Brian O'Malley

Throughout his 20-year career in Silicon Valley, Brian has always sought out one thing: the opportunity to work with high-integrity people. When you know Brian, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Moving nine times before he was eighteen, he learned quickly and early that the quality people were rarely the loudest in the room. That innate understanding has guided him, and served him well in venture.

Living through the dot com crash as a startup employee gave Brian perspective on the turbulence and challenges that come with startup founder territory; he saw firsthand how quickly clever sales and marketing tactics can stop working, leaving him with the realization that there is no clearer path to success than an amazing product experience. It also helped him understand the human impact of business, making him highly attuned and empathetic to founders and their employees. 

His personal experiences have led Brian to focus his investment efforts on consumer applications and bottoms-up software, both areas where the user is the decision maker. Since joining the Forerunner team in 2018, Brian has partnered with founders solving problems around financial independence, social connection, and sustainability, including Arrived, Atticus, Canal, Dumpling, Fora, MakerSights, Metafy, Narvar, Sunday, Stress-Free and Topline Pro among others. 

Brian brings 15+ years of investment experience to the Forerunner team from two world class firms — Accel and Battery Ventures — where he led each firm’s early stage-consumer efforts, staying focused on his passion, even as each firm grew in size. Before joining Forerunner, Brian had been a friend of the firm since the earliest days, collaborating on mutual portfolio companies, Away, Dollar Shave Club, Hotel Tonight, and Serena & Lily. 

Brian earned a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he completed a Dual Concentration in Entrepreneurial Finance and Management. While in school, Brian helped launch two startups, both acquired by Fortune 500 businesses. Brian has been named to Forbes’ Midas List VC Draft: Hot Prospects, as well as to AlwaysOn’s Power Players in Mobile and Power Players in The Cloud lists.