👋🏾 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.

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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 😊.

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