Post by True Ventures

The founder who wins in 2025 doesn't look like the founder who won in 2015. That thread kept surfacing at a dinner we hosted last week—emerging managers, angels, and a few of our favorite collaborators. No agenda. Just the questions that we keep coming back to: * When AI makes everyone technical, what's left? (We kept landing on taste, speed, and the nerve to say no.) * How do you build a portfolio that still matters if AGI arrives in 3 years? Some managers are going so narrow it looks irrational—until it doesn't. * And a more personal reflection: What do you tell your kids to learn when the map keeps redrawing itself? The best investing insights don't come from operating within silos . They come from collaboration and communities where people disagree well. We've built some of our highest-conviction investments alongside emerging managers and angels who saw something before it was obvious. That's the kind of partnering we want more of—backing the bravest founders at the earliest, most uncertain moments. What's a founder trait you're betting on that most investors still undervalue? Naomi Walker-Garrett, Kayvon Beykpour, Peter Kelly, Brianne Kimmel, Vishal Maini, Matt Lee, Suzanne Xie, Amanda Robson, Nick Mehta, Joshua Cook, Chandra Shih, Nikhil Sachdev, Philip Black, Rohit Sharma, Tony Conrad, Toni Schneider, Puneet Agarwal, Priscilla Tyler, Natasha Sharma, Madeline Minshew, Mikaela Lipsky