This week’s guest is Connor Murphy, the CEO of Bridge. I met Connor at a Techstars event in Dublin in 2019 as he was just getting his latest venture off the ground in Bridge, and I started using the Bridge app within seconds of meeting him to help me bridge my network. Connor Murphy is an all-around good guy, and in every conversation I have with with him, I end up connecting way more dots than I ever could have expected.  Connor has a background in computer science, startups, venture capital, and management consulting.  He was previously the Managing Director of the Techstars SAP.iO program in Berlin and he has invested in 30 pre-seed technology ventures that have an enterprise value greater than $1bn. The undercurrent for all of this was Connor’s founding of DataHug back in 2009, a collaborative forecasting and pipeline management solution that he sold to Callidus Cloud (now owned by SAP) back in 2013.   In this episode, Connor and I riff on his DataHug founder experience, investing through Techstars and beyond, his journey as CEO of Bridge, and how all of these experiences are linked by the common threads of building relationships, trust as a currency, and kicking your network into hyperdrive.  We also talk through some of his time-tested lessons learned from his time as a startup founder and investor that guide his path and that of the founders he’s invested in as well. BOOK REFERENCES: ‘The Four Steps to the Epiphany’ by Steve Blank  ‘The Mom Test’ by Rob Fitzpatrick LINKS: Learn more about Bridge and see here for a quick insight on the power of Bridge Follow Connor Murphy on LinkedIn, X/(Twitter) and check out his blog Episode title inspired by ‘Bridging the Gap’ by Nas Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

We've got a special treat for you this week, as we've remastered and packaged up two of our most popular episodes from 2023 that were originally going to be one episode looking at the venture capital mantra of ‘investing in lines and not dots’. Both of these episodes were recorded in March 2023, after my team and I had just completed another 12 investments through Techstars, and I was itching to share some of the lessons learned.  Eoin Fitzgerald set the stage for me to do just that, and then we brought Patrick Pinschmidt from Middlegame Ventures onto the show two weeks later to dig deeper into this idea of investing in lines and not dots. LINKS: Learn more about MiddleGame Ventures on their website Follow Patrick Pinschmidt on LinkedIn and Twitter Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Mai Santamaria joins me once again as guest co-host as we riff on the intersection of digital ID, digital wallets, blockchain, CBDCs, and how the political regime under which an individual lives influences your senses of trust and risk. We also blow to bits my expectation that the new EU digital identity wallet will have anything to do with blockchain, contrary to what we’re seeing with digital identity frameworks in Latin America.  Mai is one of the most helpful people I know and always has a uniquely incisive insight or two on what’s going on at the crossover of finance and emerging tech.  Mai originally featured on episode 5 of MoneyNeverSleeps back in 2018, she made a cameo on our 200th episode last year, she’s a Techstars mentor, and she recently helped me make sense of the crossover of blockchain and AI in episode 241. Mai is the Head of the Financial Advisory Unit for the Department of Finance in Ireland. In this episode, Mai and I riff on the topic of digital identity through the lens of the new European Digital Identity Wallet brought forth by the eIDAS2 legislation, and look at digital identity regimes in Latin America through the latest news on Nubank’s expansion. With the investments I’m making right now in early stage ventures in blockchain, topics like decentralization, over-centralization, and the elements of trust and risk when it comes to how individuals feel about who has access to their data are also a focal point of this chat. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Evan Miyazono is founder and CEO of Atlas Computing, a non-profit formed late last year to help scale human control over risky AI capabilities.  I seem to be falling into a number of serendipitous situations recently where I find myself at the intersection of AI and blockchain. This week’s chat with Evan took place at that same intersection, but more at the conceptual level rather than at the hardcore technical level. After finishing a PhD in Applie Physics at Caltech, Evan Miyazono jumped into blockchain with Protocol Labs in 2017 on a mission to build systems that affect real people.  After years as a researcher and then Head of Network Goods, Evan recently launched Atlas Computing with his co-founder with the goal of building an international standards organization of provably safe AI. In our chat, Evan and I look at both the intended and unintended consequences of AI, how society’s own actions makes it hard to define good behavior for humans, some of the crossover points between blockchain and AI, and how Evan’s thinking about aligning stakeholders for the funding of Atlas Computing. LINKS: Learn more about Atlas Computing Follow Evan Miyazono on LinkedIn and X(Twitter)   Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Blockchain ecosystem advisor and researcher Simon Brown from Consensys joins me as guest co-host this week. Consensys is a leading blockchain and web3 software company whose products like MetaMask and Infura are well known to the blockchain and crypto community. While overjoyed that spot Bitcoin ETFs finally launched, I felt like something was not quite right about it, and I wanted to go deeper.  There is an element of over-centralization of crypto happening, and I wanted to get an expert opinion.  Through the latest news on Spot Bitcoin ETFs, the Besu outage in the Ethereum ecosystem not reported by media outlets, the creation of the PBS (or Proposer-Builder Separation) Foundation, and speculation on the next wave of Spot ETFs with ETH, Simon helps me to make sense of over-centralization of crypto and where we might go from here. Our weekly MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter is live on Substack, subscribe to go deeper into the topics we cover on each episode. STORIES WE COVERED: Spot Bitcoin ETF Gensler sees bitcoin ETF irony in light of Satoshi's mission, says he respects Sen. Warren and the law (The Block, 12-Jan-24) BlackRock on pace to become largest bitcoin holder in the world (The Street, 15-Jan-24) Ethereum Execution Client Outage (Besu) Hyperledger Besu Incident Report (11-Jan-24) X/Twitter Scenarios From Hanniabu on Geth Potential Outage (5-Jan-24) ClientDiversity.org dashboard of consensus and execution clients  Project Sunshine dashboard measuring the health of Ethereum decentralization PBS (Proposer-Builder Separation) Foundation Buterin, Coinbase and more to fund Ethereum decentralization grants (Blockworks, 21-Dec-23)  PBS Foundation Notion site PBS Guild Proposal with credit to Simon Brown for his contributions LINKS: Follow our guest co-host Simon Brown on X(Twitter) and LinkedIn Learn more about Consensys and follow them on X(Twitter)  Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Alejandro Gutierrez and I recorded this episode 10 hours before the SEC finally approved Spot Bitcoin ETFs, so we start with a quick update on what happened over the last few days.  We then get into the meat of this episode, which is a roundup of Messari’s Crypto Theses for 2024. We riffed on our respective Top 5 out of the 100 or so predictions from Messari CEO Ryan Selkis’s 194-page super-insightful read on key trends, people, companies and projects to watch in 2024. Alejandro Gutierrez is the CEO of ⁠Defactor Labs⁠, providing all the required technological and financial tools for traditional companies to tap into alternative sources of financing using tokenized Real World Assets as collateral.  LINKS: Read Messari’s Crypto Theses for 2024 Follow our guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez on X(Twitter) and LinkedIn Learn more about Defactor Labs and follow them on X(Twitter)  Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

I’m joined this week by two of the wonderful people I met at the Solana Breakpoint conference in Amsterdam last month, Amira Valliani who is the Head of Policy at the Solana Foundation, and Nick Ducoff who is the Head of Institutional Growth at the Solana Foundation.   Before my trip to Amsterdam in November for the Solana Breakpoint conference, my engagement with the Solana community over the years had been lacking. At Solana Breakpoint, I found a diverse community with a bunch of smart and engaging people building interesting projects, and I wanted to go deeper, hence this episode. In this conversation, Amira and Nick both tell their personal stories about their path to the Solana Foundation and what they brought with them into the Solana Foundation from their past lives as startup founders.  We also riffed on my observations on the diversity of projects being built on the Solana blockchain from high-volume stablecoin networks to Triple-A games like the massive galactic game world that is Star Atlas, and we also covered what we would all like to see from web3 founders going forward. LINKS: Learn more about the Solana Foundation Follow our guests on LinkedIn:  Amira Valliani  |  Nick Ducoff Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

I’m joined this week by two of the wonderful people I met at the Solana Breakpoint conference in Amsterdam last month, Amira Valliani who is the Head of Policy at the Solana Foundation, and Nick Ducoff who is the Head of Institutional Growth at the Solana Foundation.   Before my trip to Amsterdam in November for the Solana Breakpoint conference, my engagement with the Solana community over the years had been lacking. At Solana Breakpoint, I found a diverse community with a bunch of smart and engaging people building interesting projects, and I wanted to go deeper, hence this episode. In this conversation, Amira and Nick both tell their personal stories about their path to the Solana Foundation and what they brought with them into the Solana Foundation from their past lives as startup founders.  We also riffed on my observations on the diversity of projects being built on the Solana blockchain from high-volume stablecoin networks to Triple-A games like the massive galactic game world that is Star Atlas, and we also covered what we would all like to see from web3 founders going forward. LINKS: Learn more about the Solana Foundation Follow our guests on LinkedIn:  Amira Valliani  |  Nick Ducoff Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Paul Smyth joins me as guest co-host this week, and he is a specialist executive recruiter and executive coach within the fintech industry.  As a founder of two startups, Paul has a unique view on the startup ecosystem. Paul and I met back in 2017 shortly before I photo-bombed his stand at a fintech event in Dublin, and we’ve collaborated quite a bit since then.  He and his business partner and life partner Laura Smyth from Top Tier Recruitment were the original sponsors of MoneyNeverSleeps back in 2018, and since then, Paul has also launched the Possible.ie executive coaching business that counts me as one of their proud customers.  I was so happy with the outcome of Paul’s coaching of me that I asked him to coach the founders that we bring through the Techstars Web3 accelerator.  As one of the many hats he wears, Paul is a fantastic Coach-in-Residence for Techstars, helping startup founders find their way to positive outcomes.   In this Money Talks segment, Paul and I kick things off with a look at the recent “State of European Tech 2023” report produced by Atomico, the on-traditional European Venture Capital firm.  We then get into some of the key issues at play with the proposed Digital Euro, and how Central Bank Digital Currency (or CBDC) adoption may be impacted by the context of privacy in personal financial transactions.  This leads us to a rundown on SocGen’s new stablecoin listed on Bitstamp exchange, and we finish with a big question on what matters more in startup success:  great founders or great markets.   STORIES COVERED:  European tech funding halves to $45 billion, back to pre-Covid levels — but AI is a bright spot (CNBC, 28-Nov-23) State of European Tech 2023 Fiery Public Hearing on Digital Euro Sees Experts Diverge on Key Issues (CoinDesk, 28-Nov-23) France’s 3rd-largest bank, Société Générale, launches euro-pegged stablecoin (Cointelegraph, 6-Dec-23) Reid Hoffman on the Psychology of Great Founders (The Generalist, 5-Dec-23) LINKS: Follow our guest co-host Paul Smyth on LinkedIn and X(Twitter) Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

This week I’m joined by guest co-host Mai Santamaria, who is the Head of the Financial Advisory Unit for the Department of Finance in Ireland. Mai and I met in February 2018 at a meeting of the Irish Blockchain Expert Group which later became the industry group now referred to as Blockchain Ireland.   She’s one of the most helpful people I know and always has a uniquely incisive insight or two on what’s going on at the crossover of finance and emerging tech when she and I catch up.  Mai originally featured on episode 5 of MoneyNeverSleeps back in 2018, she made a cameo on our 200th episode last year, she’s a Techstars mentor, and has received a ton of shout-outs from Eoin Fitzgerald and me on this podcast over the years. In this episode, Mai and I riff on where crypto exchange Binance goes from here after pleading guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act in the US and being fined $4.3bn, with co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zao stepping down.  We also look at the new crypto-friendly Argentinian president, Javier Milei, and what he might do with dollarization and crypto adoption, and then finish up with a mind-opening counterpoint on Ethereum co-founder Vitalk Buterin’s new manifesto.  STORIES COVERED:  Binance CEO Resigns, Part of $4.3 Billion Settlement With US (Sporting Crypto, 27-Nov-23) Everyone Needs a Manifesto (CoinDesk, 28-Nov-23) My techno-optimism (Vitalik Buterin, 27-Nov-23) Elon Musk Sees A Bright Future For Argentina Under Its New Pro-Bitcoin President (Binance Square, 21-Nov-23)  Argentina Has a New Pro-Bitcoin President—Who Is Javier Milei? (Decrypt, 20-Nov-23) LINKS: Follow our guest co-host Mai Santamaria on  LinkedIn Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

This week’s episode is from a session Pete Townsend hosted with Alex Tapscott, author of ‘Web3: Charting the Internet's Next Economic and Cultural Frontier’ (Harper Collins). Alex and Pete were joined by venture investors Justin Swart from BITKRAFT Ventures and Sterling Campbell from Blockchain Capital.  In this chat, Pete asked Alex to share his thoughts on what to expect next from those building in web3.  Following this, a conversation ensued with Alex, Justin, and Sterling on the critical need for accessibility in technology, the future of web3 user growth, the role of gaming in web3 adoption, alignment of value and protocols, the movement towards decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) and the future of blockchain protocols. PANELISTS: Alex Tapscott - Author of Web3: Charting the Internet's Next Economic and Cultural Frontier (and ‘Blockchain Revolution’), Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Ninepoint Partners, a Toronto-based alternative investment manager and Founder at Blockchain Research Institute Justin Swart - Principal  at BITKRAFT Ventures, a global investment platform specializing in Synthetic Reality: the space where our physical and digital worlds converge. Driven by video games and gaming technology, Web3, and AI.  BITKRAFT’s portfolio includes Epic Games, Discord and Immutable. Sterling Campbell - Investor at Blockchain Capital, partners to crypto builders since 2013, with investments including Techstars grad Arweave, Aave, Coinbase, Kraken and OpenSea. TIMESTAMPS: 02:12 Alex Tapscott's Journey and Vision for Web 3 03:23 Justin Swartz's Gaming and Investment Background 04:27 Sterling Campbell's Career Transition to Blockchain 06:11 Discussion on Alex Tapscott's New Book on Web3 07:26 The Future of Web3 User Growth 09:17 The Convergence of Technologies in Web3 14:09 The Role of Gaming in Web3 Adoption 22:30 The Metaverse and the Future of Gaming 25:42 The Cycles of Crypto and Web3 27:13 The Importance of Aligning Value with Protocol 27:58 The Impact of Social Tokens 28:28 The Future of Protocols 30:03 The Longevity of Blockchain Capital 30:19 The Dominance of Ethereum 32:53 The Evolution of Blockchain Protocols 34:06 The User Experience in Blockchain 35:34 The Future of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure 47:07 The Regulatory Landscape of Crypto Ecosystem LINKS: Get in touch with the contributors to this week’s episode with the links above Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Pete Townsend introduces an insightful line-up of entrepreneurs and investors who share their thoughts on web3. Opinions are gathered around what aspects they hope to see web3 founders solve, focusing on topics such as user experience, digital identity, decentralized finance, AI, regulatory issues, and real-world applications. The diverse panel includes John Hallahan from Fireblocks, Arry Yu from the U.S. Blockchain Coalition, Hesus Inoma from i13 Ventures, Niamh O'Connell from CasperLabs, Prashanth Swaminathan from Woodstock Fund, Sean Lee from the Crypto Council for Innovation, Clarisse Hagege from Dfns, and Lou Kerner from the Crypto Oracle Collective. The episode aims to explore and understand the current challenges and potential opportunities in the Web3 space. 00:19 Techstars Web3 Accelerator Announcement 00:47 Web3 founders' challenges and solutions 01:46 John Hallahan's Web3 Wishlist 03:43 Arry Yu's thoughts on digital identity and being the adult in the room 06:17 Hesus Inoma's insights on Web3 founders 08:27 Niamh O'Connell on self-sovereign identity 11:28 Prashanth Swaminathan's top areas for Web3 15:52 Sean Lee's perspective on Web3 tokens 18:16 Clarisse Hagege's call for real-life use cases 19:10 Lou Kerner's thoughts on balance and mistakes CONTRIBUTORS: John Hallahan, Director, Business Solutions & Advisory at Fireblocks, whose mission is to enable every business to easily and securely support digital assets and cryptocurrencies. (video)  Arry Yu, is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair at the U.S. Blockchain Coalition, a coalition of state blockchain associations, organizations and influencers across the country cooperating together to ensure the United States is a leader in blockchain, Web3, and distributed ledger technologies (DLT).   Hesus Inoma, Head of Strategy & Innovation at i13 Ventures, whose purpose is to co-create and back products and services grounded on first design principles for the new era of the web. Niamh O’Connell, Enterprise & Partnerships Lead (U.S) at CasperLabs, the first blockchain built specifically for business adoption.   Prashanth Swaminathan, Partner at Woodstock Fund, a thesis and research-driven fund, investing in early and growth stage Web 3.0 companies and protocols. Sean Lee, Senior Advisor at the Crypto Council for Innovation, a global alliance of crypto industry leaders that are advocating for responsible and healthy regulations in the digital asset industry. Clarisse Hagege, Founder & CEO at Dfns, providing web3 wallets as APIs and wallet-as-a-service infrastructure that enables crypto developers to forget about private key management so they can focus on building what matters most — their applications. Lou Kerner, the founder of the Crypto Oracle Collective, a decentralized web3 advisory firm and also the DAO for Crypto Mondays, which is the largest crypto meetup in the world with active chapters in 54 cities. LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Sean Lee is the senior advisor at the Crypto Council for Innovation, which is a global alliance of crypto industry leaders advocating for responsible and healthy regulations in the digital asset industry. Sean has conducted business in over 20+ countries and two continents across his career, and networked with extraordinary professionals across many industries. As a technology enthusiast, his career started in Internet 1.0 during the mid ’90s, spanning across eCommerce, cloud computing, and digitalization, with IBM, EMC, Pivotal, and Dell before moving into blockchain and crypto in the last few years. Through it all he has witnessed how technology combined with innovative business models can transform industries, and ultimately global economies as well.  In this episode, Sean and I dive into How the current events in crypto point to an even greater opportunity for education, advocacy, and policy to accelerate the adoption of digital assets and blockchain technology. How the Crypto Council for Innovation approaches policy frameworks to align the digital asset industry with regulators and vice-versa   How far the crypto industry and regulators have come with centralized finance (CeFi) already An example of policy building through the lens of decentralized finance (DeFi) with a focus on placing the regulatory lens on appropriate layers of the DeFi stack.   How we approach the paraphrasing of the various definitions of web3 into terms that are accessible to non-crypto natives A big change that Sean and I would both like to see in how most web3 founders think about fundraising. LINKS: Follow Sean Lee on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter)  Learn more about the Crypto Council for Innovation and their DeFi regulatory policy white paper Watch Sean Lee’s weekly ‘This Week in Crypto: Sean’s Take on Asia’ videos on YouTube  Episode title inspired by Global Access by Young Thug (feat, Nate Ruess) Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Lou Kerner is the founder of the Crypto Oracle Collective, a decentralized web3 advisory firm, and also the DAO for Crypto Mondays, which is the largest crypto meetup in the world with active chapters in 54 cities. In addition to Lou’s roles as founder of Crypto Oracle Collective and Crypto Mondays, he’s also a partner at Blockchain Coinvestors, a venture capital fund of funds focused on investing in blockchain since 2014. Lou has a great track record of recognizing emerging trends and doubling down on them, first on Wall Street, then onto media, venture capital and now in crypto and blockchain.   In this episode, Lou and I dive into his early career in traditional finance and community building and uncover what it was that he saw with his big crypto revelation in 2017, how he ported over his community-building experiences into crypto and blockchain, and the one thing on which he would like to see web3 founders focus. LINKS: Follow Lou Kerner on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter)  Learn more about Crypto Oracle Collective and Crypto Mondays Follow Crypto Mondays on LinkedIn  Follow Crypto Oracle Collective on Linkedin Episode title inspired by All Around the World by Jay-Z Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

My discussion with Somi Arian is a deep dive into the entrepreneur's dilemma of solving problems vs. fulfilling desires, customer discovery, product building and pivots, all baked into a live startup mentoring session. Somi is the founder and CEO of InPeak, an innovative platform enabling creators and businesses to build and monetize communities.  Somi is also an award-winning filmmaker, tech philosopher, and author whose work sits at the intersection of AI, blockchain, and the future of work. Her 2018 documentary, “The Millennial Disruption” won several international awards and featured industry leaders from The Economist, Marie Claire, Bentley, JLR, and Steinway. If you’re building in web3, the next class of the Techstars Web3 accelerator takes place in spring 2024, and applications are open now.  As web3 is global and borderless, so is Techstars Web3.  Although most of the accelerator content is delivered virtually, the class does meet up in person for a week at a time at the beginning, middle and end of the program in different cities around the world.  Jump on over to techstars.com/accelerators/web3 to apply. LINKS: Follow Somi Arian on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter)  Check out the Somi Arian Podcast and learn about InPeak Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Joining Pete as guest co-host this week is Pet Berisha from Sporting Crypto, the number one Web3 Sports business exploring the intersection alongside 3000+ subscribers from the biggest sports and crypto brands in the world. In this episode, Pet and Pete dive into whether or not the Sam Bankman-Fried trial actually matters, without digging into all of the gory details, and they also look at the state of crypto fundraising through the lens of Messari’s report of the same name for Q3 2023. They also talk through the latest news on Web3 gaming with the story of how one game from the team behind the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Atlas drove transaction volumes on the Solana blockchain to unexpected levels. The Sporting Crypto newsletter is read by leaders from Meta, the EPL, Candy Digital, NBA, LaLiga, MLB, Sorare and many more. Sporting Crypto is also multi-media, with a podcast interviewing 15 industry leaders at the intersection, and they also host industry-leading events on a regular basis.  Sporting Crypto is also an advisory and consultancy service that has worked with Adidas, Infront Sport, COPA90, Universal Music, Flannels, Karate Combat, W3FC and more. Pet Berisha is hosting two upcoming Sporting Crypto in-person events in London and NYC, check them out below: -London, 25th October: https://www.sportingcrypto.com/events/event-three-448m9 -NYC, 16th November: https://www.sportingcrypto.com/events/event-three-448m9-srkzf Finally, the Techstars Web3 accelerator is now open for applications for the class of 2024.  If you’re building in web3, jump over to Techstars Web3 to apply. STORIES COVERED: The Judge is So Fed Up with Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers (Slate, 5-Oct-23) State of Crypto Fundraising (Messari, 5-Oct-23) Just One Game on Solana Is Doing More Daily Transactions Than All of Polygon (Decrypt, 9-Oct-23) LINKS: Follow Pet Berisha on LinkedIn and X/Twitter Subscribe to the Sporting Crypto newsletter Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

We’ve got a special crossover episode this week courtesy of our friends at the Irish VC podcast, with a big shout-out to Finn Hatherell for producing the initial episode on the Irish VC podcast channel over the summer.  The Irish VC podcast is produced by BVP, an Ireland-based venture capital firm founded in 2004 by Elliott Griffin. In this episode, Elliott and Pete Townsend share a few stories on venture investing, Pete’s path into crypto, working with founders before and after investing in them, building products that people actually want, what it’s like inside a Techstars program, the power of founder market fit, founders and investors being accountable to each other, how to get the attention of VCs, why Pete is still doing MoneyNeverSleeps after all of these years and learning from our mistakes. LINKS: Follow Elliott Griffin on LinkedIn and learn more about BVP on their website Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Eva Lawrence is the Head of EMEA for Figment, the leading provider of blockchain infrastructure, providing staking solutions for institutions. In this episode, we get into Eva’s evolution from a legal mind into institutional trading, and her slow-burn crypto awakening before jumping from the institutional world into the great wide open of crypto back in 2018.  We also step through her role at Figment, look at the importance of staking now and into the future, and use the Wayback Machine that is X/Twitter to figure out what makes Eva do what she does. Eva Lawrence has a diverse career across law, trading, business development, and strategy. Eva has been in the crypto space since 2018 and was previously COO of Arcane Crypto, a Nordic-listed crypto platform. She has 8+ years of experience in finance, primarily at Morgan Stanley, where she was Head of EMEA Flow Trading for Securities Lending after working in FX Prime Brokerage. In addition, Eva is a UK-qualified lawyer, with experience in digital assets, securities, funds, and financial services. LINKS: Follow Eva Lawrence on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter)  Learn more about Figment and follow Figment on LinkedIn and X/(Twitter)  Episode title inspired by Evolution by Joyner Lucas Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend Follow us on LinkedIn:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

Alejandro Gutierrez joins the show as guest co-host in this Money Talks segment. Alejandro is the CEO of Defactor Labs, providing all the required technological and financial tools for traditional companies to tap into alternative sources of financing using tokenized Real World Assets as collateral. Congratulations to Defactor Labs for taking home the gong at the inaugural National Fintech Awards in Ireland for ‘Best Crypto, Blockchain or Digital Asset Offering’.  In this episode, Alejandro and Pete Townsend riff on the SEC cracking down on NFTs as a fundraising tool by looking at the Mila Kunis-backed Stoner Cats project and that of LA-based media company Impact Theory. They also step through the story of Visa integrating the Solana blockchain for USDC settlements, Mark Cuban getting hacked, Citi’s new token service, and have some fun with emerging tech hype cycles and Patagonia vests. STORIES COVERED:  NFT Takedowns What Happens to Mila Kunis' Stoner Cats NFTs After SEC Settlement? (Decrypt, 13-Sep-23) SEC settles first NFT enforcement case, fines LA media company $6M (TechCrunch, 29-Aug-23) Visa+Solana+USDC ‘A Huge Deal’—Visa Reveals Crypto Payments Bombshell (Forbes, 7-Sep-23) Long Take: Visa, Worldpay, and Nuvei settling transactions using stablecoin USDC on Solana (Fintech Blueprint by Lex Sokolin, 6-Sep-23) Mark Cuban Hacked Mark Cuban Loses Nearly $1M to Crypto Scam (CoinDesk, 18-Sep-23) Billionaire Mark Cuban Loses $870,000 In Crypto Scam (Decrypt, 16-Sep-23) Citi’s New Token Service Citigroup Debuts Token Service in Latest Foray Into Digital Assets (Bloomberg, 18-Sep-23) Citi Token Services will provide payments, liquidity to institutional customers (Cointelegraph, 18-Sep-23) LINKS: Follow our guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez on X(Twitter) and LinkedIn Learn more about Defactor Labs and follow them on X(Twitter)  Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend  |  MoneyNeverSleeps

Asad J. Malik is an augmented reality pioneer and the founder and CEO of Jadu, a next-gen multiplayer augmented reality fighting game for your phone launching this month.  In Jadu, players can settle or start rivalries with friends or compete against strangers for fame and glory in this combat game from the future.  Malik’s critically acclaimed and globally exhibited narrative storytelling projects Terminal 3 and A Jester’s Tale premiered at Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals, positioning Asad as a visionary in the space before completing his undergraduate degree. Asad was named one of Variety’s 10 Innovators to Watch, Rolling Stone’s Future 25, Forbes’ 30 Under 30, Adweek’s Young Influentials, and also made The Independent’s Filmmakers to Watch list. He sits on the Board of Trustees for Bennington College as a recent graduate. In this episode, Pete Townsend and Asad get into the formative experiences that influenced Asad’s desire to bring Jadu to life, before going deeper into the story of Jadu and the complex mechanics of augmented reality and fighting avatars.  Asad and Pete also talk about bringing together a community of gamers from all walks of life and explore a few themes at the intersection of gaming, augmented reality, and society. LINKS: Join the Jadu community on Discord and X/Twitter Follow Asad J. Malik on Instagram  Episode title inspired by Vision Clear by Lil’ Baby Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

After intersecting stories of meeting Vitalik Buterin and Bono, Pete Townsend and guest co-host Laura Walsh take a look at the recent SEC ruling in favor of Greyscale that many expect will open up the floodgates for the trillions of institutional capital currently on the sidelines of crypto. We also look at the positioning of NFTs or ‘dynamic digital assets’ as the core technology to drive more expansive yet personalized loyalty programs for big brands and sports teams, all through the lens of Pet Berisha’s Sporting Crypto newsletter.  Laura also gave us a run-down of two new web3 venture capital funds from MoonPay and Vessel Capital, and we also exercised our right to ask ‘what the heck Elon Musk is up to now?’. With over 6 years of experience in the blockchain and web3 space, Laura Walsh is a passionate and innovative entrepreneur, mentor, and consultant. She founded, invested in, and advised multiple startups in the gaming, esports, and decentralized finance sectors, leveraging her extensive network, knowledge, and skills in the industry. As an Entrepreneur in Residence at Techstars, Laura supports and guides 12 promising web3-based startups, helping them with their go-to-market strategies, fundraising, and scaling. She also collaborates with other web3 experts, investors, and stakeholders to foster a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem. Her mission is to bring the future of finance to today and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to succeed. STORIES COVERED: Grayscale wins SEC suit on Bitcoin ETF The Real Reasons the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Decision Matters (Coindesk, 29-Aug-23) Crypto vs SEC: What Grayscale’s court victory means for bitcoin ETFs (FT, 30-Aug-23) Web3 to Web2 Crossover Web3 Loyalty: Buzzword or Breakthrough? (Sporting Crypto by Pet Berisha, 4-Sep-23) Web3 VCs still launching new funds MoonPay launches venture arm to invest in web3 infra, gaming and fintech (TechCrunch, 29-Aug-23) Vessel Capital emerges from stealth with $55M fund focused on web3 infrastructure and apps (TechCrunch, 24-Aug-23) What’s Elon up to?  Elon Musk's X takes on LinkedIn, releases Beta version of job hiring platform for verified companies (Business Today, 26-Aug-23) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter: Pete Townsend  |  Laura Walsh  |  MoneyNeverSleeps   Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend  |  Laura Walsh  |  MoneyNeverSleeps

Joining Pete this week are Liang Wu and Dan Herrera from Eleven26 Capital, an early-stage VC firm investing in diverse founders on the evolving Internet across web2 and web3. In this episode, we get into how Liang and Dan originally got together and stayed close through the years, their Evolving Internet thesis across web2 and web3, building a platform for investing through content creation and community into a flywheel, and a ‘so-what’ look at the intersection of web3 and AI.  In addition to his role as the Co-founding Managing Partner at Eleven26 Capital, Liang is also a Senior Researcher at Harvard Business School where he researches Web3 and AI, and writes Web3 and AI cases for the MBA curriculum. He also supports and leads growth and community at Harvard’s Crypto Lab. Liang writes regularly on his Evolving Internet Insights newsletter (@ https://evolvinginternetclub.beehiiv.com/), where he and Dan Herrera curate the most interesting emerging tech stories and add their analysis, insights, and so-whats on top. His professional background is a mix of startups, venture capital, and management consulting. This is Liang’s second time on the show and you can hear his full story on episode 209. Dan Herrera is also a Co-founding Managing Partner at Eleven26 Capital. Beyond this role, Dan advises a portfolio of venture capital firms and family offices, spearheading everything from portfolio construction and strategy setting to deploying capital for and operationalizing these firms. Dan writes regularly with Liang on the Evolving Internet Insights newsletter, and his professional background is also a mix of venture capital, startups, and management consulting. LINKS: Read and subscribe to Liang and Dan’s Evolving Internet Insights newsletter  Follow Liang Wu on LinkedIn and Twitter, or connect by email at liang@e26c.co Follow Dan Herrera on LinkedIn and Twitter or connect by email at dan@e26c.co Episode title inspired by The Recipe by Kendrick Lamar ft. Dr. Dre Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend

