Brian O'Malley

Board Partner, Forerunner Ventures; Founder & Managing Partner, Tactile Ventures at Forerunner Ventures

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location San Francisco, CA
Check Size $250K-$15M
Last Verified Investment 222 (Series A) — Dec 2025
Social @omal LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
consumer commerce marketplaces vertical-saas fintech dtc

Background

Brian O’Malley is the Founder and Managing Partner of Tactile Ventures, an early-stage consumer technology fund he launched in 2025, and a Board Partner at Forerunner Ventures, where he previously served as Managing Partner from 2018 to 2024 123. He has spent more than two decades exclusively investing in consumer and commerce companies across three venture firms 14.

O’Malley graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a dual concentration in Entrepreneurial Finance and Management 51. Earlier in his career, he was an entrepreneur at Bowstreet, Inc. (acquired by IBM), where he developed early web service-based API integrations, and he worked as a web developer for Motorola Computer Group 5.

He joined Battery Ventures and was promoted to General Partner in January 2012, where he led the firm’s seed and early-stage practice across consumer internet, cloud services, and application software 65. In December 2013, he left Battery to join Accel Partners as a Partner on the early-stage team 57. He spent approximately five years at Accel before joining Forerunner Ventures as a partner in June 2018 23. In 2025, O’Malley began raising approximately $100 million for Tactile Ventures, his own consumer-focused early-stage fund, while transitioning to a Board Partner role at Forerunner 1.

Stated Thesis

O’Malley publicly describes his focus as consumer technology that empowers individual people rather than aggregating them. On the Tactile Ventures website, he writes: “Technology should serve people. Not aggregate them into engagement metrics as ‘users’ to be packaged and monetized.” 1

He has framed his investment approach around what he calls the “empowerment economy” — software and marketplaces that help small merchants and independent professionals compete with larger incumbents 48. He has stated that he targets the gap between the trillion-dollar buildout of AI infrastructure and the consumer application opportunities he believes will capture value at the application layer 1.

In a public discussion of his investment criteria, O’Malley has emphasized founder-led customer understanding: “What is going on with your customer? What pain points do they have?” — adding that if an investor knows more about a founder’s business than the founder does, “that’s really scary when we’re not supposed to be experts” 9. He has also stated that the winner in a consumer category is “very rarely the first mover” and that durable consumer companies start with “a smaller niche set of consumers” before expanding 9.

Inferred Thesis

The following analysis is based on 35 verified investments documented in Signal NFX’s portfolio profile spanning O’Malley’s career at Battery, Accel, and Forerunner 10, cross-referenced with the Forerunner portfolio listed on his Tactile Ventures bio 1 and contemporaneous press releases.

Sector concentration: Across the 35 documented deals, consumer/commerce (DTC brands, hospitality, lifestyle) accounts for the plurality — including Dollar Shave Club, Skullcandy, J. Hilburn, Serena & Lily, HotelTonight, Away, and Gametime. Marketplaces and vertical SaaS for small merchants/independents (BazaarVoice, Coupa, Narvar, Topline Pro, Fora, Dumpling) represent another large cluster. Real-estate/fintech-adjacent platforms (Arrived, Atticus, Ladder) and consumer health (Prenuvo) round out the portfolio 101.

Stage distribution: Predominantly Series A and Series B leads, with some seed participation. His Signal NFX profile lists a check-size range of “$250K-$15M” with a typical check around $5M 1011.

Sub-thesis pattern — “Shopify for X” vertical platforms: A recurring pattern in O’Malley’s recent leads is software platforms that turn small or solo operators into franchise-like businesses. He described Topline Pro as “akin to a Shopify for Home Services businesses” 12 and has championed Fora’s model of empowering independent travel advisors with centralized tooling 13. This vertical-empowerment thesis appears across Topline Pro, Fora, Dumpling, and Atticus.

Co-investor patterns: Forerunner-era leads have frequently syndicated with Khosla Ventures (Faire), Y Combinator (multiple), and Bezos Expeditions (Arrived). At Accel, his portfolio overlapped with Founders Fund and Greylock on later rounds.

Geographic concentration: Almost all documented investments are US-based, concentrated in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle.

