Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Jon Callaghan
Consensus Never Built the Future
By Jon Callaghan, October 2, 2025 Here we are amidst one of the greatest innovation waves of a lifetime, yet the venture capital industry is operating with a feverish conformity at both ends of the market: seed and growth. Today’s thinking goes something like this: there is one right way to build a startup, one “right type of team” to do it, and one right way to fund it.
The Capex Multiplier
LinkedIn respects your privacy LinkedIn and 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy. Select Accept to consent or Reject to decline non-essential cookies for this use. You can update your choices at any time in your settings.
The Vintage of a Lifetime: Recapping the Inaugural Connected Stack of Enterprise AI
On September 10, the air in San Francisco was electric. A carefully curated group of the brightest minds in Enterprise AI—Founders, investors, and buyers from the Fortune 1000—gathered to actively build the future. This was Connected Stack, and it was an honor for us at True Ventures to help coalesce this landmark gathering with our 20 other VC co-hosts. We set out just seven weeks ago with the goal to create something very different.
The Tragedy of the Common: How AI Will Restore Value to Startup Equity
By Jon Callaghan, August 25, 2025 Every major wave of innovation comes with a familiar prediction: “venture is dead,” or in this wave, “venture is irrelevant.” I’ve heard it in Web 1.0, Web 2.0, crowdfunding, crypto, and now again over this summer with AI. The argument is that AI’s capital efficiency will make venture capital obsolete. Who needs VC when one person can build a $1 billion unicorn? I believe the opposite.
2023 at True: Our Year in Review
By Jon Callaghan and Phil Black, December 15, 2023 Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn This year was a big year of change, as well as growth and opportunity. So much of what we saw in 2023 was driven by the power and ingenuity of the human spirit. Among tremendous change in the global environment, True Founders and their teams adjusted rapidly amid changing circumstances to continue to grow and create – and did so with compassion and humanity.
Women Founders, We Want to Meet You
The U.S. Supreme Court enacted a new framework for oral arguments that creates space and time for all voices in the room, even the ones that are prone to interruption. The change occurred after attention was drawn to a 2017 study conducted at Northwestern University uncovering how women on the Supreme Court – what should be the most equitable space in our country – are interrupted disproportionately more than male colleagues.
Does Direct Mail Still Work? True’s Sales Advisor Weighs In
As True’s sales advisor and CEO of SalesSource, a consultancy specializing in the optimization of sales teams, I counsel founders on strategies and best practices that will give their teams selling superpowers. We’re all after that magic recipe that will take a small company with a few customers to an enterprise powerhouse with an enviable testimonial list. Yet, over the years, I’ve seen a steady increase in sales emails, calls, and contact requests that get trashed or altogether ignored.
2022 at True: Year in Review
We end 2022 with immense gratitude for the creativity, tenacity, and inspiration we get to see every day in the work of True Founders and their teams. While it’s tough to sum up an entire year in a few paragraphs or even one infographic, a few headlines and events stand out to us as we reflect on our most recent trip around the sun together. Most of all, 2022 for True was a year to be back in person, working together.
Black Outside’s Alex Bailey on Connecting Black Youth to Nature
More than 96% of all land in Texas is privately owned. “We have city parks,” said Alex Bailey, founder and executive director of Black Outside, “but outside of the city almost all the land is private.” The city, in this case, is San Antonio, Texas — the state’s second-largest, with a population of 1.45 million.
The Crypto Clarity Crisis
Last year started with such promise. In March 2022, President Biden issued an executive order that coordinated agencies within the Executive Branch to take a long, hard look at the U.S. digital asset ecosystem: the good and the bad, the opportunities and the pitfalls. Those of us who advocate for a comprehensive, whole-of-government U.S. strategy on crypto were cautiously optimistic, for a few reasons.
Women Founders, We Want to Meet You
The U.S. Supreme Court enacted a new framework for oral arguments that creates space and time for all voices in the room, even the ones that are prone to interruption. The change occurred after attention was drawn to a 2017 study conducted at Northwestern University uncovering how women on the Supreme Court – what should be the most equitable space in our country – are interrupted disproportionately more than male colleagues.
Cast’s Rachel Skelly on Reimagining the Fine Jewelry Industry
Certain markets dominated by large incumbents seem to beg for a dash of imagination. Veterinary care is getting a new look thanks to Modern Animal. Madison Reed challenges the conventions of how, where, and with what women color their hair. Fine jewelry – and how it’s discovered, experienced, and purchased – is another market with a script that has yet to be rewritten for modern consumers.
2021 at True: Our Year in Review
It’s tough to reflect on 2021 without also thinking about what our worlds were like at the end of 2020. What was once uncertainty turned into hope. We got more time together, cautiously, and we started to rewrite what life and teamwork look like. Amid all of the changes in 2021, our team at True grew triumphantly by seven. Dave Balter, Ariel Winton-Jones, Fiona O’Donnell McCarthy, Kyndel Sidore, Molly Pon, and Graham Hays all joined us.
Ditto’s Data Syncing Solution for the Deskless Workforce
Syncing data in mobile environments is a modern problem, a common one at that. While an increasing amount of applications utilize real-time synchronization, these apps are also heavily reliant on the traditional client-server infrastructure model which requires a strong, constant internet connection. Building real-time applications is a very hard problem to solve even under ideal circumstances. But what do you do when internet connectivity is sparse, unreliable, or unavailable?