We’ve been on a bit of a hiatus this summer, as we took a break to recharge after a few mad months, as sometimes, you need to go away for a while and dream it all up again.  In this episode we recorded on the Fourth of July, we pull the curtain off our upcoming plans, with a big announcement from longtime co-host Eoin Fitzgerald that brings him and Pete Townsend to a fork in the road with MoneyNeverSleeps. But before we get into all that, Eoin and Pete take a look back at Pete’s experience with the Techstars Web3 class of 2023 founders and their ‘distributed demo day’ at the end of June with 3 investor events across 3 cities in 2 countries in 5 days, and an epic journey in the spirit of  Planes, Trains and Automobiles. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Encore’ by Jay-Z Eoin’s reference to ‘The Sheep Shipper’ scene is from the movie ‘Just Go With It’ Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Neal Peters is co-founder and CEO of JR Studio, a frictionless web3 gaming platform that gives game creators the superpowers to build, host, launch, manage, and grow their games and communities. JR Studio is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. After launching his first business as a 14-year-old gamer building websites, Neal spent 18 years as an IT architect and in public/private/hybrid cloud, software development, and blockchain.  He also co-founded and led a venture capital business during the last crypto bull run focused on web3 gaming and NFTs, and that was the step that led him towards getting together with Marco Colaco and Aleks Gecevski in 2022 to build what has become JR Studio. In this episode, Neal and Pete Townsend riff on his earliest days in tech and the eventual path that he took with Marco and Aleks with JR Studio, before diving into what JR-Studio is now and what it will become. We also get into the long arc of infrastructure and innovation we’ll need to get to the Hollywood vision of the metaverse, and the role of gaming in that journey, along with what Neal points to in his own development as a founder that helps to keep things moving. LINKS: Learn more about JR Studio Connect with Neal Peters on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow JR Studio on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ by Kid Cudi (Steve Aoki remix) Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Federico Panisi is a co-founder and CEO of Loki.code, enabling simplified and intuitive co-creation of smart contracts with a collaborative web app for smart contract designers and developers. Loki.code is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/announcing-the-techstars-web3-class-of-2023. Before founding Loki.code in July 2022 with Pedro Wilson, Fabio Manzani, Adam Toth-Fejel, and Malachy Lin-Nugent, Federico’s time in academia included a law degree and a Ph.D. in Law & Business in his home country of Italy with stints in Sydney and Hong Kong, before rounding things out with a Master's in Legal Studies at Stanford Law School with a thesis on smart contracts. Federico is passionate about Web3, smart contracts, and cryptocurrency technologies, so he’s come to the right place! In this episode, Federico and Pete Townsend riff on the serendipity of how he became an entrepreneur before diving into what Loki.code is now and what it will become.  Federico and Pete also get into the importance of infrastructure and developer tools in getting us to one billion users of web3, building trust with your co-founders, and the surprising intersection of crypto with Dungeons & Dragons. LINKS: Learn more about Loki.code Connect with Federico Panisi on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow Loki.code on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘California Love’ by 2Pac ft. Dr. Dre & Roger Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Tatiana Botskina is the founder and CEO of Mintycode, a decentralized IP marketplace for software creators, bringing together software creators, software buyers, and software contributors. By building communities around software creators’ source code and enabling shared ownership, Mintycode helps software creators monetize their work and incentivize and reward contributors. Mintycode is also one of the 12 startups forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023.  Before founding Mintycode in January 2022, Tatiana began her career as a lawyer before returning to academia and adding disciplines in international finance, machine learning, and blockchain development, Through her time in academia and also through working with startups, Tatiana developed strong beliefs in digital transformation powered by artificial intelligence and global decentralization. In this episode, Tatiana and Pete Townsend dive into her background that inspired her passion for fairness and justice, her approach to developing Mintycode’s competitive edge, and the natively collaborative context of Mintycode as a platform and a community.  Tatiana and Pete also talk through some of the challenges she’s faced so far as a founder/CEO, and also her love for hackathons. LINKS: Learn more about Mintycode Connect with Tatiana Botskina on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow Mintycode on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Power to the People’ by Public Enemy Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Terence Reilly is the co-founder and CEO of OLTA, one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. OLTA is a protocol for creators and studios to create dynamic media, pushing the boundaries from generative art into interactive art and story. OLTA brings this all to life through dynamic NFTs which enable collectors to determine the outcome of the artwork over time. Before co-founding OLTA with George Baldwin in 2021, Terence spent 20 years working on 3D character animation projects, including the movies Jurassic World, Iron Man 2, and Paul & Chappie with clients such as Disney, Sony, Google and Aardman, the Academy Award-winning animation studio. In this episode, Terence and Pete Townsend explore the relationship between art and technology before diving into the deep first-hand experience that Terence has with the problem that OLTA is solving for creative coders and studios.  Terence and Pete also talk through some examples of the OLTA protocol in action, the big opportunity that is the global art market, and what keeps Terence moving through the ups and downs of being a startup founder. LINKS: Learn more about OLTA Connect with Terence Reilly on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow OLTA on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Eye Know’ by De La Soul ft. Otis Redding Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter: MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Javier Tamashiro is the co-founder and CEO of Ospree, a comprehensive anti-money laundering compliance solution for Virtual Asset Service Providers that seamlessly integrates customer onboarding, blockchain monitoring, and the Travel Rule. Javier and his Ospree co-founders Anne Winston and Jukka Pellinen are one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023.  By connecting to premium on-chain and off-chain data suppliers, Ospree offers a centralized repository of high-quality alerts for risk and compliance teams. With Ospree, institutions and SMEs serving the crypto and wider digital asset markets today can significantly reduce false positives, benefit from a single point of reference for Travel Rule data transactions, and automate and scale essential compliance operations. Before co-founding Ospree in 2019, Javier’s tour of duty in TradFi included stops at S&P Global Market Intelligence, Standard Chartered Bank and Credit Suisse.  At each stop along the way, Javier operated in business intelligence and regtech roles, and he has been actively involved in blockchain projects since 2014.  In this episode, Javier and Pete Townsend explore the blend of Japanese and Argentinian cultures that made Javier who he is today, and the life experiences that led him to the Ospree vision. We then dive into crypto market growth as a proxy for the wider growth of digital assets, and the role that compliance solutions can play in opening up the crypto floodgates for institutional capital. LINKS: Learn more about Ospree Connect with Javier Tamashiro on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow Ospree on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Trust’ by NF Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Greg Hannam is the co-founder and CEO of Peerkat a data analytics tool for marketers to help them understand their users, increase engagement and drive growth in their web3 strategies. In this episode, Greg chats with Pete Townsend about how his life experience drove him to the Peerkat vision, driving value for brands moving from web2 to web3, the evolution of non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) beyond profile pics, and a few life lessons along the way. Peerkat is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. Peerkat combines multiple data sources with machine learning to connect the dots between web2 and web3 and provide powerful insights into user behavior across disparate platforms. Before co-founding Peerkat with Ben Marshall and Ike Iwumene, Greg’s roots bring him back to mechanical engineering at the University of Leeds before diving headfirst into deep data analytics and product management.  Greg then worked with a number of VC-backed deep tech startups in the AI space developing product, growth, and operations functions. LINKS: Learn more about ⁠Peerkat⁠ Connect with Greg Hannam on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow Peerkat on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘First Chain’ by Big Sean ft. Nas and Kid Cudi Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Howie Young is the founder and CEO of Protico, a universal chatting interface that enables web3 chat on apps in seconds for enterprises that want to migrate business and engage customers at the web3 level.  Protico is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. With over eight years of experience in the chat and messaging industry, Howie Young is a highly skilled and dedicated professional who has built a reputation for delivering innovative and user-focused solutions. Combining a strong foundation in business with extensive self-taught technical expertise, Howie has contributed to the development of numerous successful and creative products that are used in more than 100 countries around the world. Also, Howie has been fueling his creative mind as the founder of a co-working space for the startup ecosystem back home in Taipei, Taiwan since 2014. In this episode, Howie and Pete Townsend riff on his life experiences to date that led him to launch Protico before digging into Howie’s first steps into the market with Protico’s MVP and how he expects network effects will follow.  We also get into the crossover of web2 users into web3, some of the key challenges Howie sees ahead, and his big ‘earned secret’ from his life in startup ecosystems. LINKS: Learn more about Protico Connect with Howie Young on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow Protico on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘The Message’ by Nas Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Deb Pratiher is the co-founder and CEO of Quest Labs, building infrastructure enabling organizations to leverage data in a privacy-preserving manner to unlock powerful user experiences. Quest Labs is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. Deb Pratiher is a product leader and engineer with experience building and scaling data infrastructure and systems at big tech companies. She is passionate about AI and web3 and the intersection of both. Prior to starting Quest she worked and researched at Nvidia, Visa, Tesla, and Carnegie Mellon University, as she was chosen for the highly selective Kleiner Perkins Fellowship Program. In this episode, Deb and Pete Townsend speed-run through her life experiences that brought her to the point of co-founding Quest Labs, before we dig into why the world needs what Quest are bringing to market right now   We also talk through the interplay of owning your own data on this big wonderful creation called the internet, and how that drives the network effect that will deliver the future that Quest is running toward LINKS: Learn more about Quest Labs Connect with Deb Pratiher on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow Quest Labs on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Footprints’ by A Tribe Called Quest Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Igor Khmel is the co-founder and CEO of SaveChain, the borderless banking app. SaveChain features a self-custody 'stablecoin-only' wallet with a banking interface for the global underbanked, with the option to open an FDIC-insured bank account for non-US residents. In short, SaveChain is Metamask meets Revolut. SaveChain is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. Originally from Ukraine but now based in the US, Igor Khmel has been honing his craft for the past 17 years, including experience in the investment banking and corporate finance practice of Deloitte and McKinsey, a Stanford MBA, then in venture and as an entrepreneur in residence with Sberbank, and he’s now a third-time founder in fintech and crypto. In this episode, Igor and Pete Townsend slide down the arc of Igor’s life in finance and ventures that led to his inspiration for SaveChain, the societal factors driving the need to pair a USD bank account with a stablecoin wallet, how Igor expects the SaveChain customer experience will evolve, and the hurdles that SaveChain will need to clear to scale globally LINKS: Learn more about SaveChain Connect with Igor Khmel on LinkedIn and Twitter Follow SaveChain on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Dollar and a Dream’ by The Game Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Lee Gray is the co-founder and CEO of SonX, a community platform that allows superfans to subscribe to their favorite musicians via a monthly membership fee unlocking fan-only ticketing, exclusive audio content, and digital and physical collectibles. SonX is also one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023. In this episode, Lee and Pete Townsend dig into why it made so much sense for Lee to launch SonX alongside his co-founder Lewis Donovan, some of the ins and outs of the music industry that point to the need for SonX, Lee’s longer-term vision for SonX, and the core challenge of uniting musicians and their superfans. LINKS: Learn more about SonX Connect with Lee Gray on Instagram or email Follow SonX on Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Payday’ by Doja Cat Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Katerina Bohle Carbonell is the co-lead of TogetherCrew, one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator. Some web3 communities fall apart under pressure, others come together stronger. TogetherCrew exists to help build and grow communities by ensuring members and stakeholders create together.   Katerina’s life’s work goes broad and deep on how members of teams and communities attract, engage and retain new contributors, and how people collaborate and co-create within communities - collectively known as ‘network science’.  With the advent of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) in the last few years and the massive opportunity to apply network science to web3 communities, Katerina joined up with Daniel Ospina and Ashish Gangrade to co-lead TogetherCrew in 2022. Katerina and Pete Townsend dig into how her life’s work led her to TogetherCrew, what TogetherCrew is doing right now, the longer-term vision for TogetherCrew when virtual organizations become the norm, the challenges that Katerina expects they’ll face on the way there. LINKS: Learn more about TogetherCrew Connect with Katerina Bohle Carbonell on Twitter Follow TogetherCrew on Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘One Tribe’ by Black Eyed Peas Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Jesse Phillips is the co-founder and CEO of TrustWare, one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator.  Jesse and Pete Townsend dig into how Jesse got into crypto, the TrustWare vision he formed with co-founder Jonathan Frazier, adjusting to some of the crypto curveballs the world is throwing at TrustWare, and how life experiences are informing the building and scaling of TrustWare. TrustWare is a secure, recoverable, non-custodial crypto vault that connects users in a social network for sharing value. Jesse is a seasoned entrepreneur and deep thinker in the blockchain space, who is on a mission to revolutionize the way we handle digital assets and payments. With a deep understanding of decentralized technologies and their potential to empower individuals and communities, Jesse is dedicated to creating secure and democratic solutions for the future of finance and security. LINKS Learn more about TrustWare Connect with Jesse Phillips on LinkedIn or by email Follow Trustware on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘I Left My Wallet in El Segundo’ by A Tribe Called Quest Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

This episode features a rundown of the 12 web3 founding teams that form the Techstars Web3 class of 2023, along with an intro to each of their CEOs.  Builders gotta build, and build better. That was the Techstars Web3 rallying cry when Pete Townsend and Hugh McGirr opened up applications for the Techstars Web3 2023 cohort in November 2022, as finding those building for the long-term - rather than chasing token markets - was the priority.   Each one of these 12 founding teams embody web3 in their own way, whether they’re building web3 companies, communities, or economies. Techstars found these founding teams all over the world from Taiwan to the West Coast of the US, and they’re building web3 infrastructure, ‘DeFi Mullets’, DAO tooling, and creator ecosystems. LINKS Learn more about the Techstars Web3 Class of 2023 and connect with each team here Follow Techstars Web3 on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by World Class by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Patrick Pinschmidt is a General Partner and Co-Founder at MiddleGame Ventures, a financial technology venture capital fund focused on early-stage investments in Europe. In this episode, Patrick riffs with Pete Townsend on the life experiences that delivered him to venture capital and what Patrick looks for in fintech founders in the context of MiddleGame Ventures’ Irish seed fund. Patrick and Pete also dive into Patrick’s lessons learned as an investor, investing in lines not dots, and the human focus of early-stage investing. LINKS: Learn more about MiddleGame Ventures on their website Follow Patrick Pinschmidt on LinkedIn and Twitter Episode title inspired by In the Middle by G-Eazy Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend take a look at the aftermath of the American Bankpocalypse with contrasting views on bitcoin as a safe haven, and how a potential outcome of Grayscale’s lawsuit of the SEC may be opening the floodgates of crypto into institutional finance.  Eoin and Pete also dig into the $600mn raise by open-banking-meets-AI startup Abound, and how a new EU regulatory framework around AI may slow down not only Abound’s AI-powered consumer lending platform but also the overall commercial growth of AI applications in Europe. STORIES COVERED: Cryptoverse: Bitcoin passes the bank stress test (Reuters,21-Mar-23) A Dozen Reasons Why the SEC Should Have Approved Grayscale's Spot Bitcoin ETF (CoinDesk, 7-Mar-23) GBTC jumps this week while Grayscale CEO ‘encouraged’ after oral arguments in court battle with SEC over spot bitcoin ETF (Marketwatch, 15-Mar-23) Open banking startup Abound nabs $601M to supercharge its AI-based consumer lending platform (TechCrunch, 6-Mar-23) ‘They’ll all go to the US’: What the EU’s AI law means for European startups (Sifted, 16-Mar-23) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend take a quick look at the triumvirate of bank failures in the US with Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank before Eoin asks Pete about his lessons learned from seeing over 1,000 deals in the last 18 months, so they riff on easy-to-remember mental models, investing in lines not dots, building relationships with founders, how those relationships evolve post-investment, and the founder having the most credible voice in the room. STORIES COVERED: When it Rains it Pours (Liang Wu, Life in Color blog, 13-Mar-23) Signals: "SVB, Signature, & Silvergate"-gate (Nik Milanovich, This Week in Fintech, 14-Mar-23) Should I Keep My Money in Bitcoin or a Bank? (Daniel Kuhn, CoinDesk, 14-Mar-23) HIGHLIGHTS: 1 - Have a framework - something that you know cold and can work into a conversation with founders, and repetition is really the only way to build the framework into a true mental model.  Pete uses the Techstars framework of ‘team, market, traction, idea’. 2 - Lines not dots - reaching an investment decision takes multiple interactions, multiple dots that connect to form a timeline.  That timeline either reaches a peak and plateaus at a deal or drops off quickly and then crashes and burns. You need to increase the depth and breadth of those lines by bringing in people you trust to talk to founders you’re interested in and gather more insights. 3 - After the investment - shifting the narrative post-investment is critical, especially when the founder is raising their first round. You need to teach founders not just how to fish, but also how to find the right pond.  That bank balance you funded as an investor will erode quickly if the founder doesn’t make it to their next round. 4 - The Founder’s voice - the founder has the most credible voice in the room, and they need to find their voice.  After your own investment, you can do all of the coaching you want, but you can’t pitch for the founder. All you can do is make thoughtful introductions and hope they put their best foot forward to raise their round. LINKS: Sam Hinkie on Invest Like the Best episode 204 and episode 88 Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend look at the outsized gender gap in web3, then riff on the realities of venture capital ‘dry powder’ and crypto VCs, before stepping through what’s wrong with Revolut’s neo-profitability, an unfortunate slip switch for railsr and WhatsApp B2B payments in Brazil as a WeChat-like foundation. STORIES COVERED: The Web3 gender gap, by the numbers (Sifted, 6-Mar-23) Crypto startups, beware the 'dry powder fallacy' (The Block, 6-Mar-23) Revolut auditor flags concern about $576 mln of revenue in long-delayed 2021 accounts (Reuters, 1-Mar-23) Railsr investors on brink of deal to salvage parts of payments group (Sky News, 7-Mar-23) WhatsApp gets Brazilian green light for business payments (Finextra, 6-Mar-23) WhatsApp Picks Brazil To Launch In-App Business Directory And Shopping (Forbes, 17-Nov-22) UK BaaS platform Griffin becomes a bank (Finextra, 7-Mar-23) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Liang Wu is the Co-founding Managing Partner at Eleven26 Capital, an early-stage VC fund investing in diverse founders on the evolving Internet across Web2 and Web3. Liang is also a Web3 Research Fellow at Harvard Business School where he helps shape the Web3 curriculum by writing case studies on leading Web3 companies, as well as supporting community building and business development for Harvard’s Crypto Lab. He writes regularly on his Life in Color blog where he explores the “Why” behind Web3. His professional background is a mix of startups, venture capital and management consulting, and Liang is also a mentor for the Techstars Web3 accelerator. In this episode, Liang riffs with Pete Townsend on his one-year reflections on writing his weekly Life in Color blog, including thoughts on chasing his curiosity, growth and flywheels in content creation, shamelessness as a superpower, and how all of these experiences inform his journey as an investor. LINKS Subscribe to Liang Wu’s Life in Color blog Follow Liang Wu on Twitter and LinkedIn Episode title inspired by Word is Bond by Brand Nubian Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on the latest US regulatory crackdown in crypto markets, how NBA Top Shot on the Apple app store is a leading indicator of our wider society’s digital asset adoption whether we realize it or not, trouble in Banking-as-a-Service land with Solaris, Nova Credit’s entry to the UK market, and Revolut’s Irish Trojan Horse. STORIES COVERED: Crypto markets on edge as U.S. regulatory crackdown on industry intensifies (CNBC, 14-Feb-23) NBA Top Shot Will Let Users Buy NFTs via Apple, Android Mobile Apps (Decrypt (via Pet Berisha @ Sporting Crypto) 16-Feb-23) Solaris Setback Spells Trouble For European Fintech Scene (Meaghan Johnson in Forbes, 15-Feb-23) Nova Credit wins FCA authorisation (Finextra, 19-Jan-23) Revolut rolls out credit cards in Ireland (Finextra, 20-Feb-23) NatWest to buy workplace savings fintech Cushon for $174 mln (Reuters (via Lex Sokolin's Fintech Blueprint) 13-Feb-23) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

In this special segment, we’re featuring web3 investors, founders and mentors such as Joey Krug from Pantera Capital, Matthew Graham from Sino Global Capital, Teana Baker-Taylor from Circle, Sam Williams from Arweave, John Wu from Ava Labs, Clarisse Hagege from Dfns, Sean Lee from Odsy, Tim Bos from ShareRing and Michelle Tsing from GRI. Included in this episode are some of the most helpful insights that these web3 leaders have shared with us over the past year and a half. The common thread you’ll hear from all of them is that the things that make a great web3 project or startup focus a heckuva lot more on humanity than technology. FEATURED VOICES: Teana Baker-Taylor, now VP of Policy & Regulatory Strategy at Circle, on ep 163 John Wu, President of Ava Labs, on ep 164 Michelle Tsing, web3 governance advisor, on ep 161 Matthew Graham, CEO of Sino Global Capital, on ep 165 Joey Krug, co-CIO of Pantera Capital, on ep 166 Tim Bos, founder and CEO of ShareRing, on ep 169 Clarisse Hagege, co-founder and CEO of Dfns, on ep 202 Sean Lee, co-founder of Odsy Network, on ep 201 Sam Williams, co-founder and CEO of Arweave, on ep 205 LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Dee Coakley is the co-founder and CEO of Boundless, the operating system for your international team, which she co-founded with Emily Castles in Ireland in 2019. Boundless is ‘global employment made simple, with benefits, share options and payroll in one neat platform’. In this episode, Dee riffs with Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend on the snowball effect of the diverse international experiences and relationships that made Boundless such a no-brainer for her to co-found, the shifting mindsets, societal changes and competitive landscape that have made remote working and distributed international teams a scalable reality, the benefit of tight alignment with your seed investors, and how Dee is thinking about the next steps to grow the Boundless business. LINKS Learn more about Boundless and follow Boundless on Twitter Connect with Dee Coakley on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Sure Shot’ by the Beastie Boys Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Sam Williams is co-founder and CEO of Arweave, a blockchain protocol allowing us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. Pete Townsend interviewed Sam last month on the Techstars GiveFirst podcast, so thanks to David Cohen and Techstars for letting us share the interview for this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps. In this episode, Sam shares the inspirational story of how Arweave got started, their life-changing experience with Techstars Berlin in 2018, and how their long-term vision, hope, and resilience have been the foundation of their successes to date. LINKS: Learn more about Sam Williams and follow Sam on Twitter Learn more about Arweave and follow Arweave on Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)’ by Nas Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on Eoin’s new role at Enterprise Ireland, the final nail in the coffin for Meta’s former crypto project Diem, the next steps for Ant Group now that Jack Ma is formally out, the back and forth on the environmental impact of crypto and bitcoin’s role, some new ideas on agri-finance thanks to past guest Nik Milanovich, and some details on an event Pete’s co-hosting for Techstars Web3 with Genesis Block and Union Square Ventures in New York City on 17-Jan-23. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. STORIES COVERED Silvergate buries Diem; lays off 200 staff (Finextra & CoinDesk, 6-Jan-23) Jack Ma out of Ant group (Fintech Blueprint, 9-Jan-23) Cryptocurrency mining and trading devastating the planet? (Finextra, 6-Jan-23) GBTC Leverage Death Rattle? With Steven McClurg (What Bitcoin Did, 9-Jan-23) The Next Fintech Revolution: Agriculture Finance (Nik Milanovic in Forbes, 6-Jan-23) The Italian Bank Where You Can Use Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese As Loan Collateral (Tasting Table, 7-Jan-23) LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on the latest on Sam Bankman-Fried before diving into a few of the fintech and web3 predictions for 2023 published recently, then we do an experimental walk-through of the AI bot ChatGPT. We finish up with a look at some of the January leadership changes in fintech and crypto and an update on the Techstars Web3 accelerator. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. STORIES COVERED What’s in store for European fintech in 2023? (Sifted, 3-Jan-23) Web3 in 2023 (Life in Color Blog, 2-Jan-23) Is Binance in Trouble? (Forbes, 14-Dec-22) Gemini’s Winklevoss accuses crypto mogul Silbert of ‘bad faith stalling tactics’ over frozen funds (CNBC, 4-Jan-23) This is what the future holds for cryptocurrencies (World Economic Forum Davos blog, 2-Jan-23) In a banking industry first, neobank Cogni adds noncustodial Web3 wallet (Yahoo Finance, 22-Dec-22) ChatGPT is Coming for Crypto (Forbes (via CoinDesk), 28-Dec-22) Goldman Sachs' consumer banking unit head steps down (Reuters, 3-Jan-23) Zodia Custody Appoints Crypto Exchange Bitstamp’s Julian Sawyer as CEO (CoinDesk, 3-Jan-23) Techstars Web3 accelerator investment thesis 2.0 (Techstars Newsroom, 26-Nov-22) LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Clarisse Hagege, founder and CEO of Dfns, joins the show this week recorded recently as part of the Techstars Web3 Community Series events organized by the Techstars Web3 Accelerator. Dfns is a cybersecurity company providing wallet infrastructure for web3. From banks to gaming studios, developer teams rely on their decentralized custody network to build seamless applications and deliver smooth experiences for crypto. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. In addition to Dfns, Clarisse is also a mentor for the Techstars Web3 Accelerator, and a graduate of the ABN Amro + Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator class of 2021. In this episode, Clarisse Hagege and Pete Townsend riff on the drivers behind why ‘builders are still building' in web3 in the midst of the bear market, getting the right balance between security and freedom when protecting your crypto assets, how the history of custody is informing how we decentralize trust so that we can 'trust the tech' rather than third parties, and the challenges of building in web3. LINKS: Follow Clarisse Hagege on LinkedIn and learn more about Dfns Follow Dfns on Twitter Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend |  Eoin Fitzgerald

Sean Lee, co-founder of Odsy Network, joins the show this week recorded recently as part of the Techstars Web3 Community Series events organized by the Techstars Web3 Accelerator. Sean is the former CEO of the Algorand Foundation, he is an accomplished executive in web3 innovation and fintech, and is a senior advisor for the Crypto Council for Innovation. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. In this episode, Sean and Pete riff on his vision for universal access in web3 and some of the web3 scenarios where universal access will make a big difference, how early-stage founders should be thinking about accessibility when they're designing their platforms and roadmaps, how advocacy and collaboration will drive global adoption of crypto and web3, and what Sean looks for in web3 founders. LINKS: Follow Sean Lee on Twitter and learn more about Odsy Follow Odsy on Twitter Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend |  Eoin Fitzgerald

Holy Mackenzie, we just hit 200 episodes!  When Eoin Fitzgerald said to Pete Townsend in early 2018, “Hey Pete, I heard you on a couple of podcasts, wanna help me start one?” never in our wildest dreams did we think this would become such an integral part of our week for the past, well, 200 weeks. So, here’s our recap of our Top 10 from the past one hundred episodes, some honourable mentions, the Top 10 all-time by downloads, reflections on flywheels, the good things that come from doing 200 podcast episodes, and a bunch of our past guests sharing their good tidings. Thanks to all of our fantastic guests, sponsors, supporters and especially to our listeners - we couldn’t have hit 20 episodes, never mind 200, without you! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. TOP 10 FROM THE LAST 100: 114: Changes | Mick Sweeney on Markets, Society, Leadership and Digital 128: Ten Thousand Hours | Robert Alice, Portraits of a Mind and NFTs  131: Wings | Fiona Edwards Murphy and ApisProtect 165: Matthew Graham | Sino Global Capital, Web3 and Making Your Hobby Your Job 168: Money Talks #46 | What a Year | Eoin and Pete's Top Stories of 2021 121: Money Talks #28 | GameStop and WallStreetBets | Visa-Plaid Deal Dead | Buying Monzo 136: The Prediction II | Andrew Mullaney and Premind AI 150: Growing Up | Brian Kenny and MiniCorp 175: My Philosophy | Nik Milanović, This Week in Fintech and The Fintech Fund 123: Perfect | Deborah Brock and Nua Fertility LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Eoin and Pete take the inevitable plunge into what to make of the FTX mess, and then resurface with some of the scenarios unfolding on what Elon Musk has in mind for the 250 million daily active users of Twitter.  The guys also look at the hubbub around the control of Tech Nation in the UK, a Digital Dollar pilot in the US, and how the Big Tech layoffs in Ireland may be short-term pain but long-term gain. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. STORIES COVERED The Casino and the Genie (Mario Gabriele, The Generalist newsletter, 13-Nov-22, h/t Packy McCormick) 5 More Disturbing Revelations About Sam Bankman-Fried (NY Magazine, 14-Nov-22) Elon Musk details his vision for a Twitter payments system (TechCrunch, 9-Nov-22) Startup founders go to war with UK government over its moves to appoint bank into key ecosystem role (TechCrunch, 15-Nov-22) Global Banks Partner With New York Fed for 12-Week Digital Dollar Pilot (Watcher Guru, 12-Nov-22), ‘I’m doing this 26 years and I’ve never seen anything like it’: Laid-off tech staff hunt for new work (Business Post (paywall), 12-Nov-22) LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

This week, Pete gives some insight into the new Techstars Web3 accelerator and goes on a quick rant on FTX before he and Eoin riff on Block’s flywheel and their ambitions with Cash App, then they go through a hall-of-fame list of fintech and crypto apps from Rex Salisbury, and finally dive into NFTs and VR through an Apple lens with a dash of Reddit. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. STORIES COVERED Sam Bankman-Fried’s Twitter Apology (Twitter, 10-Nov-22) Block Says Goal of Cash App Is To Be Primary Bank (PYMNTS, 4-Nov-22) Rex Salisbury on Consumer Fintech ARPUs (Twitter, h/t Simon Taylor, 2-Nov-22) Apple cracks down on NFT functionality, social post boosts with App Store rules (TechCrunch, 25-Oct-22) Web3 With a16z: Key Insights From Podcast With Chris Dixon, Sonal Chokshi & Punk6529 (Blockster, 9-Nov-22) How Reddit defied Crypto Winter and created a $10 million market for customizable avatars—just don’t call them NFTs (Fortune, 3-Nov-22) Decentralized Storage System Arweave's Native Token Surges 60% on Meta Integration (CoinDesk, 2-Nov-22) LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Ollie Walsh is the co-founder and CEO of Pipit, who are bringing to market the new Konect network that is powering international cash transactions with DeFi and enabling migrants to support their families back home cheaper, safer, and now faster. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. In this episode, recorded live from Web Summit 2022 in Lisbon, Ollie Walsh riffs with Pete Townsend on a recap on Ollie Walsh’s journey as co-founder and CEO of Pipit, a for-profit social impact platform powering international cash transactions and mobile money payments for unbanked migrants.  Ollie and Pete also dive into Ollie's inspiration to bring the Konect network to market leveraging the Pipit tech stack, but with stablecoin rails and USDC, being the same singular mission of Pipit.  Finally, they explore what makes the Western African market so ripe for what Ollie Walsh and Pipit are working on with the Konect network, and how the incumbents’ fees on the $3bn in remittance that goes into Nigeria alone each year being of the magnitude to do far more impactful things in those economies. LINKS Connect with Ollie Walsh on Linkedin and learn more about Konect and Pipit Follow Konect on Twitter and LinkedIn Follow Pipit on Twitter and LinkedIn Episode title inspired by Connected for Life by Mack 10 ft. Ice Cube, WC and Butch Cassidy Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Nigel Verdon is the CEO and co-founder of Railsr (formerly Railsbank) and is a 3x fintech founder and ‘Finance 4 Good’ evangelist focused on building great ideas - first with Evolution (exited to BAE Systems), followed by Currency Cloud (exited to Visa), and now with Railsr. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. In this episode, Nigel Verdon riffs with Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald on the foundational experiences that pushed him towards becoming a fintech founder before the word fintech even existed, the rebranding of Railsbank to Railsr, the impact of Railsr’s $46mn Series C funding round and spending it on the right things, fintechs as public utilities, Nigel’s view on the digital asset market and decentralized finance, and the difference between starting a startup and scaling a startup. LINKS: Follow Nigel Verdon on LinkedIn and learn more about Railsr Follow Railsr on Twitter Episode title inspired by Forever by Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem Amazon Bay (referenced by Nigel Verdon) - 2005 short video narrative written by Sean Park predicting the financial services landscape in the year 2015. Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend |  Eoin Fitzgerald

