Off Balance #59

👋🏾 Hi friends!

Sorry for the late send on this one 🙏 As we run up to the end of the year, I’ve been frantically trying to tie up all the things I know I need to get sorted before everything shuts down for the festive season.

In other news, this week is the London Venture Capital Network’s Winter Ball, as an advisor, I cannot tell you how incredible watching the growth of the network has been over the last year with events, fellowships and incredible in depth insight they have been bringing to the VC ecosystem.

Join me for what looks to be the event of the season with up to 50 family offices, 150 investors and 200 more guests in attendance 🔥 

Grab your discounted ticket here!

As you know, I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄. I’m setting myself the target of getting through a large portion of it whilst I’m away in Italy during August – wish me luck!

Now let’s get down to business…


𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝘁 😅

A couple of weeks ago on Nothing Ventured, I spoke to Rishabh Kaul a seasoned founder, operator, and investor specialising in the early stages of venture growth.

Based in London, Rishabh is the founder of Svagat, a platform championing the rise of South Asians in tech across Europe.

He’s held leadership roles in groundbreaking startups and co-founded Belong, an AI-powered HR tech platform backed by Sequoia, Matrix and Blume Ventures .

He also runs Goodfellas, a syndicate investing in cutting-edge SaaS and developer tools. When he’s not building or investing, Rishabh shares his insights through his newsletter and blog.

We talked about:

🥇 How 1 in 2 tier 2 visas are going to Indians in the UK.
🛠️ Moving from survival mode to building.
🇮🇳 How to build an India-Europe corridor to rival the India-Silicon Valley one.
⁉️ Will the next talent hub for Indian startups be Europe?
🚨 Does India suffer from a PR problem in European tech?
🇪🇺 Is Europe just a stepping stone to the US for Indians in tech.
🤔 Rishabh’s contrarian advice: some people would be better off buying than building a venture.

Check it out on YouTube!

Else listen on Spotify or Apple


If you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what we’re doing – you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Blossom, Salesforce Ventures, Sofinnova, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀


As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about anything finance, tech or venture related, just grab some time 😊.

Might As Well Cedric The Entertainer GIF by CBS

Gif by cbs on Giphy


I hope you found Off Balance #59 valuable. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊


🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 If you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Off Balance #58

👋🏾 Hi friends!

It’s a cold day in London right now with a flurry of snow to wake us up this morning!

I’m not sure anyone can argue that snow in mid November is a normal state of affairs and it’s quite an interesting situation considering last week’s podcast where I spoke to Afshin Moayed from Razor Capital about the potential for venture in Bangladesh and the impact of climate on the country.

If you are in the UK at the moment, all I can say is wrap up warm, it’s nippy out there!


I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄.

Now let’s get down to business…

In this weeks Off Balance:

🎙️ Afshin Moayed, Partner at Razor Capital on Nothing Ventured
⛈️ The impact and importance of climate tech in Bangladesh


𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗴𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵

In this episode of Nothing Ventured, I sat down with Afshin Moayed, a partner at Razor Capital, to explore the exciting landscape of venture capital in emerging markets, specifically focusing on Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.

Afshin shares insights from his extensive experience as a founder and advisor, highlighting the immense opportunities presented by large populations and the unique dynamics of these regions.

We spoke about:

🇧🇩 The potential of Bangladesh as a hidden gem for investment.
⛈️ The looming challenge of climate change, with projections of 40 million climate refugees by mid-century.
📈 The rapid growth of the middle class, with 15 million people joining annually.
💹 Strategies to transition climate victims into contributors to the economy.
🏅 The concept of “low-cost wins” and how value can be derived from unexpected areas.
🛒 The viability of innovative delivery services like 15-minute grocery delivery in different markets.
🤔 Afshin’s contrarian belief that acknowledging mistakes is crucial, and that there is no financial gain in always being right.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join >10k people tuning in to hear stories from across the tech and venture ecosystem ✨ 

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts!


If you have any feedback on the podcast or the newsletter, just reply to this mail or ping me online!

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Now let’s get into it.

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀



Off Balance

 

My conversation with Afshin got me thinking about climate tech and emerging markets, so I thought I would take a deeper dive into the topic – especially in an economy like Bangladesh where, as Afshin noted, we are likely to see millions of climate refugees over the coming decades.

The global climate crisis is reshaping economies and driving technological innovation worldwide, with a particular focus on emerging markets like Bangladesh. As we face unprecedented environmental challenges, climate tech is emerging as a critical sector for both mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects.


Climate Tech: Driving Innovation and Resilience in Emerging Markets

The Climate Challenge in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, a nation of over 170 million people, is at the forefront of climate vulnerability. With its dense population and low-lying coastal areas, the country faces significant risks from rising sea levels, increased flooding, and more frequent extreme weather events.

By mid-century, Bangladesh could see up to 40 million climate refugees, underscoring the urgent need for innovative solutions.

Despite these challenges, Bangladesh has shown remarkable resilience and forward-thinking in its approach to climate issues. The country’s commitment to building a sustainable future for its young, aspirational population is driving the adoption and development of climate technologies.

The Rise of Climate Tech

Climate tech encompasses a wide range of technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, and enhancing climate resilience. Key areas of focus include:

  • Renewable Energy: Solar, wind, and other clean energy sources are becoming increasingly cost-competitive and accessible.

  • Sustainable Agriculture: Innovations in farming practices and crop varieties are helping to reduce emissions and improve food security.

  • Water Management: Technologies for water conservation, purification, and flood control are crucial for climate adaptation.

  • Green Transportation: Electric vehicles and sustainable urban planning are reshaping mobility in climate-vulnerable areas.

  • Circular Economy Solutions: Technologies that promote recycling, upcycling, and waste reduction are gaining traction.

Impact on Emerging Markets

In countries like Bangladesh, climate tech is not just about reducing emissions—it’s about survival and economic development. These technologies are creating new opportunities for local entrepreneurs and attracting investment from across the globe.

iFarmer, a Bangladeshi fintech company, exemplifies this trend. By providing financing and services to farmers, iFarmer is not only improving agricultural productivity but also enhancing climate resilience in the agricultural sector.

