Attend our next True Talk, a dental + whole-body health unlock, and AI insights

Greetings readers!?In this edition of the True Newsletter, Clarence Bethea invites you to meet our team in two cities across the U.S., we share a final call for True Fellowship applications, you'll meet a toothbrush that could probably beat you at a game of chess (it's really smart), and Rohit Sharma gives his take on AI solving more everyday business problems.?

True Talks in Atlanta and Detroit: Meet us there!

By Clarence Bethea

Having built Upsie in St. Paul, Minnesota, I’ve got a particular soft spot for startups grown outside of the Valley and other big cities where there’s venture capital connection aplenty.

St. Paul gave my team at Upsie a place to grow in a way that nurtured a kind of uninhibited creativity and what I like to call “drive with pride.” I was one of the lucky small-city founders who was able to get an inroad to venture capital and fundraise for my company.

Through our True Talk event series, we’ve met founders outside our immediate network across the U.S. We’ve shared emotional moments where founders have expressed their struggles around growing companies while battling illness, taking hard-to-hear feedback and molding it into useful motivation, and raising funds at the last hour to keep their dreams alive.

Our intent was not only to share who we are at True and the product we offer (very early-stage venture capital) but also to broadcast more of the wisdom of our founder network outside of our walls and into communities and cities where there’s so much hunger for it.

Our next True Talks?will be on October 22nd in Atlanta and November 14th in Detroit. We invite anyone curious to talk tech, fundraising, or AI innovation at large to join us for conversation, fireside chats, and some tasty food and drink.

RSVP?to join us in Atlanta.?I’m particularly excited to hear Miles Dotson of Sanctuary for Sustainable Artistry talk shop with True's Phil Black in Atlanta and for Dug Song to give us the scoop on what it was like to navigate his company’s acquisition by Cisco later in the year in Detroit.?

Clarence Bethea is executive in residence and an early-stage startup investor at True. Learn more about the True team and the support we offer early-stage founders.

Become a True Fellow

We’ll continue to accept applications to the True Ventures Fellowship for the summer of 2025 through October 15th. Our fellowship pairs hungry, driven, rising college juniors and seniors with True Portfolio companies for a summer of startup work and learning about venture capital investing from prolific founders in our community as well as our team of investors here at True. Apply.

New to True: Feno & Zephyr Cloud

Feno launched its smart toothbrush that analyzes oral health markers and tracks it to whole body health, giving its users data-informed preventative health recommendations and insights for oral healthcare providers. The company is co-founded by Kenny Brown and Hamet Watt. Snag a starter kit.?

Zephyr Cloud, co-founded by Zack Chapple, Dmitriy Shekhovtsov, and Zackary Jackson, launched its new platform as a service for micro-frontend deployment. Self-proclaimed “the only sane way to do micro-frontends,” the team invites you to try it out in beta.

Portfolio News

Ghetto Gastro in Food Business News, Food & Wine, and Eat This, Not That

Gyroscope Health Insights App, Now with AI Health Coach, Turns 10

Cast’s Issa Rae Launch in Elle and Fast Company

Hatch’s Ann Crady Weiss on the Fitt Insider Podcast?

Pendulum in The Washington Post

Splice in Attack Magazine

The Way: Book Signing in NYC on Oct. 8 and Meditation Retreat in Santa Fe

WattCarbon Launches WEATS Pro, Energy Attribute Tracking System for the Enterprise

10-Second Team Thoughts

What startup?trends?are you most excited about right now??

"I’m most excited by how we use AI to solve everyday business problems as workflows get redefined and what was formerly dependent on personal expertise and experience can now be substituted with some kind of generative AI that gets me to the right answer at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time with high reliability.?

"So wherever that goes, whether it's finance and accounting, sales and marketing, product creation, research and development, development, or writing code, all of that is going to change over the next few years. And then how will that use overlap with specific business verticals.”

- Rohit Sharma, Partner at True | [Interview Source: Clarence Bethea ]

What We're Reading

Living Carbon: Photosynthesis-Enhanced Trees in The Century of Biology - Adam D'Augelli

Bop Spotter: Music Surveillance in The Mission, SF from Riley Walz - Jeff Veen

How Do We Decarbonize? on Saul Griffith's Medium - Mikaela Lipsky?

True, IRL

Career Opportunities

College career and recruitment platform Handshake, identity security company Veza, and devops software Solo.io are all growing their teams. See if your career will lead you into the True community. We’d love to have you! View all jobs.

About True

Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups, often leading pre-seed and seed rounds. We invest in people and products that capture the world's imagination - and big, bold creative ideas that inspire new markets altogether. Learn more about us.?Or, get the True Newsletter in your inbox.