It’s hard to get up in 2024 without reading about the next big funding round for an artificial intelligence company. IntuitionBut a new Paris-based VC firm is doing something radical by betting exclusively on consumer tech.
Behind the scenes, Hugo Amsellem (pictured on the left) i Etienne Boutan (in the photo on the right) will likely be general partners of the new fund. Amsellem has spent the last few years working at Jellysmack and writing about consumer tech and influencers – including this very interesting article about loneliness and the way it affects technology and consumer culture.
Amsellem is also higher generally known as one of the original employees of The Family, an iconic startup accelerator based in Paris. Recently, The Family has been in the news in connection with ongoing lawsuits against its co-founder Oussama Ammar, who allegedly used tens of millions of euros for his own profit.
Amsellem left The Family in 2019. When we talked about this a part of his profession, he was dissatisfied with the way it all ended and wants to maneuver on.
As for Boutan, he began his profession as a skilled basketball player. Before founding Intuition, he co-founded an AI startup Heex Technologies.
The duo teamed up to boost an initial fund of 15 million euros ($16 million at today’s exchange rates). After the first close, they have already invested in several consumer startups in Europe and the US, but are still actively raising funds for the fund.
They also recruited Axel Toupane (NBA champion), Eliott Kessas (co-founder of Daring) and Erika Batista (general partner at On Deck Runway Fund) as partners in the enterprise.
“Hugo and I have been among the most energetic early-stage investors in consumer startups in Europe, and by adding Axel, Eliott and Erika as enterprise partners, we desired to be certain that we could expand our footprint in the U.S., right in the heart of consumer tech in San Francisco and the culture in Los Angeles,” Boutan said.
Intuition’s investment thesis is quite easy: there is a current lack of investment in consumer technology. This is because investing in consumption and culture has historically been somewhat dangerous for two reasons.
First, it’s hard to generate revenue while working on an interesting mobile app or the next big social network. Sometimes you’re feeling such as you’re either working on one other unicorn or you are going to find yourself in Deadpool.
Second, there are a few consumer-facing tech firms that simply dominate, like Meta, ByteDance, and Snap. Sure, some Big Tech firms like Meta, Google, and Amazon have acquired consumer firms to show them into mainstream consumer platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch. However, the acquisition window appears to have closed.
“Consumer is really not fun to work on right now because it’s been five to seven years of failure in the consumer space and there hasn’t been a lot of liquidity,” Amsellem said.
“All the funds that recorded poor results and that had a huge amount of money to spend because they raised huge funds, still say: ‘yes, I do consumer contracts’, but they don’t say it too loudly,” he added. “Actually, this is our chance.”
At the same time, many smart people proceed to work on consumer products – think BeReal, Amo, Retro, The Browser Company, etc. Innovation continues and some of those firms will succeed.
Given the current pace of innovation in AI, Intuition expects there will likely be interesting new things happening in the space.
That’s why Intuicja desires to help the next wave of consumer firms. The VC firm plans to invest between €100,000 and €500,000 at the pre-seed or seed stage. Thanks to the seed fund, it’ll invest in over 40 firms.
“There is only one topic I want to work on, and that is the consumer and everything that surrounds it – everything that changes culture,” Amsellem said.
Intuition is VC + events
“I don’t think there is room for a €30 million consumer fund focused solely on consumer products,” Amsellem said. Adding events to the investment will boost Intuition’s revenue, which should help the company hire a larger team and make smarter bets.
That’s why the company desires to create a community of individuals working on consumption and culture, so they will learn from each other and find the next big thing together.
Intuition is launching a series of co-hosted events with other key VC firms including Felix Capital (London), a16z (New York), Greylock (Los Angeles) and General Catalyst (San Francisco). Later this 12 months, the tour will culminate with Intuition’s flagship event at Station F in Paris on September 20.
This event strategy jogs my memory of Jason Lemkin’s SaaStr conferences. While SaaStr attracts 15,000 people to its most important conference, Intuition is still at the starting of its journey. The new company plans to ask several hundred people to its first events. What’s interesting, though, is that the VC firm is taking consumer tech seriously again.