True Ventures

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of Om Malik’s passing. It’s difficult to state the impact that @om had on all of our lives at True. Om was the first Founder we funded when we started True. In our Presidio office, Om discussed his idea for a new type of media company. That idea would later become GigaOm. Om was a brilliant Founder, an amazing teammate and Partner at True, a prolific writer, a gifted photographer, and a sage and valuable advisor to so many in the technology ecosystem. Om was brilliant, thoughtful, humorous, profoundly kind, and deeply curious. He was also relentless when he had an idea or story. Om was brave - he never shied away from sharing his views or pushing for the truth. We were very, very lucky to call Om our Partner and friend at True for these last many years. For today, we simply encourage you to take a moment to remember this beautiful soul and great thinker who was in our midst. He would ask us to slow down a bit. Om would want us to think deeper, express our love for one another a lot more. Above all else, Om wanted us all to retain our humanity and care for each other in our brilliant quest to rebuild the world. We love you Om. Team True om.co/2026/06/24/196…

@WSJ recently explored how VCs are embracing AI. One theme stood out: the technology is changing how we work, but not what matters most. As Mike Montano shared in the story, the nuanced art of knowing when to support a founder, when to challenge them, and how to show up in the hardest moments isn't something AI can replicate. AI creates more opportunities for better conversations. It doesn't replace the relationships, judgment, or empathy that great companies — or partnerships — are built on.

@DShankar, founder of @BigscreenVR, is building in and for virtual reality, but his advice cuts through a much broader moment in tech. In a world where it’s never been easier to build, it’s also never been easier to get distracted. As Darshan puts it, the real work hasn’t changed: solving actual problems for customers. The tools are better, the pace is faster, but none of that matters if you lose sight of what you’re building for. There’s a tension every founder feels: When to explore, and when to focus. Sometimes you need space to play. Other times, clarity and discipline matter more. Those who move the needle aren’t just using new tools. They’re using them to get closer to the solve, faster. That’s the difference.

In this week's episode of the @goop Podcast, @bumoparent Founder Joan Nguyen and luxury fashion leader at Boston Consulting Group @S_Willersdorf share their journeys from non-technical backgrounds to next-level AI builders reshaping brand marketing motions. A few ideas that stayed with us: • Curiosity and time dedicated to building matters far more than credentials. • AI won't replace judgment, taste, relationships, or deep domain expertise. It makes those strengths even more valuable. • The fastest way to learn AI is by using it to solve one real problem in your own work or life. Seeing something you build actually working will inspire you to find more use cases with even bigger ROI. "We're all at the starting line." Listen to the episode: goop.com/the-goop-podca…

What started as a playful weekend experiment led to the creation of True's AI-Powered Office Hours, where founders and operators can ask our team's AI personas to hear out their pitches, product strategies, and GTM plans, and get structured feedback in minutes. This week, the @WSJ Pro took note in its piece on VCs embracing AI. The piece looks at how venture firms are creating AI tools that extend their expertise in new ways, from investment associate agents to pitch reviewers to AI personas. For us, that meant asking a simple question: how can founders get useful feedback whenever they need it, not just when calendars happen to line up? Since launching our AI Office Hours, founders have used it more than 1,000 times. Some use it to pressure-test an idea before a meeting. Others use it to get practice reps before a pitch, or to work through a problem late at night when inspiration strikes. Big thanks to @mstrozier and @WSJ Pro, Private Equity, for talking with our team and featuring Mike Montano, who led the creation of True's AI Office Hours using @polsia. Read the full article: wsj.com/pro/venture-ca…. Or try our AI Office Hours yourself: trueventures.polsia.app

Thank you again to the founders and builders who shared their workflows with the room: @nbaschez of @lexdotpage, Keerthi Nalabotu of True Ventures, @mayankm of Gather, @trevin, @kieranklaassen of @every, Joan Nguyen of @bumoparent (On-Demand Child Care), @alanwells of @RocketableInc, @jimmyechan and Burton Ye of @AnthropicAI, Todd Lieberman of Concentrate AI, @BuiltByJustin, @rshanreddy of @hey_aristotle, and Tomas Moreno of @GeminiApp.

The AI workflows with the biggest impact usually aren’t the fanciest — they’re the ones wrapped around the daily operating motions that keep a company moving. At our recent AI Workflow Summit, founders and builders shared what it looks like as AI shifts from “learning-curve experiments” to repeatable, ROI-driving flows. A few interesting themes from the day: → Daily use is the maintenance strategy. The best systems get built (and improved) in the middle of real work. → The J-curve is real. New workflows often feel slower before they get dramatically faster. → Adoption is a design problem. The workflows that spread show up where people already are: calendar, inbox, Slack. → Failures are fuel. Every failure point is potential training data — feed it back into the loop. → The “AI sandwich” works. Humans set intent → agents execute → humans apply judgment. The human parts don’t go away; they get more valuable. And maybe the best takeaway: you don’t need to be technical to build next-level AI workflows. The most creative examples came from people who just kept experimenting.

