Brian O'Malley

Who they are

Brian O'Malley is Managing Partner at Forerunner Ventures — co-founded AtlantiCO2, a carbon removal startup in Brazil, and BEO Kombucha, an alcoholic kombucha brand in Amsterdam.

Person

Brian joined Forerunner in 2018, when the firm had just closed a $360M fund — tripling the size of its prior raise — and was already an established player in consumer investing after roughly eight years in the market. He came from Accel, where he was a Partner, and before that Battery Ventures, making Forerunner his third major VC home. The through-line across Battery, Accel, and Forerunner is a consistent bet on consumer-facing companies: his portfolio touchpoints include Away, Dollar Shave Club, Hotel Tonight, Serena & Lily, and Dumpling, the gig-economy grocery startup. He's an active voice on consumer investing, creator economy dynamics, and the 'empowerment economy' — a framing he developed and took to the Acquired Podcast and The Consumer VC Podcast in 2022. Alongside his investing work he co-founded two ventures: AtlantiCO2, a carbon removal startup in Brazil, and BEO Kombucha, an alcoholic kombucha brand based in Amsterdam. Possibly — he is currently based in Amsterdam, which would explain both the kombucha brand and his role as a mentor at the AMS Institute.

How they likely show up

Career spanning Battery Ventures → Accel → Forerunner, each a progressively more consumer-focused firm → deliberate sharpening of thesis, not opportunistic jumping.
Active public speaking across Acquired, The Consumer VC Podcast, and ACQ2 in 2022 → comfortable being a named, on-record voice for his investment views; likely responds well to substantive debate on consumer trends.
Co-founded AtlantiCO2 and BEO Kombucha alongside a full-time GP role → high agency; not content to observe from the cap table, prefers skin in the game.
Portfolio spans Away, Dollar Shave Club, Dumpling, and creator economy startups → pattern-matches on direct-to-consumer and the 'empowerment economy' thesis rather than broad-sector opportunism.
Possibly — Amsterdam base and AMS Institute mentorship → may operate across US/Europe, which could mean a preference for async communication across time zones.

Conversation tips

→ Reference the 'empowerment economy' framing specifically — he named and developed it publicly; asking how it's evolved since 2022 will get a more engaged answer than a generic 'consumer investing' question.
→ Mention a specific portfolio company (Away, Dumpling, Dollar Shave Club) and ask about the pattern he saw early — he thinks in portfolio thesis, not one-off bets.
→ If you have a view on the creator economy or gig economy, share it before asking — he's a practitioner, not a teacher, and peer-level exchange will land better than being interviewed.
→ Ask about AtlantiCO2 or BEO Kombucha if you want to understand what he bets on with his own money rather than LPs' capital — it's a different signal.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the 'empowerment economy' — he coined and publicly developed the thesis on the Acquired Podcast in 2022, and asking how the macro environment since then has stress-tested it will immediately signal you've done the work.
Mention BEO Kombucha or AtlantiCO2 — co-founding a consumer brand and a carbon removal startup while running a major fund is an unusual move, and it opens a genuine conversation about what he bets on personally vs. institutionally.
Reference the Dumpling investment — a gig-economy grocery startup is a specific, textured bet within the broader empowerment economy thesis, and asking why Dumpling fit the pattern will reveal how he thinks about founder empowerment at the unit-economics level.

Discovery questions

You framed the 'empowerment economy' thesis in 2022 — how has the consumer pullback and the rise of AI-native commerce tools since then changed how you evaluate whether a startup actually empowers vs. just extracts from its users?
You've backed Away, Dollar Shave Club, and Hotel Tonight — all companies that disrupted incumbents through direct consumer relationships. Are you seeing a new wave of DTC-style disruption, or has that playbook run its course?
You co-founded AtlantiCO2 and BEO Kombucha alongside your GP role — what does it take for a company-building project to be worth your personal capital versus something you'd only back from the fund?

Avoid

Don't pitch a B2B SaaS or enterprise play — his entire career arc, public thesis, and personal ventures point to a consumer-first investor who thinks about end-user empowerment, not IT procurement cycles.

Make it yours