PODCAST · business
Ventures
by Viraj Acharya
A show of interviews at the intersection of Creators, Startups, & Operators. But instead of just talking about *what* they're building/ doing, we have a candid conversation about the details.
Episodes
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Electric Motors For Millions | Robin Renz, Hyperdrives
This is my first conversation with Robin Renz, co-founder and CEO of Hyperdrives. Hyperdrives is manufacturing super-efficient, highly power-dense, low-cost electric motors by solving their cooling problem. Their new engineering facility enables the company to iterate on the production line for…
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Manufacturing 1000 Microfactories By 2030 | Mollie Claypool, AUAR
This is my first conversation with Mollie Claypool, co-founder and CEO of AUAR. AUAR builds and operates microfactories that produce timber panels for homebuilding. The team is preparing its first V3 deployments from its 11,000-square-foot facility in London, working toward deploying 1,000...
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The Anti-Gravity Machine | Julian Rothenbuchner, Tumbleweed
My first conversation with Julian Rothenbuchner, co-founder and CEO of Tumbleweed. In June 2026, Tumbleweed became the first Austrian commercial satellite, building and launching Oasis Alpha in under nine months, as they scale to industrialising microgravity. Timestamps (00:00:00) The…
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Building the Space Police | Marnix Meersman, Arqus Aerospace
My first conversation with Marnix Meersman, co-founder and CEO of Arqus Aerospace. Arqus is developing lasers to dazzle and destroy spacecraft Timestamps (00:00:00) Modern warfare's evolution (00:05:35) Becoming an aerospace company (00:06:45) Lindbergh (00:09:31) Using anger to move faster...
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Human Clock Speed | Ali Mitchell, Odyssey Ventures
My First Conversation with Ali Mitchell, Odyssey Ventures Timestamps 00:00:00 Work is life 00:02:23 Building the Ninian oil platform 00:09:10 The big red bus theory 00:11:47 Learning human clock speed at dunnhumby 00:16:22 Betting everything on Huddle.com 00:20:21 Mortgaging the house for Flow...
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The Space Shipping Company | Mark Stokes, Magdrive
My First Conversation with Mark Stokes, Co-founder & CEO of Magdrive Timestamps 00:00:00 Studying classics 00:02:14 Meeting Dr Thomas Clayson 00:05:07 Why satellite propulsion stopped evolving 00:07:01 Turning metal into plasma with pulsed power 00:11:28 The Battle of Salamis 00:13:27 Building…
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Building Unmanned Tractors | Voltrac, Fran Infante Aguirre & Tom Hubregtsen
My first conversation with co-founders Fran Infante Aguirre & Tom Hubregtsen of Voltrac. Timestamps 00:00:00 The Farming Labour Crisis 00:01:49 Farming as a Service 00:03:27 Leaving the family business 00:04:57 Building the first chassis in the family shed 00:08:02 Hardware at software speed...
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Go Gig or Go Home | Josh Vernon, Gigaton
This is my first conversation with Josh Vernon, founder of Earnd/Stream and now CEO of Gigaton. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:28 Learning to work from his father 06:59 Dropping out of mechatronic engineering 09:06 The instinct behind life-changing decisions 12:10 Early mentors and stumbling into…
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$20M Series A, The 2-Year Exit & Why Compliance Teams Need Al Agents Now: Mikkel Skarnager, spektr
Fresh off a massive $20M Series A, Mikkel, a repeat founder who sold his last company at age 26, breaks down how at spektr they are completely automating compliance for tier-one banks, and why building an AI company is both vastly more complex and wildly more fun.
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Managing 3,000 Retail Investors, GP/LP Fund, & the M&A Landscape: Fred Soneya, Haatch
Fred Soneya of Haatch talks about how they scaled from a small angel group to a powerhouse firm. This is a masterclass in B2B SaaS and the "operator-led" fund model. We discuss the mechanics of pre-seed investing, why "boring" industries are goldmines, and how they run the firm 24/7.
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The $4 Trillion Liquidity Trap & How AI Agents Will Handle Your Payments: Berhan Kongel, Keyrails
Berhan is a serial founder who practically invented the on-chain lending vertical with ARV and is now tackling the $4 trillion "trapped cash" problem in global finance. This is a masterclass in the invisible plumbing that powers the world economy and a rare look into the future of programmable...
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FULL INTERVIEW: Camilla Dolan on Horse Trading as a Teen, Sourcing with Al, & EKA Fund II
From teenage horse trading to managing a $107M fund, Camilla Dolan’s runs a masterclass in the "obsession" required to build category-defining brands. This conversation pulls back the curtain on how she and the Eka Ventures team are deploying their second fund to reshape the future of consumer...