The Importance of Climate Tech for Bangladesh

For Bangladesh, climate tech offers several critical benefits:

  • Adaptation: Technologies that help communities adapt to changing climate conditions are essential for long-term resilience.

  • Economic Opportunities: The climate tech sector can create jobs and drive economic growth, particularly important for Bangladesh’s young population.

  • Sustainable Development: Climate-friendly technologies can help Bangladesh achieve its development goals while minimizing environmental impact.

Challenges and Opportunities

While the potential of climate tech in Bangladesh is significant, several challenges remain:

  • Funding: Access to capital for climate tech startups and projects can be limited, especially for later-stage growth.

  • Infrastructure: Developing the necessary infrastructure to support and scale climate technologies can be challenging.

  • Skills Gap: There’s a need for more trained professionals in climate tech fields.

However, these challenges also present opportunities for innovation and international collaboration. Venture capital firms like Razor Capital are playing a crucial role by investing in early-stage companies addressing these issues.

The Way Forward

As climate change continues to reshape the world, the importance of climate tech in emerging markets like Bangladesh cannot be overstated. To fully realise its potential, several key steps are necessary:

  1. Increased Investment: Both domestic and international investors need to recognise the opportunities in climate tech in emerging markets.

  2. Policy Support: Governments must create favorable policies and regulations to support climate tech innovation and adoption.

  3. Capacity Building: Investing in education and training programs to build local expertise in climate technologies is crucial.

  4. International Collaboration: Partnerships between developed and emerging markets can accelerate the development and deployment of climate solutions.

  5. Localised Solutions: Climate tech must be adapted to local conditions and needs to be truly effective.

Conclusion

The climate crisis presents both immense challenges and opportunities for countries like Bangladesh. By embracing and developing climate technologies, these nations can not only enhance their resilience to climate impacts but also drive sustainable economic growth.

As Afshin’s insights reveal, the entrepreneurial spirit and forward-thinking approach of Bangladesh’s people are key assets in this journey.

With the right support and investment, climate tech can transform challenges into opportunities, opening a pathway for a more sustainable and prosperous future.

The global community must recognize the critical role of emerging markets in the fight against climate change. By supporting climate tech innovation in these countries, we can create a more resilient and sustainable world for everyone.


As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about this or anything else, just grab some time 😊.


I hope you found Off Balance #58 useful. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊


🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Off Balance #57

👋🏾 Hi friends!

As the podcast continues to scale (knocking on the door of 10k subscribers now 🤯 ) I’m continuing to try and ensure that the quality of the content grows with it.

This week we have the second part of a two part episode I recorded with Fred Destin and it’s a banger.

Hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed recording it!

As you know, I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄. I’m setting myself the target of getting through a large portion of it whilst I’m away in Italy during August – wish me luck!

Now let’s get down to business…


“𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻.”

Check out this incredible second part to my two part interview with Fred Destin, Founder at Stride.VC on Nothing Ventured – out now 🔥

Here are just a few of the things Fred had to say in this episode, I cannot recommend listening to it enough 💥

One of the most human, thoughtful conversations I’ve had with a VC in a long time 🙂

Just some of the truth bombs Fred had to share…

💡 “You can be a generalist, but you can’t be generic.”

🙈 “You drop the worst fucking advice on the planet.”

🙌🏾 “I really want to be seen to be helpful by my founders.”

🦸🏻 “I do not want to be your legend.”

❤️ “It is the love of the craft that drives you rather than necessarily just the outcome.”

🐞 “Real-time for me is a bug, not a feature.”

🤷‍♂️ “The algorithm will do whatever the fuck the algorithm is going to do ultimately.”

🚪 “Check your biases at the door, confirmation biases, pattern recognition, super dangerous, your past experience is not always a good guide.”

💭 “The art of listening, the art of thinking about what you’re saying rather than saying what you want to say.”

🥱 “So all this labeling and simplification, so all of it’s lazy thinking.”

🤯 “Venture’s fucking hard. People forget how hard it is to build value sustainably.”

Check it out on YouTube!

Else listen on Spotify or Apple


If you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what we’re doing – you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Blossom, Salesforce Ventures, Sofinnova, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀


As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about anything finance, tech or venture releated, just grab some time 😊.

Chicago Pd Nbc GIF by One Chicago

Gif by onechicago on Giphy


I hope you found Off Balance #57 valuable. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊


🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 If you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Off Balance #56

👋🏾 Hi friends!

A very happy Diwali to those that were celebrating, a happy Halloween for others and a smokey Guy Fawkes night for anyone in the UK this evening!

The last week has been spent just marvelling at the traction that Nothing Ventured has continued to show with almost 8k subs under our belt on YouTube and some interesting growth happening on other channels as well. Just shows that if you keep showing up, good things can happen 😀 

It’s also been spent marvelling at the fact that we are already in November people! And whilst 2024 has been a tough year for many, I’m optimistic about what 2025 holds in store and I’m prepping to get going with a bang!

I’m writing this late on Tuesday 5th November as the US heads into a pretty consequential election and am, as I am sure others are, keen to see which direction the bastion of the democratic world decides to take.

Whatever your politics, this has been arguably one of the most consequential years in recent history here in the UK and over the pond in America. Last week we saw the first female Chancellor release a budget over here, the first black female leader of the Conservative party get voted in and potentially the first black and Asian, female President get elected to lead the free world – maybe. I guess we’ll see within the next few days…


I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄.

Now let’s get down to business…

In this weeks Off Balance:

🎙️ Fred Destin, Managing Partner of Stride.VC on Nothing Ventured
👨🏻‍💼 Things to think about when building out your board


𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲?

Fred Destin joins me on the pod this week to explore exactly that 🔥

As we blast through 7k subscribers in just a few weeks (🤯), I could not think of a better guest to have joined me on Nothing Ventured this week to take a step back and truly explore venture and the relationship between investors, founders and how to better think about the interactions between them.