Alex Amartei is an Irish entrepreneur originally from Shannon and is also an investor, film writer, and producer. He recently won the Hollywood Icon award and the Monaco Streaming Film Festival Award alongside James Cameron and Mark Wahlberg. Alex is the producer of Antara - the first major DeFi Hollywood movie in history financed by NFTs and the power of web3. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. With a strong background in equities, real estate, corporate finance, and an extensive Hollywood network, Alex has built a brand around the democratization and decentralization of the movie business through web3, community, and blockchain. In addition to launching the Antara Movie NFT, Alex also carried out the NFT campaigns for Arabian Camels, David Bowie, and Queen, and is soon to launch the full physical DC Comic collection onto Blockchain. Alex has also been a governmental advisor on the future of industry as it convergences with web3, tokenization, DeFi, and blockchain. LINKS: Learn more about Antara the Movie and the Antara NFTs on the Arabian Camels website Follow Arabian Camels on Twitter Episode title inspired by All Eyez on Me by 2Pac Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Pete Townsend |  Eoin Fitzgerald

This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto exchange FTX’s partnership with Visa enabling users to spend crypto anywhere Visa is accepted, Google Cloud enabling customers to pay in crypto in partnership with Coinbase, the state of ‘community fintech’ through the lens of Chetwood Financial’s deal with Mumsnet and their 8 million-strong community, NovaCredit’s big $10mn investment from HSBC as a rallying cry for public fintech utilities, the latest on Meta’s metaverse world, and how it’s backs-against-the-wall time for Goldman Sachs’ Marcus and Bank North. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. STORIES COVERED Visa partners with FTX in a bet that shoppers still want to spend cryptocurrencies in a bear market (CNBC, 7-Oct-22) Google Partners With Coinbase to Accept Crypto Payments for Cloud Services (Coindesk, 11-Oct-22) Chetwood Financial partners with Mumsnet for family-focused financial service (Finextra, 30-Sep-22) The Fintech 250: The most promising fintech companies of 2022 (CB Insights, 4-Oct-22) HSBC Invests $10mn in Nova Credit (AltFi, 20-Sep-22) Under Pressure, Goldman CEO Ditches Dream of Consumer Domination (Bloomberg, 10-Oct-22) Meta announces legs (TechCrunch, 11-Oct-22 | Dave Cunningham on Twitter) LHV UK to buy SME lending business of Bank North LINKS Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Follow us on Twitter:  MoneyNeverSleeps  |  Eoin Fitzgerald  |  Pete Townsend

Amor Sexton is Head of International Operations for Blockdaemon, the leading independent blockchain node infrastructure to stake, scale, and deploy nodes with institutional-grade security and monitoring. Amor is an experienced global leader with extensive commercial, legal and operational experience, and a diverse background that includes operations, strategy and commercialization, marketing and communications, regulatory and legal, and design and delivery of enterprise-grade products and solutions. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. LINKS: Connect with Amor Sexton and learn more about Blockdaemon Follow Blockdaemon on Twitter Episode title inspired by Express Yourself by N.W.A. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto asset service provider regulation through the lens of Revolut, the trifecta of crypto market failures in Voyager, Celsius and Terra, how Walmart’s metaverse play with Roblox feels like the right platform vs. Decentraland or Sandbox, credit as a service player Noble coming out of stealth mode, and Goldman Sachs’ next move into retail fintech with mobile network operator T-Mobile. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by SecuriCentrix. SecuriCentrix is a trusted cyber security company with offices in Dublin, Cape Town and London. SecuriCentrix provides expert advisory services, primarily in the finance and fintech industries, with tailored security solutions to fit your specific needs and regulatory challenges. STORIES COVERED: Revolut wins FCA approval for crypto service (Finextra, 27-Sep-22) Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager to sell assets to Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX for $1.4 billion (CNBC, 27-Sep-22) Alex Mashinsky resigns as head of Celsius Network (FT, 27-Sep-22) South Korea seeks to freeze $62 million of bitcoin linked to crypto founder Do Kwon as manhunt continues (CNBC, 28-Sep-22) Walmart Dives Into Metaverse With Launches in Roblox Noble emerges from stealth to help companies extend lines of credit to their customers (TechCrunch, 21-Sep-22) Goldman Sachs Strikes Credit Card Deal With T-Mobile After Apple and GM (20-Sep-22, Bloomberg) Where Does T-Mobile Fit in Goldman's Consumer Strategy? (Jason Mikula, Fintech Business Weekly, 25-Sep-22) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this episode, Eoin and Pete talk through the aftermath of the Ethereum Merge, some pandas and goofy songs, an early-morning Bankless livestream of the Merge, and critically, a 99% more energy-efficient blockchain. We also look at the new Revolut BNPL product live in Ireland, two new funding deals that a16z did on this side of the pond in Sequence and Sardines, opportunities for bored yacht owners, and how it feels like 2002 all over again with builders still building. STORIES COVERED: Ethereum Makes History With Merge to Proof-of-Stake (Crypto Briefing, 15-Sep-22) Revolut rolls out BNPL product in Ireland (Finextra, 20-Sep-22) Revolut confirms cyberattack exposed personal data of tens of thousands of users (TechCrunch, 20-Sep-22) Andreessen Horowitz leads London fintech Sequence’s $19m seed round (Sifted, 20-Sep-22) Sardine raises $51.5M led by a16z to sniff out fishy fintech transactions (TechCrunch, 20-Sep-22) Invest Like the Best: Trina Spear - Billion Dollar Scrubs (Podcast episode) A Bored Ape Ethereum NFT Owner is Launching a Real-World Yacht Club (Decrypt (via Lex Sokolin’s Fintech Blueprint), 15-Sep-22) Fintech startup Power flexes its credit card muscle following $316M equity, debt injection (TechCrunch, 14-Sep-22) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Founder and CEO of PlanDail, Owen O’Driscoll, riffs with Pete Townsend on PlanDail’s mission to build Europe’s premier cross-border, seamless, regulated crowdfunding platform, powered by carbon-neutral Algorand technology.  PlanDail’s aim is to connect high-impact focused entrepreneurs with ESG/impact investors of all shapes and sizes who want to fund a better future for the planet. In this episode, we dig into: How Owen’s foundational experiences in operations, supply chains, horticulture, blockchain, and retail investing merged together to form his vision for PlanDail. How participating in an accelerator in 2019 opened Owen’s eyes to the startup ethos. Taking advantage of the entrepreneurial support frameworks in Ireland to transform himself into a startup founder. Making sure that as a CEO, you can have the confidence in yourself to back yourself. Self-sovereign identity - in digital form - both for investors and for companies raising funding on the PlanDail platform. Combatting ESG greenwashing by integrating ESG commitments and audited outcomes into a company’s digital identity. How PlanDail want early-stage investors to be the retail investors who can steer the important decisions and have a pride of ownership about where a company is going, especially around ESG (environmental, social, governance). Bringing the PlanDail vision to reality with their MVP, an easy-to-use and regulated crowdfunding platform focused on high-impact entrepreneurs and the individual investors who believe in them. Self-sovereign identity as a bridge for web2 and web3-minded investors. Enabling the PlanDail platform to integrate across multiple blockchain protocols, including Algorand, IPFS and Hyperledger, as part of their platform scaling strategy. Getting the first investors in PlanDail on board with the recent opening of their pre-seed round. LINKS: Connect with Owen O’Driscoll and join the PlanDail waitlist Follow Owen O’Driscoll and PlanDail on Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Sky’s the Limit’ by The Notorious B.I.G. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin and Pete dive into the shortcomings of Metaverse graphics through the lens of Metaverse deep-thinker Matthew Ball and his new book on the Metaverse, what’s up with the Ethereum Merge, the big fundraisings of Irish unicorn Wayflyer and Techstars grad Alloy, the death of ING’s Yolt, Block’s Cash App’s small-dollar lending milestone, and old friend Bradley Tusk takes his super-charged regulatory advisory into crypto and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. STORIES WE COVERED: When Metaverse (Life in Color, 1-Aug-22) After $177 Billion in Investment, Why Do Metaverse Graphics Still Suck? (Decrypt, 27-Aug-22) Ethereum’s Big Moment Is Coming With ‘The Merge.’ What It Means for Crypto (5-Sep-22) Wayflyer secures €254m in debt financing from Credit Suisse (Irish Times, 1-Sep-22) Fintech startup Alloy leans on fraud prevention to land new $1.55B valuation (TechCrunch, 1-Sep-22) KlimaDAO Engages Tusk Strategies to Push Congress to Write DAOs Into Law (Decrypt, 4-Sep-22) ING pulls the plug on Yolt, shutting down its open banking operation (AltFi, 30-Aug-22) Cash App Now Originates 1m Small-Dollar Loans A Month (Fintech Business Weekly, 21-Aug-22) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on Pete’s trip to the US last month with the sheer ridiculousness of the 8 different combinations of point-of-sale authorizations he experienced with a single Revolut card, Starling Bank’s re-prioritization of a presence in the Irish banking market, the hunt for crypto talent by EU regulators, Vitalik’s view on giving people what they want in the Metaverse, fintech micro-lender Umba’s deal for Daraja Lending and Tomo Credit’s big round to make credit scores obsolete. *SUMMER SCHEDULE UPDATE* - This is our mid-summer episode for August and we’ll be back with our regular weekly cadence come September. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. STORIES WE COVERED: EBA warns talent shortage will hamstring crypto regulation (Finextra, 2-Aug-22) Apple Accused Of Potential Consumer Data Misuse With Its ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Service (Forbes, 27-Jul-22) Vitalik: Metaverse ‘Is Going to Happen’ but Meta’s ‘Will Misfire’(Decrypt. 31-Jul-22) US-based fintech Umba buys majority stake in Kenya’s Daraja microfinance bank (TechCrunch, 3-Aug-22) Starling Bank pulls plans to offer services in Ireland (RTE News, 18-Jul-22) TomoCredit raises $22M at a $222M valuation toward its goal of making credit scores ‘obsolete’ (TechCrunch, 21-Jul-22) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend recap Techstars’ first-ever demo day in Dublin as part of the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, look at crypto winter with FTX, BlockFi and Voyager, Klarna’s down round, Revolut’s new card reader, Algorand bringing Napster back to life, MiCA ( Markets in Crypto Assets) regulation in the EU, and open banking as a crossover from embedded finance into crypto and digital assets. *SUMMER SCHEDULE UPDATE* - We’ll be moving to a monthly release for July and August 2022, but we’ll return to our regular weekly episodes in September. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Michael Quartey and Lukas Bruell, founder and co-founder of Eczodex, join the show this week to riff on how Eczodex are enabling investors to unlock more returns with traditional investments through DeFi (decentralized finance). This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. Eczodex are the ninth of the founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show in the lead-in to Demo Day in Dublin on June 30th. In this episode, Michael Quartey and Lukas Bruell talk with Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald about: - How their backgrounds uniquely prepared them to bring Eczodex to life - How Eczodex will bridge real-world assets into DeFi - Enabling yield enhancement strategies for real-world investor - Connecting the Eczodex vision with the realities of the crypto markets - Breaking down the problem for individual investors LINKS: Connect with Michael Quarteyand Lukas Bruell and learn more about Eczodex on LinkedIn Follow Eczodex and Lukas Bruell on Twitter Episode title inspired by ‘Money Maker’ by Ludacris and Pharrell Williams Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Tim Goodman is the founder and CEO of Your Diamonds, an ecosystem enabling the diamond industry to solve old-world problems through digital technologies and Web3. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. Your Diamonds are the eighth of the founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next month. In this episode, Tim Goodman talks with Pete Townsend about: - Having diamonds flowing through his veins - Scaling by surrounding yourself with smart people - Cashflow finance as the problem to solve in the diamond industry - Building fintech first before moving into DeFi (decentralized finance) - Providing a venue for lenders and borrowers to negotiate - Creating scalability by pairing NFTs as digital twins of real-world assets with smart contracts - Letting nature work out the ups and downs of crypto markets LINKS: Connect with Tim Goodman and learn more about Your Diamonds Episode title inspired by ‘Diamonds Dancing’ by Drake & Future Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Luis Martinez and Martin Liebrich are the co-founders of Staxe. Staxe is enabling music and creative production economies on web3 so that anyone can become an owner of music and creative productions, support their favorite artists, and become a part of their success.” This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. Staxe are the seventh of the founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next month. In this episode, Pete Townsend talks with Luis and Martin from Staxe about: - Luis leaving DJ school to become a trader before going down the crypto rabbit hole - Martin’s earliest days of programming on the Commodore 64 - The lightbulb moment on the problem to solve with financing creative productions - How creative productions are like micro-startups - Blockchain as a social coordination tool - The big opportunity for Staxe with massive creative productions LINKS: Connect with Luis Martinez and Martin Liebrich and learn more about Staxe Episode title inspired by ‘In da Club’ by 50 Cent Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Jeff Donnelley and Colin Bracey are the co-founders of MegaFans, a mobile esports platform and community bridging web2 to web3 in a play-to-earn environment for gamers, collectors and developers. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. MegaFans are the sixth of ten founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next two months. In this episode, Pete Townsend talks to Jeff and Colin about: - How their paths first converged with the predecessor to MegaFans after doing the first legal ICO (initial coin offering) in Canada. - An inside look at the MegaFans platform - ‘Mining’ the web2 market and building a web3 community - The longer-term vision for MegaFans and the esports market overall - How Jeff and Colin are approaching the big challenges in front of them right now LINKS: Connect with Jeff Donnelley and Colin Bracey and learn more about MegaFans Episode title inspired by ‘Award Tour’ by A Tribe Called Quest Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

On the show this week, we’ve got Will Martin and Laura Brkić from LiveDuel, a DeFi-powered digital sports market with live fan engagement. LiveDuel supports decentralized sports betting built on blockchain to give you a fairer deal than traditional sports betting sites. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LiveDuel are the fifth of ten founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next two months. In this episode, Pete Townsend talks to Will and Laura about how they got together with Alex Luce to drive LiveDuel forward, what LiveDuel is and how it works, replacing ‘the house’ in sports betting markets with DeFi liquidity pools, and staying close to the long-term vision while executing in the short term.   LINKS: Connect with Will Martin and Laura Brkić and learn more about LiveDuel Episode title inspired by ‘Hate It or Love’ It by the Game Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

On the show this week, we’ve got Victor and Lee and Alvin Foo, co-founders of Securo Finance (formerly DAOventures) who are building a compliant, secure and easy to use DeFi (decentralized finance) investment platform for regular investors. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. Securo Finance are the fourth of ten founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next two months. In this episode, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend talk to Victor and Alvin about how they got together with their CTO Soon Lai to bring the Securo Finance idea to life, what Securo Finance is and how it works, what really matters when you’re bridging web2 investors into the web3 world, and how Securo Finance are going to make a big splash into the market in and around Palm Beach and Miami at the upcoming Permissionless conference. LINKS: Connect with Victor Lee and Alvin Foo and learn more about Securo Finance (rebranding from DAOventures) Episode title inspired by ‘Friends’ by Nas & Damian Marley and ‘Friend of Mine’ by Alan Tam Victor Lee quoted in American Banker’s post: ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Centralized’ Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

On the show this week we have Filipe Pereira and Mario Frade from Crowdclass, a web3 protocol for online education using the power of blockchain, tokenization, composability and the metaverse to create new monetization models for online educators, and better learning environments for students to grow and develop. Crowdclass are the third of ten founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next few months. In this episode, we talk to Filipe and Mario about how the crisscrossing of their lives and careers with that of their co-founder (and CTO) Bruno Costa has resulted in the funding of Crowdclass, In this episode, we talk to Filipe and Mario about how the crisscrossing of their lives and careers with that of their co-founder (and CTO) Bruno Costa has resulted in the funding of Crowdclass, the shortcomings of the online education experience today for learners, teachers and content creators, the longer-term vision for Crowdclass, and how Crowdclass will get to market in 2022. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Connect with Filipe Pereira and Mario Frade and learn more about Crowdclass Episode title inspired by ‘Reunited’ by Wu-Tang Clan Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eugene O’Brien and Kurt Pittman from Ireland-based BigFan join Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend on the show this week. BigFan is reinventing sports collectibles through officially licensed NFTs that provide access to Metaverse-driven fan experiences Eugene and Kurt from BigFan are the second of ten founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next few months. In this episode, we talk to Eugene and Kurt about how their paths converged into BigFan last year, why it makes so much sense for them to be working on BigFan together, the ‘art of the possible’ with building for the metaverse, and the challenges in front of them to tackle right now. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Connect with Eugene O’Brien and Kurt Pittmanand learn more about BigFan Episode title inspired by ‘Drop it Like it’s Hot’ by Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell Reference to Jasmine Maietta from Round21 on Web3 Breakdownspodcast Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Carla Rosenkranz, founder of Barterchain, riffs with Pete Townsend about how the Barterchain idea is rooted in her own experience of exchanging English lessons for yoga classes, the core of her conviction to start building Barterchain, the network effects from connecting local communities and virtual communities, how to keep pushing back against the blockchain and crypto naysayers….and her psychic storytelling superpowers! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Connect with Carla Rosenkranzand learn more about Barterchain Episode title inspired by ‘Get it Together’ by Drake, Black Coffee and Jorja Smith Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

What a week! Techstars kicked off the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator this week in Dublin and they’re already moving at a breakneck pace. With that, we’re taking the opportunity to introduce our MoneyNeverSleeps community to the ten amazing founding teams that make up Techstars’ first chain-agnostic blockchain accelerator as well as Techstars’ very first accelerator program in Ireland. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. Here are the ten early-stage startups that form the inaugural class of the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, all of whom introduce themselves and their vision in this episode recorded on March 16th, 2022, about two weeks before the program kicked off. Meet the companies: Barterchain -A peer-to-peer barterplace where members can swap or tokenize their skills and services BigFan - Reinventing sports collectibles with officially licensed NFTs that provide access to Metaverse-driven fan experiences CrowdClass - A web3 protocol for online teachers to better monetize their courses and reward student engagement DAOventures - A secured, compliant and easy to use DeFi platform for crypto investors Eczodex - Tokenized data assets for value investors LiveDuel - DeFi-powered live fan engagement MegaFans - Mobile esports platform bridging web2 to web3 for gamers and enabling game developers to increase their player lifetime value Staxe - Enabling music and creative productions’ economies in web3 Vyper Protocol - Risk management for DeFi applications on Solana Your Diamonds – Enabling the diamond industry to solve old world problems through digital technologies and web3 LINKS: Episode title inspired by Scenario by Tribe Called Quest Learn more about the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Read Pete Townsend’s Web3 Thesis 1.0 Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend return from a 2-week hiatus and look at what’s driving Ramp forward so quickly with their $8bn valuation, the JP Morgan deal for western Ireland-based fintech Global Shares, and the latest with ApeCoin, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and Yuga Labs. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. STORIES WE COVERED: Ramp confirms new $8.1B valuation after ‘a nearly 10x’ YoY increase in revenue(Techcrunch, 21-Mar-22) JP Morgan confirms €665m takeover of Cork's Global Shares (Irish Times, 15-Mar-22) What Is ApeCoin and Who Is Behind It? (Coindesk, 21-Mar-22) Apple snaps up UK open banking start-up Credit Kudos (Silicon Republic, 23-Mar-22) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Nik Milanović is the founder of This Week in Fintech, a global digest of fintech news, and General Partner at The Fintech Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund. In this episode, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald talk to Nik about what influenced his modus operandi, the big opportunity with fintech to provide financial services to even more people around the world, how Nik ramped up from a newsletter to a syndicate to a venture fund, the blurred lines between fintech and crypto…and how Nik managed to make the most of his love of music! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Episode title inspired by My Philosophy by Boogie Down Productions Follow Nik Milanovic, subscribe to This Week in Fintech, and learn more about The Fintech Fund Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on what started out as a student lending platform in SoFi now becoming a full-service digital finance player, Circle’s new SPAC deal in the context of stablecoins, advertising and naming rights in crypto and a long-term view on what Apple could be up to with Stripe. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. STORIES WE COVERED: SoFi Pays $1.1B For Banking Software Firm Technisys (Pymnts.com, 22-Feb-22) Stablecoin Provider Circle Hits $9B Valuation After New SPAC Deal (Decrypt, 17-Feb-22) Sporting Crypto - Super Bowl Crypto Takeover (Sporting Crypto, Pet Berisha, 14-Feb-22) From Apple Pay To Apple Paid (Forbes, 10-Feb-22) LINKS: Interesting web3 music project we mentioned: Token||Traxx Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Adam Bialy is the founder and CEO of Fiat Republic, the compliance-first, API-driven and highly secure and scalable bridge between banks and crypto. In this episode, Adam and Pete Townsend talk through the Fiat Republic vision, the current state of play between banks and crypto platforms that make Fiat Republic such a strong proposition, Adam’s unique leadership style, raising a $3.5mn seed round…and a little something about Taylor Swift! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Episode title inspired by Mainstream by OutKast Learn more about Fiat Republic and connect with Adam Bialy Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Matthew Larby is the founder and CEO of Realm, a blockchain metaverse ecosystem where you can create and explore your own play to earn microverse. In this episode, Matthew and I talk through how the Realm experience works,  how to make the metaverse more accessible, transitions from a web2 founder to a web3 founder, building a seed round in advance of Realm’s IDO (initial DEX offering), and a little known fact about his love for competing. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Episode title inspired by Step into the Realm by the Roots Learn more about Realm and connect with Matthew Larby Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend are back with the first Money Talks segment of 2022 with a big bump in consumers spending crypto on Visa cards, the UBS deal for Wealthfront, Walmart doubling down on their superapp strategy, the story of Ireland’s latest unicorn, Wayflyer, and the pummeling of PayPal’s stock price as a bellwether for the post-pandemic era. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. STORIES WE COVERED: Visa Customers Made $2.5B in Crypto-Linked Payments in Fiscal Q1 (Coindesk, 28-Jan-22) How UBS plans to leverage Wealthfront’s robo-adviser (Investment News, 28-Jan-22) Walmart’s Fintech Arm Acquires Two Firms In Financial Services Super App Quest (Ron Shevlin, Forbes, 26-Jan-22) Wayflyer becomes latest Irish tech unicorn after $150m fundraise (Charlie Taylor, Irish Times, 1-Feb-22) PayPal stock gets pummeled, wiping out nearly all of its pandemic-era gains (Fast Company, 2-Feb-22) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This episode is from the second edition of the Finsight Series virtual event that Pete Townsend moderated recently hosted by Navirum and Salesforce. In this conversation, we’ve got an all-star cast with Rory Galvin from Navirum, Kerry Ryan from Salesforce, Christian-Maynard Philipp from Pattern and Joe Parkin from BlackRock. The key idea with this discussion is that so many pieces of the wealth management process have become digital, but many have not - how do we go beyond WealthTech to accelerate to the next level of truly digital wealth management? Or do we need to? This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Connect with Rory Galvin from Navirum Connect with Kerry Ryan from Salesforce Connect with Christian Maynard-Philipp from Pattern Connect with Joe Parkin from BlackRock Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Joining the show this week is Tim Bos, founder and CEO of ShareRing, a blockchain-based company that's focused on changing the landscape of the fragmented sharing economy. In this chat, Tim and Pete Townsend talk through Tim’s crystal ball-like experiences in deep tech in the ’90s, how being a third-time founder has shaped his view of the blockchain space, adapting all of this incredible technology at our fingertips into real-world scenarios, and what makes a great Web3 project. This episode was originally recorded as part of the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats powered by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program in Ireland. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Follow Tim Bos on Twitter and learn more about ShareRing Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend are back with their last Money Talks segment of the year with their review of their top stories for 2021.  From GameStop and Wallstreetbets, to Roblox and Coinbase going public, to Chamath and SPACs, to Charlie Munger on Bitcoin, to BNPL with Klarna, Square and Afterpay, to our spinning of the fintech flywheel, to CryptoPunks, stablecoins, the metaverse, Techstars in Ireland and Web3 and finally, Eoin’s new hope for Monzo, we’ve got it covered one last time for 2021. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘What a Year’ by Big Sean featuring Pharrell and Detail Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Isaac Kato, who leads the Filecoin Techstars Accelerator program in Seattle joins Pete Townsend on this episode originally recorded as part of the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats powered by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program in Ireland. In this chat, Isaac and Pete riff on the differences and similarities between Web2 and Web3 startups, the Lego blocks of Web3, defending your turf, incentivizing your users, keeping your community close, building your team, fundraising strategies ...and the Gaelic sport of hurling. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Follow Isaac Kato on Twitter and learn more about the Filecoin Techstars Accelerator  Follow Pete Townsend on Twitter and learn more about the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter Follow Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Joey Krug is the Co-Chief Investment Officer, Pantera Capital, the first institutional investment firm focused exclusively on bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the blockchain tech ecosystem. Joey joins Pete Townsend on this episode originally recorded as part of the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats powered by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program in Ireland. Joey and Pete riff on how being early in crypto impacts how Joey thinks about Web3, building the right founder-to-VC relationship from the start, and what makes a great Web3 project. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Follow Joey Krug on Twitter and learn more about Pantera Capital Apply for the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator on F6S Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Matthew Graham is the CEO of Sino Global Capital, who are providing strategic investment to best-in-class companies that are moving the blockchain and digital assets ecosystems forward, and then help them to thrive in the Asia market. Matthew joins Pete Townsend on this episode originally recorded as part of the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats powered by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program in Ireland. In this episode, Matthew shares insights on his first priority to help companies *before* investing in high conviction / high-quality projects, guiding founders into the unique yet massive markets of China and India, making his hobby his job, and what makes a great Web3 project. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Follow Matthew Graham on Twitter and learn more about Sino Global Capital Apply for the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator on F6S Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

John Wu is president of Ava Labs, an a16z-backed technology company building the next-generation blockchain platform, Avalanche. John joins Pete Townsend on this episode originally recorded as part of the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats powered by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program in Ireland. In this episode, John shares insights on bringing passion to projects, building teams and communities in Web3, the sheer joy of bringing hundreds of companies onto Avalanche this year, insights on opportunities and rapid growth areas in Web3, and what makes a great Web3 project. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Follow John Wu on Twitter, check out his blog, and learn more about Ava Labs and Avalanche Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Teana Baker-Taylor is the Chief Policy Officer of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the longest established trade body representing blockchain and digital assets. In this episode, Teana shares her story with Pete Townsend on her journey into blockchain and digital assets, her view on the critical focal points for the digital asset industry over the next few years, how she gives back as a mentor and advocate, and her view on what makes a great Web3 founder. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London startup, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Go’ by the Chemical Brothers featuring Q-Tip Follow Teana Baker-Taylor on Twitter and learn more about the Chamber of Digital Commerce Link to Chris Dixon and Naval Ravikant on the Tim Ferriss Show talking about Web3 Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Suzanna Hayek from Irish Tech News interviews Pete Townsend on Pete Townsend on financial trends, digital finance and investing in startups. This interview was originally aired on Irish Tech News in early September, and they kindly gave us permission to share the content.  We also brought Rory Galvin from Navirum back onto the show to give us some quick insights on the next edition of the Finsight Series ‘Beyond WealthTech’ virtual event coming up on November 17th. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London startup, fintech and crypto communities. LINKS: Register for the next edition of the Finsight Series hosted by Navirum and Salesforce Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Michelle Tsing joins Pete Townsend in a special segment from the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats driven by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program kicking off in Dublin in March 2022. Michelle is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in addition to wearing many hats as a lawyer, artist, entrepreneur, startup advisor, and self-described futurist, she mentors founders through the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator and Singularity University Ventures.   Michelle talks about her entry point into blockchain, the links back to her career with PayPal that shape how she mentors founders today, some of her own eye-opening experiences as an entrepreneur, her experience with DAOs or decentralized autonomous organizations, what she looks for in founders and how she works with startup teams, and what it takes to be successful in the Web3 space.   LINKS: Learn more about the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator and the Techstars Web3 Convo Series Connect with Michelle Tsing here and check out her Laptop Radio podcast Check out Michelle’s Tsing’s suggested must-read book here: Games People Play by Eric Berne Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Referring to Colm Lyon as an Irish fintech ‘O.G.’ is just the tip of the iceberg, as at the core, he’s an entrepreneur who’s built indigenous Irish businesses into international players. Currently the CEO and Founder of Fire.com, we walk through Colm’s journey from the early days of banking IT to bootstrapping and scaling his first fintech Realex Payments before it was even called fintech, and building a great culture as an Irish company competing globally. We also talk through how successful exits aren’t really exits, what excites Colm about what fintech will become, what he looks for in startup founders…and the wonders of the antediluvial period! LINKS: Episode title inspired by 'Freedom' by The Gloaming and 'Freedom' by The Game. Check out the Fire.com website to learn more about Fire.com and Colm Lyon. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive headfirst into insights from the first AMA session on the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, then look at Stripe’s re-entry into crypto and what they’d miss if they stayed on the sidelines, Pete shares some stories from the Token 2049 conference last week in London, and Eoin tees up some unique insights on embedded finance through the lens of NerdWallet’s IPO filing and Productfy’s $16mn Series A. MAIN STORIES COVERED: Highlights from 1st AMA (ask-me-anything) on the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator in Dublin (YouTube, 13-Oct-21) Stripe goes back to the crypto future (Charlie Taylor @ Irish Times, 13-Oct-21) Stories from Token 2049 in London last week (Business Insider, 11-Oct-21) NerdWallet’s IPO filing reveals high-margin content business, accelerating marketing spend (Techcrunch, 11-Oct-21) OTHER STORIES/REFERENCES: ‘Shopify of embedded finance’ startup Productfy grabs $16 million in funding (ITMunch, 10-Oct-21) Proposed Bank Jewel Wants to Become a Global Stablecoin Issuer, With Bermuda’s OK (Coindesk, 13-Oct-21) Plaid Report: The Fintech Effect - Fintech’s Mass Adoption Moment (Plaid Blog, 12-Oct-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Laura Walsh is the COO of Launchpool, a digital asset platform with a mantra of egalitarian investing in blockchain projects.  In this episode, we talk through how Laura’s incredibly unique foundation as a teacher of English as a second language, as an international development operative, and as someone with a deep interest in how things work, led to her entry point into the blockchain ecosystem in 2017. We also dive into the mission of Launchpool and Launchpool’s impact as a platform for investing in blockchain projects, and also where things are headed with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator landing in Dublin in 2022. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘The Magic Number’ by De La Soul. Get in touch with Laura Walsh and check out Launchpool and the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator to learn more. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