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spektr $20m Series A, Stephen Johnson, Camilla Dolan, Berhan Kongel, Mikkel Skarnager, Rishabh Kaul, Fred Soneya, Ollie Bone join the show
It's Thursday 16th April & today on VENTURES we have a stellar slate. On the show today: Stephen Johnson: Investor, Mercia Ventures Camilla Dolan: General Partner, Eka Ventures Berhan Kongel: Co-Founder and CEO, Keyrails Mikkel Skarnager, Co-Founder and CEO, spektr Rishabh Kaul: Venture Partner,...
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Tech Sovereignty, Energy Bottleneck, & Why Poland Has the World’s Best Math Talent: Jarek Pilarczyk
Jarek Pilarczyk went from building and selling multi-million dollar companies in Poland to funding the next generation of European “tech sovereignty.” He reveals why hardware is now a safer bet than software and how Poland’s education system accidentally created a global hub for math genius. We...
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Why You’re Burnt Out on Dating Apps: Mio Fagerhäll, eve
Mio Fagerhäll is the co-founder of eve, an AI matchmaker that’s removing the swipe entirely and is now Sweden’s fastest-growing dating app. We dive deep into why 80% of users are burnt out on swiping and how AI is finally fixing the "endless choice" paradox. Timestamps: 0:00 - From Pokemon expert...
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Software is Eating the World, Boris Paskalev is Making it Stable with Logicstar AI
Boris Paskalev is the co-founder of Logicstar AI and the former founder of Deep Code, which was successfully acquired by snyk. A x5 serial entrepreneur, he is currently building predictive maintenance to fix the "leaky bucket" of modern software applications. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to...
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Why 2100 Ventures is Betting Big on Italy, Andrea Gennarini
Andrea Gennarini is the Co-Founder and GP of 2100Ventures, a €30M micro-VC proving that Italy is the place to build. This conversation dives into why the world’s 8th largest economy is currently the biggest untapped opportunity in the European tech ecosystem. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction to...
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Inside the Fund Decoding Nature with AI: George Darrah, Systemiq Capital
George Darrah, partner at Systemiq capital and a biologist by training, is revolutionizing how we invest in the intersection of nature and technology. We discuss the future of AI-driven biotech, the cost curves of genomic sequencing, and the portfolio companies transforming everything from…
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The $107M Bet on Shared Value:: Jon Coker, Eka Ventures
Jon Coker has built a reputation for spotting consumer giants early, and this deep dive follows the massive news of Eka Ventures closing their $107M second fund. In this episode, we discuss the evolution of early-stage investing, the proprietary tech stack powering their deal flow, and why the…
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EKA $107M Fund II, No1 Swedish Dating app, Jon Coker, George Darrah, Andrea Gennarini, Boris Paskalev, Mio Fagerhäll and Jarek Pilarczyk join the show
11:30 Jon Coker: Founding Partner, Eka Ventures 12:00 George Darrah: General Partner, Systemiq Capital 12:30 Andrea Gennarini: Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 2100 Ventures 13:00 Boris Paskalev: Co-Founder and CEO, LogicStar AI 13:30 Mio Fagerhäll: CEO, eve 14:00 Jarek Pilarczyk: Partner, Balnord
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Serial Entrepreneur, Bobby Healy on How To Build Companies That Win
Timestamps: 0:00 - Raising $110M and the "Most Expensive Sofa Ever" 1:01 - The 80s Gaming Era: Writing code for Nintendo at 13 2:53 - The shift to Manna: Why drone delivery became an obvious bet in 2018 4:34 - Identifying "Regulatory Unlock" as the ultimate market signal 6:53 - Hacking the first...
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Healthmaxxing with Maxime Berthelot
Timestamps: 0:00 - The impact of morning sunlight on Vitamin D and mood 1:17 - Introduction to Maxime and the mission of Lucy 2:36 - The context problem: Why 100+ biomarkers need a lifestyle questionnaire 3:51 - Building the recommendation engine: AI vs. Doctor supervision 5:34 - Partnering with...
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Sebastian Hunte on Compute, Vertical integration & World Models
Timestamps:0:00 - Introduction 0:48 - Barbados think tank 2:38 - The Integrated View: Why energy, compute, and AI are inseparable 7:11 - The Physical AI Frontier: Why data-capture flywheels win in the real world 11:00 - VLA Models vs. Dream Space: Pragmatism vs. the platonic ideal of simulation...