Fred should need no introduction, but for those that don’t know, he is the founder of Stride.VC, a seed fund operating out of London and currently investing out of its second fund.

Their tagline is Dissenters welcome!

Prior to Stride, Fred was a General Partner at Accel and Accomplice VC. He was the lead investor on seven companies that have exited over $1BN in value including Deliveroo, Zoopla (part of Houseful), PillPack (now Amazon health) and others.

In this whopping two part episode, we spoke about:

😤 The level of discontent founders have with VCs right now and why that’s surprising.🪄 Whether operator as a VC is a magic label.
🤝 He asks how many VCs have empathy for the founder journey.
📈 The value of minimalist boards and how VCs can move the needle for the founders they work with.
👀 How VCs can navigate the need to be seen.
👨🏻‍🎨 Venture as an artisanal occupation.
🔮 Making decisions in a state of uncertainty.
🍀 Living in a world of both skill as well as luck as a VC.
🏷️ How returns come from the pick but also the entry price.
💥 The Cambrian explosion in venture and where we are now.
✨ How you can be a generalist in venture, but you can’t be generic – why emerging managers may want to find their edge.
🫀 VCs as human beings.
👶🏼 How to embrace the beginners mindset.
ℹ️ How to look beyond the information that’s being presented to you.
🧐 How to avoid the trap of lazy thinking.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts!


If you have any feedback on the podcast or the newsletter, just reply to this mail or ping me online!

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Now let’s get into it.

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀



Off Balance

 

As a startup founder, one of the most critical decisions you’ll make is constructing your board of directors. A well-designed board can provide invaluable guidance, expertise, and connections that can accelerate your company’s growth.

I’ve seen good and bad boards and board members and, as our guest this week Fred Destin says, you want a board that energises you when you leave the room, not one that feels like it is constantly detracting from your ability to move forward.

Here are some key considerations to keep in mind when building your startup’s board.


Constructing Your Startup’s Board: Key Considerations for Success

Timing and Size

When to form your board and how large it should be are crucial initial decisions. Many startups begin with just the founder as the sole board member, gradually expanding as the company grows and secures funding. Here in the UK it’s typical to see a more formal board be put in place post your first institutional round which is likely at seed or Series A.

As for size, aim for a board of 3-5 directors in the early stages. This provides a good balance of perspectives without becoming unwieldy. A typical composition might include:

↳ The CEO (often the founder)
↳ A financial investor (e.g., an angel or VC)
↳ Independent industry experts, often taking on the Chair role

Identifying Your Needs

Before recruiting board members, clearly define your startup’s needs and the board’s purpose. Identify gaps in your internal resources and consider both immediate needs and long-term goals when selecting advisors.

Key areas where board members can supplement your team’s abilities include:

↳ Product development
↳ Customer / market development
↳ Business model development
↳ Team building
↳ Fundraising
↳ Diversity and Expertise

As Fred mentioned in the podcast, it’s important that individuals on the board understand what skills they bring to the table. Some will be more strategic, others more operational. The point is that you should strive for a diverse board with a range of skills, backgrounds, and perspectives. This diversity enhances creativity, decision-making, and understanding of various viewpoints. Look for members with expertise in areas crucial to your startup’s success, such as:

↳ Finance
↳ Marketing
↳ Sales
↳ Product development
↳ Industry-specific knowledge

Roles and Responsibilities

As I say above, it is really important to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each board member. This includes outlining individual duties, setting expectations for participation, and establishing the board’s overall purpose. Some key responsibilities of a startup board include:

↳ Setting long-term objectives
↳ Ensuring alignment with company mission and goals
↳ Creating growth opportunities
↳ Mitigating risks
↳ Advising the executive team
↳ Holding management accountable
↳ Making decisions on executive compensation and share options
↳ Ensuring legal and ethical compliance

Independence and Objectivity

While it’s tempting to fill your board with friends and family, this can lead to massive conflicts of interest and a lack of objectivity. Instead, prioritize independent directors who can provide unbiased advice and who are willing to challenge your thinking when necessary.

Commitment and Engagement

Look for board members who are willing and able to commit the necessary time and energy to your startup. Typically, startup boards meet quarterly, but more frequent meetings may be beneficial in the early stages or during significant events like financing events, expansion or acquisitions.

Trust and Communication

Establishing and maintaining trust between board members, founders, and the management team is crucial and where I see real problems arise if not managed well. Foster open communication and transparency to keep all issues and interests open for discussion. This helps maintain alignment among all stakeholders. Again, on the podcast, Fred talks about keeping things as simple as possible, using the same information used by management to inform the board of the key successes, issues, challenges and opportunities.

Compensation and Equity

Determine how you’ll compensate your board members. While some may serve for free, especially in very early stages and especially if they are investor directors, it’s common to offer equity or a combination of cash and equity. Be prepared to discuss compensation expectations with potential board members.

Legal Considerations

Ensure you understand the legal requirements for board formation and management in your jurisdiction. This includes:

↳ Proper documentation of board decisions
↳ Filing annual confirmation statements
↳ Understanding director liabilities and responsibilities

Fiduciary duties sit at the core of governance and this means acting in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. It is worth considering that even if a director is not officially registered at Companies House, if they are acting in the capacity of, or fullfilling the role of a director, they will have the same liabilities and responsibilities as formally appointed board members.

Board Dynamics

Pay attention to the interpersonal dynamics of your board. Look for members who can work well together while still providing diverse perspectives. Avoid “yes men” and seek out individuals who will challenge you constructively. In the podcast Fred talked about a board member who intentionally berated a new executive to the point that they almost left. You really want to ensure that the board is constructive and interacts well as (and I can attest to this) a toxic board will do more harm than good.

Chairperson Selection

Choose a strong chairperson who can lead discussions effectively and manage relationships between board members. This role is crucial in ensuring productive meetings and balanced decision-making.

Future-Focused Approach

When selecting board members, consider both your medium and long-term goals. Choose individuals who can contribute to your company’s growth trajectory and help shape your long-term vision.

Continuous Improvement

Implement regular board evaluations to assess individual and collective performance4. Use these insights to identify areas for improvement and develop tailored plans for board development.

