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27-Year Investor Explains What You're Missing While Chasing AI | TELUS Global Ventures, Terry Doyle

EO07:35Added Aug 31, 2026

Terry Doyle is a Managing Partner at TELUS Global Ventures with over 25 years of experience investing in technology companies. He's witnessed major tech cycles from the dot-com crash to the mobile revolution, giving him a unique perspective on market trends and investment timing.

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00But I've been investing and working in
  3. 00:02technology companies since 1999. I've
  4. 00:04seen a bunch of technologies come and
  5. 00:06go. I saw the first crash. I was working
  6. 00:09in the mobile phone industry when all of
  7. 00:11a sudden the world discovered mobile
  8. 00:13phones. What I think that does is it
  9. 00:15changes the lens under which you look at
  10. 00:17new technologies and new developments.
  11. 00:19When I was investing in 2022, I was not
  12. 00:22investing in what everybody else was
  13. 00:24investing in because I felt like we were
  14. 00:26going straight up the hype curve. You
  15. 00:28want to invest when nobody else is
  16. 00:29investing. And if everybody's investing
  17. 00:31in the same thing, you probably
  18. 00:32shouldn't be in there. You should
  19. 00:40wait. Hi, my name is Terry Doyle. I'm
  20. 00:43the managing partner of Telus Global
  21. 00:45Ventures. We're the corporate venturing
  22. 00:46arm of Telus, which is a Canadian
  23. 00:49headquartered global technology and
  24. 00:51services business. So, we have about 90
  25. 00:54companies in our portfolio. 60% of them
  26. 00:56have a commercial deal with Telus. Last
  27. 00:58year we did about $34 million of
  28. 01:01business with our portfolio

  29. Why Beginners Outperform the Experts

  30. 01:07companies. Age is not a determination of
  31. 01:10intelligence. And in fact, some of the
  32. 01:13best founders I meet are great because
  33. 01:15they don't have preformed ideas.
  34. 01:18Sometimes you meet people and they've
  35. 01:20got lots of experience and because of
  36. 01:23that experience something that hasn't
  37. 01:25worked they sort of shut their minds off
  38. 01:27that doesn't work I can't do this I
  39. 01:29can't solve this problem this way
  40. 01:30whereas I think sometimes people who
  41. 01:32maybe don't have that experience they
  42. 01:34bring a very new perspective to solving
  43. 01:36a problem and say they don't make
  44. 01:38assumptions if you talk to people in in
  45. 01:40great companies like uh Google they
  46. 01:43spend a lot of time trying to prevent
  47. 01:45people from making those assumptions
  48. 01:48Your response to this question is X. Do
  49. 01:51you realize that there's two assumptions
  50. 01:52that are part of that? Why have you made
  51. 01:54those assumptions? Oh, that's always how
  52. 01:56it's always been. Removing that bias
  53. 01:58almost is where you get some real
  54. 02:00breakthroughs. We've invested in
  55. 02:02companies like Clinia, which has really
  56. 02:04developed an AIdriven optimized search
  57. 02:07for enterprise customers and that helps
  58. 02:10providers give better outcomes to
  59. 02:12patients. We knew we had a lot of data,
  60. 02:16but again, data is only as good as how
  61. 02:19it's presented, how it's accessed.
  62. 02:21Lineia has really changed the way we
  63. 02:23think about what we can do with that
  64. 02:25data and that business. It's changed how
  65. 02:28our customers think about their own
  66. 02:30data, but also how they they run their
  67. 02:32businesses. Creating that shift in the
  68. 02:34way we think and how our customers think
  69. 02:36was really one of the important outcomes
  70. 02:39that we got in making that investment.

