Mother Ventures is looking at moms as the ‘economic engine’
Mother Ventures is looking at moms as the ‘economic engine’
Mother Ventures 将母亲视为“经济引擎”
As families across the U.S. prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, Allison Stern is looking beyond the single day of appreciation. Stern just closed $10 million in commitments for her debut early-stage fund, Mother Ventures, which focuses exclusively on the mother as a consumer. 随着全美各地的家庭准备在本周日庆祝母亲节，Allison Stern 的目光已超越了这一天的感恩。Stern 刚刚为其首支早期基金 Mother Ventures 完成了 1000 万美元的认缴资金，该基金专门关注作为消费者的母亲群体。
“In the U.S., moms are responsible for 85% of household purchases and have $2.4 trillion in spending power,” Stern (pictured below) told TechCrunch. “The numbers say that moms are the buyers, and they really are a very unique economic engine.” “在美国，母亲承担了 85% 的家庭采购，拥有 2.4 万亿美元的消费能力，”Stern（下图）告诉 TechCrunch。“数据表明，母亲是主要的购买者，她们确实是一个非常独特的经济引擎。”
Stern, a mother of two, is tapping into that spending clout by backing startups that reflect the needs of modern mothers. Since launching Mother Ventures two years ago, she has already deployed $4 million into 13 startups. Her portfolio includes Coral Care, which allows instant booking of pediatric specialists for children with developmental delays, and Tin Can, a popular Wi-Fi-enabled “landline” designed as a retro-style phone for kids. 作为两个孩子的母亲，Stern 正通过支持反映现代母亲需求初创企业的方式，挖掘这一消费影响力。自两年前创立 Mother Ventures 以来，她已向 13 家初创公司投入了 400 万美元。她的投资组合包括 Coral Care（允许为发育迟缓儿童即时预约儿科专家）和 Tin Can（一款流行的 Wi-Fi 联网“座机”，设计成复古风格的儿童电话）。
Before launching her own fund, she co-founded Tubular Labs, a social video analytics startup she helped grow to $25 million in annual recurring revenue prior to its 2023 acquisition by private equity, and served as an operating partner at The Chernin Group (TCG), a consumer-focused growth equity firm. Part of TCG’s investment thesis included backing companies serving “overlooked unique audiences with spending power,” such as Barstool Sports, which originally targeted Boston sports fans, she said. 在创立自己的基金之前，她曾联合创办了社交视频分析初创公司 Tubular Labs，并将其年经常性收入提升至 2500 万美元，随后该公司于 2023 年被私募股权公司收购。她还曾在专注于消费领域的成长型股权公司 The Chernin Group (TCG) 担任运营合伙人。她表示，TCG 的投资理念之一是支持那些服务于“拥有消费能力但被忽视的独特受众”的公司，例如最初针对波士顿体育迷的 Barstool Sports。
When Stern set out to launch her own fund, she identified mothers as a similarly underserved market with the potential to deliver superior returns. “I felt like motherhood is the ultimate niche that’s not really a niche,” she said. 当 Stern 着手创立自己的基金时，她认定母亲群体是一个同样未被充分服务的市场，且具备带来超额回报的潜力。“我觉得母亲身份是一个终极细分市场，但它实际上并不算是一个细分市场，”她说。
Stern convinced Tony James, the former president and COO of Blackstone and current board chair of Costco, to back Mother Ventures as an anchor LP. Other backers of the fund include Jessica Rolph, founder of the child development startup Lovevery, as well as female executives from Netflix, Rent the Runway, and Sesame Street, she said. Stern 说服了黑石集团前总裁兼首席运营官、现任 Costco 董事会主席的 Tony James 作为基石有限合伙人（LP）支持 Mother Ventures。该基金的其他支持者还包括儿童发展初创公司 Lovevery 的创始人 Jessica Rolph，以及来自 Netflix、Rent the Runway 和《芝麻街》的女性高管。
She argues that millennial and Gen Z mothers expect a different set of products, from on-demand transportation services such as Zum, to ready-meal delivery from DoorDash, and fintech tools like Greenlight that allow parents to instantly fund a child’s debit card. “We want healthy things. We want subscription things. We want digital communities,” she said. 她认为，千禧一代和 Z 世代的母亲期待一套不同的产品，从 Zum 等按需交通服务，到 DoorDash 的预制餐配送，再到 Greenlight 等允许父母即时为孩子借记卡充值的金融科技工具。“我们想要健康的产品，想要订阅制的服务，想要数字化的社区，”她说。
However, Stern doesn’t want her fund to be perceived as one that invests only in parenting tech. “It’s a consumer fund, and focus on the mom as the consumer allows us to be wider in our bets,” she said. 然而，Stern 不希望她的基金被视为只投资育儿科技。“这是一个消费基金，将母亲作为消费者来关注，使我们能够进行更广泛的布局，”她说。