Flexibility and Agility

While structure is important, maintain flexibility in your board operations. Encourage agile decision-making to respond swiftly to opportunities and challenges as the death of startups can be decision paralysis.

Balancing Control and Guidance

As a founder, strike a balance between maintaining control of your company and leveraging your board’s expertise. Be open to guidance while ensuring the board’s actions align with your vision for the company. At the end of the day, you are responsible for running the company. I remember someone describing it to me as the need for your board to be noses in but fingers out – i.e. that they need to understand the business enough to ask insightful and valuable questions but should not be trying to run the business themselves.

Network Expansion

Leverage your board members’ networks to open doors for partnerships, funding opportunities, and talent acquisition. A well-connected board can significantly accelerate growth. But beware of choosing your board with solely this in mind. If they are not able to add value beyond their relationships, you may end up with an ineffective or feeble board because 90% of the time your problems scaling a startup will not be around how to build relationships, but rather how to build the business itself!

Conclusion

I am very clear that constructing an effective board for your startup can be a critical step in setting your company up for success.

By carefully considering all the above factors, you can build a board that provides the guidance, expertise, and support that you need to navigate the challenges of scaling.

It is also important to remember that your board should evolve as your company does, so you should be prepared to reassess and adjust its composition as your needs change.

With the right board in place, you’ll have a powerful asset to help drive your business towards its goals a great board will at times challenge but mostly support your strategy as you scale.


As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about this or anything else, just grab some time 😊.


I hope you found Off Balance #56 useful. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊


🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Off Balance #55

👋🏾 Hi friends!

Something quite bizarre happened over the last few weeks. I’ve been building Nothing Ventured since May 2021 and whilst it’s had a lot of support and love from individuals, we hadn’t seen that pulling through in the numbers – that is until a couple of weeks ago…

On October 7th, we had just over 540 subscribers on YouTube and it had taken us 20 months to get there, and then…

WE 10Xd in 2 weeks 🤯 

We got to over 5k subscribers by around the 21st of the month and, as of today we’re sitting at over 6.6k.

Whilst you can definitely argue that this is a bit of a vanity metric, it nevertheless feels great to see some feedback after putting in the hard work for so long!

As you know, I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄. I’m setting myself the target of getting through a large portion of it whilst I’m away in Italy during August – wish me luck!

Now let’s get down to business…

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗩𝗖 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 💀

This week on Nothing Ventured, I spoke to Manish Patel, founder and Managing Partner of Nava Ventures, an early-stage investment firm aimed at working with companies that endeavor to create new markets, change industries, and positively impact the world.

He is a faculty member at Stanford University where he teaches introduction to Design Thinking and with over a decade in venture capital, he focuses on investing in companies that seek to solve deep human needs through technology.

Previously, Manish was a product leader at Google, working on key initiatives such as Google Ads, Maps, and TV and latterly worked with Larry Page and ran OKRs, Googles famous objectives and key results management system.

A graduate of Stanford with degrees in Engineering and Economics, he is also a Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab, where he advises and mentors startups focused on developing products and services which leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Here’s what we covered:

🤷🏾 People are people everywhere – you find red necks everywhere, even in Silicon Valley.

🤑 We’ve got to stop equating wealth with brilliance.

🙋🏾‍♂️ What it means to be a brown man in America.

🥇 How google went from the 50th search engine to number one.

🧱 “We shape our buildings and therefore they shape us.” Churchill was talking about actual buildings, today the corollary is the products in our pockets.

🥺 Building products that see the emotion behind the edge users.

📏 Unlocking experience over efficiency in product design.

🩷 The best products sit at the intersection of technology, business and human needs.

💥 How Manish became an accidental VC.

🤔 Rethinking the investment committee putting Kindness, Truth and Hustle at its heart.

⁉️ Manish’s contrarian advice – It’s ok to say I don’t know.

Check it out on YouTube!

Else listen on Spotify or Apple

If you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what we’re doing – you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Blossom, Salesforce Ventures, Sofinnova, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀

As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about anything finance, tech or venture releated, just grab some time 😊.

I hope you found Off Balance #55 valuable. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊

🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 If you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

An entirely new way to present ideas

Gamma’s AI creates beautiful presentations, websites, and more. No design or coding skills required. Try it free today.

Off Balance #54

👋🏾 Hi friends!

Another week, another panel 😜

This week – actually scratch that – TODAY, I’ll be moderating a panel for the London Venture Capital Network exploring Opportunities for UK Aerospace & Spacetech.

If you’re curious about how the UK might be able to add its own value to the growing spate of spacetech ventures out there or if you’d just like to get a better grounding around what spacetech actually is and how to understand the upstream as well as downstream opportunities in the sector, then join me and the incredibly thoughtful panel of experts we’ve got together to shed some light on the vertical today (22nd October) at Level39, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AB from 1800!

Get your tickets here and come say hello to me, Ana Raposo from the European Space Agency, Lucas Bishop, investor at Seraphin Space Fund, Dr Junayd Miah, Head of Space Science and Innovation at Deloitte and Kerri Mertz, Director of International Business at Slingshot Aerospace as we chat all things spacetech 🚀

I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄.

Now let’s get down to business…

In this weeks Off Balance:

🎙️ Helen Goldberg from LegalEdge on Nothing Ventured
👩🏾‍💼 How CFOs and GCs can help ensure the best outcomes for your startup

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 👩🏼‍⚖️

In this week’s episode of Nothing Ventured, I sat down with friend of EmergeOne and the podcast, Helen Goldberg, Co-Founder and COO of LegalEdge which provides flexible in-house legal counsel services to fast growth companies.

Prior to founding LegalEdge, Helen spent over a decade focussed on M&A with Eversheds Sutherland and Baker McKenzie and as Sole Counsel and European Legal Director at Espotting / Miva and then headed up the international legal team for all activity outside the US at CBS / Viacom Outdoor.

