Why Consumer is such a great place to build

Issue 121 l Eka’s Weekly Roundup (13 May 2025)

Have you spent time on Lovable, Suno, and Bolt? If not, why not?

The barrier to entry for 1) building products & services, 2) expressing creativity, and 3) learning is lower than it has ever been. Companies are able to launch products much more quickly, able to iterate better on customer feedback, and ultimately (we believe) build better businesses over time.

Last week, I was speaking to someone who mentioned ElevenLabs and Synthesia hadn’t fit the true B2B mould which is why so many funds missed out on them early on. At Eka, we’re obsessed about how consumer-facing companies get to scale quickly and develop user love in a totally different way, and are proud to have backed some incredible teams along the way (though we still have many more to meet!).

It’s made me reflect on how B2C and B2B might be becoming more closely aligned… but, at its core, Consumer is just such a great place to start building category-defining companies solving the hardest global challenges: climate & health.

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Scaling with a Consumer lens in an AI era 🗞️

AI has lowered the barriers to entry to express yourself

We’ve been playing around with Lovable, Suno, and Bolt. Each of these creates its own “jaw dropping consumer experience” (stole this term from this podcast) with these new consumer AI applications. The Eka team aren’t the only ones experimenting: there are >20m reported users on Midjourney, Cursor has >200k monthly actives, and 1b (!) weekly actives on ChatGPT (a lot of this is search).

One concrete example is using Suno to compose ‘deep work’ tracks. See below for some inspiration across liquid D&B and 2000s pop… No shame!

See above for some pretty cringe music… although I promise that the 2000s pop was to try and re-create Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boi 🛹

There are many, many more examples here:

• ElevenLabs: voice AI platform originally adopted by creators and hobbyists (rumoured 80% consumer users vs. 20% B2B users). It is now spreading into enterprise as companies use it for localization, customer support, and content production. Employees at over 60% of Fortune 500 firms have now used ElevenLabs’ platform.

• Synthesia: AI-generated videos with digital avatars. Initially targeted at individual content creators and YouTubers, it has expanded into B2B use for training, marketing, and internal communications, showing how a user-friendly D2C interface can scale to enterprise use. The platform has >1m users and >60k businesses using its platform today.

• Medly: personalized AI tutor for GCSEs, IB, and A-Levels. It has seen incredibly fast growth on the consumer side since launching their product in late ‘24.

Individuals are increasingly experimenting these tools

There has long been a B2B vs. B2C divide. But AI tooling does seem to be merging the two together. If anything, it gets us even more excited about investing with a Consumer-lens.

This initial consumer led go-to-market motion means:

1. Fast product feedback loops

2. Ability to iterate at high velocity

3. Building viral love through community

We have seen some of the best founders in the Eka portfolio get apps in-market incredibly fast in order to get this product feedback. Assessing speed of execution & feedback is a key pillar of our process.

There are examples of B2B companies which have nailed this motion. One example is Palantir with their FDE model and how they set insane timelines for product iteration. Nabeel Qureshi spoke about this on Lenny’s Growth Podcast earlier this week. If you haven’t read his Reflections on Palantir post yet, def block out time to do so.

Will B2B and B2C blend into one?

There are companies which will almost always fall into the discrete B2B and B2C buckets:

Discrete buckets

• B2B: Palantir, Salesforce

• B2C: Nike, Unilever

And then there are companies which cross over into both B2C and B2B realms. These have a few different shapes, though typically start by creating a large consumer network (value) and monetising through businesses (monetisation).

Hybrid buckets

• Marketplaces: Etsy, Vinted, LinkedIn

• Creator tools: ElevenLabs, Synthesia

• Other: Medly, Byway, Discord

Understanding the consumer playbook means catching these companies early. We love spending time on user metrics, retention, acquisition costs, lifetime value, funnel breakdowns, and social strategy.

Even when we don’t invest in D2C companies (see Foresight which is B2B steel software, Axle which is residential flexibility software and distributes through hardware providers, and/or Flok which AI physiotherapy treatment and distributes through the NHS), we are hyper-focussed on customer love, product iteration, and speed of learning.

We believe this Consumer philosophy is here to stay and we’re excited to partner with category defining founders who are solving the hardest global challenges (Sustainable Consumption and Consumer Health). As always, reach out if you’d like to chat more - estia@ekavc.com.

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✍🏽 Week in Impact Articles

Monday: The buildout after Spain's blackout

Tuesday: What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?

Wednesday: When does data confer defensibility? Let's find out.

Thursday: YC Request for Startups (Summer '25)

Friday: Teen Drivers, Older Cars, and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems—Bridging the Safety Gap

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📊 3 (+) Key Charts

1a. This chart is crazy: China new car sales are 38% electric, or 6x penetration from ‘20.

1b. How battery charge impacts vehicle acceleration across EV models (Hyundai performs very well)

2. Egg check: Switzerland paying >$7 for a dozen

3. Who’s winning consumer hearts & minds?

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🗣️ Review of the Week

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👋 Getting in Touch

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