  71. Focus on Horizon 3, Not AI

  72. 02:47But I've been investing and working in
  73. 02:49technology companies since 1999. I've
  74. 02:52seen a bunch of technologies come and
  75. 02:54go. I saw the first dot crash when web
  76. 02:58van got hundreds of millions of dollars
  77. 03:00investment and then went bankrupt. You
  78. 03:01know, I was working in the mobile phone
  79. 03:03industry when all of a sudden the world
  80. 03:04discovered mobile phones. What I think
  81. 03:07that does is it changes the lens under
  82. 03:10which you look at new technologies and
  83. 03:12new developments.
  84. 03:142014 I was spending time with a whole
  85. 03:17bunch of some of the best people in the
  86. 03:20world in artificial intelligence. This
  87. 03:22is great. You know, it's going to be a
  88. 03:23good development. Maybe I won't be as
  89. 03:26excited about the changes in the
  90. 03:29marketplace as if I'd never seen those
  91. 03:32previous cycles. It means that when I
  92. 03:35was investing in 2022, I was not
  93. 03:38investing in what everybody else was
  94. 03:40investing in because I felt like we were
  95. 03:42going straight up the hype curve. You
  96. 03:44want to invest when nobody else is
  97. 03:46investing. And if everybody's investing
  98. 03:48in the same thing, you probably
  99. 03:49shouldn't be in there. You should wait.
  100. 03:51When a good investor is able to see a
  101. 03:54fundamental shift in society, you know,
  102. 03:56the consulting firm McKenzie has a
  103. 03:58language which is horizon 1, horizon 2,
  104. 04:01horizon 3. Horizon 1 is something that
  105. 04:03we can use now. It's getting to the
  106. 04:05beginning parts of the use of its life
  107. 04:08in as a technology. Horizon 3 is well
  108. 04:10into the future, very far away from
  109. 04:13being commercialized. More like
  110. 04:14fundamental science. We will sometimes
  111. 04:16want to make an investment in a Horizon
  112. 04:193 company and the business just doesn't
  113. 04:22see the opportunity for it. The area of
  114. 04:24quantum security is a good example of
  115. 04:26this. We know that at some point in the
  116. 04:28future quantum will change how people
  117. 04:30can they will create tools where people
  118. 04:33can do harm just as we start to see in
  119. 04:35AI. We've done some investing in quantum
  120. 04:38security and we're not quite at that
  121. 04:40point where we can use it. We have to
  122. 04:42make a an educated guess. Okay, we think
  123. 04:45this is going to be problem in the
  124. 04:46future. So we we should probably invest
  125. 04:49early and learn get we'll call it
  126. 04:51tuition value about how this particular
  127. 04:54space is evolving and as a result we'll
  128. 04:56wait five or 6 years before we have any
  129. 04:58commercial deal with the company. Being
  130. 05:00able to spot the large shifts make you
  131. 05:03better able to invest in the right
  132. 05:05things. I think if you jump at every new
  133. 05:09development I think you're probably
  134. 05:10going to have a hard time. You're
  135. 05:12probably going to make a lot of
  136. 05:13mistakes.
  137. 05:16You know, I talk to my team all the time
  138. 05:18about this idea that we will make
  139. 05:20mistakes. As soon as you say that, that
  140. 05:22changes the way people do things because
  141. 05:24they don't freeze up. They're not
  142. 05:25nervous about making a mistake. So, one,
  143. 05:28we're going to make mistakes. Most
  144. 05:29important thing is acknowledge that
  145. 05:31you've made a mistake. Second is fix the
  146. 05:33mistake as best you can. And third is
  147. 05:35obviously the most important thing.
  148. 05:37Don't make the same mistake twice. I
  149. 05:38think if you create that environment for
  150. 05:40people, they feel more comfortable. They
  151. 05:42explore options more. they don't freeze
  152. 05:45up and be conservative in how they
  153. 05:46think. And I think that's that's really
  154. 05:48our job. Our job is to take risk on
  155. 05:51behalf of the company and do that in a
  156. 05:53way which is sensible, but to push the
  157. 05:56company and to help get more technology
  158. 05:58into the hands of our customers to make

  159. Stop Selling Your Idea

  160. 06:01their lives
  161. 06:06better. You'll hear many investors talk
  162. 06:09about are you investing in the
  163. 06:10individual or are you investing in the
  164. 06:12idea or the market. I think the
  165. 06:13individual is really the most
  166. 06:15determinative factor. Somebody's ability
  167. 06:17to solve problems and continue to work
  168. 06:21at problems even when they're not making
  169. 06:23headway is the sign of a good
  170. 06:25entrepreneur. There's a level of
  171. 06:27stubbornness there which really is
  172. 06:29important in taking on big problems.
  173. 06:32That problem solving mentality and that
  174. 06:34ability to continue to work even though
  175. 06:36there's no progress. I think that's one
  176. 06:39of the things that makes good founders.
  177. 06:41And so our job is to really find great
  178. 06:43founders who are solving significant
  179. 06:47problems. And if you find those people,
  180. 06:50generally you can usually find people
  181. 06:52who want to give them money to solve
  182. 06:54those problems. That's really what
  183. 06:55you're doing as an investor. You're
  184. 06:57finding money and you're finding smart
  185. 07:01people and you're bringing them
  186. 07:02together. Being a founder is a really
  187. 07:04hard job. It's an exceptionally hard job
  188. 07:07and you have to have that ability to
  189. 07:09wake up every day and want to take on
  190. 07:12and solve a difficult problem. And so I
  191. 07:14think the thing that I find rewarding is
  192. 07:17every time I work with a founder and I'm
  193. 07:19able to help them go that little bit
  194. 07:21farther on their journey, that's
  195. 07:23rewarding for me.