Kevin Rose relies on a gut-level standard when considering investments in AI hardware: “If you get the urge to punch the person wearing it, you should probably pass on investing.”
It’s a characteristically blunt take from the experienced investor, stemming from his observation of AI hardware startups repeating errors he’s previously witnessed. Rose, a general partner at True Ventures and an early backer of Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit, has mostly avoided the AI hardware frenzy currently gripping Silicon Valley. While other VCs are rushing to finance the next generation of smart glasses or AI pendants, Rose is consciously charting a different course.
“A significant portion of these devices simply aim to record every conversation,” Rose comments on the current array of AI wearables. “In my opinion, that violates numerous social norms we have regarding privacy.”
Rose’s viewpoint is informed by his experience. As a board member of Oura, which now dominates 80% of the smart ring market, he has directly observed the factors distinguishing successful wearables from unsuccessful ones. The key lies not only in technical capabilities but also in emotional appeal and social acceptability.
“As an investor, you have to look beyond just the technology and consider the emotional impact it has on you and those around you,” he elaborated at TechCrunch Disrupt last week. “For me, much of that is lacking in the AI space, where devices are always on, always listening, and striving to be the smartest entity in the room. This approach is simply not healthy.”
He acknowledges experimenting with various AI wearables, including the ill-fated Humane AI pendant that briefly captured global attention a year prior. However, the turning point occurred during a disagreement with his wife. “I distinctly recall not saying that. I tried using the pendant to win the argument,” he recounted. “That marked the last time I used that device. It’s unacceptable to win an argument by consulting the logs of your AI pin.”
According to Rose, the tourist application — querying your glasses about a monument — is insufficient. “We have a tendency to indiscriminately apply AI to everything, and it’s detrimental to the world,” he stated, citing features like photo applications that allow for the removal of people from backgrounds. “A friend of mine removed a gate from behind him to enhance the photo. I pointed out, ‘That’s your yard! Your children will wonder why the gate is missing.’”
Rose is concerned that we are in a similar phase to the “early days of social media” with AI — making choices that seem innocuous now but will later haunt us. “We will reflect and realize, ‘That was strange. We mindlessly integrated AI into everything, assuming it was beneficial,’ much like the early days of social media. Looking back a decade or two later, we’ll think, ‘I wish we had approached it differently.’”
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He is directly experiencing these tensions with his young children. After using OpenAI’s Sora to generate videos of miniature Labradoodles, his children inquired about acquiring these puppies. “I had to explain that wasn’t actually Dad. How do you explain that? It’s very awkward,” he says. His approach, he explained, is to treat AI like movie magic, clarifying that just as actors aren’t genuinely flying onscreen, Dad’s puppies are also not real.
However, Rose is not a Luddite. He is very optimistic about AI’s potential to transform entrepreneurship and, consequently, the venture capital industry that supports it.
“The obstacles for entrepreneurs are decreasing daily,” Rose noted. He mentioned a colleague who, without prior experience with AI coding tools, developed and deployed a complete application during a drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Six months prior, the same endeavor would have required ten times the duration and resolving numerous errors.
“Within three months, upon the release of [Google’s] Gemini 3, there will be minimal to no errors,” Rose predicted. “High school coding classes are evolving into ‘vibe coding’ classes, where students will create the next billion-dollar business from a random high school. It is inevitable; it’s simply a question of when.”
Rose stated that these developments significantly alter the venture capital landscape. Entrepreneurs can now postpone fundraising until absolutely necessary, or potentially forgo external funding entirely. “It will fundamentally change the VC world, and I believe it will be for the better,” Rose commented.
Many venture firms have responded by employing large numbers of engineers—for example, Sequoia Capital now employs as many developers as investors. However, Rose does not believe this is the optimal solution. Instead, he suggests the value proposition for VCs is shifting to something more essential. “Ultimately, entrepreneurs will encounter challenges that are not technical,” he argued. “They involve significant emotional components. Consequently, the VCs with the highest emotional intelligence, who can best support founders as long-term partners — who have a history with firms and are not simply transient VCs, but have been around and witnessed these problems at scale — will be highly sought after.”
So, what are Rose’s investment criteria? He refers back to something Larry Page told him years ago during Rose’s time at Google Ventures, his initial institutional investing role after co-founding the social news platform Digg and prior to joining True Ventures in 2017. “It’s important to look for a healthy disregard for the impossible.”
“We seek founders who aren’t merely refining existing concepts, but are genuinely striving for ambitious, groundbreaking ideas that others dismiss as terrible. That’s what attracts me because even if the idea fails, we admire their mindset. We value their perspective and would gladly support them in their next venture.”