157: Money Talks #42:  Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator in Ireland | Chase Goes UK | AngelList Gets Stacked Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive into the big news for Ireland’s startup ecosystem as Techstars come to Ireland with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, along with some news of how Pete will be leading the program, then we get into how we think Chase’s digital bank might fare in the UK, and also AngelList’s announcement of AngelList Stack and their opportunity to monetize their massive user base through fintech. MAIN STORIES COVERED: Techstars comes to Ireland with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Techstars to hold blockchain-focused accelerator in Dublin (Charlie Taylor, Irish Times, 27-Sep-21) 5 Questions with Pete Townsend, Managing Director of Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator(Techstars Blog, 30-Sep-21) Chase Launches UK Digital Bank JPMorgan Chase Launches New Digital Bank in the UK: What do the Industry Think? (Fintech Times, 21-Sep 21) AngelList launch AngelList Stack AngelList returns to its founder-focused roots, with a twist (Techcrunch, 28-Sep-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts| Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Our guest this week is Gershie Vann, Founder and CEO of Magma Capital Funds, a Chicago-based quantitative hedge fund firm. We talk through the long iterative climb involved in launching a business, finding alternative skillsets outside of finance when building his team during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020, what’s at the core of his entrepreneurial mindset, quieting the always-on mind of the founder, an innovative approach to raising capital for new hedge funds, along with a shallow dive into crypto and sovereign currencies…and being the elder statesman in a family of 7 kids! LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Bring the Noise’ by Public Enemy and Anthrax Get in touch with Gershie Vann and check out Magma Capital Funds to learn more Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Sophie Guibaud is the Chief Growth Officer at OpenPayd and she’s spent the last 10 years designing and executing the go-to-market of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance propositions in Europe, building teams and operations from scratch, and integrating financial services into customers’ existing products to create new revenue streams. We talk through Sophie’s entrepreneurial journey to date, some real-world applications of embedded finance, the benefits of her extracurricular activities with podcasts and advisory boards feeding her creativity….and her past life as a competitive boxer! LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Vision’ by Travis Scott Get in touch with Sophie Guibaud and check out OpenPayd to learn more Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Shane Monks O’Byrne, founder and CEO of Aikido Finance, joins the show this week to talk to Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend about the Aikido Finance mission of democratizing quant investing, how he went from a grad with a Computer Science degree to a fully empowered startup founder in less than two years, the similarities between a rules-based mind and the merits of quant investing, finding co-founders and building the A team, raising a $1mn seed round from angels and a US VC, and the parallels between investing and alpine climbing. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘My Parallel’ by Royce Da 5’9” Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Get in touch with Shane Monks O’Byrne and check out Aikido Finance to learn more Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend walk through Amazon’s new partnership with BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) player Affirm and what this means for the Amazon flywheel, and then answer the question ‘what’s a stablecoin?’ in the context of USD Coin and the Centre Consortium, before diving into the world of NFTs through Visa’s $150,000 purchase of a CryptoPunk NFT and the big opportunity for monetizing the metaverse. MAIN STORIES COVERED: Amazon-Affirm BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) Affirm shares soar nearly 47% after Amazon partnership that lets consumers buy expensive things in installments (CNBC, 30-Aug-21) Is Affirm's Amazon Deal Better Than Walmart? (Fintech Business Weekly/Jason Mikuda, 29-Aug-21) How does Affirm make money? (Finty, 21-Jun-21) USDC and Stablecoins Centre Consortium announces new team to create 'global network of stablecoins' (the Block (via Coindesk), 30-Aug-21) AID:Tech utilises Circle and USD Coin to provide fraud resistant disaster relief(Finextra, 30-Aug-21) Visa is now supporting settlement of card transactions with USDC (Techcrunch, 29-Mar-21) Visa gets into NFT space Visa buys a CryptoPunk as it takes first steps into 'NFT commerce' (The Block, 23-Aug-21) Nifty Corporates (Not Boring by Packy McCormick, 30-Aug-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend unpack the shiny new $24bn valuation for Chime in the context of the American neobank landscape, Ron Shevlin’s concept of neobank-driven deposit displacement through the lens of Bank of America, Facebook’s relaunch of their crypto project, the potential impact of Amazon hiring a crypto lead, the LendingClub turnaround and a sampling of Lex Sokolin’s poetic fintech prose. MAIN STORIES COVERED: Chime’s Big Raise Chime raises $750 million, earns big jump in valuation as another fintech moves closer to IPO (CNBC, 13-Aug-21) Bank of America and Deposit Displacement Bank Of America is losing its grip on millennials as fintechs reinvent the checking account (Ron Shevlin in Forbes, 16-Aug-21) Facebook’s Wallet Relaunch Will Facebook’s Relaunched Digital Wallet [Novi] Alter the Future of Payments? (The Financial Brand, 24-Aug-21) Amazon’s Crypto Journey Beyond the rumors: Amazon's likely direction in crypto (American Banker, 30-Jul-21) Lending Club Turnaround Buying a bank turned LendingClub around. Now the fintech industry is watching (Protocol, 16-Aug-21) HONORABLE MENTIONS: Creating, Transacting, and Storing Value in the Financial Metaverse of NFTs, DAOs, and DeFi (Lex Sokolin, Fintech Blueprint, 23-Aug-21) Walmart is looking for a crypto product lead (The Block (via Arca) 15-Aug-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Recorded during the Finsight Series virtual event that Pete Townsend moderated recently hosted by Navirum and Salesforce, this episode features an all-star cast with Rory Galvin from Navirum, Bryan Clagett from Moven, Cory Haberkorn from Salesforce and Niall Twomey from Fenergo. The main theme we covered is this: The demand for digital financial services goes far beyond the domain of neobanks - how do we become truly digital upstream of consumer banking, especially in institutional banking and wealth management? GET IN TOUCH WITH SPEAKERS: Rory Galvin, Founder and CEO of Navirum Bryan Clagett, Chief Revenue Officer at Moven Cory Haberkorn, Senior Manager and Industry Advisor, Wealth and Asset Management at Salesforce Niall Twomey, CTO and Co-founder of Fenergo LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Brian Kenny is the CEO and Founder of MiniCorp. Brian left the Lego behind at an early age and started building through code. We go deep into how Brian thinks about leading MiniCorp and what makes MiniCorp unique, how his modus operandi has evolved during his career in tech, the critical task of truly knowing your first ten customers, analogies between startups and marathons, and the importance of balance and human kindness. MiniCorp are based in Dublin and help companies create exceptional digital products and experiences. In short, MiniCorp are your ready-to-go product team. Through years of experience, MiniCorp have created world-class digital products together with their clients. Their digital experiences have touched millions of customers and allow MiniCorp to grow concepts into top startups. LINKS: Episode title inspired by Growing Up by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Follow Brian Kenny on Twitter and get in touch to learn more about MiniCorp Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive deep into the annual results from UK neobanks Starling and Monzo and what’s next for both, before getting into Square’s deal for BNPL (buy now, pay later) player Afterpay and how the integration will lead to a ‘fintech flywheel’. They then dive even deeper into their developing fintech flywheel thesis with a look into how Amazon and Shopify built their flywheels around a B2C to B2B bridge and ‘doing one thing well’, before tying it all back together with a look at Revolut’s travel plans. MAIN STORIES COVERED: Starling’s Results Breaking down Starling’s 2020 financials (Sifted, 22-Jul-21) Monzo’s Results Monzo reports £114m annual loss and a second “going concern” warning (Sifted, 30-Jul-21) Square’s big move into BNPL with Afterpay Why Square is shelling out $29B to snag BNPL player Afterpay (TechCrunch, 2-Aug-21) When Fintech Meets Marketplaces (a16z Fintech Newsletter, July 2021) HONORABLE MENTIONS: Revolut, Europe’s $33 billion fintech giant, launches a travel booking feature(CNBC, 20-Jul-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Gerard Tannam, Strategic Brand-Builder at Islandbridge, tells us all about the use of storytelling as a framework in bridging the gap between buyers and sellers, businesses and their markets. In this episode, we weave through Ger’s own story that takes him from Ireland to Hong Kong and back again, then into the lessons learned from marketing and strategy direction for big brands before launching the Islandbridge business, how building bridges between businesses and customers drives growth for businesses of all sizes….and almost becoming a priest! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. HIGHLIGHTS: On one of the earliest signs of what became Gerard’s modus operandi in building brands: “As part of our event management business in Hong Kong in the ‘90’s, we also set up an art gallery. The common thread was that I became used to walking into an empty space and looking on both sides and asking the question, what do I need to do to fill this gap?” “You're constantly being thrown into an environment where you're obliged to translate, to step into that space between and to determine how are we going to make this work?” “Narrative and story are concerned with making sense of the world, of finding a language to describe the world. So when Alice goes down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, what Lewis Carroll is doing is he's describing another world. When we build brands, that's what we're doing.” LINKS: Episode title inspired by The Bridge by MC Shan Get in touch with and to learn more about Gerard Tannam and Islandbridge. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Eoin and Pete mine a motherlode of fintech hotspots this week starting with insights into Revolut’s latest $33bn valuation, Square’s quest for crossover between creators, crypto and small businesses, then we dive deep into the upcoming Robinhood IPO and our developing thesis on fintech flywheels. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES COVERED: Revolut’s Big Raise Revolut confirms a fresh $800M in funding at a $33bn valuation to supercharge its financial services superapp (TechCrunch, 15-Jul-21) Revolut: required study for any student of disruptive innovation (Sifted, 21-Jul-21) Revolut vs. Nubank: Insight from Rally Cap Venture’s Juan Gabriel (Twitter, 16-Jul-21, thanks Lex Sokolin) Square’s Crossover Square to Create New Bitcoin Platform for Financial Services (CoinDesk, 15-Jul-21) Square to take on incumbents with business banking accounts (Finextra, 21-Jul-21) Robinhood IPO Robinhood IPO: Still A Bad Bet for Investors With Alarming Risk (David Trainer, Forbes, 20-Jul-21) HONORABLE MENTIONS: Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy: David Velez from Nubank (Apple Podcasts) $1 out of every $5 in venture funding went to fintech in Q2 2021 (Morning Brew, 8-Jul-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Ankur Mohan, Founder & CEO of MarketXLS joins the show to share his story on his entry point into Galway in the West of Ireland to launch MarketXLS, how a certain demographic just prefers the simplicity and control of Excel for managing personal and professional portfolios, closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots of the investing world, and the life-long lesson of the benefits of hard work. MarketXLS provide a leading Excel-based investment research platform with a belief that each investor and strategy is unique, and that building and executing a great investment strategy should not require a PhD or a million-dollar budget. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Global Access’ by Wiz Khalifa Get in touch with Ankur Mohan and MarketXLS to learn more Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Ernest Cantillon (CEO of DramEx) and Brian Elders (Founder of SORS Digital Assets and advisor to DramEx) join the show this week to talk about DramEx, a community governed digital whiskey marketplace. We get into the genesis of the DramEx business through Ernest’s life story as a hospitality entrepreneur and Brian’s path through finance and into digital assets, why the timing is right to bring DramEx into the $63bn global whiskey market, the bridge between whiskey and digital assets through NFTs…and training to be a chef and a mathematician! Across the trading lifecycle and around the world, DramEx will enable you to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities previously unavailable in the digital whiskey marketplace. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Episode title inspired by ‘Calling My Spirit’ by Kodak Black Get in touch with Ernest Cantillon and DramEx to learn more and follow DramEx on Twitter Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend start with some insights on Visa’s deal for Tink and how the European context of Tink differs quite a bit from the US context of Visa’s dead deal with Plaid, then we look at Binance’s recent troubles before rounding out with Revolut’s recent reporting of their 2020 results and the potential to roll Revolut into a Rundle - the recurring revenue bundle. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Visa to buy Swedish fintech Tink for €1.8bn (Sifted, 24-Jun-21) Binance: Watchdog clamps down on cryptocurrency exchange (BBC, 28-Jun-21) Revolut’s 2020 Results (Lex Sokolin, The Fintech Blueprint, 28-Jun-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Achia Nila, Founder & CEO of Women in Digital, joins the show to share her story on Women in Digital, an all-star team of female technologists dedicated to bringing more Bangladeshi women into the digital economy. In this chat, we get into Nila’s earliest inspirations, proving herself and becoming a CTO before becoming an entrepreneur, the founding principles of Women in Digital, and how she has been able to train 10,000 women in 8 years. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Freedom’ by Beyonce featuring Kendrick Lamar Get in touch with Achia Nila and Women in Digital to learn about their programs Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website for all of the shownotes and highlights in the written word. Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend start with their insights on what Stripe’s latest product could mean for their long-term plan, then they think through the next media flywheel with Netflix finally getting into merch, before heading south to Miami for the outtakes from Bitcoin 2021. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Stripe goes beyond payments with Stripe Identity (TechCrunch, 14-Jun-21) Overdue - Netflix does merch - the flywheel is spinning (Scott Galloway on Twitter, 11-Jun-21) Thousands of bitcoin believers descended on Miami to party and preach the gospel of ‘HODL’ (CNBC, 7-Jun-21) 5 Weirdest Moments at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami (Decrypt, 6-Jun-21) OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST: Stripe: Thinking Like a Civilization (The Generalist, 13-Jun-21) The Flywheel (Hubspot Blog) When Will Amazon Offer a Checking Account? (Ron Shevlin in Forbes, 14-Jun-21) Pipit Global’s crowdfunding campaign on Spark Crowdfunding - last few days! LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Mark Boylan, CFO at Trustap, joins the show this week to share his story about his leap out of Big 4 and into startup life, finding the right distribution channels to get Trustap into the end users’ hands, the benefit of strong relationships with your early investors, what’s next for Trustap…and being sports mad! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Trustap is a secure transaction platform that completely protects you from being scammed when you want to buy or sell with someone you don't know, either online or face to face. Mark Boylan on what makes Trustap work: “It's the people in the background that make it all tick, especially Sean Kelleher, our CTO, who is absolutely phenomenal. He solves every problem that comes his way. The answer is never, 'no, we can’t do that,' it's 'okay, how do we fix that?'” “The team are all doing great work, everyone's pulling their weight and driving it on as best they can - that's what makes Trustap brilliant.” LINKS: Get in touch with Mark Boylan and the Trustap team to learn about becoming a Trustap partner Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie Episode title inspired by Teamwork by Del the Funky Homosapien

In this Money Talks segment, we take a deeper look at the startup ecosystem on this island that we call home, then head south to Europe for a constructive look at the European Payments Initiative, and then head further south to Africa for the story of Chipper Cash and the fintech opportunity in Africa. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Scale Ireland kicked off their membership drive last week, which is an “independent not-for-profit organisation and our mission is to support, represent and advocate on behalf of Irish tech startup and scale-up companies, to create the most advantageous conditions for them to succeed.” 18 Irish Startups to Watch, according to top VCs (Sifted [paywall], 27-May-21) Europe’s largest banks plan a joint attack on US payment giants. (Insider Voice via Finch Capital newsletter, 3-May-21) SVB-led $100M investment makes Chipper Cash Africa’s ‘most valuable startup’ (TechCrunch, 31-May-21) SIDE NOTES AND OTHER STORIES: Curve breaks records with largest-ever equity raise of £9.9m on Crowdcube (Finextra, 31-May-21) With Great Power Comes Great Wealth (Chris Skinner, 2-Jun-21) Eoin’s latest read: Atomic Habits by James Clear Pete’s latest read: To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Steve Ritter, CTO of Mitek, joins the show this week to share his story on fueling his passion for problem-solving with technology, how he thinks about creating safe digital environments to build trust, achieving the careful balance of friction and convenience in consumer fintech, the reality of defending against deep fakes, digital infrastructure priming the pump of inclusiveness…and rebuilding a 1972 Ford Bronco! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Mitek brings the future to business with patented solutions and intuitive technologies that bridge the physical and digital worlds. Mitek products power and protect millions of identity evaluations as well as mobile deposits every day, around the world. Here's one soundbite from Steve Ritter on the differences between those financial services providers succeeding and those struggling with the massive shift to digital in the last 18 months: “I think it does boil down to how you're interacting with your customer and what you're doing specifically as a business to create that safe environment to build trust.” LINKS: Learn more about Mitek and why they're trusted the world over for digital identity verification on MitekSystems.com Episode title inspired by Trust by Nas. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Joseph Chang and Gray Webb join the show to share their story on Liquibit Capital, a quantitative-driven investment management and technology company focused on producing consistent yield-like returns. In this conversation, we get into the converging paths that brought Joseph and Gray together with Liquibit, each of their respective ‘awakenings’ on crypto, how arbitrage works across the 24/7 crypto markets, how they’ve merged the benefits of their careers in institutional finance and technology into an institutional investment platform in a new asset class….and merging interests in aqua-scaping and wine! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. LINKS: Episode title inspired by OG Original Gangster by Ice-T Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This is our latest Money Talks segment, where we get into the onslaught of crypto’s mainstream moments in the past two weeks featuring Elon Musk’s antics and Charlie Munger’s view on bitcoin, we dig into BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) for the first time with a look at Klarna, we pick though Tiger Global’s supersize appetite for deals previously just the purview of VC, and we hear from Rory Galvin from Navirum on the Finsight Series. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Crypto’s mainstream moments from the last two weeks: Dogecoin is Getting People Worried (Noelle Acheson, Crypto Long & Short, 10-May-21) Charlie Munger Moans about Bitcoin - juxtaposed vs Noelle Acheson’s more realistic view below. Bitcoin’s Potential as a Collateral Class (Noelle Acheson, Crypto Long & Short, 4-May-21) No Mercy No Malice: The Martian (Scott Galloway, 7-May-21) Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital buys crypto start-up BitGo in industry's first billion-dollar deal (Markets Insider, 5-May-21) BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) on fire with Klarna Klarna storms ahead of rivals across Europe and US, counting 16m+ new users in 2020 (Sifted, 4-May-21) The Checkout as a Territory (Mario Gabriele, 22-Nov-20) Tiger Eats VC Tiger Global Management Is Eating the VC World (Morning Brew, 4-May-21) Is Early-Stage Venture Becoming a Growth Investor’s Game? (Crunchbase, 28-Apr-21) LINKS: The Finsight Series: Going Digital - Banking and Wealth Management (event link referred to by Rory Galvin) Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week we welcome back Andrew Mullaney, CTO of Premind AI, sharing his story on the last 2+ years of building Premind, streaming 57,000 stock prices into a million news stories a day, the impact of high-speed information flow on age-old market theory, the differences between his last startup NewsWhip and Premind AI, surviving in the startup desert…and still trying to be relatively innocuous! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Premind AI is an Ireland-based deeptech venture providing institutional investors the 'edge' through anticipating market reactions to news events. HIGHLIGHTS: On the scale of data that the Premind AI ‘machine’ is processing: “We stream through one million articles a day, and we can burst 20-30 articles per second with each article averaging 500 words. So, we have 10,000 words per second coming through. We monitor 57,000 stocks, and each one has 20 descriptive words, so that’s one million words. Together, that’s 10,000 words per second coming through on the news side that we stream through a million words on the stock side. That’s just to get a match.” On not trying to make sense out of market movements: “We're looking for patterns that are repeated over and over again, thousands and thousands of times a day. The very minute you put something in cognitive terms, like whether the movement was sensical or not, you're out of the picture. We don't really care. We look for cause and effect.” On how fintech has only scratched the surface: “What I call ‘fintech v1’ is just digitizing banking, things like making payments go through instantaneously. It's crazy to think that the most powerful banking institutions could be impacted by something so simple. But the next level is the actual application of the more complicated systems that technology companies are bringing into all aspects of finance.” On surviving the ‘startup desert’: “The pandemic is a scenario where you're already going through the desert as a startup and you've got to ride it out. It's one of these massive external scenarios that nobody could ever predict. There's nothing you can do about it. You just have to be able to get through it.” Episode title inspired by The Prediction by Nas. LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Oli Cavanagh and Charles Dowd, the co-founders of Strike, tell the story of the confluence of experiences and ideas that brought them together to launch Strike, getting a product live and raising an angel round in less than 3 months, the benefit of having done it before when you need to build a team swiftly, and the big road ahead for Strike. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Strike is portable personal payment tech designed to make tipping, giving and paying convenient, safe and easy for all. Strike and its patent-pending technology has been successfully deployed in multiple verticals in Ireland and is expanding to a number of international markets. HIGHLIGHTS: Oli Cavanagh on moving fast: “I've been involved with a number of startups, but this one is really different to any of them. None of them have ever moved this quickly, and it's because we had the idea and within 24 hours Charles was building the product. We had an MVP very quickly and we were revenue-generating within three months.” Charles Dowd on the confluence of technologies: “Technology hasn't really moved to where we needed it to be until very recently. We now have a ubiquity of mobile phones. NFC tech is available in almost all of them. QR codes are ubiquitous, especially in Asia. So now we've got this combination of technology on the doorstep when the pizza arrives that actually matches the problem that we're trying to solve.” Oli on building the Strike team: “We were able to bring 13 people into Strike - six full-time and the rest part-time - normally it would take a long time to build up a team like that, and we did that in a few months, and they’re all fantastic.” Charles on timing: “The pandemic has accelerated the density of the need, but it's actually a tipping point. This was a perfect combination of events that was ready to happen [and the pandemic just accelerated that].” Episode title inspired by The Tipping Point by the Roots. LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

We’re back with another Money Talks segment this week, and we get into the story of Coinbase going public and the cryptofication of fintech, Starling Bank’s big investment from Goldman Sachs, the credit-building appeal and 'rundle' potential of the latest Apple Card feature, and buckets more! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Coinbase Goes Public (Form S1 filed with the SEC, 25-Feb-21) Eoin Fitzgerald zooms out on the bellwether moment for crypto: “One of the most important things about it is this is a company that's only nine years old. It’s only taken 10 or 12 years for cryptocurrency to go mainstream. It's incredible when you think of how far we've come with even fintech, and then you have something of this magnitude happening in a short period of time.” Pete Townsend talking about upside of fintech “Chamath (King of SPACs) looked at some of the numbers and said if you take Stripe out of the fintech unicorns, you're in the tens of billions of dollars in market cap for fintech. I looked at the top fintech unicorns and it was a lot more than tens of billions – it was closer to $300 billion. That's about 125 fintech companies that are north of a billion-dollar valuation. If you look at the S&P 500 US Financials index, that’s $4 trillion. That’s the upside in this space.” Starling Bank secures £50m investment from Goldman Sachs (CityAM, 19-Apr-21) Pete thinking about the next steps for Starling Bank: “How might they continue to move up the curve beyond banking SMEs into mid-sized corporates? Would they start providing lending and revolving credit? They've done really well in getting the SME experience right, because it is a hundred percent digital. They have no branches, you can't go fill out a form anywhere. When you move that into corporate banking, there's a lot more to do there." Cleared of gender bias, Apple announces Apple Card Family for spouses and teens (TechCrunch, 20-Apr-21) LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser| Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This is a special bonus episode welcoming back Ollie Walsh, co-founder and CEO of Pipit Global, a for-profit social impact fintech based in Galway here in Ireland. Ollie was on the show back in July 2019 in episode 52, and as Pipit's crowdfunding campaign on the Spark Crowdfunding platform here in Ireland is about to go live to the public, we brought him back to bring us all up to speed on Pipit and share his story on the campaign. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Pipit is a platform that now touches every continent and has the potential to impact the lives of millions with a safer and more cost-effective way for migrants to support their families. Ollie and the Pipit team are enabling the public to invest in their vision to reduce the global cost of remittance, and are launching their crowdfunding campaign the week of April 26th on the Spark Crowdfunding platform. To learn more about the Spark Crowdfunding platform, check out the interview we did with Chris Burge, co-founder and CEO of Spark, in episode 111. [For the sake of transparency, Pete Townsend (host of this episode) is a non-executive director on the board of Pipit Global, and is invested in the company.] LINKS: Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Mike Cavanaugh, Managing Partner at Regiment Alpha, shares his story on lessons learned in the open outcry commodity trading pits, his multiple entrepreneurial ventures amidst a life in fintech, having things thrown at him for saying ‘blockchain’, advising and helping to raise investment for fintech startups…and the joys of barefoot water skiing behind the Cheddar Curtain! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Regiment Alpha is an early-stage venture fund investing in seed-to-Series A startups in four specific areas of fintech: Payments, WealthTech, RegTech, and Capital Markets Tech. The team is based in the Mid-West US but are open to investing as a lead anywhere in the US and as a “follow” globally. HIGHLIGHTS: On starting his career in the open outcry trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT): “I started trading in the late nineties and got introduced to the trading world at an interesting inflection point where technology was really starting to heavily integrate into the exchanges. Being a 24-year-old kid that was backed by a prominent trader, you don't think when it's happening that it's ever going to go away.” On his approach with digital assets: “We started telling people to start looking at infrastructure and don’t put all your money in the coin itself. Think of the coin, think of your typical financial services infrastructure, and then identify the points within that ecosystem that are going to be needed and start investing in those companies.” On what he looks for in companies: “There's never been any edge outside of information. Legal, informational edge is the only edge that exists. Everything else is BS. You can't time the market, you can't use leverage for your long-term benefit as there are two sides to leverage. The only edge is informational edge - you having information legally before somebody else and being able to act on that. So, knowing that and seeing those different points, that's where we're looking for - we're looking for edge.” On the big lesson learned with startups: “I think that's the number one rule - it's really about people. Great people build great teams, great teams build great cultures and great cultures build great companies.” Episode title inspired by Jump Around by House of Pain, especially when played at Camp Randall Stadium at halftime of a University of Wisconsin Badgers football game (Mike’s alma mater). Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Fiona Edwards Murphy, co-founder and CEO of ApisProtect, shares her story on channeling her technology expertise into a passion for helping beekeepers, her transition from academia into the life of a startup founder, raising ApisProtect’s first round, building a customer base looking after 20mn bees…and playing the bagpipes! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. ApisProtect is an Irish tech startup using unique, innovative bee monitoring technology to help beekeepers prevent losses and increase productivity in their hives. Just this week, Fiona was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list for 2021. HIGHLIGHTS: On Fiona’s attraction to IoT: “I really just fell in love with using sensors in the real world to achieve meaningful things. You're taking all of these concepts that you've learned about to get those sensors out to the real world, give people information that they don't have already and get meaningful results.” On the early days of identifying the problem to solve: “Beekeeping works almost the same way as it did back in the middle ages. Before our technology, the last big advancement in beekeeping technology was the invention of the forklift.” On the business impact for commercial farming: “If you want to really level up your operation, if you want to dramatically increase the revenue from your farm without having to increase the size or change the crops that you're growing, you're talking about getting your crops to be more effectively pollinated.” On Fiona’s transition from academia to startup life: “You have to be really passionate to do a PhD, and you have to be really passionate to be an entrepreneur.” On the importance of timing for a startup: “It was a combination of a very good product, a very good opportunity, and being the right team to go after it as we had been working in the area since the very early days of bee monitoring technology being a concept. We were in the right place at the right time with the right skill set and it all just came together really well.” On the never-stop-learning realities of a startup CEO: “I often say I learn more in any single six-month period at ApisProtect than I did in eight years at university. That's the nature of the job. You have to understand everything that's going on because at the end of the day, you're responsible for everything.” Episode title inspired by Wings by Little Simz Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Barry Darmody, founder and CEO of Search4Less and ENKI, shares his story on the life experiences that were the catalysts for him becoming a startup founder, getting the Search4Less product to market in the early days, keeping the faith through the lean years, making yourself expendable through building a great team, and connecting the dots of life through his passion for problem-solving. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Search4Less is a limitless company information platform that allows you to access any publicly available information about directors, shareholders and companies in seconds. ENKI is also part of the family, which is a focused product built around the Search4Less core that makes law searching easy and efficient for property transactions. HIGHLIGHTS: On the impact of playing a key role in acquiring businesses early in his career: “I learned a lot in the due diligence phases and in being part of the discussions in the negotiations. A lot of empathy is required to convince the vendor that their ‘child’ is going to be looked after and their reputation is going to remain intact post-deal.” On waking up to what he really wanted to do: “I moved into crisis management, rationalizing businesses, managing shareholder relations. All of that helped the business, but it was all complicated, and it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to build products and make processes better, use my skillset to make life easier for people and to be more efficient in delivering the end product.” On early customer feedback after launching Search4Less: “When people started to use it, they were saying ‘wow, this is impressive’. And the prompt just kicked off from there - half of the clients that we sign up are referred by somebody else. We're even seeing trends now where people move between firms or start new firms. And the first thing they do is ‘What do you mean you don't have Search4Less? We need to have it, this is an essential tool’, and it just grows from there.” On staying agile: “If you get too big, you can't react quickly, and I think that's our secret sauce. A customer might make a suggestion to us in the morning, and it could be there by close of business tomorrow. I like being able to do that, and that's what gets my juices flowing.” Episode title inspired by All the Things You’re Searching for by G-Eazy Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