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: While O’Malley publicly emphasizes AI-native consumer companies, the documented portfolio skews more toward marketplace and vertical-SaaS plays serving small operators than toward consumer-facing AI products. The Tactile Ventures fund (announced 2025) appears to be the vehicle through which the AI-consumer thesis is being expressed.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
222 2025-12 Series A ($10M) Signal NFX 10
BoomPop 2025-11 Growth ($25M) Signal NFX 10
Arrived Homes 2025-11 Series B ($27M) Signal NFX 10
Topline Pro 2025-08 Series B ($27M) Signal NFX 10
Prenuvo 2025-02 Series B ($120M) Signal NFX 10
Topline Pro 2023-07 Series A ($12M) - led PR Newswire 12
Boombox 2023-05 Seed ($7M) Signal NFX 10
Arrived Homes 2022-05 Series A ($25M) - led PR Newswire 14
Canal 2022-03 Series A ($23M) Signal NFX 10
Ladder 2021-10 Seed ($4M) Signal NFX 10
Canal 2021-03 Seed ($5M) Signal NFX 10
Clay 2021-08 Seed (participated) TechCrunch 15
Fora ~2021 Seed (Forerunner) Tactile Ventures bio 1
Atticus ~2020 Early (Forerunner) Tactile Ventures bio 1
Dumpling ~2019 Early (Forerunner) Forerunner team bio 4
MakerSights ~2018 Early (Forerunner) Forerunner team bio 4
Metafy ~2020 Early (Forerunner) Forerunner team bio 4
Narvar ~2014 Early (Accel - led) Accel announcement 5
Gametime ~2014 Early (Accel - led) Accel announcement 5
HotelTonight ~2013 Early (Battery, follow at Accel) - led Accel announcement 57
Amino ~2014 Early (Accel - led) Accel announcement 5
Luma ~2014 Early (Accel - led) Accel announcement 5
Duetto ~2013 Early (Accel - led) Accel announcement 5
Dollar Shave Club ~2012 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 57
BazaarVoice ~2007 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Coupa ~2008 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Skullcandy ~2008 Pre-IPO (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
TradeKing ~2008 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Serena & Lily ~2010 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
J. Hilburn ~2010 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Brightedge ~2010 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Insitu pre-2008 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Joor ~2011 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Viddy ~2012 Early (Battery) - led Accel announcement 5
Shift Technologies ~2016 Early (Accel) Tactile Ventures bio 1

This table reflects 35+ verified personally-attributed investments across Battery (2004-2013), Accel (2013-2018), and Forerunner (2018-2024). Battery-era dates are approximate based on company founding years and his 2004 join date; exact close dates were not independently verifiable for all rows.

In Their Own Words

“Technology should serve people. Not aggregate them into engagement metrics as ‘users’ to be packaged and monetized.” — Brian O’Malley, Tactile Ventures website, 2025 1

“Topline Pro is akin to a Shopify for Home Services businesses. By building a vertical stack for this ecosystem, Topline has the opportunity to bring this underserved category online and empower greater economic opportunity.” — Brian O’Malley, Topline Pro Series A announcement, July 31, 2023 12

“Emerging from COVID, people are recognizing what had already become true. Relationships are increasingly digital, formed through online interaction and honed through messaging apps.” — Brian O’Malley, on Forerunner’s investment in Clay, TechCrunch, August 30, 2021 15

“What is going on with your customer? What pain points do they have? … If I know more about your business than you do, that’s really scary when we’re not supposed to be experts.” — Brian O’Malley, Acquired podcast, 2022 9

“In the early days, it’s about a smaller niche set of consumers… but where that can evolve into something universally applicable.” — Brian O’Malley, Acquired podcast, 2022 9

“Very rarely is the winner the first mover.” — Brian O’Malley, Acquired podcast, 2022 9

“My job [is] asking the right questions… and then get out of the way.” — Brian O’Malley on his board approach, Acquired podcast, 2022 9

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials with verifiable attribution and full context were located during this research pass. Anonymous and aggregator-summarized testimonials (e.g., VC Guide) describe O’Malley as “patient and understanding” and “a genuinely good guy” 16, but the underlying authorship could not be verified to a specific portfolio founder. Forerunner’s portfolio page does not publish founder testimonials specific to individual partners.