Freewriting and Form Breaks: Dave Balter’s Take on Founder Communications
In November 2021, a year and some change into the pandemic (and remote work for many), Co-founder of Flipside Crypto and Venture Partner for True Ventures Dave Balter made the commitment to freewrite a note every week to his team; and not with loose intention. “I had a rule to hold myself accountable and never miss a week,” he shared.
Introducing Spoke: The True Ventures Scout Program
One of our unofficial mottos at our firm has long been to “work with who you know, but always know more people.” This rings true within our community of founders, many of whom we’ve funded multiple times as they create new companies. It also reflects our intent to keep expanding our network and funding entrepreneurs who have vibrant, wildly important ideas but fewer resources to get them off the ground.
What Founders Have Learned a Year Into Remote Work
Nearly a year into the “remote work experiment no one asked for,” we know a few things. For starters, we know that we can be just as much if not more productive when how and where we work is flexible. We know that even stoic coworkers are in fact more like us than we think when we see their kids enter stage left in the back of a Zoom meeting.
Better Place Forests Offers Sustainable Alternative to Cemeteries
One of the things I love about the venture capital industry is our ability to invest in and empower entrepreneurs who see a better version of tomorrow and begin working toward that vision today. As an industry, we tend to use lofty words such as “impact” and “innovate” — but these words are tough to define and even harder to live up to. Sure, it’s impactful to create a better consumer product or speed up the data center.
Marketplaces That Empower: Pepperlane Helps Moms Launch Businesses
When we think of what makes an online marketplace thrive, a few things come to mind. For a transaction-driven website to transform into a lively, engaging destination where communities can flourish, a few attributes are usually at play. Foremost, unique, high-value content must be served at the right time to the right people. It’s the magnet to the marketplace. Secondly, there’s usually an element of identity.
True Ventures Announces Fund VI and Select Fund III
Today, we are pleased to announce the closing of our newest early stage fund, True Ventures VI, LP, at $350 million and our third Select Fund, True Ventures Select Fund III, at $285 million. We extend thanks to our steadfast group of Limited Partners who have continued to support us on this journey to redefine how early stage venture capital is built and delivered to today’s most creative Founders. Most of our investors in these funds have been a part of True since the beginning.
Amey overcomes ‘teething problems’ in Milton Keynes
Amey’s gasification plant in Milton Keynes is up and running, and despite some teething problems, it is now operating at expected levels of energy generation. The advanced thermal treatment (ATT) plant is one of three technologies at the firm’s Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park (MKWRP), sited in Old Wolverton, along with a mechanical treatment system and dry anaerobic digestion (AD) plant.
True Ventures Awarded Venture Firm of the Year by the NVCA
Today, we’re incredibly proud to announce that True Ventures was awarded Venture Firm of the Year for 2018 by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the industry’s flagship trade association. The award recognizes firms for their strong fund performance, innovation and commitment to advancing entrepreneurship. We are enormously honored to accept this award, and we are grateful for the recognition from our respected and accomplished peers.
Tactical Advice for Better Board Meetings
How should I run my board meeting? What should I include in my deck? What do my board members expect of me? These are questions I hear from first-time entrepreneurs regularly, and it's always a vibrant topic when discussed within the True Founder community. When I first wrote about how to have more productive startup board meetings, I shared that the traditional "reporting model" is broken, at least for early-stage startups.
Tactical Advice for Better Board Meetings
How should I run my board meeting? What should I include in my board deck? What do my board members expect of me? These are questions I hear from first-time entrepreneurs regularly, and it’s always a vibrant topic on the True Founder list. When I first wrote about how to have more productive startup board meetings, I shared that the traditional “reporting model” is broken, at least for early-stage startups.
Thoughts on Pokemon Go
After hearing about Pokemon Go, I spent a good part of the weekend playing it, then watching my family play it. In just a few short days, Pokemon has gone from being an old card game for little kids to the hottest app/digital experience for all ages. It’s transformed how we experience reality through our phones, and it did so smoothly and with alacrity, in a matter of days. What’s so special about it?
Welcoming Nexar - True Ventures
Early on at True, we recognized the incredible possibilities presented by the hardware revolution, and we have worked diligently to build the early stage market’s leading portfolio of connected device companies. We have long seen hardware as simply the first step toward the integration of computing and the Internet into the fabric of our daily lives and work. Connected devices have given tremendous context to the world around us, whether it’s through the power of Fitbit, Ring or Peloton.
Thank you, Bill - True Ventures
It is with profound sadness that I heard today’s news of Bill Campbell’s passing. This is an enormous loss for the technology ecosystem and many of us who thought of him as our “coach” and our guide through our entrepreneurial journey. In addition to Bill’s family, so many lost so much today in Bill’s too-early departure. Much will be written about Bill’s intense charisma, enormous compassion, unrivaled focus, and his big, full, gregarious laugh.
Let’s Fix Startup Board Meetings
I spend a lot of time in board meetings. Specifically, private company startup board meetings. Rooms filled with some of the most talented, bold, daring and dedicated people on the planet, devising solutions to some of the economy’s toughest problems. More often than not, however, most of these board meetings fail.
Let’s Fix Startup Board Meetings
Posted on 02 febbraio 2016
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Jon
Contact Jon, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack