Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

What factors influenced Banana Capital Founding Partner Turner Novak to invest in BeReal ?

23 Oct 2022 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Turner Novak, founding partner at Banana Capital, explains how he discovered BeReal and why he chose to invest. He was introduced to the app by Jean, a leading early‑stage consumer investor at New Wave, who recommended the product after seeing its strong performance in France. Novak highlights BeReal’s surprisingly high user retention despite its seemingly unintuitive, copy‑cat appearance, noting that users remained highly engaged. He likens the experience to early Snapchat Stories, emphasizing the app’s intimate, friend‑focused nature rather than a broad, broadcast platform.

So what was it about BeReal that caught your attention as an investor? And then how did you source that deal?
So I met the founder from just a friend, like another VC. It's the guy who led their seed round. It's a fund called New Wave. His name's Jean. He's awesome. He's a very smart, probably one of the best early-stage investors in Europe. I mean, maybe in the world, but his thing is he does a lot of early-stage consumer in Europe, specifically France. Jean's like, hey, check out this app, BeReal. I think you'll like it. I mean, they were doing really, really well in France, Very strange, like unintuitive. You'd see it and think, oh, Instagram, Facebook is just gonna copy it, it's gonna go away. But they just had very strong retention. People just stick around and use it. And it reminded me a lot of Snapchat Stories from back, back in the day.
Back in the day. Well, it's like a much more like intimate experience. Like BeReal is me and 11 friends and I'm like, I know you all so well.