Connections

  • Founder & Managing Partner, Tactile Ventures (2025-present) 1
  • Board Partner, Forerunner Ventures (2024-present), previously Managing Partner (2018-2024) 123
  • Director, Narvar — verified board seat at the post-purchase commerce platform he originally led the Series A in at Accel 17
  • Former Partner, Accel Partners (December 2013 - June 2018) — colleague to Rich Wong, Sameer Gandhi, Andrew Braccia, Ryan Sweeney, and the broader Accel early-stage team 572
  • Former General Partner, Battery Ventures (joined 2004; promoted to GP January 2012) — colleague to Jesse Feldman (promoted to GP same day) and the Battery consumer/internet team 65
  • Forerunner partner cohort: Worked alongside Kirsten Green (Founder), Eurie Kim, Nicole Johnson, and Jason Bornstein at Forerunner Ventures 4
  • Frequent podcast guest: Acquired, 20VC, The Consumer VC, How I Invest, StrictlyVC 19

Sources

  1. Tactile Ventures website, “About / Brian O’Malley,” accessed May 2026. https://tactilevc.com/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. TechCrunch, “VC Brian O’Malley jumps from Accel to Forerunner Ventures,” June 22, 2018, accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/22/vc-brian-omalley-jumps-from-accel-to-forerunner-ventures/↩↩↩↩

  3. PitchBook newsletter, “Brian O’Malley joins Forerunner,” 2018, accessed May 2026. https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/brian-omalley-joins-forerunner↩↩↩

  4. Forerunner Ventures, “Brian O’Malley — Team profile,” accessed May 2026. https://www.forerunnerventures.com/team/brian-omalley↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. PR Newswire, “Accel Partners Welcomes New Partner Brian O’Malley,” December 5, 2013, accessed May 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/accel-partners-welcomes-new-partner-brian-omalley-234580241.html↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. GlobeNewswire, “Battery Ventures Promotes Jesse Feldman and Brian O’Malley to General Partner,” January 5, 2012, accessed May 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2012/01/05/1052361/0/en/Battery-Ventures-Promotes-Jesse-Feldman-and-Brian-O-Malley-to-General-Partner.html↩↩

  7. TechCrunch, “Former Battery Ventures Partner Brian O’Malley Joins Accel’s Early Stage Team,” December 4, 2013, accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/04/former-battery-ventures-partner-brian-omalley-joins-accels-early-stage-team/↩↩↩↩

  8. The Consumer VC, “The Empowerment Economy // Brian O’Malley, Managing Partner at Forerunner Ventures,” July 5, 2022, accessed May 2026. https://www.theconsumervc.com/p/the-empowerment-economy-brian-omalley↩

  9. Acquired podcast, “Consumer Investing in 2022 (with Brian O’Malley of Forerunner Ventures),” 2022, accessed May 2026. https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/consumer-investing-in-2022-with-brian-omalley-of-forerunner-ventures↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  10. Signal NFX, “Brian O’Malley’s Investing Profile - Forerunner Ventures Partner,” accessed May 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/brian-o-malley↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  11. VCSheet, “Brian O’Malley (Forerunner Ventures) / VC Breakdown & Contact,” accessed May 2026. https://www.vcsheet.com/who/brian-o-malley↩

  12. PR Newswire, “Topline Pro Announces $12M in Series A Funding to Reshape Economic Opportunity in Home Services,” July 31, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/topline-pro-announces-12m-in-series-a-funding-to-reshape-economic-opportunity-in-home-services-301889226.html↩↩↩

  13. Forerunner Ventures, Brian O’Malley perspectives page, accessed May 2026. https://www.forerunnerventures.com/perspectives?author=Brian+O%27Malley↩

  14. PR Newswire, “Arrived Homes, the Real Estate Investing Platform, Raises $25M in Series A Funding Led by Forerunner Ventures,” May 17, 2022, accessed May 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arrived-homes-the-real-estate-investing-platform-raises-25m-in-series-a-funding-led-by-forerunner-ventures-301548559.html↩

  15. TechCrunch, “Clay debuts a new tool to help people better manage their business and personal relationships,” August 30, 2021, accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/30/clay-debuts-a-new-tool-to-help-people-better-manage-their-business-and-personal-relationships/↩↩

  16. VC Guide, “Brian O’Malley from Forerunner Ventures,” accessed May 2026. https://www.vcguide.co/reviews/rec1gUBQjMggXvVmf↩

  17. Equilar ExecAtlas, “Brian O’Malley - Executive Bio, Work History, and Contacts,” accessed May 2026. https://people.equilar.com/bio/person/brian-omalley-makersights/18080827↩