In this episode, we talked about:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲:

↳ Helen introduced the concept of the “Goldilocks legal principle,” noting the importance of finding the right balance in legal resources. Many startups either over-rely on tech templates or rush to engage big law firms, often leading to inefficiencies and unnecessary costs. Instead, Helen advocates for a tailored approach—using in-house counsel for ongoing legal needs while leveraging technology and law firms appropriately for specific tasks. This strategy not only saves money but also ensures that legal work is handled effectively.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲:

↳ One of the most critical points Helen made was the necessity of obtaining good legal and financial advice from day one. Founders often overlook the significance of a well-structured cap table and intellectual property management, which can lead to major complications down the line. Helen stressed that these foundational elements are not just administrative tasks; they are essential for securing investment and ensuring a smooth exit strategy. As she put it, “Don’t mess up the things you can fix early on.”

𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹:

↳ Helen discussed the rise of the fractional model in both legal and financial services, highlighting how it provides flexibility and expertise without the overhead of full-time hires. This model has gained traction, especially among startups that need strategic roles like general counsel or CFOs but may not yet be ready for a full-time commitment. By embracing this approach, businesses can access high-quality legal and financial support while maintaining agility in their operations.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts!

If you have any feedback on the podcast or the newsletter, just reply to this mail or ping me online!

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Now let’s get into it.

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀

Off Balance

 

I’m going to try something a little bit different on Off Balance moving forward. I’m going to take a deeper dive into one or more of the topics that have come up during the latest podcast to develop my own thoughts on the topic(s) as well as hopefully give you more context to the conversation 🙂 

My latest conversation wtih Helen is an ideal place to start as CFOs and GCs work hand in hand most of the time. As startups grow from seed onwards, the roles of CFO and General Counsel (GC) become increasingly crucial. Whilst seemingly distinct roles, their intersection can be crucial to driving a startup’s success. So let’s explore how they complement each other and contribute to startups’ growth and stability.

The Powerful Partnership: CFO and General Counsel in Startups

Strategic Decision-Making

The CFO and GC form a critical alliance in developming and guiding a startup’s strategic decisions. The CFO brings financial expertise and data-driven insights, while the GC provides legal perspective and risk assessment. Together, they create a balanced approach to decision-making that considers both financial implications and legal ramifications – something that is often lost in the drive to build quickly.

Financial Planning and Compliance

The CFO develops financial plans and forecasts, while the GC ensures these plans comply with relevant laws and regulations. This collaboration is essential for:

↳ Creating legally sound financial strategies
↳ Ensuring compliance with tax laws and financial regulations
↳ Developing risk management strategies that protect the company’s financial interests

Mergers and Acquisitions

During M&A activities, the CFO and GC work closely to:

↳ Conduct financial and legal due diligence
↳ Structure deals that are financially beneficial and legally appropriate
↳ Negotiate terms that protect the company’s (and the founders’) interests
↳ Manage the integration process post-acquisition

Fundraising and Investor Relations

As startups seek funding, the CFO and GC play equally pivotal roles in the process:

Preparing for Funding Rounds – the CFO prepares financial projections and valuation models, while the GC ensures all legal documentation is in order. Together, they:

↳ Develop pitch decks that are financially compelling and legally accurate
↳ Structure funding deals that balance financial needs with legal protections
↳ Negotiate term sheets that are favorable to the company

Managing Investor Relationships

Post-funding, the CFO and GC collaborate to:

↳ Provide regular financial and legal updates to investors
↳ Ensure compliance with investor agreements
↳ Manage board communications and governance issues

Risk Management and Compliance

In the startup environment which obviously can move incredibly quickly, managing risk is crucial. The CFO and GC work together to:

Identify and Mitigate Risks – the CFO assesses financial risks, while the GC evaluates legal and regulatory risks and together, they develop comprehensive risk management strategies.

Ensure Regulatory Compliance

↳ The CFO ensures financial compliance (e.g., accounting standards, tax regulations)
↳ The GC focuses on legal compliance (e.g., labor laws, data privacy regulations)

Their collaboration ensures the startup remains compliant across all areas of operation

Building and Scaling Operations

As startups grow, the CFO and GC are critical to scaling operations – taking the chaos of the startup phase and transforming it into a repeatable set of systems that create guardrails for sustainable growth:

↳ Developing Internal Processes – the CFO establishes financial controls and reporting processes whilst the GC creates legal frameworks and policies.

Together, they ensure these processes are efficient, compliant, and scalable.

Managing Human Resources

↳ The CFO handles compensation structures and financial aspects of hiring
↳ The GC manages employment contracts and ensures compliance with relevant labour laws

Their collaboration creates a framework for managing and growing the workforce which can happen incredibly quickly once a venture either raises capital or hits an inflection point where growth really starts to kick in.

Preparing for Exit Strategies

Arguably one of the most important areas where CFOs and GCs collaborate – and the ultimate goal for any high growth venture.

Whether aiming for an IPO or acquisition, the CFO and GC are instrumental in preparing the startup for exit:

↳ IPO Preparation – the CFO prepares financial statements and works on valuation and the GC ensures regulatory compliance and prepares necessary legal documents.

Together, they navigate the complex process of going public – even more reason to ensure you have both areas of your business covered in advance so as to avoid any potential risk of the process being derailed (anyone remember ‘Community Adjusted EBITDA’ 😬?).

↳ Acquisition Readiness – the CFO prepares financial data rooms and valuation models whilst the GC handles legal due diligence and contract negotiations.

Working together helps ensure the company is well-positioned for a successful acquisition

The synergy between the CFO and GC is powerful in driving a startup’s success.

They work across different functions at different stages and as startups evolve, the partnership between these two roles becomes increasingly vital, ensuring that financial decisions are legally sound and legal strategies are financially viable.

By really investing in this collborative approach between the finance and legal functions of the organisation, startups can better navigate the complex landscape of growth with greater confidence, precision and stability.

Gif by siliconvalleyhbo on Giphy

As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about this or anything else, just grab some time 😊.

I hope you found Off Balance #54 useful. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊

🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Get your news where Silicon Valley gets its news 📰

The best investors need the information that matters, fast.

That’s why a lot of them (including investors from a16z, Bessemer, Founders Fund, and Sequoia) trust this free newsletter.

It’s a five minute-read every morning, and it gives readers the information they need ASAP so they can spend less time scrolling and more time doing.

Subscribe for free

Off Balance #53

👋🏾 Hi friends!

A day late, but hopefully not a dollar short.

Apologies for the late send folks, I’ve been locked down for the last few days in some seemingly endless meetings (I love it really).

It was during one of these meetings I got the devestating news of Steve O’Hear’s passing. It took me a while to process this as I had only started building a relationship with Steve but I could tell it would likely be one of those ones that would be incredibly meaningful.

You can read more about Steve’s life and legacy here and watch my interview with him from just a few months ago below.

R.I.P.

As you know, I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄. I’m setting myself the target of getting through a large portion of it whilst I’m away in Italy during August – wish me luck!

Now let’s get down to business…

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁?

In the latest episode of Nothing Ventured, I spoke to Manish Karani, founder of Yareta, a science-backed AI tool that analyzes personal traits, values, and past experiences to forecast future success for corporations and investors.

Prior to founding Yareta, Manish spent 5 years at Coutts, working across Switzerland and Singapore. He then launched a Multi-Family Office Investment vehicle, managing investments for 28 ultra-high-net-worth families, deploying £15 million across Real Estate and Venture Capital. With over 30 investments, he achieved a 23% IRR in VC and 14% IRR in Real Estate. In 2023, Manish launched a £30 million fund focused on the plant-based sector with Sentient Ventures VC, an early-stage VC fund, but ultimately decided to return the funds to the LPs.

We talked about:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀

Manish shared his insights on the concept of HAIL — Hardship, Alienation, Illness, and Loss—and how these experiences can shape resilient entrepreneurs. He noted that it’s not the event itself that matters, but rather the individual’s process of overcoming it. This perspective challenges traditional views on what makes a successful founder and highlights the importance of resilience and mindset in navigating the entrepreneurial journey.

𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹

We discussed the significant shifts in the market, particularly following Liz Truss’s announcement, which had a profound impact on the consumer tech space. Manish candidly explained his decision to return capital to LPs after realising that the current environment was not conducive to achieving the fund’s goals. This decision reflects a broader trend among emerging managers who must weigh the viability of their funds against market realities. It’s a reminder that sometimes, stepping back is the most strategic move.

𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿-𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀

One of the most compelling parts of our discussion was the importance of authenticity in the relationships between investors and founders. Manish highlighted that true connections are built on honesty and vulnerability, which can often be lacking in the fast-paced world of venture capital. By fostering genuine relationships, both parties can better understand each other’s motivations and align their goals for mutual success.

We also spoke about:

🔥 How crucible events change your perspective and change your life.

💔 Have non UK LPs fallen out of love with the UK?

😓 Investing in Hardship, Alienation, Illness and Loss.

📏 It’s not the event that you’re measuring, it’s the individual’s process for managing that event – and that can be measured.

🚀 Quantifying entrepreneurship potential.

🤨 The 27 Traits of Entrepreneurs.

Check it out on YouTube!

Else listen on Spotify or Apple

If you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what we’re doing – you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Blossom, Salesforce Ventures, Sofinnova, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀

As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about anything finance, tech or venture releated, just grab some time 😊.

Gif by madameweb on Giphy

I hope you found Off Balance #53 valuable. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊

🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 If you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Off Balance #52

👋🏾 Hi friends!

This weekend I spoke at Niyo Fest about the gender and ethnic funding gap that seems to be persisting.

An interesting (and depressing) stat that I talked about from this Crunchbase article says it all:

It was great to have been able to give my perspective on what founders can practically do to improve their chances of securing funding – irrespective of the real or perceived barriers out there 💪🏾

I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄.

Now let’s get down to business…

In this weeks Off Balance:

🎙️ Andrea Gurnari from 2100 Ventures on Nothing Ventured talking about building hardware and investing across Europe.
🔥 What founders often get wrong about burn.

This week on Nothing Ventured I spoke to Andrea Gurnari, Partner at 2100 Ventures 🚀

2100 Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage fund dedicated to supporting European entrepreneurs driving the new golden age of industrial innovation, investing in B2B businesses across a range of verticals. Prior to 2100 Ventures, Andrea was an investor with Atomico and Connect Ventures before which he worked in and co-founded startups in Italy and the UK.

We talked about:

💸 How early should founders be thinking about monetisation.
🇬🇧 The collaborative and international nature of the UK and why that’s a huge advantage for the country.
🤔 How the psychology of the founder impacts their decision making, accepting that the experiment hasn’t worked can be very difficult.
🧠 Why founders need deep intellectual honesty.
👹 The ecosystem owes it to founders to not demonise failure.
🧪 Everything starts with experiments.
🇪🇺 Can we innovate on the old economy of Europe and rebuild productivity the region has lost.
🤨 Andrea’s contrarian take – sometimes you have to judge the reasoning not the output.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts!

If you have any feedback on the podcast or the newsletter, just reply to this mail or ping me online!

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Now let’s get into it.

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀

Off Balance

 

Finance is full of acronyms and a variety of terms that, if you haven’t really learned them, can be easy to get wrong (I recall one founder I worked with who insisted on calling the cap table a capX table – conflating capex and capitalisation).

One of my bug bears is when folk talk about EBITDA as if it was the exact same thing as their burn.

New flash.

It’s not.

Here’s why…

Founders stop shorthanding EBITDA for your burn.

There is a reason that it’s not formally recognized by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

But for tech founders that don’t have a strong understanding of finance, it feels like a power move to quote EBITDA and, as I have seen far too often, sub it in for burn.

Let’s break it down.

Take a SaaS business that sells 5 annual contracts at $50k a pop, has monthly payroll of $100k and, for the sake of simplicity has no other costs running through it.

On the Income Statement they’d actually show the following:

➡️ Revenue = $20.8k
➡️ Costs = $50k
➡️ EBITDA = $(29k) – loss.

Now let’s assume they capitalise 50% of their payroll to the balance sheet as they are creating long term IP.

The income statement now looks like this:

➡️ Revenue = $20.8k
➡️ Costs = $25k
➡️ EBITDA = $(4k) – loss.

But neither of these equate to their <actual> burn which looks like this:

➡️ Inflow = $250k
➡️ Outflow = $50k
➡️ Net burn = $200k inflow

These are three pretty different numbers and all three are correct from an accounting perspective, but only one of them shows the actual cash performance of the business.

Yes there is further complexity, yes there are other reasons to point to EBITDA, yes you can wrangle business numbers till the cows come home.

But I’m just here to inform and hopefully educate.

Cos you can trip yourself up and look naive if you get it wrong and it gets picked up.

So if you’re not sure what your actual burn is, have a chat to someone that can help you figure it out and remember,,, cash really is king.

As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about this or anything else, just grab some time 😊.

I hope you found Off Balance #52 useful. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊

🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

“Like Morning Brew (but for venture capital)”

Join 15,000+ VCs and investors getting smarter on venture capital by reading this free daily newsletter.

Start getting the headlines that matter, lists of companies breaking out, and other resources and playbooks you won’t find anywhere else.

Become a smarter investor in < 5 min a day.

Subscribe for free

Off Balance #51

👋🏾 Hi friends!

Even as autumn descends, it seems like we’re starting to see some green shoots in the venture ecosystem, a bit of life – or to put it more bluntly, a bit of cash coming back into the system – fingers crossed we start seeing a bit more activity so we can see 2024 out with a bang 🤞 🧨 

Don’t forget, I’ll be speaking at Niyo Fest this Saturday where I’ll be talking about Levelling the Playing Field: The Gender Finance Gap – come join me in Birmingham for a celebration of technology, culture and community 💪🏾

As you know, I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄. I’m setting myself the target of getting through a large portion of it whilst I’m away in Italy during August – wish me luck!

Now let’s get down to business…

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗙𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 📈

In this week’s episode of Nothing Ventured, I sat down with Alokik Advani, Managing Partner at Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, building and investing in fintech businesses and technologies that are strategic to Fidelity International.

Alokik’s career has spanned over two decades in finance setting up a strategic investment unit for Merrill Lynch in Europe after which he spent a decade building out Goldman Sach’s Strategic Investments team and practice in Hong Kong before joining VC firm Eight Roads as the MD for Fintech Strategic Investments.

In this episode we covered:

→ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹: Alokik discussed the common misconceptions surrounding CVCs, often labeled as “dumb money” or slow-moving entities. However, he emphasised that strategic investors can bring significant value beyond just capital. By aligning incentives and actively participating in the growth of startups, CVCs can foster meaningful partnerships that drive innovation and revenue potential. This shift in mindset is crucial for founders to understand as they navigate their funding options.

→ 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀: In today’s market, many startups face the reality of down rounds. Alokik encouraged founders not to dread this scenario but to view it as an opportunity for recalibration. By focusing on building sustainable businesses with solid fundamentals—like achieving $100 million in ARR rather than chasing billion-dollar valuations—founders can create long-term value. This perspective shift can help startups weather economic uncertainties and emerge stronger.

→ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹: Alokik highlighted the need for flexibility in investment duration, especially in a rapidly changing market. Traditional 10-year fund structures may not suit all startups, particularly those in sectors experiencing significant shifts. Fidelity’s approach allows for a longer-term view, enabling them to support companies that require more time to realize their potential. This adaptability is essential for fostering innovation and ensuring that startups have the runway they need to succeed.

We also spoke about:

🤑 Whether corporate ventures only provide the dumb money and over pay?

👩🏾‍💼 Strategic investors are now involved in 20% of deals or more.

📉 Why you shouldn’t dread the downround

⏳ How startups can outlast the 10 year fund structure.

💸 Why if it isn’t easy to realise returns, everything slows down.

🤯 The mindset shift required to becoming the $100m ARR company rather than the $1bn company.

🐢 Alokik’s contrarian advice – Slow down and take your time sometimes.

Check it out on YouTube!

Else listen on Spotify or Apple

If you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what we’re doing – you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀

As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about anything finance, tech or venture releated, just grab some time 😊.

Gif by americangods on Giphy

I hope you found Off Balance #51 valuable. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊

🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 If you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish

Get your news where Silicon Valley gets its news 📰

The best investors need the information that matters, fast.

That’s why a lot of them (including investors from a16z, Bessemer, Founders Fund, and Sequoia) trust this free newsletter.

It’s a five minute-read every morning, and it gives readers the information they need ASAP so they can spend less time scrolling and more time doing.

Subscribe for free

Off Balance #50

👋🏾 Hi friends!

And,,, we’re back!

Time flies when you’re having fun busier than you can imagine! Having returned back from Italy at the end of August, it turns out things seemed to be moving and shaking in the world of venture.

Last week I was on a panel with Mercia Ventures talking about the joys of bootstrapping (more on that below) and in a couple of weeks or so I’ll be talking at Niyo Fest where I’ll be talking about Levelling the Playing Field: The Gender Finance Gap – come join me in Birmingham for a celebration of technology, culture and community 💪🏾

I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance – The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄.

Now let’s get down to business…

In this weeks Off Balance:

🎙️ Joe Seager-Dupuy from True on the podcast to talk venture, consumer and retail and his time at the Branson Family Office.
🥾 Some reflections on bootstrapping.

For the first episode of the new season of Nothing Ventured we spoke to Joe Seager-Dupuy, Investment Director in the VC Team at True., a consumer and retail focused investment and innovation advisory firm based in London with circa $1bn of assets under management.

True’s VC Fund invests into Pre-Seed to Series A startups operating in the consumer and retail vertical, both B2C and B2B.

Prior to joining True, Joe was a Director of Corporate Strategy and Development at Virgin Management, the Branson family office, and had spent the early part of his career in strategy at WarnerMedia and OC&C Strategy Consultants.

