Tony Conrad
Partner, True Ventures. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
Tony Conrad is a venture capitalist at True Ventures. He appeared on the podcast to discuss startup culture, venture capital dynamics, and the impact of artificial intelligence.
2shows
2appearances
30statements
4resolved
2supported
1contradicted
50%fully supported
17said about them ↓ Everything Tony Conrad said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Party rounds leave founders without a dedicated lead investor
“When you have a two million dollar round and you've got four people at a half million dollars, you really don't have an anchor and you don't really have somebody who's putting a stake in the ground saying, Hey, you know what? I'm going to be there for you and …”
Tony Conrad: True Ventures Portfolio Company Will Hit $150M AI ARR
“We have one portfolio company that, and these are real numbers, not venture numbers... It's already unicorn status valuation that opened a new in December had zero revenue around this new product line. And this year ends at minimum one 50 AR are on that busine…”
Tony Conrad: AI answer engines favor direct press releases over earned media
“In AO, it's just the opposite. It is about actually putting value disproportionate amount of value of whatever's coming from the horse's mouth. Right? So whatever it is that we're putting out there. So a press release, you may not have done one lately because …”
Conrad: True Ventures has paused investing in non-AI startups
“Like, I think it's just required us to just say, pause for a second on all things that are non AI, because we're going to have catch up like almost every firm, by the way.”
Conrad: Many fast-growing AI startups have net negative margins
“A lot of these are net negative margin.”
Single young founders must network in person three nights a week
“You know, if you're single, and you've got flexibility, if you're not out there at least a minimum of three nights a week, then you should go do something different.”
Conrad: VCs Win Deals Through the Firm Brand, Not Personal Brands
“Yes, your hustle does source deals, and you do have to make the call, but ultimately you win these deals often because of the body at work and the reputation of the most important brand, which is not The me brand, but the us brand.”
Tony Conrad: Kleiner Perkins lost its way before Mamoon Hamid revitalized it
“Mamoon, the work he's done over at Kleiner is like, to me, Incredibly inspirational. I mean, I felt like Kleiner had really lost his way at one point in time. And honestly, in some weird way, it kind of saddened me because I, they were such an important firm i…”
Tony Conrad: Junior VCs must network at least three nights a week
“I tell our younger team, if you're not out at least three nights a week, then you're probably shouldn't be doing this at the end of the day.”
Conrad: Enterprise Software Has Moved Past the Word 'SaaS'
“I would say SaaS is, you know, like, if you're an enterprise person, you're not saying the word SaaS anymore. That's dead. I mean, literally, you're not saying that. Nobody thinks that's hot, right?”
Conrad: Anthropic Holds an Enterprise Lead Over Competitors
“I think Anthropic actually has on the enterprise side of the equation... I think has definitely a lead here, or at least reputationally, I think it does.”
Tony Conrad predicts Blue Bottle Coffee will be a hallmark investment
“Blue bottle coffee is a bit of an atypical one for a tech investor to be doing, but it turns out that this is going to be, you know, one of the hallmark companies in our portfolio.”
Tony Conrad disagrees with Peter Fenton on founder unease
“No, not at all. In fact you know, that might work for Peter, and I think each investor, as I've learned even within our firm, has a different approach, and it's really important that you empower somebody to kind of adhere to their kind of instincts, if you wan…”
True Ventures always aims to be the anchor investor
“Our goal at True is always to be the anchor and to have the largest Shareholding in the company at that stage, because we think we're going to be able to impact the DNA of the company in a more profound way and help protect it more effectively.”
Chasing high valuations is highly detrimental to young founders
“Go get a high valuation. I think it's one of the most detrimental things that happens for these young entrepreneurs. They think it's a game. And the answer is not about just because you can get away with it. You know, you should go get a high valuation. You sh…”
Conrad: True Ventures Strives to Be a Non-Attribution Firm
“We're definitely, we strive to be a non-attribution firm. Although everybody in internally certainly knows who does the deals and who's working on deals and founders definitely have a dedicated person, but We have a tendency just to think that, you know, one s…”
Tony Conrad: Sarah Guo's Conviction has quickly reached venture's forefront
“Then you got Sarah Gow's fund, Conviction, which is really quickly, you know, has moved up into the forefront of everybody's, you know, list.”
Conrad: True Ventures refuses to submit data to Forbes Midas List
“We don't do Midas lists. Like we don't, this is back to non-attribution.”
Tony Conrad: LinkedIn is surprisingly amazing and powerful
“The social network of LinkedIn is, like, kind of amazing and powerful, powerful, right? And like, I would have never, like, oh my god, like, take me out back and force me to, like, to post on LinkedIn. Now I'm posting all the time”
Conrad: Categorizing companies as AI vs non-AI will soon end
“I think pretty soon it's just like, we're just gonna talk, it's gonna just be back to being tech. It's like, everything's gonna be AI if it's whatever. And we'll get back to the normal classifications of, Tech and non-tech, right?”
Tony Conrad ignores market trends and is not thesis-driven
“I'm not thesis driven at all. I'm not trying to predict where the market is going or where the next great ideas are.”
Tony Conrad spends disproportionate time analyzing founder motivation
“And I spent probably a disproportionate amount of time, I think maybe more time than any other investor, in digging in on that basic premise for why are they after this?”
Active founder status gives VCs unique credibility with entrepreneurs
“When you're a venture capitalist and you are also an active founder, it gives you a certain kind of cache and a certain credibility that I think that really resonates with founders”
The other half of the tape: Tony Conrad's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 17 times in 7 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 11Matt Mullenweg 2Peter Rojas 1Kevin Rose 1John Callaghan 1Jason Calacanis 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 17
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 11 mentions in 2 episodes 6 per episode
- 20VC: Why Investors Have The Biggest Problem with Bias, Why Our Job Is To Maximise Risk & Why It Is Essential To Get Good at Losing with True Ventures Founder, Jon Callaghan
- 20VC: Kevin Rose on Putting The Entire Fund Into Uber, The Future For Mobile & Whether Angels Should Have Super Pro-Rata Rights?
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Tony's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 MORE OR LESSLEDGER | Partner, True Ventures | 1 | 16 | — | full record on More or Less → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Partner, True Ventures | 1 | 14 | 50% 2/4 | full record on 20VC → |