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/2026/06/24/1966-2026/

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-v…

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…

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.

Had a great time presenting yesterday at the @trueventures AI Workflow summit! So grateful to learn from amazing founders and builders at the forefront of what creativity looks like at an operating level :)

Too much fun co-hosting the @trueventures AI Workflow Summit yesterday in SF with @NatashaSharma 140 people on laptops building together all day. No "this is what we think AI might do someday." Just actual workflows from the stage.

For decades, robotic surgery has been built around a simple assumption: better tools require bigger machines. That assumption has shaped an industry of multi-million dollar systems concentrated in a relatively small number of major medical centers. Philip Weissbrod and Michael Yip think there's a different path. Drawing on deep experience in both surgery and robotics, they're building handheld, AI-enhanced robotic instruments that bring greater precision and dexterity to procedures performed with flexible endoscopes, without requiring large console-based systems or entirely new workflows. What stood out to us wasn't just the technology. It was the clarity of the founders' perspective. Philip is a practicing surgeon who understands firsthand where existing tools fall short. Michael is one of the leading researchers in surgical robotics. Together, they're rethinking how robotic intelligence can reach far more physicians, clinics, and patients. Today, Channel Robotics announced $4.6M in total funding, including a $2.5M Seed round led by True. We believe the future of surgical robotics isn't about replacing surgeons. It's about putting better tools in their hands. Read Rohit Sharma's thoughts on why we invested in Channel trueventures.com/blog/channe…

Day getting started! Pretty cool it’s so hands on laptops open.

Many teams are embedding AI into workflows. Where to and how to. Another great question is how to work like an AI-native team from the start. A beginner's mindset goes a long way. Joan Nguyen is building that in real time with @bumoparent: a team of 12 operating with the output (and ambition) of 100. Her take is simple. You don’t learn AI by watching it. You learn it by using it. Build with it. Hire people who do the same. That’s where the shift is happening. Not just in tools added, but in how teams think through problems. Back up. Zoom out. Start fresh. #TrueFounderSeries

Most products don't fail because they can't be built. They fail because nobody figured out how they'd reach customers. In this clip, @mayankm of Gather shares a piece of advice that's become even more relevant in the AI era: test the go-to-market before you build the product. What's the message? Who's the customer? What does pricing look like? Can you generate demand? The cost of answering those questions has never been lower. A small budget and a clear hypothesis can teach you more than months of building in isolation. Sometimes the fastest path to product-market fit starts before the product exists. This and more from Mayank and @puneet324 on the Fund/Build/Scale podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/5WE…

Today, ChatSee announced a $6.5M seed round led by True Ventures, alongside First Rays Venture Partners and Seven Hills Ventures. ChatSee.ai is building the failure intelligence layer for autonomous AI systems, helping enterprises detect, classify, and learn from agent behavior in production. As AI agents move from demos into real operating environments, the challenge is no longer just model performance. It’s trust, governance, and knowing how systems behave when no one’s watching. When we first spent time with Sekhar Sarukkai and Sanjay Agrawal, what stood out wasn’t just their technical depth. It was how clearly they saw the next layer of infrastructure the market would need. We're proud to be first believers in this team and excited to support their journey. More from @puneet324 on the True Blog: trueventures.com/blog/why-we…

ChatSee raises $6.5M to build ‘failure memory’ for enterprise AI agents ift.tt/s4CFvx0

Most AI conversations right now are about speed. This one is about judgment. In a episode of Consumer VC Podcast, @tonysphere talks about what actually matters when building enduring companies: choosing the right partners, resisting inflated early valuations, backing founders over categories, and knowing the difference between momentum and pressure. From the early days of the web to today’s AI platform shift, Tony shares a grounded perspective on how great companies are really built and what tends to break when things move too fast. Worth the listen for anyone building right now: open.spotify.com/episode/13H…