In this episode, we talked about:

🐐 How there is something to be said to getting beasted pretty hard early in your career.
🤯 How Richard Branson has repeatedly done and created improbable things throughout his career.
❓ How family offices differ from VCs in how they invest in venture.
🌩️ How it’s been a perfect storm for consumer businesses.
🛍️ How 60% of the GDP of most western economies is consumer spending – 60 trillion globally, 15 trillion in Europe.
👖 Will AI agents be buying your clothes in the future?
⚽️ Joe’s contrarian opinion is that Ipswich will win the premiership in the next 10 years.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts!

If you have any feedback on the podcast or the newsletter, just reply to this mail or ping me online!

If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.

(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Now let’s get into it.

This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.

EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.

Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.

If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale 🚀

Off Balance

On a recent panel in Leeds, I got the chance to sit down with Kiran Mehta, investor at Mercia, Michael Cleavely – founder of CoComply, Dan Rosenberg – cofounder of LinkyThinks and Lucy Bulley – fractional COO to talk about the intricacies, issues and opportunities that bootstrapping your business offers.

It was a pretty robust conversation and some super interesting questions from the audience, I’ve tried to distil it all down into my top takeaways below…

Yes, but what does bootstrapping actually mean…?

Firstly, let’s clarify something, some folk think that if you’ve only taken on a bit of angel investment, you’re a bootstrapper, but the reality is that bootstrapping means literally funding the business on its own steam with revenue as the only source of capital you’ve got to grow.

With that out of the way, here were the things that really stood out for me by the end of the conversation:

1. Not all (most!) businesses should not take on venture money.

If it wasn’t apparent already, whilst I work with a lot of VC backed businesses (or maybe precisely because I do), not every business is suitable for the venture model. It needs to be in, or creating, a market that has the potential for incredibly outsized outcomes (the famous fund returning unicorns so sought after amongst VCs).

If your business doesn’t fit the profile of scaling hard and scaling fast whilst generating incredible value without needing costs to scale linearly with revenue – then venture probably isn’t right.

2. Know yourself first, character and ambition will have an impact.

Beyond the ability to scale, you have to really understand yourself before taking on venture funding (or any funding for that matter).

I’ve found over time that I really don’t like being beholden to others (probably why I consider myself unemployable) so I would probably not take on external investors in anything I might build from here on in (having done it once I know for sure it’s not for me!).

Unless you – on top of the ability for your business to scale – have the ambition and unrelenting drive to push your business in a certain fashion, you might well be better of bootstrapping.

3. Scarce capital requires focussed decisions, but not necessarily slow ones.

When you don’t have a lot of cash to play with, you have to think very hard about what is going to move the needle most and provide the best return on what you spend. But that doesn’t mean that you should run your business in a state of decision paralysis.

Be considered, thoughtful and thorough in your decisions, but make those decisions as quickly as you can.

When you have a lot of cash, you can afford to take more bets to see what works best – that’s not to say you should spend without thinking, but at least you have the option to run experiements in parallell.

4. There is no magic number to get to if you do want to raise external capital – market, traction and speed to scale matter more.

Lots of people think there is some kind of revenue number that you have to reach in order to raise VC money, but many of the VC backed businesses I know raised very early in their lifecycle and often pre-revenue.

The more important thing to consider is whether it has the technology and shows the traits to be able to get to venture scale.

5. R&D heavy businesses lend themselves less to bootstrapping as you need capital to build.

If you’re building in the hardware space, or a very tech heavy business then it’s a lot harder to bootstrap. Most of these types of ventures need a lot of cash to get off the ground and to build out product substantially enough to start testing the market.

Many bootstrappers will go out and do some consulting to fund their development which works better for pure software / SaaS ventures, but might be a bit harder for the R&D heavy businesses I mention.

But it’s also not impossible, you can apply for grants, take out loans and potentially find a reference customer that might fund part of the devlopment – but the reality is that it’ll be hard to find someone who can fund enough to make it work.

6. Get out of the building and talk to customers – keep iterating.

Both founders on the panel said this a few times, and let’s face it, whether you’re bootstrapping or not you have to get out of the building and speak to customers.

Not only will that help inform your product, but it’ll also help you ensure that you’re spending money in the right areas.

7. Enterprise customers need a complete solution, consumers might be a bit more forgiving.

When you’re bootstrapping, you have to think about how ‘complete’ your product (if it’s a software business) needs to be before you can take it out to potential clients.

The reality is that enterprise clients are going to be less inclined to buy a half baked product so you’re probably going to have to spend more time and money to build out something acceptable whereas consumers can be a bit more forgiving – one of the founders told us that for their edtech business, they spent most of their energy on getting the content right and left the platform fairly raw until they had validated demand for the content.

8. Your tech is almost always better if you can build in house.

This might be slightly contentious, but you might find that if you outsource your tech development to an agency, you either don’t get the product you commissioned, or don’t get it in the time you need it, or don’t end up paying what you thought you would.

In fact, even if you do use an agency, ultimately you’re going to have to find a way to bring your development in house in any case.

Clearly, when you are bootstrapping it’s hard to bring on employees full time, but you might want to consider bringing someone on part time or as a contractor as opposed to hiring an agency, this way you’ll probably be closer to the development proceess and more able to course correct in real time.

9. You can still get to great outcomes when bootstrapping, it just might take longer.

People often assume the only way you can get to a huge outcome is by taking on venture capital, but there are some pretty famous businesses that boostrapped their way to success – look at MailChimp, BaseCamp or GitHub if you want some inspiration.

Equally, Shopify bootstrapped for 6 years before taking on venture funding and is now valued at well over $100 billion.

10. Building a business is HARD whichever route you take.

Frankly, whether you choose to bootstrap or take on venture capital, building a business is difficult and in either case, you are going to have different challenges to consider.

The most important thing is that you’ve chosen to build, and there is nothing more gratifying than that 🚀

As always, my office hours are open, if you’d like to chat about this or anything else, just grab some time 😊.

I hope you found Off Balance #50 useful. As always, I’d love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.

Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know 😊

🚀And that’s a wrap for this edition of Off Balance – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.

📨 And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,

🎧 Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.

That’s it from me so until next time…

Stay liquid 🙂

Aarish