2025 Investment Focus: Opportunities That Excite Us

The investment landscape changes and evolves at different speeds, and nowhere is this more evident than in the artificial intelligence space since the launch of ChatGPT. It seems every pitch deck that lands on our desk now prominently features AI capabilities - sometimes meaningfully, often superficially. What's particularly fascinating is how quickly the conventional wisdom around AI businesses shifts.

Take AI wrappers as an example. Just months ago, the prevailing view was that companies building on top of large language models couldn't build sustainable businesses. The argument went that they'd be too dependent on the underlying models and wouldn't have enough differentiation. Fast forward to today, and we're seeing a complete reversal in thinking, with many now arguing that wrapper companies will be the real winners in the AI race (thanks Deep Seek).

These rapid shifts in perspective highlight an important truth: in emerging technologies, today's conventional wisdom often becomes tomorrow's outdated thinking. We can’t overstate the number of times this has been true (for us at least!) in 2024 and 2025. This is why at JCP Growth, we focus less on following current trends and more on identifying fundamental value creation opportunities.

Looking ahead to 2025, we're particularly excited about three key areas:

1.     Vertical AI applications

We're seeing compelling opportunities in AI applications that solve specific, high-value problems in traditional industries. Unlike horizontal AI tools that try to be everything to everyone, these vertical solutions combine deep domain expertise with AI capabilities to address concrete business challenges. Through our experience with IDVerse, we've seen firsthand how AI can transform specific industry verticals - in their case, identity verification and cybersecurity.

Some characteristics we look for in vertical AI companies:

• Deep understanding of industry-specific workflows and pain points

• Clear ROI proposition for customers

• Strong moats beyond just AI implementation

2.     Wellness and Sports Technology

The convergence of consumer technology and wellness is creating exciting opportunities in the sports tech and wellness sector. We're seeing a fascinating evolution from simple step-counting to sophisticated health and performance monitoring. What's particularly interesting is the potential for mass-market adoption of previously professional-grade technologies.

This growth is being fueled by a fundamental shift in healthcare approaches - from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. Consumers are increasingly taking ownership of their health outcomes, seeking tools that allow them to monitor biomarkers, optimize lifestyle factors, and potentially prevent conditions before they require medical intervention. This preventative mindset creates a compelling market opportunity for technologies that empower users with actionable health insights.

We're looking at two distinct but related opportunities in this space:

• Mass-market wellness devices that can achieve widespread adoption beyond the fitness enthusiast market

• Specialized high-performance tools for serious athletes and sports professionals

We feel that key to success in this space will be finding the right balance between sophisticated technology and user-friendly implementation / experience. We're particularly interested in companies that can:

• Create intuitive user experiences that drive consistent engagement

• Generate actionable insights and recommendations from complex data

• Build community and network effects around their platforms

• Maintain high margins through premium positioning or recurring revenue models

• Demonstrate measurable health outcomes and prevention metrics that justify investment

3.     Supply Chain Intelligence

The third area we're excited about is the emergence of new technologies bringing unprecedented transparency and efficiency to supply chains. We're seeing opportunities for companies that can create value by:

• Providing real-time visibility into previously opaque supply chain segments

• Enabling better decision-making through predictive analytics

• Creating efficiency gains through better coordination and resource allocation

• Addressing sustainability and compliance requirements through better tracking and reporting

Additional Considerations

Looking beyond these specific sectors, we're also seeing some interesting broader trends that will influence our investment approach in 2025:

• Increasing emphasis on capital efficiency and path to profitability

• Growing importance of regulatory compliance and data privacy

• Continued evolution of remote/hybrid work tools and practices

Our Investment Philosophy

As we look to expand our portfolio in 2025, we're maintaining our focus on sustainable growth and strong unit economics, while remaining open to opportunities across sectors. The key is finding companies that aren't just riding current trends but are creating fundamental value through innovation and execution.

We're particularly interested in founders who:

• Have deep domain expertise in their target markets

• Can demonstrate clear unit economics and path to profitability

• Are building solutions that create lasting value beyond current market cycles

• Show the ability to adapt and evolve as market conditions change

While we maintain our industry-agnostic approach, these focus areas represent opportunities where we see particular potential for value creation and sustainable growth. As always, we're looking for founders who share our long-term perspective and commitment to building enduring businesses.