True Ventures co-founder Jon Callaghan doesn’t think we’ll be using smartphones the way we do now in five years — and maybe not at all in 10.
For a venture capitalist whose company has had some big winners over its two decades — from consumer brands like Fitbit, Ring and Peloton, to business software makers HashiCorp and Duo Security — this is more than armchair theorizing. is a thesis that True Ventures is actively betting on.
True hasn’t gotten that far by following the crowd. The Bay Area firm has operated largely under the radar despite managing about $6 billion in 12 core funds and four “selected” opportunity-style funds that it has used to allocate more capital to portfolio companies that are gaining momentum. While other VCs have become more promotional – creating personal brands on social media and podcasts to attract founders and the deal flow – True has gone in the opposite direction, quietly cultivating a tight network of repeat founders. The strategy seems to be working: according to Callaghan, the company boasts 63 profitable exits and seven IPOs amid a portfolio of about 300 companies amassed over its 20-year history.
Three of True’s four recent exits in the fourth quarter of 2025 involved repeat founders who returned to work with the company after previous successes, Callaghan says. However, it’s Callaghan’s thinking about the future of human-computer interaction that really stands out in a sea of AI hype and big circles.
“We’re not going to be using iPhones in 10 years,” Callaghan says flatly. “I don’t think we’ll be using them in five years – or let’s say something different that’s a bit safer – we’ll be using them in very different ways.”
His argument is simple: our phones are lousy at being the interface between humans and intelligence. “The way we’re taking them out right now to send a message to confirm it or send you a text or write an email – [that’s] extremely inefficient, [and] it’s not a great interface,” he explains.[They’re] prone to error, prone to disturbance [of] our normal life.”
He’s so sure of it that True has spent years exploring alternative interfaces – software-based, hardware-based, everything in between. It’s the same instinct that led True to bet early on Fitbit before wearables were obvious, invest in Peloton after hundreds of other VCs said “no thanks” and back Ring when founder Jamie Siminoff kept running out of money, even the judges on “Shark Tank.” turned him away. Each time, the bet seemed dubious, Callaghan says. Each time, the bet was on a new way for people to interact with technology that was more natural than before.
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The latest manifestation of this thesis is the Sandbar, a hardware device that Callaghan describes as a “thought companion”—or, in more mundane terms, a voice-activated ring worn on the index finger. Its sole purpose: to record and organize your thoughts through voice memos. It’s not trying to be another Humane AI Pin or compete with Oura’s health monitoring. “He does one thing really well,” says Callaghan. “But that one thing is a fundamental human behavioral need that’s missing from technology today.”
The idea is not to passively record background sound, but to be there when an idea occurs, serving as a kind of thought partner. It’s connected to an app, leverages artificial intelligence and, according to Callaghan, represents a very different philosophy of how we should interact with intelligence.
What drew True to Sandbar founders Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong wasn’t just the product. “When we met Mina, we were completely aligned with the vision,” recalls Callahan. The True team had already been thinking about alternative interfaces for years, making targeted investments around this possibility. They had met with dozens of founders as a result. But the approach of Fahmi and Hong – who previously collaborated on neural interfaces at CTRL-Labs, a startup acquired by Meta in 2019 – stood out. “It’s about what [the ring] allows. It’s about the behavior that enables us to realize very soon that we can’t live without it.”
There’s an echo here of Callahan’s old line about Peloton: “It’s not about the bike.” For some, the bike – even its first iteration – was exciting. But Peloton was really about the behavior it enabled and the community it created. the bike was just the vessel.
This philosophy of betting on new behaviors—not just new gadgets—also explains how True has managed to stay disciplined about capital. Even as AI startups raise hundreds of millions at billion-dollar valuations, True insists he’s able to stick to what he does best, which is writing initial $3 million to $6 million checks for 15 percent to 20 percent ownership in startups he often sees first.
Callaghan says True will raise more money to fund what works, but he’s not interested in raising billions of dollars. “Well, why? You don’t need it to make something amazing today.”
That same measured approach colors his view of the broader AI boom. While he says (when asked) that he thinks OpenAI could soon be worth a trillion dollars, and while he calls this the most powerful computing wave we’ve seen, Callaghan sees warning signs in the circular financing deals that support hyperscalers and $5 trillion in projected CapEx spending on data centers and chips. “We’re in a very intense part of the cycle and that’s worrying,” he notes.
That said, he’s optimistic about where the real opportunities lie. Callaghan believes the greatest value creation lies ahead – not at the infrastructure level but at the application level, where new interfaces will enable entirely new behaviors.
It all comes back to his core investment philosophy, which sounds almost romantic—the kind of pitch-perfect VC wisdom that would ring hollow with most people: “It should be scary and lonely and people call you crazy,” Callaghan says of early-stage investing done right. “And it should be really blurry and ambiguous, but you should be with a team that you really believe in.” Five to ten years later, he says, you’ll know if you did something.
Either way, based on True’s history of betting on hardware that many others have missed out on – fitness trackers, connected bikes, smart doorbells and now thought-provoking ringtones – it’s worth paying attention when Callaghan says the phone’s days are numbered. Being early is what it’s all about – and the trend lines support his thesis: the smartphone market is essentially saturated, growing at just 2% a year, while wearables – smartwatches, rings and voice-enabled devices – are expanding at double-digit rates.
Something is changing in the way we want to interact with technology, and True is placing its bets accordingly.
Pictured above, Sandbar’s Stream ring. For much more from our conversation with Callaghan, tune in to Download StrictlyVC podcast next week. new episodes drop every Tuesday.
