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The consumer AI products OpenAI “won’t want to kill” | Equity Podcast

Vanessa Larco⁠, partner at ⁠Premise⁠ and former partner at NEA, thinks 2026 will finally be the year of consumer AI.  Larco, who’s been investing in consumer and prosumer for years, thinks we’re about to see a shift in how consumers spend time online, with AI powering “concierge-like” services. The question is, will legacy consumer products like WebMD and TripAdvisor continue to exist as standalone apps, or…

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Vanessa Larco⁠, partner at ⁠Premise⁠ and former partner at NEA, thinks 2026 will finally be the year of consumer AI. 
Larco, who’s been investing in consumer and prosumer for years, thinks we’re about to see a shift in how consumers spend time online, with AI powering “concierge-like” services. The question is, will legacy consumer products like WebMD and TripAdvisor continue to exist as standalone apps, or will they just get absorbed into ChatGPT or Meta AI? And where can startups carve out an AI-powered niche for themselves? 
Today on TechCrunch’s ⁠Equity⁠ podcast, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Larco to talk about why consumer is back, what OpenAI won’t kill, and where the real opportunities are hiding. 

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction  
00:53 – Why founders are excited about consumer again  
04:40 – The moat against OpenAI: Managing real humans  
09:22 – Apps as disposable as Word docs  
12:48 – Social media in the AI era 
18:48 – Meta Ray-Bans and why wearables are actually good  
23:35 – Stablecoins and consumer fintech opportunities  
26:54 – M&A predictions for 2026 

Subscribe to Equity on ⁠YouTube⁠,⁠ Apple Podcasts⁠,⁠ Overcast⁠,⁠ Spotify⁠ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on⁠ X⁠ and⁠ Threads⁠, at @EquityPod.

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5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. @KLBL-dp8mc

    January 7, 2026 at 1:08 pm

    OpenAI will be bankrupt by EOY. Burning obscene amounts of cash with no ideas how they’re going to create enough revenue to even pay the interest on the spending commitments they’ve made.

  2. @أحمدعلي-ط5ه3ش

    January 7, 2026 at 2:45 pm

    ❤❤❤

  3. @SoyYoErick

    January 8, 2026 at 2:09 am

    It does seem like the B2C market is wide open for Agentic disruption but more so from a workflow perspective. What do you do on the daily, “which apps do you reference before choosing a place to eat and then navigate with directions”? It feels like we may see the 2.0 version form of smart assistants coming around.

  4. @shivakhatri3271

    January 8, 2026 at 12:43 pm

    When did Sam Altman start Podcast?

  5. @TUNC2-k1e

    January 16, 2026 at 11:24 am

    Hmmm 🤔

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