Eurie Kim

Background

Eurie Kim is a Managing Partner at Forerunner Ventures, the San Francisco-based consumer-focused venture capital firm ¹. She joined Forerunner in 2012 — before the close of the firm’s inaugural institutional fund — and has been a core member of the partnership ever since ².

Kim’s path to venture capital was unusually hands-on. After graduating with a B.S. with honors in Business Administration from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business (BS ‘01), she started her career as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company (2002–2004), then moved to Castanea Partners, a private equity firm focused on growth-stage consumer and retail businesses, where she worked as an Investment Associate (2004–2006) ³⁴. She then earned an MBA with honors from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (WG ‘09) ³.

Between Wharton and Forerunner, Kim founded MAVN, a luxury leather accessories brand, giving her direct experience as a founder (2008–2011) ³⁴. She returned to Bain & Company as a Case Team Leader (2010–2012) before joining Forerunner ⁴. Her entrepreneurial background informs how she works with portfolio founders: Forerunner’s website describes her as offering “radically empathetic” support “while being realistic and honest in the advice she offers” ¹.

Kim grew up in Marin County, California. Her family immigrated from South Korea in the 1970s after her father, a senior politician, faced career limitations when his party lost political favor ⁵. She has spoken about her father’s guiding counsel — “Be ready” — as a formative influence on her approach to opportunity ⁶.

Since joining Forerunner, Kim has invested across health and wellness, travel, supply chain automation, career and learning, and AI infrastructure ¹. She serves as Chairperson of the Board at Ōura and sits on the boards of The Farmer’s Dog, Stan, Leland, Curology, The Feed, Acely, and Joy ¹. In 2020, she was named to the Forbes Midas Brink List, recognizing emerging venture capital investors ⁷. She is a founding member of All Raise, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of women in general partner roles and as funded founders in tech ⁷.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Kim says publicly about her investing approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Kim describes her investment philosophy as centered on evolving consumer needs and what she calls “product-human need fit” — a framework she articulated in a 2022 Medium essay arguing that the traditional notion of product-market fit undersells the depth of human need required for durable category leaders ⁸.

She has stated: “winners won’t be defined by product-market fit, they will strike product-human need fit” ⁸. On Forerunner’s broader consumer orientation, Kim has written: “we at Forerunner have invested with the consumer as our north star over the past decade+” ⁹.

Kim self-identifies as a contrarian: “I love betting on underdogs. I’m the investor who, when everyone thinks there’s a hot deal, that’s definitely the deal I don’t want to do…I like finding the things that look a little bit weird, or just aren’t so obvious.” ². She has also stated: “It is a fool’s errand to think that your investor is going to be the reason why a company succeeds or doesn’t succeed. This is all about the founder and the founder’s ability to build an exceptional team that can grow over time.” ²

On early-stage decision-making, Kim has said: “You cannot figure it out analytically when it’s this early. You have to do it from a personal sort of guttural sense.” ²

Forerunner’s public stated focus is on backing founders who are building “companies for humans” — specifically the intersection of consumer behavior change, technology enablement, and category creation. The firm emphasizes health, commerce, consumer finance, prosumer tools, education, and social as core sectors for Fund VII ¹⁰.

Inferred Thesis

The analysis below is based on the 12 Forerunner portfolio companies where Kim is confirmed as lead or board-level investor, drawn from her Forerunner team page board seat disclosures, press coverage of specific investments, and the Forerunner portfolio page ¹¹¹. This represents a partial sample; Kim has led or supported 40+ investments at Forerunner according to firm disclosures ¹², meaning this analysis covers approximately 30% of her total investment record. Percentages below are computed from these 12 verified entries; the sample is not large enough for high-confidence sector breakdowns.

Sector concentration (based on 12 verified board/lead investments with confirmed sources): - Consumer health and wellness: 4 of 12 (33%) — Ōura, Curology, The Feed, Joy - Consumer DTC / commerce: 3 of 12 (25%) — The Farmer’s Dog, Stan, MoveWith - Consumer / travel goods: 1 of 12 (8%) — Away - Supply chain / B2B infrastructure: 2 of 12 (17%) — Attabotics, Eclipse - Career and education: 2 of 12 (17%) — Leland, Acely

Key patterns:

• Health and wellness is the dominant personal focus: Kim’s four current board seats that are most prominently featured — Ōura (Chairperson), The Farmer’s Dog, Curology, and Joy — all relate to personal health, nutrition, or wellbeing. This is consistent with her stated thesis around “human need” rather than market adjacency.

• Non-obvious bets in supply chain: Attabotics (warehouse robotics) and Eclipse are notable outliers in a portfolio otherwise focused on consumer-facing companies. These represent Kim’s stated preference for “things that look a little bit weird” — supply chain infrastructure that enables the DTC brands Forerunner backs.

• Stage focus is genuinely early: Kim led Away’s $2.5M seed round in 2015 ¹³, led Curology’s $4.15M Series A in 2015 ¹⁴, and led Joy’s $10M seed in 2024 ¹⁵. The check sizes range from $1M to $10M at seed and Series A, consistent with Forerunner’s stated $1M–$20M range ¹⁰.

• B2C with recurring revenue preference: Stan (creator commerce), Leland (coaching marketplace), Curology (subscription skincare), The Farmer’s Dog (subscription pet food), Joy (subscription parenting support) — the majority of Kim’s portfolio companies have recurring revenue models, suggesting a preference for retention-driven businesses over transactional e-commerce.

