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A few weeks back, Lightspeed partnerFaraz Fatemi attended a dinner of fellow GPs focused on consumer startups — the kind of gathering that once drew a packed table of fellow travelers. This one, hosted by Menlo Ventures, featured consumer investing stalwarts like Kirsten Green of Forerunner, along withSaar Gur at CRV, Ivan Zhou at Accel, and Mike Duboe at Greylock...

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