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Oversubscribed Ventures co-founder Sarah Foster (above right) made the confession onstage Monday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024.
“I don’t even have ChatGPT on my phone,” she said.
It’s an unexpected comment from an investor, given that ChatGPT is the most influential product launched this decade. But what makes the Foster sisters different from professional venture capitalists is also their greatest strength: they are innovators first, and technology industry investors second.
Across their careers, the Foster sisters, Erin and Sarah, co-founded the clothing line Favorite Daughter, co-led the creative for Bumble Bizz and Bumble BFF, and currently co-host a podcast together. Erin Foster even created the best show on Netflix called “Nobody Wants This” starring Kristen Bell.
“Even calling it Oversubscribed Ventures was actually a nod to our sense of humor because we know this is not a space we naturally belong to,” Erin said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “We’re not trying to pretend like fund managers, you know? We’re trying to be ourselves and take our unique perspective and skill sets and bring them into this world and inject them in a real, honest way without pretending to be anything different than who we are.”
In the spirit of being themselves, the Foster sisters spoke on stage about why they are reluctant to invest in artificial intelligence.
“If we don’t understand it, we don’t invest in it,” Sarah said.
For Erin, a television writer, the rise of generative AI and its impact on creatives is more personal.
“We went on strike over the past year,” she explained. Erin pointed out the clever picket signs drawn by writers during the strike, which included comedic anti-AI messages like “ChatGPT Doesn’t Have Childhood Trauma.”
However, (Erin) Foster said she used ChatGPT in the writers room to come up with things like “The Matzo Ballers,” which is the name of the Jewish basketball team.
“ChatGPT figured it out, but it couldn’t write a script,” she said. “There are movies being released that are obviously based on AI, and they don’t seem to be good… I think it can be used for good. I think it can be meaningless in some areas, and I’m sure it’s evil in some areas, right “?
Sarah added: “Apparently a bunch of AI companies have come across our desks, and we’ve looked at them. There was software we were going to invest in, but as of now it’s not… I’ll probably have to download ChatGPT.”
The sisters clearly aren’t afraid to be themselves on stage – and when asked what they could do for the founders they support, Erin joked: “They can hang out with us.”
Yes, the comedy writer who brought you “Nobody Wants This” has jokes. But if there’s a little truth in every joke, the truth here is that spending time with the Foster family is actually very beneficial to the consumer founder.
Oversubscribed Ventures focuses on consumer technology companies, from bottled wine startups to NFT marketplace OpenSea.
“We are worthless if our projects are oversubscribed,” Sarah said. “Our value is a flywheel – it’s the ecosystem. It’s the same world that buys Favorite Daughter (their clothing brand), listens to the podcast, and watches the TV show.
The Fosters may not understand how ChatGPT works, but they understand what attracts consumers — and they have the podcast and clothing brand to prove it.
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