SOUND QUALITY WARNING:  You know how Marc Andreessen said 'software is eating the world'? Well, software ate this episode, please excuse the underwater sound and we'll be back to normal next week! In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin trade ideas on the impact of Ireland’s investment in Stripe, Revolut’s American dream, the season of the SPAC with eToro, Bakkt and Kraken and thoughts on DeFi vs. mainstream crypto. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. STORIES WE COVERED: The double-bottom-line impact of Ireland’s investment in Stripe (Irish Times, 22-Mar-21) Pete channeling Chamath Palihapitiya: “Take all of the old school, traditional financial services players that are valued in aggregate in the hundreds of billions right now. Then have a look at FinTech, and when you throw out Stripe, you’ve got maybe tens of billions of market cap. There's so much more room to grow in fintech.” Revolut applies for US banking license (Finextra, 23-Mar-21) Eoin’s own doubts: “Aside from it being that one big market with 300 million people, there are some serious players there that Revolut will be competing with. Square are looking at becoming a bank, they’ve got 30 million users with CashApp, and you’ve got Venmo. I think the only way that they're going to crack a market like this is with a large acquisition of an existing customer base. The spend alone of trying to get your name out there to compete with the likes of CashApp or Venmo, it's just not going to work. Season of the SPAC – eToro, Bakkt, Kraken (Coindesk, 16-Mar-21) RELATED LINKS: The Square Crypto Book of Bitcoin Mythology (shared by Jack Dorsey on Twitter, 18-Mar-21) All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedber‪g (podcast referenced in segment on crypto) MONEYNEVERSLEEPS LINKS: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Robert Alice, artist and creator of the ‘Portraits of a Mind’ project, shares his story on how bitcoin - and to quote Robert – “and its essential ties to the past instead of the perpetuated perception of its radical severance with it,“ was a catalyst for a melting pot of inspiration for his mesmerizing artwork Portraits of a Mind, the crossover from physical art into digital art with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the intersection of artistry and entrepreneurship…and the joys of life as a triplet! MoneyNeverSleepsis sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Robert Alice founded his project in 2018 to promote blockchain culture within the visual arts. The completion of Portraits of a Mind spanned 3.5 years and resulted in a 40-painting work of art. Each of the 40 paintings is the size of a small but circular garage door and each represents one of the first 40 blocks of the bitcoin blockchain.  ‘Block 21’ was recently auctioned at Christie’s and had a guide price of $12,000-15,000, but sold for $131,250 in October 2020. Each ‘block’ is as intricately crafted as a cuneiform tablet with the original source code of the relevant block carved into paint, with specific numbers on each block embossed in gold. When combined, the gold digits become global map coordinates tied to a location on Earth where a significant event occurred in the 5,000 year history leading up to the creation of bitcoin. Accompanying each painting is a non-fungible token (NFT) including a digital version of that piece of the artwork. The full story of Portraits of a Mind can be found on Robert Alice’s website. Episode title inspired by Ten Thousand Hours from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin trip through the wires of Starling Bank’s latest fundraise, investing in Roblox’s direct listing, Walmart’s SuperApp vs. ‘The Bank of Walmart’, the Square-Tidal / Jack Dorsey-Jay Z tie-up, and Ireland's new national startup accelerator, international startup accelerators and pre-accelerators. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Starling raises £272mn at £1.3bn valuation (Sifted, 8-Mar-21) Pete’s overall thoughts on Starling Bank at this point in time: “Monzo, Revolut and N26, have all raised at higher valuations than £1.2bn. Starling now outpaces all of them in terms of value per user at £650 per user. Out of this entire story, after reading Anne Boden’s book ‘Banking on IT’, I think that’s the thing that she would point to and be the proudest of.” Roblox direct listing gets $45 reference price from NYSE (Marketwatch, 9-Mar-21) Eoin’s parallel between Robux and crypto: “Something like Robux, which is the in-game currency, to me is the prime example of a digital currency's potential usage. You see Bitcoin becoming more widely adopted, but here's a currency within a game that's being used by 32 million people every day – it’s the potential for that, and to me, is what digital currency could become.” Walmart’s Fintech Ambition: A Super App, Not The ‘Bank Of Walmart’ (8-Mar-21, Forbes, by Ron Shevlin) Square acquires Tidal (TechCrunch, 4-Mar-21) RELATED STORIES: JPM Kills ChasePay (Finextra, 9-Mar-21) Applications for the Expert Dojo accelerator are open with the next cohort kicking off on 5th April (Expert Dojo, Spring 2021) Applications are now open for NDRC’s new accelerator (Silicon Republic, 5-Mar-21) Applications are now open for the Startup Boost 2021 Spring cohort (StartupBoost, Spring 2021) LINKS: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Cian Prendergast, founder and CEO of Ortus joins the show to share his story on the origins of Ortus in Ireland, sharing his story on how there’s a lot more to providing cloud and managed IT services to SMEs than what you’d expect, entrepreneurial leadership during a pandemic, surrounding yourself with brilliant people….and a past life of having every job under the clouds! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Cian spent 8 years in the IT sector before launching Ortus in 2007, inspired by his ambition to build a client-centric business based on his own values and vision. Ortus provide cloud and managed IT services for over 300 small-to-medium-sized businesses in Ireland, and more recently in Continental Europe, in the financial, healthcare and legal sectors. HIGHLIGHTS: On Cian’s inspiration to launch Ortus: “It was this notion that there were some people sitting upstairs, making decisions that weren't actually connected with the clients, but I felt like I was the one that was connected to the clients. I found it more stressful to work for other people who I felt were doing it wrong than to work for myself, as petrifying as it was looking down the barrel of a recession in 2007.” On getting traction at the inception of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008: “I realized we were coming into a recession, but people liked our message when we visited them as we were totally going down the road of cloud computing.  We would say ’During a recession, do you want to spend twenty-grand on a server or do you want to give me 500 euros? And for that 500 euros a month, I will put your stuff in the cloud.’” On adapting to the work-from-home realities of the pandemic for Ortus’ clients: “If you have 300 clients in a managed environment with a managed network and managed internet connections and there are 20 or 30 people in each of those businesses, when they all go home, you've got 20 or 30 times the amount of internet connection problems. So, it was a disaster, but we were ready for it.” On surrounding yourself with great people: “I think it was a Steve Jobs quote, ‘You don't hire great people and then tell them what to do, you hire great people so they can tell you what to do’. I think all I've really done is hire people that are better than me at different things. So, if I see someone and I think ‘She's better than me at that’, then I'm probably going to hire them. If you keep on doing that, you end up with a great balance of people that are all brilliant at something.” Leave a review and subscribe on Podchaser | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

On the show this week we’ve got Gerry Fahy and Andrew Quinn with the story of the PAT Group and PAT Fintech, the Irish opportunity with the growth of fintech and regtech, achieving product-market fit in learning and education, and teaching the way you would have loved to have been taught. Gerry Fahy is the founder of the PAT Group, who are at the forefront of online education and digitally enhanced learning in Ireland. Through Gerry’s origin story, his launching of PAT in 2017, and Andrew Quinn joining to head up PAT Fintech in 2020, we explore continuous learning and education as critical components of Ireland’s ambition to become a global center of excellence for fintech and regtech. HIGHLIGHTS: On one of Gerry’s earliest thoughts: “It struck me that we should be embracing technology as a medium of delivery. Should learners have to fight the traffic and come into a classroom tired after a hard day? Shouldn’t they actually consume their education,training and skills digitally?” On Gerry’s inspiration to launch PAT: “It was governed by a conviction that the market hadn't changed very much from the chalk and talk of the late eighties, right up to the mid-teens. It was still a classroom centric delivery platform.” On an insight from a chat on the sideline of his kid’s football game: “If you don't like change, you’lllike being irrelevant even less.” On the Irish industry-level opportunity conveyed to Gerry by a former student, pre-Brexit: “In a post-Brexit environment, Ireland is the only remaining English speaking country within the EU.  There will be fallout in London with the displacement of financial services, and some of them will migrate to the continent, but some will come to Ireland. We needed to plan for that and build a talent pipeline for that. Fintech, regtech and cybersecurity are going to be the major growth areas in financial services. That was the catalyst for PAT to adapt to where the market was going.” On solving adjacent problems in learning and education to respond to the opportunity: “We’ve added the whole aspect of compliance in a fintech environment, money laundering in a fintech environment, data protection, cybersecurity, regtech and data analytics - the whole suite of solutions that you bring into a potential customer.” On what’s at the core of Andrew’s beliefs about learning and education: “It’s all about demystification - you need to break it down into a language that people can understand. Let them go down the rabbit hole, encourage people's curiosity, get them to really believe in their own potential.” LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘Lot to Learn’ by Luke Christopher Leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on Pete’s first experience with Clubhouse, Jay Z and Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin Trust for Africa and India, fintech valuations and SPACs, Citi’s fat finger, efficient crypto markets and grief for Revolut over raising fees. MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: Why can’t Europe build a Clubhouse? (Sifted, 17-Feb-21) Thoughts from the author, Nicholas Colin, pointed to a fragmented European market (we agreed), a lack of experience with scaling social media platforms (we agreed here too), and perhaps a less favorable European mindset towards social media (we’re too snobby in Europe? Really? Not the Irish, at least!). Jay Z and Jack Dorsey's Bitcoin fund for Africa and India (TechCrunch, 12-Feb-21) Jay Z and Jack Dorsey are getting together to start up a Bitcoin Trust and putting 500 Bitcoin into it between the two of them, which is currently worth $23.6 million. The fund will be set up as a blind trust, and Jay and Jack won't be giving any direction, but they are looking to hire three board members. So, Pete Townsend applied for the job, and we’ll let you know in upcoming episodes how that all goes down. Fintech valuation multiples with SPACs (Fintech Blueprint/Long Take Newsletter, Lex Sokolin, 15-Feb-21) What company is going to turn down an approach from the likes of a Chamath Palihapitaya with a SPAC and the funding to bring it public, as opposed to traditional routes. The valuations on the upcoming fintechs going the SPAC route are very high, but comparing the market valuations to those of a bank is non-sensical. Citi loses legal battle over $0.5 billion funds transfer gaffe (Finextra, 17-Feb-21) Arca’s “That’s Our Two Satoshis” newsletter (Jeff Dorman, 16-Feb-21) Fast-growing Revolut to increase its fees in blow to its 1.2 million users (Irish Independent, 16-Feb-21) LINKS: Subscribe or leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast | Podchaser Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete| Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Deborah Brock, founder and CEO of Nua Fertility, joins the show to share her story on the origins of Nua Fertility in Ireland, why it made so much sense to add in educational elements and a community ethos to the value proposition, finding global partners….and rugby as an analogy for startup life! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Deborah spent 15 years in the non-profit and education sectors, and then after her own experience with solving infertility, was inspired to start Nua Fertility in 2017. Nua Fertility launched its first product in 2020, NuaBiome for Women, which is the first-of-its-kind, natural pre-natal fertility supplement specially developed to help support female fertility. HIGHLIGHTS: On launching her own business: “When you've been through fertility treatments, you suddenly have a PhD in fertility because you go from one extreme to the other. It just naturally led me into thinking about moving into this space as an entrepreneur. I hear a lot of people talking about, ‘I always wanted to start my own business,’ but that wasn't me. I happened to fall into this because I wanted to be able to help others.” On getting started: “So I approached Enterprise Ireland and I applied for an innovation voucher and rocked down to Cork to APC Microbiome, one of the biggest research centers in the world. I went into them and said, ‘I think there's this connection here between the gut microbiome and fertility’. We started looking at an R&D partnership, then product development, and that's where our first proprietary product was born.” On making it real: “The first thing was to find a manufacturer who wanted to take me on. I was approaching people as an unknown startup with a product formulation that potentially hadn't been looked at before and I had to get them to buy in, and it’s a big jump. On how there’s no easy answer: “There isn't a magic doctor. There isn't a magic pill. There isn't a magic clinic that's going to get you pregnant. But what there is, is being able to support yourself, be armed with information and education.” On prioritizing as an entrepreneur: “You have to be thinking constantly about visibility and credibility. If what we're doing doesn't drive either of those, they get dropped. Because it's wasting my time.” On thinking about investors: “We’d like to find somebody who's going to add that extra value, work with us in a mentorship capacity - someone who will invest in us, but also believes in what we’re doing.” Episode title inspired by Perfect To Me by Anne Marie Leave a review on Podchaser and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Yoann Turpin, co-founder and Head of Business Development at Wintermute, joins the show to talk about the parallels between competitive swimming, derivatives trading and crypto, creating liquid markets for digital asset trading platforms, cross-pollination of business opportunities across the digital assets universe…and visiting less countries than languages he can speak! MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Pete Townsend and Yoann Turpin connected in late 2020 after an intro from the intro-king himself, Graham Rodford with some expected involvement in the intro from Ivailo Jordanov from 7Percent Ventures as well. As Yoda would say, “Small universe the digital asset space is.” HIGHLIGHTS: On parallels between life experiences: “With both competitive swimming and trading, there is a binary outcome with marginal wins. When you hit the wall, even if you’re fast, you might just be a few milliseconds behind whoever finished first. I saw that in business school, in getting my first job, and again when I started trading FX.” On the earlier days of crypto: “I came across crypto in 2013 when my business partner thought we should be market-making bitcoin, but I thought that taking 3 weeks to get 30,000 out of Mt. Gox was too long.” On applying a VC mindset to assessing crypto projects: “Figuring out if a crypto project is interesting is about asking if the problem they’re solving is big enough, and are they solving it the right way? If they’re not solving it the right way, are they the right team to pivot and solve it a different way? These things tend to hold true in the VC world, and also very much in the crypto space.” On building trust in the crypto space: “I have a view of sharing best practices and sharing long term opportunities but staying as far away from anybody doing anything that would be forbidden in traditional markets like pump-and-dump or wash trading. Essentially, anything that would imply fake pricing might imply that the team behind the price is fake, and this doesn’t help build any form of trust.” On choosing your investors wisely: “When we launched Wintermute in 2017, it wasn’t too farfetched for us to do an ICO, but we made a very conscious decision to only take equity investors to have the long-term alignment.” On how to pitch your startup: “You just really simplify, you do not explain how you do what you do, you just sell the vision in about 5 minutes. Don’t get lost in the detail, because people start to think they understand what you’re doing, and then they don’t, which means they might not trust you. But if they buy into the vision and think you’re the best team to solve that problem, then you end up with an investor.” Subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Podchaser Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin try to make sense of GameStop and WallStreetBets, the aftermath of the failed Plaid-Visa deal, who might buy Monzo, a Cambrian explosion at the intersection of money and society and RIP Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. MAIN STORIES WE COVERED: What the Hell Is Going On With GameStop’s Stock? (Slate, 26-Jan-21) What does it mean for the future of publicly traded equities where you have groups like WallStreetBets, who on a whim, can turn against you and drive the stock up or down? When a market is 24/7, whether that’s in crypto or with after-hours trading on public equities, you’ve got to get your head around all of these new channels where market sentiment is effectively created and observable in real time. The hedge funds need to get smarter, because the crowd now has the ability to move the price, almost on its own whim. European fintechs spy opportunity in Visa’s failed Plaid deal (Sifted, 20-Jan-21) From a Plaid perspective, they’re pretty happy about this. The market is moving so fast, tech is moving so fast, revenue growth is on fire, especially in the digital world, and Plaid is now likely worth multiples of the $5.3bn they agreed with Visa 12 months ago. Some people are saying that the Plaid founders left a lot of money on the table by walking away, but they would’ve left a lot more money on the table by doing the deal. Are all of these banking infrastructure players getting too big where any incumbent that tries to buy them will have their deal struck down for anti-competitive reasons? Monzo founder Tom Blomfield is departing the challenger bank (TechCrunch,  20-Jan-21) Who would buy Monzo? Not a big bank, they’d just kill it, and one of the big tech players wouldn’t find Monzo deal compelling enough. It might be the next tier of tech players, someone looking to pick up a banking solution as part of a wider play. Visa have loads of money to throw around now that they’re not buying Plaid, maybe they’ll buy Monzo? Could you take the assets of the Monzo tech stack itself, and turn that into a product licensed on a banking-as-a-service basis? OTHER STORIES WE MENTIONED: What DeFi Has in Common With Cubism (Lex Sokolin, CoinDesk, 27-Jan-21) Baseball mourns death of long-time home run king Hank Aaron (The42, 28-Jan-21) LINKS: Subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Podchaser Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Matt McAllister from Mortgage Propeller joins the show to talk about bringing a new fintech to life in the middle of a pandemic, buying a house with a credit card, making lives easier for mortgage brokers and borrowers, talking to your customers way before they become your customers, life lessons from Bebo…and working through the night with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on in the background! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Matt is the founder and CEO of Mortgage Propeller, a UK-based fintech that makes mortgage brokers more efficient and their businesses more profitable, by addressing compliance and lead generation. He’s got a firm belief that the mortgage application process shouldn’t take the joy out of buying a home. Matt is an entrepreneur and a fintech veteran armed with an MBA, and his 20-year career has spanned financial derivatives, property, online gaming and retail entertainment. Matt and Pete met back in 2017 while working together in another fintech startup, so this MoneyNeverSleeps interview is our longest to date at just over an hour as it’s been brewing for years! HIGHLIGHTS: On the word ‘entrepreneur’: “For most of 2020, I was an unemployed entrepreneur! The word doesn’t sit well, we didn’t use it when we were kids, and maybe social networks made it popular. The word itself, park it – I feel like you’re not an entrepreneur until you’ve done something. If you’re always trying to duck and dive, hustle and make something happen, and you haven’t achieved it yet, and you haven’t built a company, then it feels like you’re cheating [by calling yourself an entrepreneur].” On figuring out what to do with his life while listening to a guru guest speaker in his MBA program: ”Think of the thing you do, whatever it is, that you lose track of time when you’re doing it. That’s what you’re meant to be doing with your life. Mortgage Propeller is the only thing I could be doing. It’s not 'work', it’s just something I should be doing. Working for someone and doing a normal 9-to-5 is not for me.” On early validation: “We started talking to firms across the UK, and lo and behold, people were really interested in what we were showing them. We were talking to the problems that they have – compliance, lead generation, speed and inefficiencies of completing an application process – and slowly but surely we started to get interest and some soft commitments. We just kept grinding and grinding through the summer until we felt like we had enough validation to start raising money.” You can get in touch with Matt McAllister at matt@mortgagepropeller.com Episode title inspired by ‘Props’ by Pete Rock Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser | Spotify | Google Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Brian McDonald from Bay Advisory joins the show for Part 2 of a 2-part series on M&A and raising capital for entrepreneurs and talks through the logic of exit plans, focusing on outcomes rather than actions when taking money off the table, balancing your gut instinct with valuations, the tendencies of different kinds of buyers after the sale…and the potential for doing a deal in the Irish language! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Brian is the Managing Director at Bay Advisory, a team of corporate finance specialists who apply their knowledge and expertise to the tech sector, helping these small and medium enterprises sell and fundraise at the best value. In Part 1 on episode 118, Brian talked through his origin story and the Bay Advisory approach, so check out that episode first. HIGHLIGHTS: On the importance of an entrepreneur’s long-term view: “If you’re starting a business and you don’t ever see yourself exiting, and you’re going to hand this business onto your kids, you better make sure your investors are aligned. In other words, if you never want to exit this business, don’t take in money from angels or VCs.” On the impact of an exit plan: “I think that having an exit plan has no bearing on your passion or drive for your business, it’s simply a reasonable precaution.” On what to do when an entrepreneur’s mindset shifts into sell mode: “The very first thing you should do is talk to someone you trust. I don’t want to hear the action; I want to hear the outcome you want as an entrepreneur. It’s not that you want to sell the business, it’s where you want to get to, and then you have options. Always focus on what result you want, and then back-solve from there.” On the importance of recurring revenue to a valuation: “We always dig down into what’s true recurring revenue, particularly in software businesses that may be closer to a consulting business wrapped us as a SaaS business.  We always look for ‘passive’ income, with the perfect example being Microsoft Office, and the other end of the spectrum is Accenture. The question is, are you more like Microsoft or Accenture?” On the entrepreneur focusing on driving the business during the sale process: “The biggest factor in getting that top valuation is that the seller focuses on the business during the process because they need to drive EBITDA. What can destroy a valuation is overestimating the performance at the point of sale, because that gives all of the negotiating leverage to the buyer.” On one of the big challenges with buyers: “What’s really hard for a founder is when there is someone that they really like and really want to sell the business to, but their offer is considerably lower than another party. It’s really difficult for the founder to balance the two offers when they want to continue driving the business after the deal.” You can get in touch with Brian McDonald at brian@bayadvisory.ie Leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin

Brian McDonald from Bay Advisory joins the show for Part 1 of a 2-part series on M&A and raising capital for SMEs and talks through the intersection of experiences that drove him to launch Bay Advisory, market trends impacting early-stage entrepreneurs in Europe, and helping entrepreneurs think about their options in taking money off the table. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. Brian is the Managing Director at Bay Advisory, a team of corporate finance specialists who apply their knowledge and expertise to the tech sector, helping these small and medium enterprises sell and fundraise at the best value. Continuing along the theme from recent episodes of looking at entrepreneurship downstream from where Eoin and Pete ply their respective trades, we thought it was a good idea to get seed-stage founders and other entrepreneurs in our audience thinking about their options down the road. HIGHLIGHTS On the early days: “One of the best things that happened to me was not joining Big 4 from the start, as I had to learn everything from scratch, and I got a lot of experience with very small businesses where I was just handed a box of receipts.” On his inspiration: “With my experience in consolidating SMEs into bigger firms, I could see a lot of small businesses that were poorly advised from a corporate finance perspective, and at the same time I was personally investing in early-stage technology businesses. I could see that there was a requirement in the market for a specialist corporate finance house prepared to take on much smaller businesses.” On current market trends: “While volumes of venture capital have stayed relatively strong in Europe and elsewhere, that hides the fact that a huge amount of capital is going into Series B and Series C, and seed rounds are really struggling. Angel investors are really pulling back in Europe, and we’re seeing that in Ireland as well. We are potentially not funding very credible businesses and very credible founders who should be funded and would be funded in any other economic environment.” On trying to dig deeper into an entrepreneur’s thinking: “Very often, when an entrepreneur comes to me and says ‘I want to sell the business’, what they really mean is ‘I want to de-risk’. Usually, they think their only option is to sell everything to a PE firm and walk away. Other times, what they really mean is ‘I’m working too hard here and I want to have a family life again’. There are other ways of fixing that that don’t involve selling the business. You can get in touch with Brian McDonald at brian@bayadvisory.ie Leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google | Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this special year-end Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend wax lyrical on big valuations in the 'Fintech Year in Review', Stripe and the next stage of B2B financial services, the long-term economic impact of bitcoin, optimism for the next frontier of money...and of course, the Rundle! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. STORIES WE COVERED: Big Valuations and the Fintech Year in Review Tesla’s market cap tops the 9 largest automakers combined - CNBC - 14-Dec-20 2020: The year that shook fintech - Sifted - 30-Dec-20 Big Ideas Fintech Will Tackle in 2021 - a16z fintech team - Dec-20 Neobank numbers worldwide approach 300 - Finextra - 22-Dec-20 WhatsApp to rollout insurance and pension products on its platform in India soon – The Economic Times – 16-Dec-20 Stripe and the next stage of B2B financial services Stripe Treasury and embedding banking services via API into businesses’ operational platforms - Silicon Republic, 4-Dec-20 Packy McCormick’s reference to the Stratechery podcast and Stripe as the Platform of Platforms – Ben Thompson - 3-Dec-20 Is an awakening to Bitcoin scarcity driving the price rise or is it the money-printing effect? Bitcoin Soars Above $23,000 as More Wall Street Firms Pile In [and heads for $30K]– Bloomberg - 17-Dec-20 Bitcoin Braced For Near-Trillion Dollar Stimulus Bill And Fresh Fed Firepower - Forbes - 15-Dec-20 Bitcoin Is More Than a Hedge Against Inflation – It’s a Hedge Against ‘Crazy’ - Crypto Long & Short/Coindesk (Noelle Acheson) - 20-Dec-20 More on the infamous Rundle (recurring revenue bundle) Getting Subscription Bundles Right for Minimum Churn - PYMNTS.com - 22-Dec-20 After Covid: How firms can make the most of their post-pandemic opportunities - Irish Times - 17-Dec-20 Thanks to all of our listeners and newsletter readers out there in the MoneyNeverSleeps community for listening in every week, spreading the word and driving us up the podcast rankings in 2020! Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Brian McNulty, founder and CEO of FundAdminChain (FAC), joins the show to talk about solving a real business problem with distributed ledger technology (DLT), how funding your business takes a team effort, enabling positive change for the investment funds industry and end investors…and his secret life as a qualified football coach! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. EPISODE OVERVIEW: FAC is a network for launching, distributing and trading digital investment funds, connecting investors, fund managers, and their service providers in a distributed digital ecosystem. Brian just completed the first half of raising FAC’s seed round, and although the fundraising round will stay open until February, Pete Townsend wanted to crystallize this moment in time by capturing it in this episode. For the sake of transparency, Pete is also an advisor to Brian and FAC. HIGHLIGHTS: On the core proposition: “We're facilitating the more forward-thinking incumbents to digitalize what they do, improve their services and pass those benefits on to their customers and the end investors.” On one of the influences for founding FAC: “At R3, we were bringing the buyside into the office, and looking at how the funds industry is still quite antiquated and extremely busy with many layers and intermediaries, but all doing an important job in the current state and all playing necessary roles.” On the opportunity: “With DLT, we could see the opportunity to collapse those layers, and if everyone shared the same data, then we don't need all the reconciliations and oversight teams. This means we can drive out some of the costs, risks and data lags.” On the reason for a comprehensive approach: “We know this takes a blend of business, technical and regulatory considerations not only to ensure that it's a real business problem we’re solving, but also that the business model itself stacks up.” On the context of collaboration: “You’ve got to make sure that you are listening to what the individuals and organizations want and that it’s the right time for them. There may be a time when you need to pull back on the collaboration, and other times you’ll want to push for it.” On raising capital: “Everyone tells you how much work it is and how it's another job and you hear those words, but you don't really know what it's like until you're close to closing.” On the guiding forces: “We want to improve the industry – this is not a gimmicky thing - and we want to see that improvement passed on to the end investor and revolutionize the way that the funds industry operates.” On the team effort: “Fundamentally, it's been a phenomenal journey so far with FAC as a result of the phenomenal team we've got and also some great organizations we're working with, so I’m looking forward to the next phase.” Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin

Allan Boyle, founder of Saltwater Consulting, joins the show to talk about helping growth-stage companies scale, putting people at the center of digital transformation, how to get to the root of a problem…and his love-hate relationship with handwriting! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. EPISODE OVERVIEW: Saltwater Consulting is an Ireland-based strategic consulting firm specialising in providing businesses with experienced executive capacity and resources where needed during periods of transition and rapid growth. When Allan connected with Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald, what stood out is Allan’s diverse track record across geographies, industries and business stages, and the number of repetitions in problem-solving he’s had. Also, given his focus on growth-stage companies, the problems Allan is helping to solve are the problems that earlier stage startups will eventually face, so there’s a crystal-ball context to this episode for early-stage startups as well. HIGHLIGHTS: On why he started his business: “Being part of AWS for a couple of years and watching how even the largest companies can scale rapidly was absolutely fascinating. That led to me starting Saltwater Consulting earlier this year, as what I really want to do is help companies scale.” On his modus operandi: “As companies scale, [for example], getting that alignment between sales and engineering can be challenging at times. That's where I come in - I work with tech leaders to help them understand where they're going, identify people and process gaps, and help implement operational mechanisms.” On the Rule of 3 and 10 from Hiroshi Mikitani: “Every single time the business triples in size, everything breaks - systems, people, the organization, everything. Technology is easy; you can replace that, you can scale it, you can adapt it, whatever. But it's the [organisational] systems, the processes and the people side I'm interested in, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.” On his focus on the people side of digital transformation: “There's a need for people in anything you do. If you build a digital platform where you’re going to have millions of customers, you need to have some level of humans behind that.” On an example of measuring what matters: “If you want to have a certain conversion ratio of sales, your metrics are what you’re putting into the funnel. What's happening with marketing? What are the activities people are doing at various points of the pipeline? You're not going to get that conversion If you don't track every step of the sales process.” On looking ahead: “The future, for me, is about understanding how customer service evolves in this new digital world.” Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Mick Sweeney, CEO of PineBridge Investments in Ireland, joins the show to talk about what triggered his early interest in the financial markets, the nascent opportunity to transform the fund management industry in Ireland, the outcome of his long-term commitment to diversity, thoughts on post-pandemic global markets, societal changes driving new leadership styles…and his labour of love as a Leeds United supporter! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. EPISODE OVERVIEW: PineBridge Investments is a private, global asset manager focused on active, high-conviction investing. A mutual friend introduced Pete Townsend and Mick back in 2018 through a mutual friend, and they got on famously right away through a shared appreciation for the merits of strategic change, restructuring and execution, and a similar look on life. Since then, they’ve done their best to be helpful to each other, and this episode brings it all together. HIGHLIGHTS:   On his earliest days in the financial markets in a treasury role: “All markets are interconnected, so if anything happened globally, it impacted the markets domestically. You had to have a clear insight and a view on where markets were going to be able to play the markets. But it gave me fantastic exposure and a fantastic interest, and no two days were alike. That's where my passion for this business was born.” On what Ireland has built for fund managers since the 1990s: “It’s a fantastic framework and a fantastic platform to build from. What I would ask my fellow industry leaders strategically is, how can we build on top of that platform? In other words, what is the opportunity to bring front-end, high-end investment roles to Ireland? Over the next three to five years, we should be looking at how we build defensible niche products, defensible niche funds, that will be insulated from attack from the global players. How do we build those in Ireland?” On the outcome of a commitment to diversity: “Some of our top-performing portfolio managers, globally, are women. Some of the best traders I’ve worked with over the last 30 years are women.  The results are there - this is uncontestable and decision making is better with diversity.” On where we go from here: “There’s an old adage, ‘the survivors will be the winners,’ but I think that’s moved on. Now, it is the early adopters who are going to be the winners. The people that get this and understand that there is a change in leadership style needed are going to be the winners and will get the gains from the market opportunities because they will be bringing their teams with them.” Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Amazon Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Elisabeth Dana from Infinity Circle joins the show to talk about how a career in wealth management inspired her to start all over again to build a business centered on client needs, how to be be both digital and transformational, first reflections on Infinity Circle’s crowdfunding campaign and the social side of wealth management. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. EPISODE OVERVIEW: We’ve got Elisabeth Dana on the show this week, who is the founder and CEO of Infinity Circle, launching in 2021 as a global digital and real-world platform that brings together like-minded entrepreneurs, investors and game changers, to improve your relationship with money and make investing a fun feature of your life. HIGHLIGHTS: On her inspiration: “The banking landscape changed a lot following the 2008-09 financial crisis, and I decided that I wanted to contribute to my industry and shape the practice, and in a big bank, that was never going to happen. I knew 16 years on, that I had to take everything that I had been exposed to and use it to shape my industry.” On going back to first principles: “It’s not about short term profits, it’s not about how many financial products you’re selling, it’s not about how many people you can talk to about a specific private equity deal the bank has on its books – this is not wealth management. Wealth management is about getting to know your clients so you can guide them through the pitfalls and find the path appropriate for them; each client is truly different.” On starting over: “In my mind to be truly digital and truly transformational, you need to start from scratch. You need to redefine the framework, and it is very difficult to do that. Being transformational is all about the mindset and how you model your proposition. If you model your proposition on your target clients and you have the right mindset, you can be truly transformational” On the bigger benefit of crowdfunding: “It’s about a lot more than money – as infinity Circle’s vision is to democratize wealth management, the best place to start is to let the crowd into your capital structure.” On what’s unique about Infinity Circle: “The way we’ve designed Infinity Circle is to be a hybrid model, meaning you digitalise your proposition as much as you can, but you don’t remove the human element.” On why the human element is important: “We want to have a social component to the platform. Over my career, my clients would call me as much about their returns, specific investments and metrics as they would call me looking for introductions to other clients in specific industries or markets they’re looking to enter with their own business.” Have a look at Infinity Circle's crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Pete | Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

