The telephone is lifeless. Lengthy stay . . . what precisely?

True Ventures co-founder Jon Callaghan doesn’t assume we’ll be utilizing smartphones the means we do now in 5 years — and possibly not in any respect in 10.

For a enterprise capitalist whose agency has had some large winners over its twenty years – from client manufacturers like Fitbit, Ring, and Peloton, to enterprise software program makers HashiCorp and Duo Safety – that’s greater than armchair theorizing; it’s a thesis on which True Ventures is actively betting.

True hasn’t gotten this far by following the crowd. The Bay Space agency has largely operated underneath the radar regardless of managing roughly $6 billion throughout 12 core seed funds and 4 “choose,” opportunity-style funds that it has used to pour extra capital into portfolio corporations that are gaining momentum. Whereas different VCs have grown extra promotional – constructing private manufacturers on social media and podcasts to appeal to founders and deal stream – True has gone in the other way, quietly cultivating a decent community of repeat founders. The technique appears to be working: in accordance to Callaghan, the agency boasts 63 exits with features and 7 IPOs amid a portfolio of some 300 corporations assembled over its 20-year historical past.

Three of True’s 4 latest exits in the fourth quarter of 2025 concerned repeat founders who got here again to work with the agency once more after earlier successes, says Callaghan. Nonetheless, it’s Callaghan’s fascinated about the way forward for human-computer interplay that actually stands out in a sea of AI hype and mega-rounds.

“We’re not going to be utilizing iPhones in 10 years,” Callaghan says flatly. “I sort of don’t assume we’ll be utilizing them in 5 years – or let’s say one thing totally different that’s slightly safer – we’re going to be utilizing them in very alternative ways.”

His argument is easy: our telephones are awful at being the interface between people and intelligence. “The way in which we take them out proper now to ship a textual content to verify this or ship you some message or write an electronic mail – [that’s] tremendous inefficient, [and] not an excellent interface,” he explains. “[They’re] susceptible to error, susceptible to disruption [of] our regular lives.”

So certain is he of this that True has been spending years exploring various interfaces – software-based, hardware-based, all the things in between. It’s the identical intuition that led True to guess early on Fitbit before wearables had been apparent, to put money into Peloton after tons of of different VCs mentioned ‘no thanks,’ and to again Ring when founder Jamie Siminoff saved working out of cash and even the judges on “Shark Tank” turned him away. Every time, the guess appeared questionable, says Callaghan. Every time, the guess was on a brand new means for people to work together with know-how that felt extra pure than what got here before.

The most recent manifestation of this thesis is Sandbar, a {hardware} system that Callaghan describes as a “thought companion” — or, in additional mundane phrases, a voice-activated ring worn on the index finger. Its singular function: capturing and organizing your ideas by means of voice notes. It’s not making an attempt to be one other Humane AI Pin or compete with Oura’s well being monitoring. “It does one factor very well,” Callaghan says. “However that one factor is a basic human behavioral want that is lacking from know-how at this time.”

The concept isn’t to passively report ambient audio however to be there when an thought strikes, serving as a sort of thought accomplice. It’s connected to an app, leverages AI, and, in accordance to Callaghan, represents a really totally different philosophy about how we should always work together with intelligence.

What drew True to Sandbar founders Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong wasn’t simply the product, although. “Once we met Mina, we had been simply completely aligned on imaginative and prescient,” Callaghan remembers. True’s workforce had already been pondering for years about various interfaces, making focused investments round that risk. They’d met with dozens of founders, in consequence. However the method of Fahmi and Hong – who beforehand labored collectively on neural interfaces at CTRL-Labs, a startup acquired by Meta in 2019 – stood out. “It’s about what [the ring] permits. It’s about the habits it permits that we are going to very quickly understand we will’t stay with out.”

There’s an echo right here of Callaghan’s outdated line about Peloton: “It’s not about the bike.” To some, the bike – even its earliest iteration – was compelling. However Peloton was actually about the habits it enabled and the neighborhood it created; the bike was simply the vessel.

This philosophy of betting on new behaviors — not simply new devices — additionally explains how True has managed to keep disciplined about capital. At the same time as AI startups elevate tons of of thousands and thousands at billion-dollar valuations out of the gate, True insists that it’s ready to stick to what it does finest, which is to write seed checks of $3 million to $6 million for 15% to 20% possession in startups that it typically will get to see first.

Callaghan says True will elevate more cash to fund what’s working, however he’s not excited about elevating billions of {dollars}. “Like, why? You don’t want that to construct one thing wonderful at this time.”

That very same measured method colours his view of the broader AI increase. Whereas he says (when requested) that he believes OpenAI may quickly be value a trillion {dollars}, and whereas he calls this the strongest compute wave we’ve seen, Callaghan sees warning indicators in the round financing offers backing hyperscalers and their $5 trillion in projected CapEx spending on knowledge facilities and chips. “We’re in a really capital intense a part of the cycle, and that is worrisome,” he notes.

That mentioned, he’s optimistic about the place the actual alternatives lie. Callaghan thinks the best worth creation is forward of us – not in the infrastructure layer however in the utility layer, the place new interfaces will allow totally new behaviors.

All of it comes again to his core investing philosophy, which sounds nearly romantic — the sort of pitch-perfect VC knowledge that might ring hole from most individuals: “It needs to be scary and lonely and you ought to be known as loopy,” Callaghan says about early-stage investing accomplished proper. “And it needs to be actually blurry and ambiguous, however you ought to be with a workforce that you simply actually imagine in.” 5 to ten years later, he says, you’ll know in the event you had been on to one thing.

Both means, primarily based on True’s observe report of betting on {hardware} that many others missed – health trackers, linked bikes, good doorbells, and now thought-capturing rings – it’s value paying consideration when Callaghan says the telephone’s days are numbered. Being early is the complete level — and the pattern traces help his thesis: the smartphone market is successfully saturated, rising at barely 2% yearly, whereas wearables — smartwatches, rings, and voice-enabled gadgets — are increasing at double-digit charges.

One thing’s shifting in how we wish to work together with know-how, and True is putting its bets accordingly.

Pictured above, Sandbar’s Stream ring. For way more from our dialog with Callaghan, tune in to the StrictlyVC Download podcast subsequent week; new episodes drop each Tuesday.