Nothing Ventured

2025 wasn’t a recovery year, it was a reckoning. Venture capital didn’t bounce back. It split clean in two. In this year-end episode of Nothing Ventured, Aarish breaks down The Great Bifurcation — the moment the market decided who matters and who doesn’t. From the collapse of AI wrappers like Builder.ai, to $30B valuations with no product. From biology quietly raising billions in London, to defence, energy, and sovereign infrastructure becoming the only safe harbours. From Europe’s talent paradox to why a SpaceX IPO could restart the entire venture flywheel. This episode covers: - Why 2025 killed the “fake it till you make it” era - The AI split: gods vs mortals - The biology boom nobody is talking about - Defence, energy, and the rise of the sovereignty stack - Europe’s capital problem (and why exits keep moving to the US) - Why SpaceX’s IPO may unlock liquidity for everyone in 2026 2025 ended easy money. 2026 will reward important money. 🎙️ If you’re a founder, investor, operator, or LP — this is the map of where venture actually is now. #venturecapital #startups #ai #biotech #defencetech #europe #tech2025 #nothingventured This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B. Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/ Sign up for EmergeOne’s weekly newsletter, Off Balance at https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/subscribe

In this deep-dive season closer, Aarish sits down with Emmet King to unpack the real state of AI, venture, and the hidden strengths of the Nordic ecosystem. They explore why Scandinavia punches far above its weight, where the AI bubble will burst first, why distribution beats innovation, and what it actually takes for an application-layer AI startup to survive 2026. From trust, data moats and workflow depth, to manufacturing intelligence, robotics, and the limits of context—this conversation goes way beyond the hype. Emmett also reveals his most contrarian belief as a tech investor, and what genuinely moves him in life. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro & Why the Nordics Punch Above Their Weight 08:00 – Europe’s Culture Shift: Ambition, Failure & Jante 14:00 – The AI Bubble & Where the Reset Starts 19:40 – What AI Apps Must Have to Survive 2026 27:00 – Hardware, Sensors & Industrial AI’s Next Frontier 44:45 – What Dies, What Consolidates & What Wins in AI 53:00 – Emmett’s Contrarian Take & What Moves Him Emotionally Find Emmet King online at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmetking/ Twitter: https://x.com/J12Ventures J12 Ventures: https://www.j12ventures.com/ This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B. Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/ Sign up for EmergeOne’s weekly newsletter, Off Balance at https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/subscribe

In this deep, funny, and at times shocking conversation, Jess Butcher MBE — co-founder of Blippar and the creator of Scroll Aware — breaks down how the attention economy became an addiction economy, how AR missed its moment, why our kids are becoming NPCs, and what the analogue renaissance could look like. We explore: Timestamps: 00:00 — AR’s rise & missed moment 03:00 — Why AR never hit education 06:46 — Attention → addiction economy 11:30 — Algorithmic media & truth decay 15:50 — Overwhelm, ADHD & digital habits 18:49 — Kids, screens & NPC culture 22:03 — Phones out of schools 27:07 — The “safe phone” movement 30:32 — Big Tech vs Big Tobacco 46:37 — The analogue renaissance begins Find Jess Butcher online at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessbutcher/ Twitter: https://x.com/jessbutcher scrollaware: https://www.scrollaware.com/ This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B. Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/ Sign up for EmergeOne’s weekly newsletter, Off Balance at https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/subscribe

In this episode of Nothing Ventured, Aarish Shah sits down withRajan Dosanjh and Ankush Shah, partners at Rank Ventures, to unpack what real early-stage investing looks like in 2025 and beyond. We get into: 🔥 Why “banking is eat what you kill” but “venture is eat what you grow” 🔥 How bad governance, weak boards & misaligned incentives pushed them to build Rank 🔥 Why 2026 will demand profitability plans and default-alive thinking 🔥 Why skin-in-the-game investors behave differently 🔥 How to remove blame culture and run an effective board 🔥 What founders must internalize about the new funding environment If you’re a founder, operator, angel or fund manager — this one cuts deep. Timestamps: 00:00 — Intro to Rajan & Ankush and the Rank Ventures story 02:00 — “Banking is eat what you kill; venture is eat what you grow” 04:30 — The investment that went wrong — and what it taught them 07:00 — Shared values, asymmetric bets & building trust 10:00 — Operator vs investor mindset (and how to balance both) 14:00 — Bad governance in venture: fiduciary failures & hard lessons 17:00 — Why Rank has real skin in the game (and no management fees) 21:00 — DPI over TVPI: why returns need to be real, not theoretical 24:00 — The new VC market: slower capital, higher expectations 31:00 — What founders need going into 2026: default-alive + ROI-driven growth Find Rajan Dosanjh online at: LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajan-dosanjh/ Rank Ventures: https://rank-ventures.com/ Find Ankush Shah online at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankush-shah-64144a34/ Rank Ventures: https://rank-ventures.com/ This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B. Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/ Sign up for EmergeOne’s weekly newsletter, Off Balance at https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/subscribe

November 2025 might go down as the month venture capital actually snapped. Cursor raised $2.3B at a $29.3B valuation — for a coding assistant. One company, Anthropic, took 29% of all global VC funding. And 18 companies consumed a third of the world’s capital. This isn’t a market. It’s a feeding frenzy. In this explosive episode of Nothing Ventured, Aarish Shah breaks down the 5 signals that prove the venture landscape has officially entered its “no rules” era: ⏱ Chapters 00:00 – Intro 00:27 – The $29B Cursor Shockwave 05:12 – Defence Tech Goes From Taboo to Hot Overnight 10:21 – Slush & Why Europe Might Actually Win 15:18 – The IPO Window Reopens (But Only for Winners) 20:02 – The 18-Company Quarter 23:30 – The Five Takeaways You Cannot Ignore 24:40 – Final Word 💥 What you’ll learn: • Why dev tools are suddenly worth mega-cap valuations • How defence tech became Silicon Valley’s favourite new game • Why Europe’s “boring” capital efficiency might beat America’s AI obsession • Why the IPO window matters more than any funding headline • How extreme capital concentration is setting up the next correction If you want to know where venture is REALLY heading in 2026 — this is the episode. #venturecapital #startups #ai #defencetech #technews This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B. Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/ Sign up for EmergeOne’s weekly newsletter, Off Balance at https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/subscribe