Pitch Us

This article is for those of you who have asked — or maybe just silently wondered — how to pitch your company or idea to the True Ventures team. While the venture capital industry at large can be fairly mysterious, we’d like to flip that script and offer some direct insight on what we look for in companies and founders when making an investment to better arm the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, which very well may be you.

What We Look for in Founders and Companies

The earlier, the better. Many of our investments are made before pitch decks are polished. Sometimes we invest before a founder has grown a team or established clear product-market fit, though we, of course, welcome hearing from companies that have. 

We start small, but don’t think small. We typically invest $500,000-$3 million for 20%. We occasionally make exceptions but not often. Right now, we’re particularly excited about AI-native companies (more on that, along with how to reach us, below). 

The weirder, the better. We don’t pick certain companies based on their market, nor are we driven by an investment thesis that boxes us into certain sectors. Instead, we follow founders who are exploring markets that haven’t fully emerged yet – and often are only now possible because of a shift in technology, like genAI. We don’t expect people to have all the answers, but we get excited by founders who are uniquely suited to think differently about the space in which they’re building. 

We back founders with high EQ. The people behind companies matter most to us. We have high standards in terms of partnering with founders with high emotional intelligence who value what we value. We hold ourselves accountable in this way too by providing creative founders with the psychological safety and capital resources they need to take the big risks. 

Pitching True

In an initial meeting, we’ll expect you to come prepared to talk about yourself, your company or project, why you’re uniquely suited to lead your company, and what data, information, or proof you have that validates that your venture will become a profitable business. You may have a deck/slides that help you tell your story, or it can be an informal conversation starting out. But usually, an initial meeting is fairly casual, and if we’re interested in learning more we will set up a follow-up call with additional members from Team True.

Our Process in Evaluating Investment Opportunities

We meet as a team every Tuesday to discuss new opportunities and collaborate on deal mechanics. During our streamlined due diligence process, we often invite founders in our portfolio into the room to give their input on other new investments we’re considering, because we respect that they’re the real experts in their markets.

If we’re interested in investing in your company after our due diligence process, we’ll expeditiously offer you a term sheet, which is an agreement outlining the partnership we are proposing. We do our best to make an offer quickly, as we know your time as a founder is valuable, especially when building competitive products.

To that end, know that True does not employ an attribution model, meaning no one is more or less financially incentivized on our team to see you succeed; once we back a company, all of Team True is here to support you and see your vision come to fruition.

Then what?

It’s only the beginning. Once we back a founder, we’re in it for the long haul. We’d much rather have you build your company in a way that continues to add value to your market continually over time, as opposed to building fast and crashing. In fact, we have an entire Platform Team dedicated to offering True Founders learning and development opportunities, expert-led workshops, foundational resources, an intern fellowship program, and more to help companies and teams we back succeed. 

Contact Info

If you’re looking to raise for your pre-seed or seed-stage startup, pitch the True Team here and tell us more about what you’re building. Right now, we are particularly interested in hearing from AI companies raising between $500,000-$3 million.

And if you’re a friend of a True Founder or True Fellow who is interested in connecting with us, please ask your friend for a direct email introduction to one of us at True Ventures. We have deep trust in our community and have seen again and again the power of this special network.