In this week’s Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald take a look at Druckenmiller vs. Dalio on Bitcoin, how angels invest in startups, Tinkoff Bank and the 'Rundle', and AirBnB vs. Ant Financial in the Battle of IPOs. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. THIS WEEK’S STORIES: What We’re Getting Wrong About Druckenmiller and Bitcoin (Noelle Acheson, Coindesk, 15-Nov-20) Pete on all of the bitcoin chatter this week: “The opinions expressed on bitcoin by big names in finance, whether they’re well informed or not, are just another notch in bitcoin’s belt holding up its big huge growing trousers of societal acceptance.” Fidelity Digital Assets’ response to Ray Dalio: Addressing Persisting Bitcoin Criticisms (13-Nov-20) Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano explaining bitcoin to Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy in episode #392 of the Pomp Podcast. How to Raise Funds with a Super Angel: An interview with Fabrice Grinda (Gwen Salley, Head of Investment and Services at STATION F) Primer on Unit Economics for SaaS companies: SaaS Metrics 2.0 – A Guide to Measuring and Improving what Matters (For Entrepreneurs, David Skok) Tinkoff Launches Tinkoff Pro ‘Rundle’ (shared by Simon Taylor from 11:FS on Twitter on 15-Nov-20, reported by Tinkoff News) AirBnB Files to Go Public (TechCrunch, 16-Nov-20 China postpones Ant’s colossal IPO after closed-door talk with Jack Ma (TechCrunch, 3-Nov-20) Come Fly(Wheel) With Me – this week’s edition of the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter featuring the story of Disney’s Flywheel Effect. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Amazon| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Chris Burge from Spark Crowdfunding joins the show to talk about two-sided marketplaces, the differences between crowdfunding for B2C and B2B companies, his own transition from the life of an energy consultant to that of a crowdfunding platform operator….and the long-term benefits of stag weekends! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. EPISODE OVERVIEW: We’ve got Chris Burge on the show this week, who is the co-founder and CEO of Spark Crowdfunding here in Ireland. Spark is an equity crowdfunding platform helping Irish companies raise new funds from a vast pool of private investors. Pete first came across Spark when he was working on a crowdfunding platform project last year, and he thought he had it all figured out at that point through desktop research. However, a conversation with the founder of a business can make all the difference!  This may seem obvious, but with any business, there’s usually an untold story as to why the founder was determined to get their product to market, and all you've got to do is ask. HIGHLIGHTS: On the problem with investing small amounts in startups: “I had done a small amount of startup investing, and I found that it cost you just as much in legal fees to invest as it did to make the investment itself.” On launching the platform: “Getting a two-sided marketplace going is a difficult way of getting the ball rolling. You’ve got startups on one side and investors on the other and trying to persuade both of them that you’ll get enough of the other to make this successful is a difficult conundrum.” On why there was a gap in the market: “The banks wax lyrical on how much money they’re putting into young startup companies, but in reality, they’re not. The amounts these startups are raising are too small for VC, so their only option is private investors, but the startups aren’t connected with these people. We knew we could bridge that gap.” On crowdfunding for B2C vs. B2B companies: “Yes, I do see the argument that a B2C like BrewDog will raise in excess with lots of small investments from thousands of investors, but smaller numbers of investors putting larger amounts into a B2B is an equally valid approach.” On the pending European crowdfunding platform regulation: “We’re certainly ready for it and I think the market will be ready for it as well.” On what Chris is most excited about: “We’ve only scratched the surface. Of all the investment that goes into startups, the vast majority of that is being done by VCs at the moment. We’ve got an open playing field to help young startup companies to get investment.” Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Amazon| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast | Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

We’ve flipped the tables this week, with Ken Coyne from OpsTalent interviewing Pete Townsend on his own digital awakening, insights on the startups he’s working with, the origins of enterprise blockchain, the present and the future of digital assets…and who stole Pete’s car stereo in 1990! This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals. EPISODE OVERVIEW: Pete and Ken were introduced a couple of years ago by a friend from Pete’s time in Bermuda. As they got along so well from the start, Pete and Ken do what they can to be helpful to each other. Ken runs the Tech People podcast and is the Chief Technology Officer for Ops Talent, who are delivering technology and multi-lingual customer support services for some of the world’s most innovative companies.  Ken was intrigued by the initial hype around blockchain in the capital markets in 2015, but then he saw things go quiet. So, Ken asked Pete what happened and where things are going with blockchain in this interview, also released on Ken’s Tech People podcast channel this week. HIGHLIGHTS: On the problem with startups: “It’s hard to get customers without a product, it’s hard to build a product without funding, and it’s really hard to get funding without customers. It can be a continuous circle leading to a downward death-spiral, or a hard climb up and around the Matterhorn.” On Pete’s own awakening after going down the blockchain rabbit hole in 2014: “When I read the original Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper, I saw a brand-new framework for the capital markets in front of my face.” On the early views on blockchain in the capital markets: “Back in 2014, a bunch of capital markets CEOs asked their CTOs and Heads of Innovation to look at the only real use case for blockchain at the time, the bitcoin blockchain. But they came back from the front line like ‘Mining? Consensus algorithms? How are we actually going to apply this to the capital markets? We don’t need this stuff’.” On the evolution to enterprise blockchain: “A lot of top people in the capital markets had the same realizations, but saw a lot of strong concepts in blockchain that could revolutionize the capital markets. A bunch of these folks got together and said, ‘Let’s see how we can make blockchain capital-markets-friendly’’, and that’s how firms like R3 were born.” On blockchain going mainstream: “We’ll know that blockchain has gone mainstream when people stop talking about blockchain. How often do you talk about TCP/IP when you talk about eCommerce?” On if blockchain is picking up steam again: “The steam never actually subsided in the development community, or in the startup community; it’s just been the perception of blockchain in the institutional community.” Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Amazon | Overcast Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack  Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website

Brian Mac Mahon, Head Honcho at Expert DOJO, joins us to riff on solving America’s entrepreneurship problem, his objective to scale those solutions globally, the Israeli model as best practice for a startup nation...and starting fires for the betterment of all! EPISODE OVERVIEW: Based in Santa Monica, California, Expert DOJO is a startup accelerator that improves the success rate of early-stage entrepreneurs with investment, foundation, influence, community, branding, marketing, communication and mindset. HIGHLIGHTS: On what’s in a name: “A dojo is a place of continual learning; you leave your ego outside. It’s about trying to understand the problem with as much brain power coming together to find a solution to that problem. It’s about everyone understanding that they’re not an expert, but that they’re reaching towards expertise based on learning more and more.” On the origins of Expert DOJO: "We’re an accelerator, and we’ll invest in 50 companies this year, and another 100 next year. We look at international companies and provide a bridge to America and give them money to grow and a bunch of help. But we didn’t start out like that. We started out with a problem: startups are failing at an unprecedented rate.” On the problem to solve: “The more I looked into it, the more I saw that if you haven’t gone to Harvard or Stanford, forget about it, you’re not growing a unicorn – we’ve got a really messed up system in America.” On the Israeli entrepreneurship framework: “The number of Nasdaq-listed companies from Israel really points to how Israel made their entire DNA about startups. They had excellence, money, community, government all coming together to cocoon this incredible sense of entrepreneurship.” On the evolution of entrepreneurship over time: “Entrepreneurship has moved from being something for the very few 80 years ago, to something for the brave 40-50 years ago, to today where I believe it is an absolute necessity for the many.” On the key point: “Our real objective is to be a part of making success in entrepreneurship something that is equally available to folks whether they’re rich, poor, black, white, man, woman…in this current world, that is an impossibility, but that’s our objective. We know that we’re going to need a ton of money to do this, and we’re going to have to pick a lot of fights, and we’re preparing for that.” To learn more about Expert DOJO, check out their website, and also download their podcast, The Art of Startup War. To learn more about the Israeli model for entrepreneurship that Brian discussed, check out Startup Nation Central. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Amazon| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Follow us on Twitter Podcast  Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Emmett Kilduff, founder and CEO of Eagle Alpha, talks with Pete Townsend about alternative data, launching his first startup at the same time as the Lehman collapse, pairing his conviction on the ‘problem-to-solve’ with staying power while waiting for the market….and his secret life as a Montréalais! EPISODE OVERVIEW: Founded here in Ireland about 8 years ago, Eagle Alpha are Pioneers Connecting the Universe of Alternative Data. Pete first came across Eagle Alpha a few years ago following an intro from Enterprise Ireland, and they’ve stayed in touch ever since. With Eagle Alpha’s strong base of clients in the US hedge fund market, and Pete having a long history in this space, he has always been keenly interested in how Emmett and Eagle Alpha are progressing. In this conversation, we also get into Emmet’s initial inspirations for Eagle Alpha, the benefit of patience when you know you’re right but the market’s not on board yet, and the importance of creativity in responding to the unexpected. HIGHLIGHTS: On the influence of a father who was Ireland’s first successful fintech entrepreneur, which meant Emmett ended up “reading business plans and novels instead of novels as a young kid and as a teenager.” On his first startup, CMYPitch.com, “That was my MBA in startups – you can’t go to Harvard or Stanford to learn that type of material, you’ve got to live through it.” On starting Eagle Alpha, having the conviction that "hedge funds should be relying on data to make data-driven investment decisions, not just sell-side analyst research reports.” On some of the examples of alternative data: satellite or geo-location imagery counting cars in retail parking lots in real-time at scale as a leading indicator of sales, tracking corporate jet activity, and analyzing anonymized credit card data to predict revenue for subscription-driven businesses like Netflix. On his key lessons on waiting it out: “Stay in the game, don’t try to overexpand or try to raise too much money, but try to educate the market to encourage the wave to come. On his origin story: “You won’t succeed in anything in life without hard work – even if the timing works in your favor, without hard work, you won’t grasp the opportunity.” Key point: “We’re still early after being in our market for 8 years – the big wave is still to come.” To learn more about Eagle Alpha, check out their website, and also download their podcast, Profiting from Data. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Amazon| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin If you are interested in sponsoring the show, get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Sorcha Finucane, Founder of TrainedIn, talks with Pete and Eoin about her inspiration for the business, the network effects of the platform, the ‘platformification’ of trust and referrals, the fairness of SME access to training vs. that of big business, how experience with both sides of the problem increases network value….and her life in an alternate universe in the military! EPISODE OVERVIEW: TrainedIn is an online platform assisting training and consultancy providers in showcasing their business and services while connecting them with individuals and organisations in need of their services. When we learned about Sorcha and TrainedIn recently, our initial intrigue was driven by the network effects of professional training, where buyers bring more sellers and sellers bring more buyers. Also, as the whole world of professional training became virtual very quickly a few months ago, we wanted to know more about how those delivering training and those in need of training programs were keeping things moving. Pete comes from a family of educators, and Eoin and his family are experienced in educational endeavors as well, so this one hits close to home. HIGHLIGHTS: Sorcha shared how she’s launched the TrainedIn network by artfully bringing both those in need of training and those providing training onto the platform in such a way that brings immediate value, but doesn’t fleece anyone, and the trust-building benefits of this approach. On creating opportunities: “We can bring smaller providers of training together to jointly tender for a big project, rather than the larger training providers getting all of the big jobs.” Top skills sought after on TrainedIn in a pandemic – health and safety, leadership, emotional intelligence, project management, wellness and that old chestnut - Excel training. Sorcha’s insight that everyone should spend some time in the hospitality industry, especially with understanding customer service, and “if you can communicate with people, you can travel the world with a hospitality passport.” On making the right jump: “If you’re thinking about taking a big leap as an entrepreneur, call someone who won’t give you a load of BS and will help you make up your own mind. It’s your own mind that you need to make up, it’s not someone telling you that you should do it, because you have to believe in what you’re doing or else it won’t work.” Finally, a shout out to Sorcha’s two dogs, Coco and Reilly, as the first ever non-humans on the show! To learn more about TrainedIn, get in touch at contact@trainedin.global. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Amazon| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin Hit us up on info@moneyneversleeps.ie

This week, Pete and Eoin take look at what to do about the condemnation of Big Tech’s alleged monopoly powers according to US lawmakers, the catch-22 of consumer fintech, Apple One and ‘Rundles’, getting something from VCs if not a check….and godspeed, Eddie Van Halen. THIS WEEK’S STORIES: House Lawmakers Condemn Big Tech’s ‘Monopoly Power’ (NY Times, 6-Oct-20) · Do you break up Big Tech (Google Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) by geography or by product line? · Is financial services the Mr Burns-slash-Dr-Evil strategy for Big Tech? No, I think it was more about monetizing their user base. · By being so big, Big Tech create an exit strategy for tech startups – if Big Tech is broken up, will it significantly impact your eventual exit plan? How to design fintech for prime users? Embrace complexity (a16z Fintech Newsletter Sep-20, Anish Acharya) · How does fintech address the complicated financial lives of those with too much wealth for their financial life to be simple, but too little wealth to pay someone to manage it for you? · If I’ve had a long career and always invested with traditional players, I do probably want someone to talk to. If I’m a bit earlier on in my career and made my money on tech, I’m probably more open to managing things mostly through an app. Apple One (15-Sep-20, Apple.com) · Apple One now offers customers Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud, and more services in one simple plan. · ‘Rundles’ - recurring revenue bundles - where challenger banks and consumer fintech need to go, managing your entire lifestyle through a single app. The Winning Psychology of Top Founders in Fundraising Meetings (NFX, James Currier, 8-Sep-20) · Pete and Eoin each pick their top 5 questions from NFXfor founders to ask VCs, as 90 percent of pitch meetings don’t lead to a check, and it’s better to get insights than a bag of rocks. Eddie Van Halen fans remember his work on Michael Jackson’s classic hit ‘Beat It’ (NME, 7-Oct-20) Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google| Amazon| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast |Twitter Pete |Twitter Eoin If you are interested in sponsoring the show, get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

David Soden, Co-founder and CEO of Aptimyz, talks with Pete Townsend about early entrepreneurial influences, finding purpose in a move from pharmaceuticals to B2B SaaS, the end-all-be-all of delivering customer value….and doubling down during lockdown! For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. EPISODE OVERVIEW: This week Pete talks to David Soden, co-founder and CEO of Aptimyz, an Irish tech startup delivering a complete and affordable EPOS (electronic point of sale) and back-office management solution providing stability for retail in challenging times. If David and Pete had recorded this right after they met pre-lockdown in February, this conversation would’ve been much different! Think about it this way - you build some hard-fought traction with your startup and climb right up to the edge of hitting the market in a big way. Then, the unthinkable happens to not only your target market, but the entire world around you, and the physical interactions between consumers and small businesses that were a critical lever to your business, basically drops through the floor. Well, that’s pretty much a masterclass in “Dealing with Adversity” that you can’t get in any business school on Earth. HIGHLIGHTS: Being the youngest of five boys in an entrepreneurial household with both parents and two brothers running their own businesses: “It never looked easy, but it was always exciting, and I think I had the bug from that point.” On one of the biggest takeaways from his days in pharmaceuticals: “It was amazing as a young guy to be involved in a product launch going from zero to $1.5bn in 18 months, with that kind of scale, and see the pre-launch activity through to launch activity through to hyper growth. On his purposeful move from pharmaceuticals to SaaS: “It was always important to have that north star and know what you’re working for and why you enjoy doing it.” On his mantra as a startup founder: “It’s not worrying about the money, it’s worrying about whether you’re truly relieving a pain point for the customer.” On his thoughts on startups: “For anyone interested in doing a startup, it’s isn’t easy, and if it is easy, there’s a good chance you’re fooling yourself that you’ve found something that’s really worth it.” On digitalizing retail: “It isn’t about having a till or a PoS and then going online, it’s about having a digital business with a physical connection to the customer in store, and the virtual connection with the customer online, but managing it all in one place.” On the pandemic: “When it hit in March, it was kind of a hold-your-breath moment, and then we realized we could give up, or double down. We doubled down and expanded the team.” On delivering value: “There are a lot better things that retailers can be doing with their money right now than spending it on old PoS hardware.” On lessons learned from pitching to investors: “Be sure of what you want going into it because you can’t cry about it afterwards if you end up with a bad deal.” On looking ahead: “It’s a huge challenge, but we’ll be successful if we deliver customer value. It’s not about the shiny buttons, it’s about helping customers run their businesses more efficiently. “ To learn more about Aptimyz, get in touch at info@aptimyz.com. Follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9

This week, Pete and Eoin take another look at the TikTok deal as a bellwether for change in how entrepreneurs outside the US look at the American market, a peek inside the now-profitable fintech unicorn TransferWise, the Nikola scam, the Yandex-Tinkoff tie-up, YCombinator’s acid test….and Cobra Kai! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. THIS WEEK’S STORIES: What the US and China’s tussle over TikTok means for Europe (Sifted, Nicolas Colin - 23-Sep-20) - Revisiting a story we covered on episode 97: Microsoft Goes Tik Tok and Monzo on the Clock.  But, Microsoft didn’t go TikTok, Oracle and Walmart did, and here’s a good overview of that deal from the Motley Fool.  Pete and Eoin walk through rethinking the default go-to scaling strategy of European startup founders looking at the US as the holy grail. TransferWise reports second year of profit, revenue almost doubles (CNBC, 10-Sep-20) - Pete and Eoin talk through a different way to think about a challenger fintech rather than just a better bank. Russia’s Yandex Agrees $5.5Bln Deal For Tinkoff Bank (Moscow Times, 22-Sep-20) Nikola saga hits three speculative areas at once: SPACs, Robinhood traders and electric vehicles (CNBC, 21-Sep-20) Start-up co-founded by ex-Goldman trader is first fintech to complete takeover of a national bank (CNBC, 4-Sep-20) Michael Seibel – Lessons from Thousands of Startups (Invest Like the Best, EP.190) Strike First… and Chill: Cobra Kai Moves to Netflix (Ted Theodore Logan, Medium, 9-Jul-20) Also, a special thank you goes out to Paul and Laura Smyth at Top Tier Recruitment for sticking with us as such supportive sponsors and friends! For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. Follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9.

Jill Richmond, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Jewel, joins the show this week to talk about having agility at the core of everything they do, the relationship between regulations and problem solving…and backpacking solo through eastern Africa! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. EPISODE OVERVIEW: Jewel is a proposed Bermudian Bank and technology firm building banking infrastructure for digital assets as a bridge to fiat banking. The Jewel team brings a deep set of experience in regulated financial businesses, has provided leadership and guidance on new banking and finance policy in the US and emerging markets, and has a track record of delivering innovative and compliant new financial market solutions. Jewel recently announced their partnership with Anchorage, a platform for digital asset custody. In this episode, Jill talks to Pete Townsend about building the business in a fast-moving market while being in the midst of a licensing process, and a few of her personal experiences over the years – see below for some of the best soundbites: On building solutions for the fast-moving digital assets market:“Our own agility has to be core to what we’re building. As the market matures, we have to pay very close attention to how the core problems that we’re solving are evolving, and how quickly we can build solutions.” On responding to new information from the digital assets market: “As the information coming at us changes, we just keep asking ourselves, ‘Are the problems we’re solving immediate and are they a priority. Even though the industry is changing, the regulatory environment isn’t moving as quickly.” On the relevance of her earlier days of building policy for refugee programs to her current modus operandi: ”It was always a policy-first process. I think I recognized that with building something disruptive and innovative in banking, it has to be led with policy as well. If we’re entering a very regulated space as a bank, we have to focus on regulatory clarity first.” Also, listen in for stories about Jill’s formative years as a 10-year-old entrepreneur generating 20x returns, her adventures as a solo backpacker in east Africa and her steadfast refusal to postpone the recording of this podcast even though her car was broken into that morning! To learn more about Jewel, get in touch at info@dltjewel.com, and you can follow Jill on Twitter @JillRichmond77. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. Sign up for our weekly MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on MoneyNeverSleeps.substack.com Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter @MNSShow, Pete Townsend @PeteTownsendNV and Eoin Fitzgerald @EoinFitzgerald9

Jean Evans from the Venture Business Network in Ireland joins the show this week to share her insights on how to get started with professional networks, building your own board of advisors by developing your network, and being a master networker and a shy introvert at the same time. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. EPISODE OVERVIEW: The Venture Business Network is a dynamic community of business owners and leaders who share their knowledge and connections to support one another in the development of more successful businesses. We’ve been talking a lot about how the shift to mostly virtual or virtual-only interaction with customers and investors has impacted entrepreneurs in the last few months, and how everyone is adapting. So, we were thrilled to connect with Jean to dive into how important it is to keep your wider network engaged. In this episode, Jean shares her experiences and insights on: Her “just get on with it” mindset to picking up the phone and speaking in Italian in the formative years of her career. How she became a connector of people across different geographies and industries through leadership roles in the organisation of professional conferences. Her passion for networking and how she helps those new to professional networking accelerate their engagement. How networking delivers far more benefits to you in the future than in the short-term, and how the “give first” mentality will ultimately come back to you positively. To learn more about the Venture Business Network, you can reach out to Jean Evans at jean@venturenetwork.ie. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. Sign up for our weekly MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on MoneyNeverSleeps.substack.com Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter @MNSShow Follow co-host Pete Townsend on Twitter @PeteTownsendNV Follow co-host Eoin Fitzgerald on Twitter @EoinFitzgerald9

Ambre Soubiran, CEO of Kaiko, joins the show this week to talk about how the pioneers of crypto and blockchain laid the foundation for the transformation of capital markets, Kaiko’s role beyond crypto as a financial market data provider…and the best route for sailing across the Atlantic! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. Check out our inclusion in FeedSpot’s Top 20 Entrepreneur Podcasts You Must Follow in 2020. EPISODE OVERVIEW: Kaiko was founded in 2014 and is now a market data provider in the blockchain-based digital assets space, providing institutional investors and market participants with enterprise-grade data infrastructure. In this episode, Ambre talks through the intersection and merging of Kaiko’s story with her personal story – see below for some of the best soundbites: On her entry point to the crypto and blockchain space: “In 2012, for me it was a refreshing new venture, I was going to these really random bitcoin meetups in these underground venues on Brick Lane in London, it was really sketchy at the time, but in a good way. It was really smart people that were inspired and changing the world and doing so in a technological and mathematical way that were really close to my heart.” On thinking about crypto differently: “Bitcoin is very often perceived as a “crypto-anarchist revolutionary-against-institutions” mindset, which is indeed the genesis of it, but not everyone is like that, and I think it was more about challenging the status quo and re-thinking the notions of money, and that’s what I really liked about those meetups. On dispelling market rhetoric: Banks definitely don't ignore blockchain anymore, but I was trying to push it at a time when they weren't ready for it yet. But the “blockchain-good-crypto-bad” mindset frustrates me a little bit, because what makes a blockchain work are the consensus and incentivization mechanism. If you don’t have a unit of value, i.e., a cryptocurrency or token, that incentivizes people to maintain the network in a decentralised way tied to a blockchain, you're missing out on the main points of what makes a blockchain work. On knowing your target investors: If you’re a founder in the blockchain or crypto space, and you have to spend the first 15 minutes of a 30-minute pitch to a VC explaining blockchain and crypto, you’re in the wrong meeting. On the capital markets: The capital markets industry is definitely less creative than it used to be, and that’s one of the things that drove me to crypto is that there’s still so much room to build. To learn more about Kaiko, get in touch at hello@kaiko.com, and you can get in touch with Ambre at Kaiko directly at ambre@kaiko.com. For more episodes and our entire back catalog of show notes go to MoneyNeverSleeps.ie. Sign up for our weekly MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on MoneyNeverSleeps.substack.com. Follow MoneyNeverSleeps on Twitter @MNSShow.

For the 100th episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Eoin and Pete dive into their favorite topic – the challenges of challenger banks – and look back to the first 99 episodes to build out a list of their Top 10 episodes. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. Before we started the episode, we were thrilled to announce our inclusion in FeedSpot’s Top 20 Entrepreneur Podcasts You Must Follow in 2020. Thank you FeedSpot! We start this week with the crossover of a few pieces of content from the past two weeks on challenger banks, in particular the Big 3 of Monzo, Starling and Revolut. Recent reports highlighted their financial results and compared and contrasted them, and one thought from Lex Sokolin of the Fintech Blueprint particularly struck a chord, and this is at the heart of what we dug into on the first half of this episode through the following stories: Starling, Revolut and Monzo’s annual results compared (Sifted, 17-Aug-20) Art Wittmann, Industry Research in “Chasing Profitability in a Changing Media Landscape” (Oracle NetSuite’s Brainyard)- how media companies make money PRA challenges business models of new banks in consultation paper (Finextra, 24-Aug-20) In the second half of the episode, Pete and Eoin each went through their Top 5 MoneyNeverSleeps episodes of all time to come up with the Top 10. Listen in to find out why, and also hear our ‘honorable mentions’, but here’s the big list! Ep 99 - Peter Geoghegan and Democracy for Sale Ep 93 - Be Direct - Zac Liew Ep 57 - The Prediction - Andrew Mullaney Ep 42 - Big Bank - Sean Faughnan Ep 38 - Friends & Respect - Laura Smyth, Paul Smyth, Lisa White, Vessy Tasheva Ep 37 - Fight for your Right - Graham Rodford Ep 26 - Birds of a Feather - Ann O’Dea Ep 23 - Money Made Me Do It - Elaine Deehan Ep 15 - Angels - Chris Adelsbach Ep 1 - The Re-up - Brian Norton Thanks to all of our guests since May 2018 for their willingness to join us, their openness, their insights and above all else, helping us to figure out what makes them do what they do.  Please visit MoneyNeverSleeps for all of our other episodes.

This week, Eoin and Pete have the pleasure of talking to Peter Geoghegan about his book,  ‘Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics’.  It is a fascinating story of how undisclosed donations have infiltrated British politics, undermining public faith in democracy and fuelling the rise of populism across the West. Pete and Peter also discuss their common love of baseball and cricket and Peter shares a fascinating story about emigration from Longford to Argentina! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. Peter Geoghegan is an Irish writer, broadcaster and investigations editor at the award-winning news website openDemocracy. He led openDemocracy‘s investigations into dark money in British politics that were nominated for a 2019 British Journalism award and the Paul Foot award. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and many other publications. He has made documentaries for BBC Radio Four, worked on investigative TV programmes for Channel 4 and regularly appears on British and international broadcast outlets. His most recent book, Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics, was published in August 2020 by Head of Zeus. His previous book, The People’s Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again, was nominated for the Saltire First Book Award. He is co-founder and current chair of Scottish investigative website the Ferret and lives in Glasgow and London.

Faye Walsh Drouillard from WakeUp Capital joins the show to talk about how her formative years and life experience drove her towards early stage impact investing, the two biggest challenegs we face as a global population and fuelling self confidence with humility, constant curiousity and a drive to do better. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. Faye is the founder and principal of WakeUp Capital, an Ireland based early stage impact fund that backs European companies already shaping a better, brighter future for people and planet. Faye grew up and spent her formative years between Washington DC and the West Coast of the US, and she credits these early experiences in shaping her view of the world and her ambition to do something about the two biggest challenges we face as a global population  – mass inequality and climate change, Just a heads-up - we’ve been moving platforms over the past few episodes, and still working out the kinks, so Pete’s track is a notch below what we’d like it to be, but it was a great conversation and we know you’ll enjoy it.  Faye shared a lot of great insights on this episode, including:  On geographic parallels to personality: “The west coast feels very much home for me when I’m there because of many of the traits that people who are in entrepreneurship and startups and investing look for - open spirit, innovation and trying something new.” On her time with the Freedom Writers Foundation: “It’s one thing to go and work with really determined entrepreneurs, it’s another thing to work with young people who have overcome things such as homelessness, drug abuse, mental issues, being brought to America as illegal immigrants and then to help them become part of this business with an aim to improve educational outcomes for students worldwide.” On her impetus for becoming an investor: “I realized that there are so many wonderful entrepreneurs out there having epiphanies and light bulbs going off and having great ideas, but how could I take my knowledge and experience and influence the people who had the funds?  I really wanted to get inside their minds and figure out how they made their investment decisions.” On her motivation: “For me, the unwillingness to accept the status has to do with the two biggest challenges we face as a global population - mass inequality and climate change.  These are not entirely new today, but more people seem to be paying attention to them, but I’ve been frustrated with both of those issues for a good part of my life." On the impact of impact: “We want to help early stage entrepreneurs understand how to measure the impact they’re having on society and the planet, and grow the space of impact investing, so that stakeholders and co-investors know what it really means.” Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

This week, Pete and Eoin dive into the curious deal brewing between Microsoft and TikTok, a crystal ball view into what's going on with the challenger bank Monzo, all topped off with the recent news on Square and piped-in crowd noise for Pete's beloved Boston Red Sox.. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. Stories covered and and things we touched on this week include: The biggest problem with Microsoft’s fractured TikTok deal (The Verge, 4-Aug-20) Monzo sees losses double despite revenue bump (Sifted, Isabel Woodford, 30-Jul-20) Square’s Big Bitcoin Haul Is Good for Square but Better for Bitcoin (Barron's, 5-Aug-20) John Collison – Growing the Internet Economy  - do general accounting practices need to change to capture the true value of a company like Stripe?  (Invest Like the Best, EP.178) Artificial-noise plan is designed to get the crowd into the game at Fenway Park (Boston Globe, 23-Jul-20) Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

This week, we welcome Elaine Deehan from Starling Bank back to the show with a session recorded as part of a Virtual Meetup organised by FSCom for the European Women’s Payment Network last month.  Elaine was originally on episode 23 when she was the founder of Pocketwire, and we remastered that for episode 76 as it’s one of our most popular episodes. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.   For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. Top soundbites include: Pete's description of "the Trilogy" in the context of Elaine's career:  "Your experience with the innovation lab at Citi, then onto Currency Fair, and then starting PocketWire I likened to someone going from Cadbury, then onto Butler's and then Godiva on the path to a chocolate addiction - you’re spending more of your own money but it just tastes so good." On Elaine's past experience working in an innovation lab: "One thing we did a lot of in the innovation lab was look at startups and the startup ecosystem and the startup mentality and how you can replicate that in a large company, which is really hard to do.  There’s much more to startups and being agile than just saying I’m going to put a scrum or an agile framework around how we do things."  On her move into Starling Bank:  "The trilogy - everything I had built upon with Citi, CurrencyFair and Pocketwire - is what opened the door into Starling for me." On her experience so far with Starling Bank:  "It’s been an absolute baptism by fire.  We’ve gone from writing policy and procedure and designing what the bank would look like in Ireland to just doing it by answering customer queries at two in the morning for the UK business.  This is really helpful to us when we go live because I’m dealing with customers on the front line and getting real issues that are even more compounded by the pandemic. " On her analogy between the London Underground and big bank technology: " The rest of the world above the ground is modernising and the tube is trying to serve passengers and run on this old network of tunnels, and while they’re upgrading it’s hard to make that complete change because it’s just so far down underground and so complex." Random links include: Pete's opening reference to Lloyd Dobler and a clip from Say Anything as an analogy to the circuitous startup conundrum of product, customers and funding.   Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dig into the recent Twitter Hack and how it might have been much worse, the Ant Group IPO and their status as the 'online mall for everything', Instagram's opportunity to become America's favorite shopping mall and Robinhood dropping out of the UK before launching.

Gene Murphy, co-founder of Startup Boost joins our first video edition of the podcast to talk about his earliest entreprenurial experiences, the overnight evolution of Startup Boost to the virtual world, the art of mentorship...and his short-lived reign as Ireland's number one Male Health and Beauty reporter!