The transition from sourcing deals to exercising judgment is one of the biggest shifts in a venture career. It's not just about seeing opportunities. It's about supporting founders through difficult decisions, developing your own investment perspective, and learning how to lead inside a firm. That's why we're glad to see @adaugelli leading the next @VCForward VC Power Hour on July 23. The conversation is designed for mid-career investors navigating that transition, with plenty of room for candid discussion and practical questions. If you're a U.S.-based senior associate, principal, VP, or junior partner looking to connect with peers at a similar stage and learn from Adam, applications are now open. Apply here: luma.com/vcph7

Hosted our first Scrappy Sessions at True Ventures! We had demos ranging from biomarker patches, 3D worlds for events, a personal brain, AI for beauty cataloguing, to creative writing. This event series is a place to demo what you’ve been building, learn, ask, and be creative.

AI fluency is the new career advantage. And the people learning to solve problems and create meaningful outcomes with it aren't just becoming more productive. They're developing new instincts for problem-solving, experimentation, and creating measurable value at companies of all kinds. That's the idea behind the 2026 True Ventures Fellowship. This summer, 11 fellows are joining AI-native companies in the True Portfolio. Not to study AI from the sidelines, but to build with it every day. These are companies where AI isn't an add-on feature or a productivity tool. It's part of how products are designed, decisions are made, and work gets done. When we selected this year's cohort, we weren't looking for people who had already mastered every model or workflow. We were looking for curiosity, adaptability, strong judgment, and a willingness to learn in public. Welcome to the 2026 cohort: Greeshma Doppalapudi, Shantanu Deshpande, Oscar Mendoza-Oliva, Pear Chotbunwong, Thu Pham, Charlotte Woo, Sophia Moloo, Aditya Pawar, Alexander Knight, Thalia Ruxin, and Fredre'Oni Terrado. We're looking forward to seeing what you build! Read more about the program and sign up to be notified about the 2027 fellowship: trueventures.com/blog/true-vent…

Most AI models are only as good as the data they're built on. In biology, that's been a limiting factor for years. Most foundation models learn from the same public datasets, which means they inherit the same blind spots. @Basecamp_Res took a different path. @glen_gowers and Oliver Vince set out to build a richer map of biology by collecting DNA where others hadn't looked. That work started with a full DNA sequencing lab packed into portable gear running off-grid on a glacier in Iceland. More than half of what they sequenced had never been seen before. Today, that work reaches a much broader community. Basecamp Research's biological foundation model is now available through Claude Science, giving scientists access to one of the deepest maps of natural biology directly within their research workflows. In addition to Claude Science, it can be accessed through all of Anthropic’s products for scientific use: Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Mobile, Claude Code, and Claude Cowork through connector settings. Read more from Rohit Sharma about why we believed early in Basecamp Research and why this milestone matters for the future of AI-enabled therapeutics: lnkd.in/ejvERAp6

Love to see this coming out of our @trueventures founder conversation with @mvanhorn. I always learn something immediately useful from Matt. In this case, Granola transcript directly to /ceplan as already been a game changer for my workflow.

So pumped to collaborate with the awesome team at @trueventures once again on the enterprise AI event of the year! 🥳 Shoot me a DM if you're an enterprise leader who wants to join!

Knowledge got cheap. Judgment didn't. What's needed now is everything the models can't copy — the decisions, the constraints, the failure logs. That's the thread running through. This week's True North covers a few of the patterns we're seeing emerge: → Why outcome per token matters more than tokens consumed → What founders are actually spending on AI today → Insights from our AI Workflow Summit with 150 founders and builders → Who's primed to lead in governance, evals, and behavioral assurance as critical infrastructure Read the latest True North for that and more from our team → us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=31056a33a98…

@notablecap 💪

@trueventures Excited to be a part of it!

The most influential enterprise AI founders and firms rarely share a room. On September 10 in San Francisco, they will. Connected Stack 2026 — the room for the builders, buyers, and backers defining the future of enterprise AI. 20+ VC firms, usually competitors, each nominate one founder to take the stage. Since speaking last year, founders have raised $3.5B+ in capital and exited $4.5B+. If that's the room you want to be in, RSVP and join us this fall: connectedstack.ai

@Redpoint 😎

@trueventures So pumped for this!!😁

Co-hosted by a collective of leading VC firms. @TrueVenturesTEC, @Accel, @addition, @a16z, @BV_Adbolo, @BatteryVentures, @conviction, @felicis, @ForerunnerVC, @GreylockVC, @GTM_Capital, @GVteam, @kleinerperkins, @lightspeedvp, @MenloVentures, @mtf_vc, @notablecap, @nvidia Inception Program, @Redpoint, @sound_ventures_ . Supported by our partners at @LowensteinLLP, @Aduro_Advisors, @AttivoNetworks, @goodwinlaw, and @sv_biz.

Last year's stage: @levie @Box, @rauchg @vercel, @realpaulsmith @AnthropicAI, @GarrettLord @joinHandshake, @baseten, @DecagonAI, @semgrep, @VerkadaHQ, @chronosphereio, @ExaAILabs, @vezainc, @nectarsocialai, @SnorkelAI, @arizeai, @deeptrustAI , @RunLLM, @Letta_AI, @EndorLabs, @11x_official, @arcade_demo, @DustHQ, @unifygtm, @JoinNooks, @cresta. This year, the next wave of founders join us.