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50 Years of Apple
Its Apple's bday
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OpenAI Secures $122B, Artemis Liftoff, Legora $100m ARR, Manna raises $50M
It's Thursday, 2nd April and Today on VENTURES we have a stellar slate.On the show today:11:30 Sebastian Hunte: Investment Director, AlbionVC12:30 Leo Lerach: Co-Founder and COO, ENAPI13:00 Maxime Berthelot: Founder and CEO, Lucis13:30 Luke Ramsden: Co-Founder and CPTO, Architect13:50 Jasper...
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How to win an IPO bake off with Luke Pappas, NEA
Luke Pappas spent his early career in the high-stakes trenches of Morgan Stanley, working under the "Godfather of Tech Banking," Michael Grimes. Now a Partner at NEA, he’s leveraging those "bake-off" battle scars to help European founders scale toward massive liquidity events. Timestamps 0:00 –...
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Never Have a Supply Chain Problem Again: Matt Francis, Rama
Matt Francis spent his childhood watching his father struggle with supply chain bottlenecks in a coffee machine factory. Now, the Cambridge-educated engineer is using that early trauma to fuel Rama. Timestamps 0:00 – Introduction and the $3M seed announcement1:43 – Why supply chain resilience is...
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Indian founders are the scrappiest with Ankit Anand, Riceberg Ventures
Ankit is the founding partner at Riceberg Ventures a truly global early-stage deep tech fund that backs high-R&D breakthroughs across space tech, life sciences, energy, and AI robotics. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction to Ankit and the global deep tech thesis at Riceberg Ventures 1:29 -...
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Full Interview with Noel Hurley, We Don't Need Bigger CPUs
Noel Hurley spent 30 years at the top of the semiconductor industry, joining Arm when it was a team of just 40 people. Now, he’s launching a direct challenge to the modern "brute force" AI model, arguing that we don’t need bigger chips—we need smarter logic. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction 01:53…
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GOOGLE RED ALERT - Quantum Crypto Timelines
Quantum Crypto Timelines
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Starcloud Unicorn, Mistral Raises $830M, Openclaw in Claude Code, Uber acquires Blacklane
It's Tuesday, 31st March and today on VENTURES we have an outstanding line up. Show Op-ed: Quantum Crypto Timelines On the show today: 11:30 Noel Hurley: Co-Founder and CEO, Literal Labs 12:00 Ankit Anand: Founding Partner, Riceberg Ventures 12:25 Franziska Walde: Co-Founder and Co-CEO, refinq...
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How Credit Risk Works: Tom Powell, BondAval
Tom Powell is the co-founder and CEO of Bondaval, a London-based fintech redefining credit insurance through proprietary technology. A former professional rugby player for Harlequins and EnglandRugby, he transitioned into venture capital with PassionCapital before launching Bondaval to bring...
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Full Interview with Mirko Novakovic, Dash0: $110M Series B, IBM sale, Observability, Getting into Founder Mode
Mirko Novakovic thought he was finished with startups after selling Instana to IBM, but a three-month break was all it took for boredom to set in. Now, the 26-year observability veteran is well and truly back with Dash0, with a $110M Series B at a $1B valuation to build the "AI nervous system" of...
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Full Interview with Samuel Beek on Quitting Veed, Hardware Love and Gtm for Schematik
He joins the show fresh off announcing he's going founder mode on Schematik. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro: The "Crazy Scientist" energy of 2026 1:53 - Why now? Leaving the Veed journey after 5 years 3:45 - The physical problem: Why hardware is the next major frontier 5:20 - From Zero to One: Buying...
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The Kings of Context - Granola
Today's Oped on the recent granola series c
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Granola's $1.5bn valuation, ARM Chips, European Deep Tech, Sam Beek joins & Dash0 Crashes the show
On the show today: Tom Powell: Co-Founder and CEO, Bondaval Sander Sebastian Agur Sebastian: Co-Founder and CEO, Rollo Robotics Cory Johnson: Growth Marketer, Synthesia Orla Browne: Head of Insights, Dealroom.co Samuel Beek: Founder, Schematik Gemma Bloemen: Venture Partner, Systemiq Capital Matt...
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Luana David, Supernode Global on: Hormona, Fmr Balderton partner insights, Consumer & Sifted Article
Luana is an investor at Supernode Global, backing early-stage companies that empower daily life through well-being and productivity. Previously an early operator at SeedLegals (growing from 10 to 80+ people), she founded her own interior design marketplace in Paris, then joined InreachVentures to...