Zac Liew, co-founder and CEO of Curlec joins the show to talk about the societal influences of what works well in fintech, how Curlec is enabling the subscription economy in Southeast Asia and getting comfortable being uncomfortable. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. This week we talk to Zac Liew from Curlec, a fintech startup helping SMEs overlooked by traditional banks collect recurring payments with their automated platform, replacing manual methods like cash, checks and credit cards.  Zac and Pete connected through their respective networks recently from one of those conversations that Pete had that went like “based on what you just said, you need to meet Zac Liew.”  Being a trusting soul, Pete did just that, and this episode is the result of that decision. In this conversation, Zac and Pete connected on a more universal level with their respective interests in societal influences, how people spend money, a cross-over reference to Islamic finance and the impact of family lineage on an individual's tendencies to build.  Zac and Pete also got into how first time entrepreneurs need to get comfortable being uncomfortable, and the network effect of Zac being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for Finance and Venture Capital.  See below for some of the key takeaways: On Zac's upbringing "I’ve always had a desire to      build something and pursue a career in entrepreneurship - that stems from      my family, and growing up with parents who were both entrepreneurs." On one of the triggers to launch Curlec: "Living      in the UK three to four years ago, I'd go back to KL (Kuala Lumpur) for      holidays, and every time I came back it felt like the country was moving      quicker in terms of fintech, and there was a big wave coming and the      timing was right." On the view on Southeast Asia from the West:       "A lot of people loop this region into one, but when you go into the      details, not only culturally is it different from country to country but      also in terms of infrastructure." On the big question for scaling:  "Do you      wait for the banking rails to homogenize across Southeast Asia, or do you      homogenize your product to sit on top of multiple rails?  To hedge      our bets, we're adding new products as well." On the learning curve as a first time founder:       "Just keep pushing yourself, throwing yourself into uncomfortable      situations and you’ll eventually become comfortable.  That was a big      learning curve for me.  As a first time entrepreneur, get comfortable      being uncomfortable." Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.

In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald look ahead to the impact of Wirecard on Banking-as-a-Service, how the Irish tech startup Circit could have prevented the Wirecard audit mess, and Diffuse's take on startups looking overseas for venture capital investors. This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. For insights delivered to your inbox beyond the spoken word, subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter right here on Substack. In this episode, Eoin and Pete dig into pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups, tech, venture deals and enterprise in which they live. The main stories stories covered in this week's episode include: · BaaS Works, it's the Regulations That Don't (Chris Skinner's blog, 30th June) · A special segment from David Heath, founder and CEO of Irish tech startup Circit, on how Circit could have prevented the Wirecard audit mess where Wirecard's purported cash balances were not being properly confirmed by auditors. · The Problem with Raising Money Overseas(Diffuse blog, 1st July) · Japan's SBI to Launch Crypto Fund with 50% in XRP(iHodl, 26th June) · Unilever and Verizon are the latest companies to pull their advertising from Facebook (TechCrunch, 26th June) · Deutsche Bank Taps Symphony & WhatsApp for Messaging Platforms (MarketsMedia, 25th June) · ‘Flying Blind Into a Credit Storm’: Widespread Deferrals Mean Banks Can’t Tell Who’s Creditworthy (WSJ (paywall) 29th June) Books we're reading this week: On Pete's Kindle this week is My Trip to the Startup World: the Voice of Fintech by      Rudi Falat who was on episode      74 Eoin is reading only news and blogs this week as he's      been drafting the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter! Please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/for all of our other episodes.

This week we talk to David Vatchev, Venture Development Lead at R3, on what it takes to survive uncertainty, stay relevant to investors while the venture capital cycle slows down, and also understand, measure and speed up the enterprise sales cycle...a big ask for anyone! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.  Also, watch for the first edition of the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter that we're sending out before the end of this month! This week we talk to David Vatchev from R3 about his role as Venture Development Lead and we did a deep dive into how startups can come to grip with the enterprise sales cycle, which is so relevant right now with how much harder enterprise sales have become with the pandemic, especially for startups embracing newer technologies.  R3 is “an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 300 participants across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop blockchain applications on Corda, an open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for enterprise usage.”  At R3, David helps “CorDapps” or startups leveraging Corda at the core of their business, to build, grow and scale.  Before joining R3, David spent 15 years in the capital markets, so he has first-hand experience with that industry's inefficiencies, which is one of the big problems R3 set out to solve. Given David's role with R3 and Pete Townsend's approach with helping distributed ledger technology (DLT) enabled startups find their first customers, get funded, and get their products to market, this conversation was just waiting to happen. Helpful resources shared by David produced by R3: A Startup’s Guide to Speeding Up the Enterprise Sales Cycle Enterprise Startups: Actionable Fundraising Tips From R3’s Investor Community R3's Venture Development Program - A Gateway Into Our Ecosystem To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

On this week's episode, Pete and Eoin dive into payments on WhatsApp, the paradox between investing in underrepresented founders and the current demographics of venture capital, and getting digitally closer to your spending through Revolut and Olivia. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, Eoin and Pete dig into pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups, tech, venture deals and enterprise in which they live and work. At the end of this episode, Eoin announced the big news on the first edition of the MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on SubStack, more news to come! The stories covered in this week's episode include: Visa, Facebook Link Up For P2P Payments, eCommerce On WhatsApp (PYMNTS.com, 15th June 2020) -Beginning this week, Brazilian users will be able to pay for things through WhatsApp and can establish an account by adding their card card details to WhatsApp. -Businesses can receive funds by opening a WhatsApp business account with a 3.99 percent fee applied on top of payments they receive.   Finally, WhatsApp making money! Arlan Hamilton from Backstage Capital on Backstage Crowd (no news available, older story on Arlan) -“Invest alongside Arlan Hamilton and Backstage to get access to the best diverse deal flow in VC.”  Backstage Capital focuses on underrepresented founders and now the deal flow is open to all accredited investors through Backstage Crowd. -Cross-over connection with Beezer Clarkson from Sapphire Ventures on The Full Ratchet with Nick Moran - in this episode, Beezer and Nick had a short exchange on the the impact of the pandemic on how people get to know each other in the VC/founder context. Revolut launches open banking feature in Ireland - (Silicon Republic, 17th June 2020) -Revolut launches an open banking feature that enables your transactions and balances data from Bank of Ireland, AIB, UlsterBank and PTSB to be viewable in the Revolut app. Olivia’s AI assistant encourages mindful spending and saving - (Silicon Republic, 15th June 2020) -Olivia AI launches in Ireland and Bank of Ireland, AIB, UlsterBank, PTSB and Revolut are enabled to share your transactions and balances data with -Olivia. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

Garrett Cassidy, co-founder and CEO of Trezeo, joins the show to talk about making financial services accessible to independent workers, the snowball effect of impacting people's lives, mental health perspectives in the startup community....and the impact of scuba diving on his ability to communicate! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. This week we talk to Garrett Cassidy from Trezeo, a fintech on a mission to help independent workers with their financial lives by providing them with a comprehensive safety net delivered 100% digitally. As Garrett said recently on a Future of Work interview series for Aperture, “Trezeo is not a social enterprise, it is a for-profit investor-backed enterprise. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make money from doing the right thing, and that’s where technology changes things fundamentally.”  Pete Townsend met Garrett back in 2014 when he came into Pete's office talking excitedly about startups and pre-accelerators, and Pete looks back at that meeting as one of the reasons that he's doing what he does.  See below for some of the soundbite highlights, and the link here for the Techstars video series on mental health in the startup community and separately for Garrett's pitch at the Barclay's Accelerator powered by Techstars. “Just because you work a different way, why should you have such radically different access to financial services?  It’s a simple idea, but a really gnarly set of problems to solve.” “We actually started by looking at better banking and financial services for micro-businesses, but with our early customer research and some independent research at the time, we dug into the gig economy, the sharing economy and the self-employed, and we realized there was a much bigger and more important problem to solve.” “When we dug into the problem of broken bank accounts for the people we were trying to solve it for, we realized that bank accounts weren’t as broken for them because they didn’t really care - most self-employed and independent workers don’t have a separate bank account for their business.” “Keeping a broad mindset of trying to validate the problem actually brought us to “we’re actually looking at the wrong thing here.’" “Startups are tough, but if they weren’t, the problems wouldn't be there, someone would have solved them already” “One of our customers came to us and said “You know what, I just got my first mainstream credit and I’ve never been able to get it before.  Although that’s just one person, it creates the drive to do this again and again and again.” “The typical qualities of startup founders - curiosity and persistence are both a double-edged sword of becoming unfocused and pigheaded.” “What we’ve become better on is articulating our purpose and vision - what are we trying to do, what’s our guiding light and what will help towards that, and push hard towards it." To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dive into the difference between video and live interactions between startups and their investors, the role of Twitter and Facebook as arbiters of the truth, a look back at the demographics from the first two years of this podcast and the monumental inspiration from spaceflight. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, Eoin and Pete dig into pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups, tech, venture deals and enterprise in which they live. The stories covered in this week's episode include: ‘Video is fine’: venture capitalists find the benefits in digital due diligence (FT, 3rd June 2020, paywall) What is it about human nature that makes VCs want to meet someone face to face? Facial gestures?  The cut of their jibe? What they say to their colleagues (or not say) when passing them in the hallway on the way to the meeting room? Facebook, Twitter and Trump: The terrifying war on truth (Decrypt, 2nd June 2020) What’s Jack Dorsey from Twitter thinking? Following his moral compass or making a commercial move? What’s Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook thinking?  Deal with the devil or an ideological resistance to warning labels? A look back at the first 2 years of the MoneyNeverSleeps podcast: -Guest demographics: 60% Startup Founders - 26% Startup ‘Ecosystem’ - 12% Venture Capitalists - 3% Intrapreneurs -Topics covered:  39% Fintech - 32% Tech - 17% Blockchain & Crypto - 10% Human Interest -Where we need to get better:  70/30 Male/Female split of guests - room to improve! -Listeners from 80 countries, but 46% of trackable downloads from Ireland -Chartable stats: Top 20 in Ireland (covering global podcasts) for Business & Entrepreneurship Soundbites include: Eoin on virtual due diligence with startup investing: "You're missing a lot of those cues on personality traits and human behavior by doing your due diligence over Zoom." Pete on how founders interact with their team: "It's always a good judge of a person to see how a founder interacts with their colleagues when they pass them in the hallway on the walk to the meeting room with a VC.  Does the founder stop and say hello, or do they glare at the team like, 'Look, I'm having a very important discussion with an investor and I can't talk to anybody!'". Multiple viewpoints on the massive achievement of SpaceX and Elon Musk this week with the advent of commercial spaceflight and the 'mission of a mission' to deliver Earthlings to Mars. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

Conor McGinn from Akara joins the show to talk about the human side of robotics, drawing motivation from skeptics, having all of the ingredients to scale a robotics and artificial intelligence business in Ireland....and how Akara are like a prize fighter in the best shape of their life just waiting to take on the world! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. This week we talk to Conor McGinn from Akara Robotics, an Ireland based startup building robots that care.  Akara are currently engaged in their seed round to raise capital from investors to bring their innovations to market quicker, and Pete was introduced to Conor through Eamonn Carey's 'Sharing Dealflow' newsletter.  Given the direction that this podcast has gone in the past two years from its fintech roots into a few tech-driven human interest stories but then an exploratory dive into crypto, blockchain and venture capital, it's about time we took a look at robotics.  Conor really got Pete Townsend thinking on this one, especially with Akara’s sense of purpose and making an impact through deep expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence combined with first-hand experience with the problems they’re solving.  Akara is a spin-out company from Trinity College Dublin, and builds on over a decade of pioneering scientific research in robotics and artificial intelligence. This research goes all the way back to 2010 when Conor was a PhD student, and then an Assistant Professor at Trinity from 2014 onwards.  After years and years of researching, designing, building, researching, designing, building, let's fastforward to today - Akara’s social robot designed to help keep seniors socially connected, whose name is Stevie, recently made the cover of Time magazine with the headline, “The robot that could change the senior care industry.”  A few months after Time's coverage of Stevie, Akara's second robot, Violet, was also covered by Time magazine as "the robot that could kill the COVID19 virus".   At his core, Conor is an engineer who just wants to develop technology that has a positive impact. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dig into a slice of "Pizza Arbitrage" from the Margins blog by Ranjan Roy and Can Duruk on the Doordash, Uber and Grubhub strategies of growth at all costs, and delve into the importance of recharging yourself, work-life and pandemic-driven cultural changes and the staying power of massive retail brands. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, Eoin and Pete dig into pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups, tech, venture deals and enterprise in which they live. The stories covered in this week's episode include: Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage - a story from the Margins blog by Ranjan Roy and Can Duruk on just how far Doordash is going to grab market share, and how one pizza shop owner literally flipped the dough to turn a risk-free profit on his pizzas. Uber and GrubHub tie-up  - Uber's deal to acquire GrubHub for an undisclosed amount and the impact that has on the Doordash strategy. Arianna Huffington from Thrive Global on the Business Casual podcast by Morning Brew - on the importance of recharging and being at your best when leading teams through a crisis. Facebook Shops taking on Shopify - Facebook are extending into every corner of the commercial globe, so why not online shopfronts? Chris Skinner on "What's the Point of an Office?" - how work-life and pandemic-driven cultural changes are challenging the corporate real estate status-quo, with a specific reference to Barclays' CEO Jess Staley's thoughts on the topic. Joe Rogan's podcast deal with Spotify - how the Joe Rogan Experience and his 190 million downloads per month will become exclusive to Spotify. Being at the tip of the iceberg with podcasting as a medium, with a specific reference to a16z's 2019 research piece on the podcasting market. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow, @PeteTownsendNV and @EoinFitzgerald9 for updates and more information.

Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures joins the show to talk about a people-centric view to investing in early stage startups, what it takes to scale Irish startups to nine-figure revenue levels, what typically lures Irish startups to the UK, US or Continental Europe, and how his own competitive drive works well in venture capital. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, Pete Townsend talks to Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures, a Dublin-based B2B SaaS venture firm investing in Europe and the US.  Finn is a board member or observer on Frontline investments such as Pathfinder, Umba, Cloudsmith, Modulz, Swyg and Evervault, among others. In a country of five million people like Ireland, the venture capital community is about the size you would expect - relatively modest.  However, with multinational finance, pharmaceutical, medtech and broader technology companies all progressively choosing Ireland for their European operations going back to the 1980’s, and a well-educated workforce, there’s a much larger talent base in Ireland than you would expect for a country of five million people. So, what happens when the risk takers with a few years under their belts in these multinationals get that entrepreneurial itch?  Well, although there are definitely other factors, we’ve always pointed to these quasi spin-outs from multinationals that are sometimes no more than one woman or man saying, "I’ve found a problem worth solving, and I think there’s a big enough market for it, so I’ll give it a shot". Ireland definitely has a larger startup ecosystem than you’d expect for a country of five million people, and like any startup ecosystem, it needs seed funding.  Finn has been quite transparent about what he looks for in pre-seed-stage companies, specifically in his specialty of B2B SaaS, and we covered his framework for founders on what to expect from VCs investing at the pre-seed level in episode 68.  We go quite a bit deeper in this episode, and cover: The tongue-in-cheek view on assessing founder ambitions - "We had this internal joke at Frontline that you just find any of the [Irish] founders who had tried to raise money from US venture funds, and write them a check because you had a good benchmark on the scale of their ambition." The actual view on founder ambitions - "We're looking for people with that world-beating view of 'I have just as much of a shot as anyone who’s building one of these real break-out companies' [anywhere else in the world]." On his comfort level - "We feel a lot more comfortable when we’re assessing people and high-level markets than when we’re tearing apart financial models." On scaling startups staying in Ireland - "The biggest rate-limiting factor on scaleups staying in Ireland is that there are a decent amount of people in Ireland that know how to operate a business going from $1mn-10mn in revenue, a few that know how to take a business from $10mn-100mn, and barely any that know how to go from $100mn-1bn in revenue." To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow.

In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on the shutdown of the RBS challenger bank brand 'Bo', Revolut's M&A ambitions, what N26's latest fundraising means in the great universe of challenger banks.... and their latest reads! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dig into three pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups and enterprise in which they live, with a focus on the latest news from challenger bank brands. The stories covered in this week's episode include: RBS axes digital bank Bo' (TechCrunch, 01-May-20) - Bo, the digital bank developed by RBS-owned Natwest, is to shutter, just 6 months after launching publicly and gathering 11,000 customers. Revolut on the hunt for acquisitions (FT, 06-May-20) - Revolut is looking to use some of the proceeds of its recent $500m fundraising to buy rival technology companies that have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with an unexpected focus on travel aggregators. N26 raises another $100mn at $3.5bn valuation (Finextra, 06-May-20) - N26 recently ditched their UK strategy but expanded to the US with some initial success - but what's next for them in competing with Revolut, Monzo, Starling and Chime? Besides the obvious benefit of Revolut and FX, why would you chose one over the other? Also, deeper insight on other topics we referred to include the below that were conveniently published in the two days between recording and publishing this episode: Wirecard's troubles - as covered by Chris Skinner on 08-May-20. Build, buy or transform a bank - also from Chris Skinner on 07-May-20 Finally, see below for Pete's and Eoin's latest reads referred to on this episode: Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter - Dan Ariely Talking to My Daughter About the Economy - Yannis Varoufakis Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist - both by Mohsin Hamid To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Ash Quinn from VideoRankMe joins the show to talk about her journey from a law degree to digital startups, the benefits of over-communication when you have distributed teams around the world....and being a Gaeilgeoir! (go ahead, google it!) This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. This week we talk to Ash Quinn from VideoRankMe, an Ireland-based early-stage tech company doing some amazing things with online video and search engine optimization (SEO). VideoRankMe is the first Google-approved video ranking technology for immediate 'Page One' results on Google and YouTube. Ash has a really interesting background with her soul-searching pivot away from her law degree in 2018 and her re-entry into the professional world driving digital businesses forward. She also operates in a similar role with MoShoppa, a turnkey e-commerce platform and recently spun up Sweat25 connecting individuals with certified fitness professionals running live online classes. In this episode, we cover: Staying true to yourself and knowing deep down inside that you've made the right call. An ability to get things done quicker without the time-eating necessity of business travel to New York and London, and also have a better work-life balance at the same time. The need to fine-tune your product for the right audience after initial success with the low-hanging fruit. The "fire in the belly" moment Ash gets every time she gets that "wow" from the customer where they see their brand on the top page of Google. Having the right work ethic and being willing to do the job that no one else wants to do, and listening intently to make sure that she's soaking up whatever she can from the team. Having resilience, as startups are like rollercoasters, but you can get addicted to the emotions as they help you to push through and keep driving things forward. Having people on the ground in New York, a tech team in India and Romania, a CTO is in Tipperary, a CEO in Cork, and a senior consultant in Sydney means that digital-only interaction with the team is business-as-usual. The necessity of over-communication for distributed teams and how that approach can stop things from slipping through the cracks. Ash's education and her status as a Gaeilgeoir! To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In another edition of our Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald air their thoughts on the startup support plan announced in the UK, Marc Andreessen's 'Build' essay, and NFX's recent post on how startups can survive a downturn. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, the comeback kid, Eoin Fitzgerald, finally rejoins Pete Townsend as they dig into a few of the things that happened in the past week in tech, venture deals, and the topics that they generally cover in their day jobs. The stories covered in this week's episode include: UK Government launches £1.25bn plan to help struggling UK start-ups - How high (or low) does the investment committee making these decisions set the bar? Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) Marc Andreessen and his "It's Time to Build" essay - There is a widespread inability to build and the problem runs deeper than your favorite political opponent or your home nation - so take that off the table! NFX's 28 Moves in a Downturn - Blog post in March by Pete Flint, a Managing Partner at NFX, a seed-stage venture firm based in San Francisco, focusing on managing losses, gaining ground and managing psychology. The Last Dance - Eoin Fitzgerald's personal recommendation for what to watch on Netflix. NFX's 16 Non-Obvious Fundraising Lessons - Although we didn't dig into this one, we referred to it - an oldie but a goodie! To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In a special replay episode from Season 1 that we just couldn't resist bringing back with everyone around the world working from home of late, we talk to Vanessa Tierney, co-founder and CEO of Abodoo, the fastest growing SaaS platform for people and companies embracing 'Smart Working'. This episode of Money Never Sleeps is kindly sponsored by Possible.ie, an Executive and Personal Coaching practice who partner with their clients to realize their full potential. The team at Possible.ie work with entrepreneurs, emerging talent and senior leadership in a collaborative way to improve business performance, retain and develop key staff and improve leadership effectiveness.  Check them out online on Possible.ie, and tell 'em we sent you! What we're all going through right now would make you think that remote working is the new normal, but Aboodo's mission is to convert this into "smart working" - i.e., whatever combination of remote, in-office, flexible hours and co-working is the most effective for people and the businesses they work for. It's not likely that we'll ever be going back to the old way, but trading desk time with your spouse, while the kids bounce around the house, isn't normal or certainly all that effective either. What we expect is that Vanessa and Abodoo will be the bridge from the old way to the true new normal that emerges after this "world on fire" period we're in subsides. Abodoo's tagline of "Life is a journey, not a commute" has never been more relevant, and check out their most recent video here. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In another crossover episode, this time with Your Pursuit of Happiness, Paul Smyth and Pete Townsend talk through how to keep things running in your work life and your home life, two things that have become one since the world caught fire.  They dig into VC funding, hiring, startup decisions, transformational projects and more....with a guest appearance in the intro from Pete's kids! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. This week we've produced another Money Talks segment with friend of the show and sponsor Paul Smyth from Top Tier Recruitment and Possible.ie. We're looking at the right here, right now this week with the world on fire with coronavirus and how that's impacting business across startups, VCs, funding, hiring, coaching, corporates and new ideas. This episode is also featured on Top Tier Recruitment's podcast, Your Pursuit of Happiness, so check that out on your favourite podcast platform as well, loads of great insights from that crew. In this episode, we get into: As a startup, focusing your efforts on what people are willing to pay for - what's your niche - what can you do in the short term to generate revenue that businesses and consumers need right now? The impact of downtime, and being in a position to help - if you look back in ten years and knew you were in a position to help but decided not to for some reason, how would you feel? How Possible.ie are offering that help with free 90-minute coaching sessions: Â https://www.possible.ie/covid Corporate & Social Responsibility as a draw for prospective employees - what's been your community response during all of this and how the actions you take now can define how you're perceived as a business for the long run? Managing remote teams when you've never done that before and the impact on your own management style. What can you do now with the tools you have available to react and stay afloat? How do you cope as a leader with that pressure coming down on you now? Take it and channel it and run with it and do what you can with it, or do you pass it on in a negative way to your teams? Focusing on a 100% virtual sales process - witnessing a startup shifting from enterprise sales to a true SaaS online-only sales model in 2 weeks The importance of human contact and making connections and turning the Zoom camera on (tastefully!) How what we're all going through right now will encourage more of the mindset of "bringing your whole self to work", being yourself and being authentic. Approaches by VCs to reassess their funding position, and how the money behind the money impacts how VCs are considering or re-considering their investments in startups. The different ways that corporates are handling hiring right now, and the thought of your first day of work with a new company being from home. What to read (from Pete): What You Do is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz What to read (from Paul): The Choice by Edith Eger To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Colin Platt joins the show to talk to Pete Townsend about leaving behind his early career in the capital markets, the crossover of solving entrepreneurial problems and solving global political problems, the professional merits of podcasting, hating and loving writing, his view on economics....and his grasp of the Swedish language! This week we’re catching up with Colin Platt, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as a “crypto performance artist” in addition to being an independent consultant, but where you really want to follow him is on Twitter @colingplatt and on his blog on Medium. Colin works with innovative companies on technology and business strategy with a focus on cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies, and is also a founder of entrepreneurial ventures. Colin and Pete connected after Pete had his own awakening on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies back in 2014, and they were both at BNP Paribas for a while before they met in 2015.   Pete remembers how Colin’s departing email from BNP Paribas way back then said “I’m going to give this entrepreneur thing a shot,” and Colin's leap was one of the inspirations for Pete's own leap.   Fast-forward five years and about 200 podcast episodes later between the two of them - Colin mostly on Blockchain Insider and Pete mostly right here on MoneyNeverSleeps - the two pals get into: Colin's history in the corporate world, his awakening with cryptocurrency, and his inspiration to take the leap. The "do I or don't I" question when it comes to following a problem that could create some great traction when you solve that problem, but it's a dramatically different problem than the one you set out to solve. That fantastic feeling when you finish a project and the client turns around and says,"OK, I absolutely didn't think about this, and this changes everything I need to do now," and seeing them light up on the success of really understanding something differently. Seeing a client 3-6 months down the road after you've worked with them, and they say "We pivoted and then really got traction with this, and we couldn't have done it without you." The professional benefits of stage presence and presentation skills from doing tons of podcast episodes. On blogging:  "Being able to write is a superpower - it doesn't have to be anywhere special - LinkedIn, Medium, wherever.  Write a blog about something and just continually write 600-800 words every couple of weeks and put it out there." On the economic effects of this global pandemic we're going through:  "I think one of the things that I got really interested in early on with bitcoin or ether as an asset class is this notion that you can actually see where everything is and how it works.  That parlays quite quickly into having money that is more traceable on the one hand, but at the same time less controllable. It's got to be something that starts to rear its head." On economic stimuli:  "Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, as more money is pumped into the system, you're going to have people that demand transparency [on where it goes]." Colin's status as the richest man alive (tongue firmly implanted in cheek) and "creating a coin that was worth $3.6 quadrillion, which is thirty-three thousand six hundred thousand trillion, so a really big number."

David Chreng from LeadBlock Partners joins the show to talk about how his time as an energy equity analyst influenced his view of the world, investing in blockchain and distributed ledger technologies for sustainability-themed ventures, the development of blockchain and DLT in general over the past 5 years....and using quantum mechanics to model DNA! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. This week we’re catching up with David Chreng, a partner with LeadBlock Partners, a London-based venture capital fund investing in early stage B2B blockchain startups. David and Pete Townsend connected at the Securities Token Realised Summit conference last month in London.  After hearing about Connecting Food, David’s first investment with LeadBlock, Pete was interested in learning more, especially given that LeadBlock venture outside of financial services with their blockchain-themed investments.  Given we've spent so much time talking about blockchain-inspired propositions in financial services on this podcast, we wanted to provide a fresh perspective. As Pete wrote last week in our first MoneyNeverSleeps blogpost on Medium, "We’ll know that blockchain has gone mainstream when we stop talking about blockchain".  David and Pete touched on this point, as well as a number of others on this episode: The origins of David's interest in blockchain/DLT stemming from an investment in a company making sensors for the food industry, and using DLT as a means to collect, secure and create value from that data. Pairing DLT with other technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT to automate processes and create efficiencies as a response to pressure on corporate margins. On there being no silver bullet - "DLT for the industries outside of financial services is only a piece of the equation for corporates trying to automate and optimize some of their processes - DLT by itself is just a sophisticated database." On the differences between financial services and other industries - "DLT in financial services is about reshaping how the financial services industry is run. But when we're looking at enterprise DLT solutions across other industries, they're not going to reshape how the industry is run, they're about optimizing and improving processes to make them more efficient, allow them to reduce costs, bring more security, trust and audit-ability." On B2B vs. B2C founders - "This is for me, a new class of entrepreneurs which are not coming out of school with a great idea, which is fine on the B2C side. But on the B2B side, it's always more powerful to have somebody that's lived through the experience of working in large corporates on the operational side, has experienced a lot of difficulties there and then comes up with a great idea". To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Luke Sully, founder and CEO of Custody Digital Group joins the show to talk about his path into digital assets from an IT security background, building a business through aligning the interests of talented people, why he's basing his operations in Ireland.....and his love of the merengue! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Custody Digital Group (CDG) provide financial institutions with a single point of governance for securing and managing digital assets. Luke and Pete Townsend connected in early 2019, and they've stayed in touch since then with their mutual interests in all things digital assets and Luke's plans for setting up an Irish operation for CDG. Some of the highlights include: Channeling Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz from a16z - if you try to solve a big problem in a really big market, then you have a great opportunity to build a really scalable business, and that's what we saw with CDG.  As a founder, you have a vision for how you think you can do things and how you think you can solve problems and help create a better way of doing things, or for serving a market that you can see that other people can't.  It's just an itch you have to scratch. Everyone has the capacity to start to build, but you never really know what the next week or month is going to look like, so you have to be able to accept a certain amount of chaos in your life and how you build a business isn't always as linear as you would like. So there's a huge amount of resilience that you have to draw on on a fairly regular basis. Being a founder is about getting really good people around you, making sure they're all aligned as to why they're involved, and aligning what they want to do with the vision and the objective of the company. If you can align everyone's objectives and interests around that core theme, it will make your life easier.  What people don't realize is that really good startups get spun out of other startups. There are folks that will be working in high-growth technology companies that understand the playbook, have a finer sense of risk and take calculated risks, that then put teams together and go and build companies. That provides a really long tail that I think Ireland will start to enjoy. With regulation, it's not only making sure you're compliant, but using it as a competitive advantage. If you can get it right and read the tea leaves properly, it allows you to work across jurisdictions that give you a broader palette and a broader client base. How CDG's go-to-market strategy is aligned in terms of the different kinds of digital assets (cryptocurrencies vs. security tokens) Being a founder is a constant surprise - each day is different and brings with it a set of challenges that you may not have expected before. Build a startup is kind of like climbing a mountain, the moment you start looking down just to give yourself a pat on the back about how far you've come, it can look a bit scary, so it's best to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Absorbing pressure and becoming more resilient with each passing month. To listen to more, to listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In a special replay of one of the best episodes of 2018, Pete Townsend talks to Elaine Deehan about her entry into fintech, her startup ambitions....and her love of the Spanish language! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. This week we're doing a special replay of Pete Townsend's chat with Elaine Deehan from Season 1 of MoneyNeverSleeps. When we recorded this in 2018, Elaine was in the midst of bringing her labour of love Pocketwire to market as a startup founder, CEO and Head of Product. For a number of reasons driven by the phenomenon of "when one door closes, another one opens" and that we'll explore in an upcoming episode, Elaine is now the Ireland Country Manager for Starling Bank, a challenger bank whose entry into the Irish market that we are certainly eagerly awaiting.  With some recent feedback from listeners and a tide of positive change we're feeling in Irish fintech since Brexit happened, we wanted to go back to our roots this week, and what better way to do that than by replaying the compelling story of Elaine Deehan. In this episode, Elaine talks through: How working in a big innovation lab with people from a lot of backgrounds and disciplines opened her mind to the possibilities of the combination of technology and banking. How working with fintech startups in Ireland whet her appetite for fintech and led her to working on a blockchain project in the FX space. Why knowledge and experience of bringing offline processes online are universally applicable. Working closely with founders and getting access and exposure to every aspect of the business when you're with a startup, compared to corporate silos. How fintech propositions should be global, as we're living in a digital age and all of the problems we're attempting to solve are global problems. Having grit, determination and fire in the belly, and how self-belief can get you through the tough days. To listen to more, to listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Erin Grover joins Pete Townsend to talk about her journey into crypto and digital assets, opening up the niche space of crypto hedge funds to professional investors, being guided by her own human nature of wanting to help others...and the massive opportunity in replacing ballot boxes hauled by nomad-guided donkeys! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Erin Grover is the founder of Altai Digital Capital, which connects investors to hedge funds and traders specializing in cryptocurrency and digital assets. The company provides guidance, transparency and reassurance typically found in traditional investment firms, affording clients easy access to the investment potential of cryptocurrency. She is a strong advocate for the potential of blockchain technology to bring efficiency and transparency to the delivery of funds for international aid. Prior to her work in blockchain, she worked for the United Nations, USAID and other international NGOs as a content producer and media strategist. Her previous work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Mashable, The Times of India and many other international news sources. Her digital strategy has raised over $2 million in crowdfunding for various tech and business ventures, as well as millions in views for numerous online campaigns. All of Erin's social media links are accessible via her website:Â https://www.eringrover.com/. On this episode, Pete and Erin talk through: Her early career with the UN and spending time in the warzones of Afghanistan and in Cambodia. Bringing her guerrilla-style 'Crypto 101' roadshow across the USA to educate people on trading cryptocurrency. Inspiration from appreciative clients that don't have the resources to perform due diligence on crypto hedge funds. Being guided by her own human nature of wanting to help others and living up to a higher purpose. The opportunity for blockchain-based delivery of humanitarian aid. The importance of the acceleration and support from the AKASHA Innovation Hub in Dublin, Ireland. Working with Frank Gehry and Andy Shallal on an art installation paying homage to Iraqi war refugees. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Rudi Falat from the Voice of Fintech podcast joins Pete Townsend to riff on crossing over from the corporate world into the startup ecosystem, learning by doing, startup and corporate collaboration....and flipping the table with the final question on every MoneyNeverSleeps episode! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. The Voice of Fintech is a podcast mapping out the Swiss and European fintech ecosystem, with the aim of inspiring entrepreneurs to launch their new ventures and connecting them with incubators, accelerators, investors and incumbents. Rudi runs the podcast from Zurich, Switzerland and has expanded beyond the spoken word with focused events connecting people across the fintech ecosystem in his neck of the woods. On this episode, Rudi and Pete cover the below topics: -Rudi's inspiration and his affinity for people who understand and believe in the imperative of growth, fueling innovation and relentless new product development. -Teaching entrepreneurship versus learning by doing or from those who have done it before. -Raising capital outside of your home market when you're from a small country but have global ambition. -The rational or irrational approach of dealflow sourcing by VCs. -Corporates engaging in "open innovation" and what startups should look out for to reduce "innovation theater" to a minimum. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Ivailo Jordanov from 7Percent Ventures joins Pete Townsend to share his story of powering the search engine pioneers of the dotcom era, his incurable optimism, becoming an early-stage tech investor....and being yet another person on the show admitting to not being able to swim! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Ivailo Jordanov is a venture partner at 7Percent Ventures, a London-based VC investing in early stage tech companies that represent billion dollar opportunities. After an invitation from Graham Rodford from Archax who was on episode 37 of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend met Ivailo at an investor dinner in London in October 2019 following CordaCon, the two-day conference put on by the enterprise DLT software firm R3. Through telling his story, Ivailo gets into the following themes: How it's much harder to distribute a product than it is to build a product. Asking questions like "are the [startup's] product people good at understanding marketing," and "are the marketing people good at understanding product?" How all of the problems that startups need help with, someone else has had them before, and how a network of mentors and advisors can be incredibly helpful in solving these problems. How he sees a lot of startups that have a great product, but no one is using it - it's not because the product isn't useful, it's because they're not putting it in front of the right people in the right way. How you can get sucked into customer research and doing it forever, and how that's’s a sign of procrastination. Finding the right balance between how long you want to talk to customers and when you start building. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

