True Ventures

True Ventures
Name	True Ventures
Type	Private venture capital firm
Industry	Venture capital
Founded	2005
Founders	John Borthwick; Jon Callaghan; Phil Black; Lee Fixel
Headquarters	San Francisco, California

True Ventures True Ventures is a US-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments, with offices historically in San Francisco and other innovation hubs. The firm is known for backing startups in software, consumer internet, developer tools, and hardware-enabled services, and has been active across Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, and internationally. Partners at the firm have participated in rounds alongside firms from Sand Hill Road to global investors based in London and Tel Aviv.

History

True Ventures traces its origins to early 21st-century shifts in the venture capital landscape following the dot-com era and the rise of Web 2.0. Early activities intersected with organizations such as Y Combinator, TechCrunch, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital as startups in the Bay Area and Portland sought seed and Series A capital. The firm expanded during funding cycles influenced by macro events like the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent recovery led by technology hubs in San Francisco, New York City, and Seattle. Over time True Ventures participated in funding rounds alongside institutional investors including Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners, and corporate venture arms tied to Intel Capital and Google Ventures.

Investment Strategy and Focus

True Ventures emphasizes early-stage investments with an active operational support model resembling approaches used by firms such as First Round Capital and Benchmark. The firm targets startups in areas overlapping with companies incubated at 500 Startups, projects emerging from accelerators like Plug and Play Tech Center, and teams spun out of research at universities such as Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley. Sector focus has included enterprise software competing in markets shaped by Salesforce, developer platforms adjacent to GitHub and Atlassian, consumer apps in ecosystems stewarded by Apple Inc. and Google LLC, and hardware/software hybrids similar to ventures backed by Kleiner Perkins.

Notable Investments and Exits

The firm’s portfolio has included startups that scaled, merged, or exited via acquisitions and public offerings. Notable participations involved companies that engaged with acquirers like Adobe Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Amazon.com, Cisco Systems, and IBM. True Ventures-backed companies have navigated initial public offerings similar to peers that listed on the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange, and exits in secondary transactions similar to deals involving Dropbox, Instagram, Yelp, and Zillow. The portfolio also contains companies that partnered with platforms such as Stripe, PayPal, Square, Inc., and cloud providers including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

Organizational Structure and Leadership

Leadership and partner composition reflect industry norms present at firms like Tiger Global Management and Bessemer Venture Partners, with general partners, principals, venture partners, and operating partners coordinating deal sourcing and founder support. Senior figures have engaged with communities linked to SXSW, Web Summit, Collision (conference), and local startup ecosystems in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles. The firm’s internal functions interface with legal and compliance teams experienced with frameworks influenced by regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and industry groups like the National Venture Capital Association.

Funding and Funds Managed

True Ventures has raised multiple funds over successive vintages, comparable to fundraising cycles at Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and Foundry Group. Capital commitments have come from limited partners including university endowments such as Harvard University, pension funds similar to CalPERS, family offices, and corporate investors. Funds have been deployed across seed and Series A rounds, syndicating with participants from Lightspeed Venture Partners, NEA (New Enterprise Associates), and Index Ventures.

Corporate Responsibility and Community Involvement

The firm has participated in initiatives overlapping with nonprofit and civic organizations that support entrepreneurship, mirroring engagement seen at firms collaborating with Khan Academy, Code.org, and regional accelerators. True Ventures partners have served as mentors in programs associated with Girls Who Code, Black Girls CODE, and university entrepreneurship centers at Stanford Graduate School of Business and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. The firm’s community activities have included sponsorships and speaking engagements at conferences such as TechCrunch Disrupt, Google I/O, and Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

Category:Venture capital firms