Hugo Amsellem / Intuition

Hugo Amsellem is the Co-founder and General Partner of Intuition, a €10 million fund investing in consumer and culture startups across Europe and the US.

Hugo’s path to VC wasn’t straight. He built startup ecosystems at The Family and Jellysmack, helping founders move culture forward. He admits he used to hate VCs. But his obsession with helping founders led him to realize starting a fund was the right move.

With his co-founder Etienne (a former professional athlete), Hugo launched Intuition to invest at the intersection of culture and technology. What sets them apart: spotting cultural shifts before they hit mainstream. They’re not just investing in consumer products. They’re reading culture.

Our conversation gets into how they actually do this. Hugo runs events across cities in Europe and the US, building a community of founders and investors. It’s cultural reconnaissance disguised as networking.

Hugo’s also built an automation system that makes the fund run efficiently. Airtable, TextExpander, Superhuman, Texts.com. The toolkit matters when you’re trying to stay close to culture while managing a fund.

Hugo’s clear about what they’re doing. “We’re essentially talking about culture more than we talk about consumer, because in the end, it’s a better proxy to understand what we’re trying to achieve.”

Full episode below, or on Spotify / Apple Podcasts