Prediction Not checkable as stated
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…”
Insight
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 …”
Disclosure
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Conrad: Many fast-growing AI startups have net negative margins
“A lot of these are net negative margin.”
Insight
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.”
Opinion
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…”
Insight
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.”
Opinion
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?”
Opinion
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.”
Disclosure
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…”
Opinion
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.”
Disclosure
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.”
Opinion
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”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
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?”
Disclosure
Conrad: True Ventures will not invest in AI infrastructure layer
“And so I just think for us as a firm where we're not going to invest in the kind of the infrastructure, you know, kind of layer per se, right? That's just not, you know, the, those checks were already just way still beyond. That's what we talked about. Fifty m…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Conrad: John Mayer advised Hodinkee and attended board meetings regularly
“You know, we were, he was one of our advisors at Hodinkee. And so he would show up all the time to our Hodinkee. Board stuff and whatnot. He's a great advocate.”
