True Ventures: The Early-Stage Firm Behind Peloton, Fitbit and HashiCorp

True Ventures has spent two decades backing founders at the very start — from Automattic and Fitbit to Peloton and Ring. A profile of the Silicon Valley seed firm's thesis, funds, landmark wins and founder community.

The firm

Founded in 2005 by Jon Callaghan and Phil Black, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Its founding mission is simple: empower entrepreneurs at the initial stages of company creation. Two decades on, True says it has partnered with more than 1,050 founders across more than 500 companies, with its 12 funds participating in seven IPOs and over 60 acquisitions.

Thesis and sectors

True writes seed and Series A cheques into technology-enabled consumer brands, SaaS and infrastructure software, and deep verticals in health and life sciences. The firm describes itself as deliberately disciplined about early-stage investing, refusing to chase inflated late-stage rounds, and it is now deep in AI with over 85 AI investments on the books. Its Select Funds provide follow-on capital to breakout portfolio companies — True invested in Peloton across five separate financing rounds leading up to the company's $7.2 billion IPO in 2019.

Funds

In October 2020 True closed two funds totalling $840 million: True Core Fund VII at $465 million for new seed and early-stage investments, and True Select Fund IV at $375 million for follow-on cheques. At that point the firm managed more than $2.8 billion. Earlier vehicles included True Ventures Select II at $112 million (2017) and True Ventures IV at $290 million (2014).

Landmark portfolio wins

True was among the first institutional investors in Automattic (WordPress), Fitbit, HashiCorp, Duo Security, Peloton and Ring. Earlier seeds included Goodreads (acquired by Amazon), MakerBot (acquired by Stratasys), Socialcast (acquired by VMware) and Milo (acquired by eBay). Jon Callaghan currently serves on the boards of companies including Pipedream, Daydream and Ernesta.

Partners

The investing team is led by co-founders and managing partners Jon Callaghan and Phil Black, alongside partners including Toni Schneider, Amy Errett, Om Malik, Adam D'Augelli and Rohit Sharma. Callaghan served as chair of the National Venture Capital Association from 2015 to 2016.

What founders get

True is famous for its founder community. Beyond capital it runs Founder Camp, an annual multi-day educational event for portfolio founders, and the True Platform — dedicated teams for talent, culture, business development and fundraising — alongside the True University summit. The firm's founding insight: "fortune favours the connected entrepreneur," so it invests heavily in connecting founders with hundreds of peers who have been in their position.

Why it matters for founders

True is built for founders raising their first institutional round: focused seed cheques, a two-decade-old founder community, and follow-on capital that stays with winners all the way to IPO. If you are an early-stage team that values community and long-term partnership over pure capital, True's record — from Automattic to Peloton — makes it a top-tier target for seed and Series A conversations.