When to Invest in Consumer Technology with Vanessa Larco at NEA

Our guest today is Vanessa Larco, Partner at NEA. She shares her journey from pioneering XBox at Microsoft to navigating the social gaming boom with Playdom and making her mark in venture capital. Discover her investment ethos centered on consumer passion projects, successful investments in companies like Robinhood and Mejuri, and her insights on AI's transformative potential across industries. This episode is filled with valuable lessons and expert knowledge from Vanessa's diverse career.Thank you to our Partner –– Propeller Industries https://www.propellerindustries.com/Propeller Industries is the leading strategic finance and accounting partner for venture-stage companies.0:00:00 - Intro0:03:23 - Microsoft's Early Touch Screen Technologies0:05:36 - Designing Surface Device Controls Without Mouse0:09:11 - Xbox Connect Speech Recognition Evolution0:14:33 - Innovative Technologies and Timing0:17:12 - A-B Testing and Data-Driven Decisions0:23:10 - Profitability and Growth in Different Industries0:26:55 - Investing Across Different Categories0:29:53 - Robinhood Revolutionizes Commission-Free Investing 0:36:33 - Identifying Winning Consumer Companies0:54:15 - Venture Capital in Tech InnovationSubscribe to Our Newsletter:https://www.theconsumervc.com/Subscribe on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4Hjm74ZMqodx5UmAeWAOJF?si=e0bd72bc48b341abSubscribe on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-consumer-vc-venture-capital-i-b2c-startups-i/id1484646914Follow on Twitter:https://twitter.com/MikeGelbFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/mikegelb/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@consumervc