• Consumer hardware is not off-limits: Ōura (smart ring) and Attabotics (robotics) demonstrate willingness to invest in hardware when the data and consumer adoption story is compelling. Kim has noted that Ōura’s biometric accuracy and ring form factor distinguished it from competitors ¹⁶.

• Geographic focus: All verified investments are U.S.-headquartered, with the exception of Ōura, which is Finnish-founded but operates primarily in the U.S. market ¹⁶.

• Co-investor patterns: Kim’s co-investors at seed and Series A include SV Angel (The Farmer’s Dog), Shasta Ventures (The Farmer’s Dog), Google’s Gradient Ventures (Ōura), Jack Dorsey’s Square (Ōura), GSV Ventures (Leland), and Magnify Ventures (Joy).

Notable observations: The Ōura investment (2019 Series B, Forerunner led at $28M) stands out as Kim’s most prominent single bet and is now among the largest consumer health companies in Forerunner’s portfolio, having raised a $900M Series E ¹⁷. Kim served as Chairperson of the Board, suggesting significant hands-on involvement. The Farmer’s Dog is another prominent investment, reportedly generating over $1 billion in annualized revenue as of recent reporting ¹⁸.

Portfolio

This table covers 12 verified investments where Kim is confirmed as lead investor or board member, representing approximately 30% of her stated 40+ investment record. Years marked with ~ are estimates based on press coverage and Forerunner portfolio page data; all entries require source confirmation for the specific investment year.

In Their Own Words

“I love betting on underdogs. I’m the investor who, when everyone thinks there’s a hot deal, that’s definitely the deal I don’t want to do. And that’s probably not a good thing either, because there are a lot of good deals that are pretty hot, but I like finding the things that look a little bit weird, or just aren’t so obvious.” — Eurie Kim, Venture Unlocked podcast, 2022 ²

“It is a fool’s errand to think that your investor is going to be the reason why a company succeeds or doesn’t succeed. This is all about the founder and the founder’s ability to build an exceptional team that can grow over time.” — Eurie Kim, Venture Unlocked podcast, 2022 ²

“You cannot figure it out analytically when it’s this early. You have to do it from a personal sort of guttural sense.” — Eurie Kim, Venture Unlocked podcast, 2022 ²

“winners won’t be defined by product-market fit, they will strike product-human need fit.” — Eurie Kim, Medium essay “Finding ‘Product-Human Need Fit’ in a Post Covid Era,” 2022 ⁸

“ŌURA is well-positioned to become the go-to health platform for the modern consumer in the coming decade.” — Eurie Kim, Forerunner blog, April 2022 ¹⁶

“As a mother of two young kids, I regularly feel overwhelmed with the number of new challenges that pop up daily.” — Eurie Kim, Joy seed round press release, July 2024 ¹⁵

“I am not in the business of funding good companies. Venture capital is only successful on outliers.” — Eurie Kim, Stanford eCorner talk ²³

“Networking at its best is when you know that you have to give to be able to receive. If you want to network, be really good at figuring out how you can help others.” — Eurie Kim, Stanford eCorner talk ²³

“It’s not just about being smart and identifying opportunity. Do you realize how many years you’re going to have to dedicate to this and maybe fail anyway?” — Eurie Kim, Entrepreneur.com interview ²⁴

“If you quit because it gets hard, then we all fail.” — Eurie Kim, Entrepreneur.com interview ²⁴

“You don’t know if you’re good for over 10 years…It’s not just one investment makes you a star.” — Eurie Kim, Haas Alumni Podcast, 2021 ⁵

“The motivation comes from knowing that you took something that didn’t exist and you gave it life.” — Eurie Kim, Haas Alumni Podcast, 2021 ⁵

“If you do not have an appetite for risk, you will never be a good venture capitalist.” — Eurie Kim, Haas Alumni Podcast, 2021 ⁵

“How do you combine both the human touch and sort of the human mindset with technology and with automation, AI and all of the fancy buzzwords to create an experience that’s flexible and scalable.” — Eurie Kim, Modern Retail interview, 2020 ²⁵

“Clarity is probably not what you’re going to get when you work for an early-stage startup.” — Eurie Kim, Modern Retail interview, 2020 ²⁵

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. The Forerunner Ventures website does not publish founder testimonials for individual partners. Searches of Twitter/X, Product Hunt, and press coverage did not surface independently attributable founder quotes about working with Eurie Kim specifically.

Connections

• Chairperson of the Board, Ōura — alongside board members from Gradient Ventures and Bold Capital Partners ¹⁶¹⁷
• Board member, The Farmer’s Dog — Forerunner first invested in 2016, board seat held since early investment ¹⁸
• Board member, Curology — lead investor since 2015 Series A ¹⁴
• Board member, Stan — Forerunner led $5M seed in 2021 ²¹
• Board member, Leland — lead investor, Series A 2024; joined by GSV Ventures ²²
• Board member, Joy — lead investor, $10M seed 2024; joined by Magnify Ventures, Obvious Ventures ¹⁵
• Board member, Acely — board member since ~2020 investment ²⁰
• Board member, The Feed — board member per Forerunner team page ¹
• Founding member, All Raise — alongside Aileen Lee (Cowboy Ventures) and other women VCs ⁷
• Co-investor with Kirsten Green (Forerunner) — partners at same firm across Fund I through Fund VII; Green is Founder and Managing Partner ¹¹
• Former colleague at Bain & Company — worked at Bain in two separate stints (2002–2004 and 2010–2012) ⁴
• Former PE colleague at Castanea Partners — growth-stage consumer and retail investing (2004–2006) ⁴

Sources