The Year We Remembered What Matters

A thank you to everyone who read, shared, and built alongside us in 2025.

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker." — John McClane, Die Hard¹ (1988)

The house is full again. Katie’s back from Wake Forest, all three girls under one roof, and for the first time in months, the inbox can wait. The fire’s lit. Sonoma is doing what Sonoma does in December.

This feels like the right moment to say something simple: thank you.

Five years ago, Krista, Will, and I started Sugar Capital. Lisa made it official two years in, but she was always part of it. After two decades building POPSUGAR together, we weren’t sure what this next chapter would look like. Whether we could make a difference. Whether anyone needed operators trying to become investors.

Five years later, I finally feel it. This is working.

We’re not just writing checks. We’re building something of our own again, a brand, a point of view, a way of seeing the world that founders seem to find useful. AirSugar became part of that, a place to think out loud. And it turns out a lot of you were hungry for something different. Not hype. Not hot takes. Just honest thinking about what it means to build, invest, and lead in a fast, unforgiving world.

This year, a few ideas kept showing up again and again.

That taste is the alpha in consumer investing, and cultural intelligence beats spreadsheet gymnastics every time. That the last free lunch is gone, distribution is no longer free, and the smartest builders are learning to own the water, not just the pipes. That execution compounds quietly while theater burns bright and fades fast.

Some of the writing got personal. I wrote about losing 40 pounds through micro-dosing GLP-1s, and how they aren’t just a health story but a shift in how people relate to desire, discipline, and identity. That opened a bigger question I kept circling all year: what happens when chemistry rewrites cravings at the same time AI rewrites work? We’re living through two revolutions at once. Most people still don’t see it.

We were direct about venture capital. About paper tigers who retrade term sheets. Advisors who don’t earn their equity. Egos that slow companies down. The founders who win aren’t louder or luckier. They beat and raise, quarter after quarter, building trust through results. No shortcuts. No theater.

We wrote about what sits underneath all of this. The mothers behind great founders. The partners every Maverick needs. San Francisco coming back the only way it ever does, by building. I’m proud of what my friend Dan Lurie is doing as mayor. The city finally has a builder in charge. We’ve been in San Francisco for over 25 years, and you can see it now if you look closely. Waymo moving through real streets. AI labs filling real offices. The future, quietly under construction again.

And we wrote about things bigger than markets. About October 7th. About conviction. About refusing to break. We dance again. Some things matter more than valuations.

At Sugar Capital, this was a year of conviction. Fund II delivered, with Grüns and Motion proving the thesis works. Fund III launched with early wins like Ultra, which went from zero to $24 million in run rate in 180 days. That’s not storytelling. That’s building.

The thesis is sharper than ever: back founders with taste, distribution instincts, and the discipline to own their unit economics before they scale.

The tailwinds have never been this strong. San Francisco is suing Big Food, and the giants being sued, all of them, will be hot on the acquisition trail looking for clean brands to buy their way out of the problem. Nearly $9 billion deployed into emerging consumer brands in the last eighteen months alone. The new administration is asking hard questions about what we eat. Target and Walmart want good-for-you innovation on their shelves. And the best consumer businesses now look more like software: capital efficient, predictable revenue, subscription mechanics, repeat purchase baked in. We are just getting started.

The market caught up. Margin beat mojo. Consumer came back. Acquirers re-engaged, with deals like Poppi, Rhode, and Coterie showing that DTC M&A has a real blueprint again.

But here’s what I keep coming back to.

The thing I’m most grateful for isn’t the returns or the recognition. It’s the founders who text at midnight when they’re stuck. The LPs who bet on us before the track record proved out. The readers who forward these essays to their teams with a note that says, “This is what I’ve been trying to say.”

Krista and Will, who’ve been building alongside me from day one. Lisa, who makes all of it work.

That’s the gift. Not the wins. The people.

Looking ahead, I’m bullish on the builders. On founders who understand that distribution is the brand. On operators who know good design is good business. On the next generation, who I genuinely believe is the luckiest generation yet, if they bring grit to match the tools.

2026 will be fast. The war for where you start will intensify. Some companies will thrive. Many will discover they were playing house all along.

But the builders will persist. They always do.

From our family to yours, happy holidays. Thank you for reading. Thank you for building.

See you in the new year.

Brian

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The Year in AirSugar (Highlights)

Consumer is Back (January 17) — How AI, omnichannel, and health are redefining commerce.

Beat and Raise (February 19) — The operator’s guide to managing expectations.

Playing House (March 30) — The critical distinction between those who build and those who pretend.

Taste is the Alpha (April 2) — Why cultural intelligence defines great consumer investing.

Margin is the New Mojo (April 20) — Why today’s best founders engineer margins before headlines.

Ego is Not Your Amigo (April 23) — You are not the smartest person in the room.

The Advisor Trap (April 29) — Why most advisors aren’t worth the cap table space.

The Mothers Behind Every Great Founder (May 11) — The unsung investors in human potential.

The Paper Tigers of Venture Capital (June 5) — Conviction isn’t what you say, it’s what you do when the market dips.

Good Design is Good Business (June 27) — Design matters everywhere.

Every Maverick Needs Their Goose (July 24) — Legendary companies use both sides of their brain.

How I Lost 40lbs and Changed My Life (July 30) — A medical breakthrough as significant as antibiotics.

The Distribution IS the Brand (August 27) — From P&G’s soap operas to MrBeast’s empire.

The Last Free Lunch (September 10) — Distribution is no longer free.

The Pipes Are Full. Own the Water. (October 1) — Why we’re betting harder on consumer than infrastructure.

Let’s Go San Francisco (October 8) — Why the smartest money is flowing back to the city that builds tomorrow.

We Dance Again (October 12) — What October 7th taught me about conviction and refusing to break.

One Brand Is Luck. Two Is Strategy. (October 16) — Why Mammoth’s Coterie acquisition proves DTC M&A found its blueprint.

The Luckiest Generation (October 22) — Your children are perfectly positioned for what’s next.

The Perfect Consumer Deal (October 27) — Zero to $24 million run rate in 180 days.

The GLP-1 Generation (November 12) — When chemistry rewrites desire and AI rewrites work.

Big Food’s Tobacco Moment (December 3) — San Francisco’s lawsuit exposes an industry that stopped making food decades ago.

The War for Where You Start (December 3) — It’s not about shopping. It’s about who owns the first question.

We Are Just Getting Started (December 17) — Consumer is having its moment.

1. Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. The best Christmas movie. Don’t @ me. cc Molly, Kev