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Full Interview with Joe McDonald, tem: Electrons, Compute, Stripe play, LOTR, Tourist states + $75M Series B
Full Interview with Joe McDonald, co-founder & CEO of @temenergy He joins the show for the first time, since closing a $75M Series B to build the future of energy infrastructure. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro & Joe’s background 03:45 The electron cost 07:20 Risk of countries being “tourist states”…
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Revolut's 2025 Profit, Rise of the Neobank and the Sifted piece on techbros
Special Double Op-ed today
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Revolut Profits, Airstreet's Epoch 3, Sifted Chaos, Mass Drivers, Lovable M&A, & tem on the show
It's Tuesday, 24th March and Today on VENTURES we have an outstanding line up. On the show today: Joe McDonald: Founder and CEO, tem Mario von Bassen: Co-Founder and CEO, Wavebird Matthew Cortland: Founder, GuinndexAI Jo Marini: Founder, Mothership Materials Lodovico Carini: Investor, DTCP Jonny...
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Dr Max Werner, Hades Mining on Lasers, European Sovereignty and Raising €20.5M
Made possible by: Tradestars - https://tradestars.space/ventures
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Full Interview with Tano CTO Sagar Shah on: Agents, Harnesses, Full Stack Agencies and Brands
Made possible by: Tradestars - https://tradestars.space/ventures
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A Short History Of The EU’s European Company (EU-INC)
Today's oped explaining the history of EU-INC Made possible by: Tradestars - https://tradestars.space/ventures
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EU INC progress, METAverse's Rollback, HADES Laser Drill and Claude Dispatch Released
It's Thursday, 19th March and Today on VENTURES we have a star-studded line-up.The Daily Op-ed: A Short History Of The EU’s European Company: https://virajacharya.substack.com/ On the show today: Josh Goldman: COO, VEEDSagar Shah: Co-Founder and CTO, TanoJacob Graubaek Houlberg: Co-Founder,...
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How Planet A invests with Sam Baker
From the intricacies of jet engine maintenance at GE to the cutting edge of climate-tech investing, Sam Baker is on a mission to build an economy that operates within planetary boundaries. In this deep dive, the Planet A investor breaks down why the climate crisis is a solvable engineering...
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Alchemy for High-performance Materials: Assia Kasdi, Milvus Advanced
Assia Kasdi is doing the impossible: engineering alternatives to the universe’s rarest elements in a "cooking pot" at sub-boiling temperatures. We explore the "alchemical" breakthrough of substituting platinum with earth-abundant copper and why the periodic table shouldn't be viewed as a set of...
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FULL INTERVIEW with Renato Circi & Rafaël Michali on Glucose, Living longer, Building in Stealth
Renato Circi and Rafaël Michali spent four years in a central London lab, failing 300 times before they saw their first hour of successful data. Now, the Sava co-founders are stepping out of stealth to explain why continuous molecular monitoring is the missing "foundational model" for human...
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SpeedRunning The Intel Playbook (Nvidia GTC 2026 Breakdown)
Explaining the "SpeedRunning The Intel Playbook" Op-ed https://virajacharya.substack.com/
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GTC 2026, UK/EU Tie Deepens, €25M FIRSTPICK Fund, Milvus's alchemy & SAVA Founders join the show
"SpeedRunning The Intel Playbook" Op-ed - https://virajacharya.substack.com/ On the show today:Assia Kasdi: Founder and CEO, Milvus AdvancedIsabel Fox: Head of Investor Relations, Hoxton VenturesSava Founders: Renato Circi and Rafaël Michali Andra Bagdonaite: General Partner…
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FULL INTERVIEW: Sara Rywe on byFounders, New Nordics Investing, Generational VC firm building
From the front lines of McDonald's to the helm of a leading European VC, Sara Rywe is redefining what it means to be a "founder-friendly" investor. In this long-awaited sit-down, she reveals how byFounders is engineering a generational firm by stripping away traditional downside protections and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A show of interviews at the intersection of Creators, Startups, & Operators. But instead of just talking about *what* they're building/ doing, we have a candid conversation about the details.
HOSTED BY
Viraj Acharya
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Ventures have?
Ventures currently has 89 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Ventures about?
A show of interviews at the intersection of Creators, Startups, & Operators. But instead of just talking about *what* they're building/ doing, we have a candid conversation about the details.
How often does Ventures release new episodes?
Ventures has 89 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Ventures on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Ventures?
Ventures is created and hosted by Viraj Acharya.
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