🎧 The $2B Framework to Find Iconic Consumer Products

My guest today is Shawn Carolan, Managing Partner at Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest venture firms with more than $5 billion under management.

Shawn led early investments in Uber, Roku, Siri, and Chime, generating over $2 billion in returns for Menlo’s limited partners.

Behind those wins is a clear philosophy, what Shawn calls his Consumer Utilitarian Framework: a model for backing companies that use breakthrough technologies to meet timeless human needs in faster, cheaper, and better ways.

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🗒 Show notes:

[16:20] — His Consumer Utilitarian Framework and Menlo Ventures’ 4 investing pillars.

[20:10] — Core principles: timeless human needs × evolving technology.

[22:06] — AI as the next “ingredient technology” unlocking new markets.

[38:20] — How AI gives apps like MyFitnessPal a second life

[56:20] — Shawn’s key lessons from 20+ years of consumer investing.

🧠 Key Takeaways

#1 The Consumer Investor’s Mindset: Shawn reframes consumer investing through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He argues that human behavior has barely changed in 100,000 years, what changes are the “ingredient technologies” (like AI) that unlock new ways to meet the same timeless needs: safety, belonging, self-expression, mastery, etc. Don’t chase trends or viral behaviors. Anchor your product in a permanent human job-to-be-done. Then ask: “What new technology now makes it 10x better, faster, or cheaper to meet that same need?

#2 Delight is a leading indicator, but not a moat: Shawn describes his process as starting from emotional intuition, moments when a product feels “magical”, but quickly layering on analytical discipline. Many investors stop at delight; he goes further to test whether delight connects to a repeatable, scalable business model.
Emotional resonance gets you noticed; operational excellence keeps you alive. Founders should design for delight, but validate for durability, ask what real problem it solves, how often it repeats, and how the economics scale beyond the early adopter bubble.

#3 AI will turn every personal habit into a market: Shawn predicts that AI will unlock entire consumer categories that failed before because they demanded too much user effort, nutrition tracking, fitness planning, time management, personal CRM, relationships.

These “failed apps” (like MyFitnessPal, Evernote, or Salesforce) are now viable again because AI removes the friction between intent and action.
Revisit old consumer pain points that once looked “too boring” or “too hard to scale.” AI transforms friction into opportunity. A product that used to require constant manual input can now anticipate, auto-complete, and coach.

😲You won’t hear this anywhere else

“We talk about AI like it’s going to make us infinitely productive, but maybe that’s not what we actually need. We’ve had decades of productivity gains from the internet, from mobile, from every app that promised to ‘save time’and yet people seem more stressed, more distracted, less connected. Maybe what’s missing isn’t more output, but better rails for how we live. Technology that doesn’t just accelerate work, but helps us pause, recognize when we’re overwhelmed, nudges us to take a break, or reminds us to be present with each other.

If AI could give us that—tools that restore empathy and awareness instead of eroding them it would be the most important shift of all. Not more productivity, but more humanity.”