Aarish Shah

EmergeOne

EmergeOne is a leading consultancy providing fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from seed to Series B.

We help founders get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.

Our clients are some of the fastest growing startups backed by funds like Hoxton Ventures, Stride, Playfair, Octopus, Outlier Ventures, Founders Factory and more.

Founder

Nothing Ventured Podcast

Talking to operators and investors, listening to the stories we never heard from the folk that make the startup world go round.

Navigator and Host

Ashore

Angel Investor

Odin

MΛGIC

London Venture Capital Network

Advisor

consilience

Global Expert Member

The NEF+ Programme - Centre for Entrepreneurs

Mentor

Virgin StartUp

Projected

Make better decisions. Your business projected.

I’ve spent almost two decades operating as a CEO or CFO in SME’s. I’ve also executed greenfield projects and secured over $10 million in venture, debt, and working capital funding. 

As a CFO and founder myself, I know that building a venture that’s scaling quickly is not like building any other kind of business. I also believe that access to knowledge and experience around finance shouldn’t be a barrier to growth. 

Because of these principles, EmergeOne was founded - a leading consultancy that provides Fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups and scaleups from Seed to Series B.

It’s my mission to change the way scaling companies run finance so that we can work towards changing the future of this space.

Our team of Fractional CFOs at EmergeOne have collectively raised tens of millions, been involved in 9 figure exits, and have worked with clients that are some of the UK’s fastest growing startups and scaleups backed by funds like Stride, Playfair, Octopus, Founders Factory, Hoxton Ventures and more. 


Alongside building EmergeOne, I’m the host of Nothing Ventured, a podcast created to shine a light on the stories of those who make the startup world go round.

Watch & subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@nothingventuredpodcast 

I’m also the author of Off Balance, a weekly newsletter that explores the intersection of finance, tech, startups and venture. 

Sign up here: https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/ 


If you can't already tell by my LinkedIn posts, my core purpose in life is to inspire, educate and empower people.

That’s why I’m so passionate about fuelling startup and founders growth - whether that’s helping businesses scale through EmergeOne, educating people on the early stage tech and venture ecosystem with my content or sharing my knowledge and expertise through mentorship.

With that in mind, if you’ve got any questions about finance, VC or tech, please do book in with my office hours and grab 15 mins with me for free: https://calendly.com/aarish_shah 


And in the meantime, stay liquid :)

Business advisory providing Part Time and Portfolio Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Finance Director (FD) and finance ops services to startups and growth ventures.

We help you build a better finance stack.

Financial Modelling
Financial and Business Strategy
Financial Planning and Analysis
Treasury and Cash Management
Debt and Equity raises
Performance Dashboarding

This week I am going to be interviewing the ex President and CFO of Softbank Group International and later in the day, the founder of Docusign.

When I started recording Nothing Ventured from my bedroom whilst we were coming out of lockdown number 3 as a way to stave off the boredom I had no plan, no objective - other than to have great conversations with the people behind the stories that make the venture ecosystem go around.

Happy to report that that hasn't changed.

Just awesome conversations with awesome people who have done awesome things.

Words cannot describe how fortunate I feel to be able to do this.

In a world where AI trash is filtering through everything, I'm proud to fly the flag for meaningful discussions with real people doing smart things.

Blessed.

Helping venture backed founders scale | $500M+ in exits & capital raised | Bootstrapped EmergeOne to ​>$1M | Host of Nothing Ventured – real talk with VCs, founders & operators

Proud that EmergeOne | Fractional CFO services and Nothing Ventured are once again supporting the London Venture Capital Network's Venture Capital Winter Ball this year on 4 December 2025 in Central London.

Come along to one of the most glamorous evenings in Venture Capital, bringing together hundreds of investors, family offices, founders, and leaders from across the venture ecosystem.

The VC Winter Ball has sold out two years in a row and continues to be one of the standout community events of the year.

Details:

🔗 https://lu.ma/vcwinterball
📆 Thursday 4 December 2025
📍 Central London

Great catching up with Arthen Sirola-Hashemi yesterday and testing out his new AR game 👀

There are some people you know you're going to want to work with - in whatever capacity - and Arthen is definitely one of those people.

Reminded me why I love this ecosystem - there's always something new around the corner.

Excited to see what's coming next 🔥

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Hi, Aarish here, your friendly neighbourhood CFO...

I asked around, and we don't want (or need) another dashboard that only tells part of the story and adds about as much value to the narrative as a dog turd on the company carpet.

Please stop telling me that yours is different because,,, AI.

It's not.

None of them ever are.

At least for now.

Genuinely trying to help you out guys, take your incredible talents and build something that actually matters.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Huge shout out to all the team at LaunchPod Studios who threw an absolute belter of a Christmas party for all us pod people last week 🎄

I was introduced to James Alexander back in January 2023 and it became pretty clear to me from just that initial meeting that I had found yet another brother from another mother ;)

He and I spend half our time in the studio recording and the other half cooking up crazy ideas - trying them and then (more often than not) kicking them into the long grass)💡

It's through the studio, James and his team (shout outs to Jesse Kettle, Ariella Binke and all the editors 🙌🏾) that we've grown the pod to hundreds of guests, thousands of views and just shy of 50k subscribers within the last 12 months 🚀

Was lovely to get to spend some time with the team and other hosts - good company, good pizza and some very nice personalised crackers - and maybe even an award or two 🤫

Here's to LaunchPod and what it allows me to do - spend hours of my time speaking to some of the smartest, most dedicated and fun people operating in the world of venture 💸

It's been a great 3 years already, and here's to a phenomenal 2026 too 🎧

What do you think this means?

Anecdotally (and from the deals that we get asked to engage in as CFOs), it's been clear that capital is flowing into fewer deals.

Part of this could be explained by the focus on foundational models and all things AI at the cost of everything else.

But, of course, part of it could be simply down to...

Less capital in the system - which is what Pitchbook's data and Sifted's headline below would seem to support.

We have seen tightening over the last few years for sure and if (as noted below), DPI has fallen off a cliff, it is unsurprising that LPs are running a little shy.

But venture is an inherently illiquid asset class. Last time I looked at the data, exits would take on average 13 years (often much longer).

So what do I think is happening?

I think this is the consequence of the hubristic pace of venture in the early 2020s. 

The bill is finally (albeit slowly) coming due.

As the whole ecosystem got juiced on excess liquidity, we're now seeing venture going through a cold turkey phase, everything, everywhere, all at once.

That coupled with concentration risk across "AI" is probably giving some investors pause for thought.

LPs not deploying, VCs not returning, Founders struggling to raise.

As always, we'll see some businesses that could have been great go to the wall, and we'll see others that raised at the right time survive that little bit longer.

Maybe if (when) the AI bubble pops or slowly deflates, we'll see capital flowing more broadly rather than into a few mega rounds into foundational models.

Or, maybe, with interest rates trending downwards, we'll see chequebooks opening up again.

The point is, it's incredibly unlikely we're seeing "the death of venture", maybe we're just seeing a less exhuberent, more cautious approach to what (and who) actually creates value. 

Not just who raised the largest round.

taplio

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