The Art and Science of Investing in Consumer Businesses

Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital, shares his investment framework for evaluating consumer businesses—ecommerce platforms and social networks—emphasizing retention, CAC payback period, and sustainable competitive advantages over vanity metrics. The article covers metrics for consumer investing, durability of revenue models (ads vs. ecommerce), trend spotting, strategic acquisitions, network effects, and the role of AI in social platforms and ad networks.