99% of AI investors will lose money -and that's expected. Oli Hammond, Fuel Ventures

Could the first wave of AI turn out to be a capital destruction event? On today's episode we're joined by Oli Hammond, Partner at Fuel Ventures, where he leads seed rounds of £1–2 million into B2B companies — and, full disclosure, a SyndicateRoom alumnus who started his career with us before going on to bigger things.Oli believes AI will create enormous value — for a very small number of firms — while most startups in the application layer get swallowed by the very platforms they're built on. We dig into why he thinks 99% of the money chasing AI will lose, why regulated markets may be the last place software can still build a moat, and why founder–market fit misses the thing that matters most: whether a founder can deliver bad news early. Plus how a lead investor sells his money to the best founders, what Fuel's 1,800-strong investor network does for a portfolio company, and the top rule on Oli's list of eight — "mediocre people with unique ideas don't work."Enjoy the episode? Please like, subscribe and tell your friends, and leave a comment or question; we'll do our best to reply. Follow Oli on LinkedIn, find Fuel Ventures at fuel.ventures, and see what we're doing at SyndicateRoom at syndicateroom.comLearn about the Enterprise Investment Scheme.