This is Part II of a two-part series featuring Matthew LeMerle from Blockchain Coinvestors and Pete Townsend talking through Matthew's predictions for how blockchain will impact the world in 2020, focusing on pro traders embracing sophisticated exchanges, momentum with enterprise blockchains and emerging blockchain unicorns. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Matthew LeMerle is the Managing Partner of Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital, who combined are the most active early-stage venture investors backing almost 200 companies a year. Matthew is also the co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Coinvestors, who are investing in the leading blockchain venture partnerships. In December 2019, Matthew featured on a Blockchain Coinvestors webinar where he walked through his ten predictions on blockchain for 2020. The ongoing conflation of 'enterprise blockchain' and 'blockchain-inspired' developments for corporates and institutions, with the merits of the original bitcoin blockchain and the 'crypto-first' mentality, means that a lot of discussions on blockchain can get as excitable as a dog in a butcher shop. What we've found is that the substitution of the word "blockchain" with "blockchain-inspired" tends to unite competing views on the role of distributed ledger technologies in replacing the world's financial infrastructure. In this episode, we talk about both crypto-first topics as well as enterprise blockchain, as both are playing a role in the continued digitalization of financial markets and money. Given the length of the discussion between Matthew and Pete, we split this feature into two parts, with Part I covering Matthew's first six predictions, along with Pete's reflections on each one. This episode covers Matthew's final four predictions, which are #7-10 in the list below. We covered the first six predictions in Part I on episode 71 released on January 17, 2020, so check that out for the rest of the list. 1 - G7 / EU nations will announce digital monies 2 - Developing nations will embrace bitcoin 3 - Banks will offer crypto access and custody 4 - Hybrid wallets will become available everywhere 5 - Asset players first deploy blockchain in back offices 6 - No ETFs but indices and funds will gather assets fast 7 - Pro traders will embrace sophisticated exchanges 8 - Enterprises will utilize hybrid blockchains 9 - More than [another] 5 blockchain unicorns will emerge 10 - Highest returns will still come from early-stage (acknowledged by Matthew as more of a fact than a prediction!) To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Matthew LeMerle from Blockchain Coinvestors joins Pete Townsend for a two-part series on his predictions for how blockchain will impact the world in 2020, with Part I focusing on central bank-issued digital currencies, embracing bitcoin in developing nations, and institutional adoption of digital assets. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Matthew LeMerle is the Managing Partner of Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital, who combined are the most active early-stage venture investors backing almost 200 companies a year. Matthew is also the co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Coinvestors, who are investing in the leading blockchain venture partnerships. In December 2019, Matthew featured on a Blockchain Coinvestors webinar where he walked through his ten predictions on blockchain for 2020. The ongoing conflation of 'enterprise blockchain' and 'blockchain-inspired' developments for corporates and institutions, with the merits of the original bitcoin blockchain and the 'crypto-first' mentality, means that a lot of discussions on blockchain can get as excitable as a dog in a butcher shop. On this episode, we talk about both crypto-first topics as well as enterprise blockchain, as both are playing a role in the continued digitalization of financial markets and money. Given the length of the discussion between Matthew and Pete, we split this feature into two parts, with Part I covering Matthew's first six predictions, along with Pete's reflections on each one. 1 - G7 / EU nations will announce digital monies 2 - Developing nations will embrace bitcoin 3 - Banks will offer crypto access and custody 4 - Hybrid wallets will become available everywhere 5 - Asset players first deploy blockchain in back offices 6 - No ETFs but indices and funds will gather assets fast We cover the last four predictions in Part II on episode 72 released on January 24, 2020, so check that out for the rest of the list. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Dermot Walsh from Each & Other talks with Pete Townsend about delivering delightful user experiences, leading through people, putting yourself into the shoes of the customer...and his moonlighting gig as a community radio DJ! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Dermot Walsh is the CEO of Each & Other, a Dublin-based strategic design firm dedicated to helping organisations grow online revenue by designing and building compelling digital customer experiences. With a totally diverse client base, Each & Other specialize in delivering game-changing, high-value business outcomes in a digital world. In this episode, Dermot and Pete talk about: Dermot's career trajectory including his love of sales, embracing change and how an unexpected experience with painting furniture opened his eyes to the business world.  Dermot's inspiration for leading through change by channeling JFK: " Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." His experience with helping startups and seeing so many great ideas and feature-rich products, but whose designer forgot to ask the customer what they actually wanted. Having a much greater understanding of the "cash is king" mentality to managing your business after launching his own business and then becoming CEO of Each & Other. Becoming CEO of a business with an incredibly talented team, stellar clients and a great track record and figuring out a way to make a difference. Dermot's moonlighting gig as a DJ on the Sunday Brunch slot on Radio Larne. To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Lambert Despaux talks to Pete Townsend about empowering entrepreneurs building in the distributed ledger technology space, the startup ecosystem in Israel, societal impacts of DLT....and his love of electronic music! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Lambert is the founding partner at Schema Capital, who are investing at the pre-seed and seed stage in entrepreneurs building in the distributed ledger technology ('DLT') space.  If you would like an intro to Lambert, please click here. Schema Capital focus on finding early-stage projects active in digital securities infrastructure, blockchain interoperability, decentralized finance and cybersecurity applied to blockchain. In this episode, we dig into Lambert's inspiration for moving into venture capital, the impact of being part of the startup ecosystem in Israel during his coming-of-age in VC, the societal impacts of a new backbone for the financial markets, and a left-field parallel between electronic music and DLT.  See below for a few soundbites from Lambert and a final one from Pete Townsend: It sounds a bit naive, but I discovered the possibilities of a smart contract, securitization and this beautiful piece of technology in an industry ripe for disruption in financial services, but I would say that the technology is even more in its infancy than I thought." "Efficiencies and cost reductions are one side of it, but DLT can also enable new revenues on segments where you’re either losing market share or not present at all." "I think it's very interesting to be able to combine into a portfolio some companies that are addressing cost cutting and efficiencies, which is more defensive, and companies that are fostering entrance to new markets and additional revenue. which is more aggressive, all using the same technology in DLT." "We've been in the battlefield, we've been in the trenches and we see from the inside that there is a lot of opportunity for change in the financial services industry. Someone that has never worked in a bank or insurance company, I don’t think they can really see what we see. What makes us a little bit more unique is that I now live in Israel so I have access to this thriving startup environment and it is really fascinating." "Now is a really great time to be around if you want to try to change how financial services operate, while at the same time knowing that we’ll end up impacting sectors beyond financial services as well." From Pete Townsend, "DLT is your new techno, Lambert! You're talking about the same thing - you said that with electronic music back in the 70's and 80's you needed all these wires and all these different platforms to pull it together. Now you can just do it so simply, and you can look at the financial markets that will unfold with DLT in the same way." To listen to more from MoneyNeverSleeps, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for our full catalog of episodes.

"Pete Townsend goes solo" would have been a better headline in the '70's, but our Pete takes the mic in this episode to unpack the realities and economics of funding pre-seed and seed-stage startups through the lens of Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. 'Round about the same time that Pete Townsend was finishing a VC project in August 2019, there was something missing for him in the context of placing bets on pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Could you just "sprinkle the infield" and dole out half of a $10mn seed fund to the first 25-30 founders that fit your investment thesis? With the known odds of 1-2 venture capital home runs out of every 25-30 investments, something didn't fit with a venture capital strategy that expected anything less than a home run from every founder before investing in them. Conveniently, a blog post on pre-seed investing by Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures in Dublin helped Pete to crystallize his thoughts and refine his own framework for helping founders craft their pitch. But it's about way more than a slide deck and a hockey stick, as founders need to truly believe in themselves and convince a whole bunch of people that they have the right vision, conveyance and hands-in-the-dirt determination to build a substantial and sustainable business. You need an audience first though, and you need a compelling story to draw that audience closer. Beyond the framework that Pete covers in this episode and Finn's blog post, here's what he shares with founders to get them started on crafting their pitch and getting VC meetings: Episode 31 of The Full Ratchet show notes on Deconstructing the Elevator Pitch - published in 2015, but it's timeless, as it helps to craft a concise and impactful elevator pitch and a slidedeck that focuses on what matters. If you can build this pitch perfectly, not just in Powerpoint but as the 'story' of your business that you can live and breathe, you've got your first VC meeting. Examples of 18 startup pitch decks from names you should recognize, courtesy of Erika Desmond at Cirrus Insights. The early-stage decks are the most relevant, but the later-stage decks give you a good idea of the picture you need to paint in the VC's head of what your business can achieve. 16 Non-Obvious Fundraising Lessons on Pitching, courtesy of James Currier at NFX - read the blog post but also take the 20 minutes to watch the videos, as the vignettes really drive things home. Top 100 early-stage venture capital investors in Europe - it's not a perfect list, but it's a start. Do your homework first on the pre-seed vs. seed vs. Series A investments the VC has done to make sure you're a potential match for the VC's risk appetite and thesis.  To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

In this special segment, we feature four founders sharing how they dealt with one thing they didn't expect to face as a founder - Martin Brown from Unitek, Lizzy Hayashida from Change Donations, Andrew Mullaney from Premind and Paul Smyth from Top Tier Recruitment. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. As a startup founder, there are tons of challenges thrown at you every day of the week, and no one can anticipate before taking the leap the level of adversity that you're going to face as an entrepreneur. Depending on how many other founders you talked to before launching your venture, you may have heard some of the war stories, or perhaps not. We asked four founders to share with us an unexpected challenge they faced and how they dealt with it: Martin Brown, founder and CEO of Unitek (also featured on episode 55) Lizzy Hayashida, co-founder and CEO of Change Donations (also featured on episode 56) Andrew Mullaney, co-founder and CTO of Premind (also featured on episode 57) Paul Smyth, co-founder of Top Tier Recruitment and Possible.ie (also featured on episode 61) To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Sorcha Mulligan is an expert in driving business development strategies from a blank canvas, raising the profiles of the brands she works with in new markets by building reciprocal relationships through her global network. Sorcha has broad and deep experience in working with small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in a financial and broader business capacity, and has an excellent understanding of their everyday challenges.Through her awakening to the potential for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to enable significant changes to how SMEs do business, especially in the context of supply chains, she came across a problem. While many big corporates have people working on digitalizing elements of their business (or their entire business!) and how they engage with customers and suppliers, SMEs with more modest technology budgets are at risk of falling behind. So, Sorcha is taking on the challenge of moving SMEs up the curve and helping them to get involved with the multiple consortia engaged in digitalizing supply chains. If you would like an intro to Sorcha, please click here.To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information. Â

We once again get inside the minds of entrepreneurs by diving deep into a recent piece of content that struck a chord, and Chris Skinner's recent blog post on Starling's Anne Boden and her recent talk on the myths of fintech. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, Pete Townsend and Paul Smyth (filling in for Eoin Fitzgerald) unpack the November 6th post from Chris Skinner's daily blog where he steps through a talk from Anne Boden, the CEO and Founder of Starling Bank on November 5th, 2019 at the New Statesman's Fintech Summit in London. During her talk, in addition to talking about the path to profitability for Starling Bank, Anne Boden presented her view on the 'seven myths of fintech'. Anne's seven myths are a blend of social, demographic, competitive and technology themes, and Chris Skinner took a different view on most of them in his blog post the following day.  In a world where society's collective grasp on myths and truisms tighten and loosen daily, the different perspectives always make for a better conversation, and we addressed the following questions during this episode: -Why is fintech heavily populated by young white men? -Are most banks truly run by old white guys? -Are people changing their bank accounts for better tech, services and experiences? -What kind of banking services are the challenger banks / neobanks providing? -What kind of banking experience do small businesses need? -Can big banks catch up with the tech prowess of challenger banks? -Are challenger banks going to achieve profitability? To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Eddie Dillon from CreditLogic joins us on the show to talk digital transformation, making the move from corporate to entrepreneur...and his love of skiing! This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Eddie Dillon is the founder and CEO of CreditLogic who are powering simplified and scalable mortgage origination. CreditLogic is a mortgage origination platform for both customer-facing advisors and lenders which reinvents application processing. The platform streamlines application data capture, validation, review and integration for compliant scalable origination. If you would like an intro to Eddie, please click here. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts | Podchaser Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Google| Overcast Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack Follow us on Twitter Podcast| Twitter Pete | Twitter Eoin Get in touch at info@moneyneversleeps.ie

Recorded live in Dublin at the BFC EU 2019 conference on DLT and emerging tech, Zeeshan Feroz from Coinbase and Pete Townsend took the stage for a fireside chat on Coinbase's institutional presence, custody as a building block of the crypto economy and crypto regulation. This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. Our MoneyNeverSleeps co-host Pete Townsend from Norio Ventures and Zeeshan Feroz, CEO of Coinbase in Europe, sat down on October 9th, 2019 at BFC EU 2019 for a half-hour chat on: How Coinbase are connecting institutions with the crypto economy. Trends in institutional crypto and custody as a building block of the crypto economy. Financial institutions' ongoing acknowledgement that the backbone of the financial system is changing. The infrastructure to support the widespread institutional adoption of digital assets. Engaging with regulators, welcoming crypto regulation and operating as a qualified custodian of digital assets. We'd like to extend our thanks to Hannah Kitchen and Dean Murphy at Fintech Network for sharing the audio track of Zeeshan and Pete's chat so that we could create this episode!

Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.Ciaran Walshe joined Fund Recs in early 2016 after 8 years in the investment funds industry, taking his leap into fintech with a business that many refer to as a startup. But after 6 years of operations, Fund Recs are now scaling into an international player in the investment funds industry with clients such as Deloitte, MUFG Investor Services, Link Asset Services and Apex Group. If you would like an intro to Ciaran Walshe, please get in touch here.Along with our MoneyNeverSleeps co-host Pete Townsend from Norio Ventures, FundRecs organize and deliver the Dublin-based annual Adminovate conference for the investment funds industry. Tickets for the 2020 edition are on sale now here!Fund Recs was founded in 2013 when the company founders were approached by a large bank to develop a new reconciliation platform for it's Fund Administration unit. With over 25 years operational and technology experience between them the team are building a platform to transform how data is managed, processed and leveraged by the Funds Industry.Taking the latest technology and approaches from the best loved consumer software applications, the Fund Recs team are combining consumer user experience and interfaces with enterprise accuracy, security and availability. The team at Fund Recs believes that the software we use in day-to-day business activities should be as well designed and easy to use as the consumer applications we enjoy every day in our personal life.By combining ease of use with powerful processing, flexible data import and key Industry knowledge we have set out on our mission towards developing the most efficient, powerful and cost effective reconciliation software available.

We get back into the interview format this week as Paul Smyth returns to the show to talk about his new coaching venture (Possible.ie), getting to the lightbulb moments, the importance of trust and fairness in business relationships....and channeling Wendy Rhodes from Billions! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In 2016, Paul co-founded Top Tier Recruitment, and over the last three years, he and his co-founder Laura Smyth successfully built the business through excellent client relationships in Ireland. In 2019, he undertook a coaching skills course spread out over five months and 135 training hours. Paul's idea was to add coaching to Top Tier's overall service offering, and having experienced the transformative power of coaching first-hand and completing the course, he launched Possible Coaching this year. If you would like an intro to Paul Smyth, please click here.

We continue this week with our second edition of Money Talks - Rachel Kenny from HubSpot covers the basics of startup marketing and Bernadette Wijnings from Blanco tells her story about digital asset management and raising capital from VCs. Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here. In this episode, we continue with Part II of 'How to Survive and Thrive with Your Investors', and you can check out Part 1 in Episode 58. Featured in Part II are: - Rachel Kenny from HubSpot - if you would like an intro to Rachel, please click here. - Bernadette Wijnings from Blanco - if you would like an intro to Bernadette, please click here. You'll also hear Ian Dalton from Flagship Marketing moderating the discussion, with Jo van de Velde from Euroclear, Koen Vanderhoydonk from Blanco and Pete Townsend from MoneyNeverSleeps and Norio Ventures all piping in. The genesis of this episode is a Flagship Marketing webinar, and they kindly shared the audio track with us. Flagship Marketing supports fresh-thinking fintech companies with inbound marketing services which generate qualified leads and delighted customers for socially motivated, innovative, financial scale-ups. Flagship have tons of incredibly useful marketing guides and workbooks on their website, so log in and learn.

In a new format we're trying with MoneyNeverSleeps, we try to get inside the minds of three entrepreneurs by riffing on recent tech news and venture stories. This episode includes a look at central bank ambitions of the sovereigns pushing back on Mark Zuckerberg's crypto project, Adam Neumann's WeWork legacy, and Uber's London problem. Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment In this episode, Pete Townsend and Paul Smyth (artfully filling in for Eoin Fitzgerald) riff on three developments this week in the world of tech and venture capital to try to get inside of the minds of the entrepreneurs behind the stories. Here they are: How Facebook's Libra fueled push for central bank-run digital currencies - Financial Times - Monday, 23rd September, 2019 (paywall) -France, UK, Sweden, Japan, China all weigh in with their views -KEY POINT: To consumers it would feel very much like the electronic payment and transfer solutions that are already available today through their banking apps or a service such as PayPal. -Why is this important, where could it all go and what's going through Mark Zuckerberg's mind? -Pete Townsend's recent blog post, "My Thoughts on Libra" WeWork's Adam Neumann to step down as chief executive - Financial Times - Wednesday, 25th September, 2019 (paywall) -Neumann will no longer hold majority voting rights and becomes non-executive chairman -Finance chief Artie Minson and WeWork vice-chair Sebastian Gunningham will take over as co-chief executives -Comparison to Travis Kalanick, whose former advisor Bradley Tusk was on episode 27 of Money Never Sleeps. -Threat of lob losses (up to 6K of 15K workforce) reported. -What's still good about WeWork though amidst all of the negativity? Where could this go? What's next for Adam Neumann? Uber gains London licence for just 2 months - BBC News - Tuesday, 24th September, 2019 -Reported: Concerns over safety, identification and insurance. -From the FT - spokesperson for the Mayor's office: "[London Mayor] Sadiq [Khan] has been crystal clear that in London it doesn't matter how powerful and how big you are, you must play by the rules." -What's one market where Uber just didn't work at all (Ireland)? Why is this important? What's going through Dara Khosrowshahi's mind?

In an excerpt from Flagship Marketing's webinar "How to Survive and Thrive with Your Investor", Jo van de Velde from Euroclear and our own Pete Townsend talk about how important it is to communicate with your investor to maximize the value they can add. Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment In this episode, our friends Ian Dalton and Jamie Dalton at Flagship Marketing kindly shared the audio track from a recent webinar entitled "How to survive and thrive with your investor". Flagship Marketing supports fresh-thinking fintech companies with inbound marketing services which generate qualified leads and delighted customers for socially motivated, innovative, financial scale ups. Flagship have tons of incredibly useful marketing guides and workbooks on their website, so log in and learn. As the webinar was over an hour long, we split it into two parts, and this is Part One. Featured in Part One is Jo van de Velde, Global Head of Strategy, Product and Innovation at Euroclear, who has partnered with several startups and has great experience on how institutions and nimble startups can best work together. Also featured in Part One is Pete Townsend, and he talks about talking - literally, as in how important it is for startup founders to talk to their investors to get at the true value-add of their relationship. As startups and their investors can be moving a hundred miles a minute in different directions on most days, it's critical to slow things down in the context of the board, make sure you've got your governance right, and communicate effectively with the people whose job it is to help unlock value for your business. Pete points to two great reads that helped him form some thoughts around this in addition to his experience as an independent director and advisor on startup boards. Angel by Jason Calacanis The Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Scott Kupor

Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment. Andrew Mullaney is the CTO and co-founder of Premind.ai, a stealth mode start-up focused on 'predicting the mind of the markets'. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMull.

Lizzy Hayashida from Change Donations joins us on the show to talk how small change can lead to big impact...and her new-found love of Tipp hurling!! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Lizzy Hayashida is CEO of Change Donations. You can follow Lizzy on Twitter @LizzyH and keep track of what she's up to with @ChangeDonations. At Change Donations, we believe that making an impact is not about how much you can give, it's about giving what you can to those in need. At Change Donations we make giving easy. Our mission is to help people change the world through everyday spending. We are a community of everyday philanthropists donating one cent at a time to incredible causes that are inspiring positive change across the globe. The foundational pillars here at Change Donations are Transparency, Passion, Integrity, and Community.

Martin Brown from Unitek AI joins the show to talk about moving from analogue to digital, eliminating paperwork...and his love of Man United!! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Martin Brown is the founder & CEO of Unitek AI. You can follow Martin on Twitter @MartinBrown_AI and keep track of what he's up to with @AIUnitek. Unitek is a leading provider of cutting-edge technologies and services, offering scalable solutions for businesses of all sizes. Led by a diverse group of Executives from Zurich, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle who have a track record of disrupting and changing industries, today we offer a smart, innovative Artificial Intelligence platform that utilises Deep Learning, NLP, Machine Learning to deliver solutions in Handwriting Recognition, Facial Recognition, Fraud Detection and Virtual Agents across a number of industries such as Banking, Insurance and Finance.

The MoneyNeverSleeps crew picked out six founders from past episodes talking about the hard decisions they've made along the way, including taking the leap, operating without a playbook, building teams, penetrating new markets, and finding your way home from the middle of Cambodia! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment In this special Startup Insights segment, we've compiled the thoughts shared in previous episodes by six startup founders on the hard decisions they've made along the way. Some of our founders are early days, and some are a bit further down the road, and you can tell that their differing perspectives and states of mind are somewhat related to how far along they are in their journey. In order of appearance, here are the featured founders: -Stefan Uygur, co-founder & CEO of 4Securitas (ep 33) -Andrew Patrick White, founder & CEO of FundApps (ep 35) -Jennifer Hourihane, founder & CEO of Oathello (ep 36) -Graham Rodford, co-founder & CEO of Archax (ep37) -Andrea Reynolds, founder & CEO of Swoop (ep 41) -Sean Faughnan, co-founder & CEO of 'Project Salmon' (ep 42) We hope you all enjoy the compact format, shortened down to less than 20 minutes!

Claus Christensen, CEO of Know Your Customer, joins us to talk about racing cars, airplane engines, regulatory technology...and his love of marathons! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment You can follow Claus on Twitter @RoamingFounder and keep track of what he's up to with @KYC_Ltd Know Your Customer provides end-to-end digital solutions that quickly and accurately identify and verify companies and individuals prior to client on-boarding. Its easy-to-use platform offers quick ultimate Beneficial Owner identification, document collection, Digital ID verification and automated anti-money laundering checks in multiple languages and across multiple jurisdictions, automating 90% of compliance teams' routine tasks. Know Your Customer's suite of products helps organisations with compliance, risk and client on-boarding, ensuring companies can accurately and confidently conduct their KYC and AML functions.

Ollie Walsh, CEO and co-founder of PiPiT, joins us to talk about enabling migrants to support their families back home cheaper and safer, prioritizing your pipeline, social impact....and his love of Tai Chi! Ollie Walsh has 20 years' experience of developing strategies for startups and SMEs to target new markets and to grow. He specilaizes in building teams and implementing plans and making them work, and he puts this experience to work every day as CEO of PiPiT. PiPiT is a B2B platform powering international cash transactions so that their network partners and their customers can accept cross-border bill payments in cash, load cash to e-wallets, accept cash for eCommerce orders and lodge cash to bank accounts across borders. Ollie founded PiPiT with Julian Callaghan and Rory Ryan in late 2013 in Galway, Ireland, and he has first-hand knowledge of the problem they're solving after moving country shortly thereafter to take part in an accelerator program in Sheffield, England. The process of moving country, even with a small move from Ireland to England, made them realize how difficult migrating is. Between 2014 and 2017, Ollie & Co. built the business in their spare time, and finally gave up the day jobs in 2017. Having closed a post-seed round of €1.25mn from West Loop Ventures (Chicago) and Enterprise Ireland in 2018, PiPiT are now in scale-up mode with offices in Ireland and the UK with partner companies in Nigeria, Dubai and Mumbai. You can get in touch with Ollie at ollie.walsh@pipit.global, learn all about PiPiT at https://www.pipit.global/ and follow PiPiT on Twitter @pipitglobal.

Bo Brustkern is co-founder and CEO of LendIt Fintech, the world’s largest event series that provides context to the rapidly-changing universe of technology’s impact on financial services.  You can follow Bo on Twitter @brustkern. For over 20 years, Bo has set himself apart as a leader in understanding, funding, and leading cutting-edge developments in fintech and financial services.  Here's his bio and a recent interview with him on Underdog, and the full Lendit Fintech story on the Lendit website.   Towards the end of this podcast, Bo talks about a part of his lineage going back to a part of Cork, Ireland in 1833 and his ancestor Timothy Canty - if you've got any information that could be helpful, get in touch on info@moneyneversleeps.ie. Also, Bo gave a shout out to Marius Jurgilas from the Bank of Lithuania as an interesting and innovative individual to have on the show, so get in touch if you're connected with Marius!

Pascal Bouvier, Managing Partner of MiddleGame Ventures sat down with Eoin Fitzgerald this week in front of a full house at a Nadifin Accelerator event. We set up our mobile sound desk at the event in the brand new offices of the Banking & Payments Federation in Ireland on Molesworth Street in Dublin, which is also the home of the Fintech & Payments Association of Ireland, and recorded Pascal and Eoin's chat for our landmark 50th episode of MoneyNeverSleeps. Prior to co-founding MiddleGame Ventures with Patrick Pinschmidt and Michael Meyer in Washington DC to invest in fintech startups (post seed, Series A, Series B in Europe and the US), Pascal also co-founded the RegTech Lab, was a Venture Partner with Santander InnoVentures and a co-founder of Route 66 Ventures. Pascal's full bio can be found on his personal blog, FiniCulture, and you can follow him on Twitter @pascalbouvier. See below for an excerpt from the MiddleGame Ventures website on their modus operandi: Our Story Middlegame Ventures is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on early-stage fintech startups. Over the past decade, our partners have invested approximately $300M in financial services firms. The next decade will be even better. Because the second wave of fintech innovation will be a tsunami compared to the first wave. Financial services innovation is our obsession and 100% of our focus. We bring to bear an essential - and differentiated - mix of investment, operations, and regulatory expertise to our investment process and on behalf of our portfolio companies. ​We create win-wins across our network - spanning entrepreneurs, incumbents, and regulators. Our Investment Focus We invest in late seed to Series B fintech companies based in North America or Europe that are developing and using advanced technologies to digitally transform and re-imagine the financial services landscape. Our investments range across five key sectors: banking, asset management, insurance, payments, and capital markets. Our Investment Themes We believe that four key key secular trends are reshaping financial services: These trends, coupled with enabling technologies - AI/ML, AR/VR, big data, blockchain, and quantum computing - drive our five investment themes: -Data is King (powered by the explosion of data sources and advanced analytical tools) -End of Systemic Asymmetric Knowledge (between buyers and sellers across markets) -Intelligent Automation (powered by advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics) -Hyper-connected Worlds (powered by networks, nodes and platforms everywhere) -Starting Over: digital upgrade cycle (core banking, insurance risk management, intelligent payments, user engagement) -Embryonic Asset Classes: finding the new data giants (identity, data, crypto, trust) -Innovating Oversight: regtech (regulatory and compliance) with digital tools -Platforms are the New Silos: financial categories will morph into platforms (open, transparent, interoperable) -Better is Best: doing well while doing good (financial wellness, literacy, inclusion, optimization, risk management, SME finance) Our belief is that technology will completely reinvent financial services as we know it. Our hope is that you can join us on the way.

Dan Ramamoorthy, otherwise known as 'DanRam', joins us on the show to talk about traveling the world as a speaker, entrepreneur, artist and coach...and his love of chocolate! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment **We're sorry about the static on Dan's track, it's not up to our usual standard, as we had some problems with our remote recording app. It was such a great conversation, we wanted to share it anyway, so please excuse the crackles!** For more info on Dan, check out his website, IAmDanRam or follow him on Twitter @IAmDanRam, and see below for an excerpt from his homepage including some of the events that he's hosted and MC'd: I host and MC some of the biggest startup and tech conferences around the world including SXSW, Web Summit, DLD, Bits and Pretzels, Blockchain CryptoValley, Impact and MUST. I've shared the stage with some of the leading global figures such as Sir Richard Branson, Gary Vaynerchuck, Jake Paul and Casey Neistat. My years as a radio presenter and recording artist help me balance authenticity with performance. My main heart is to connect the audience with speakers and I do that with great energy, positivity and creativity. Get in touch if you need an MC at team@iamdanram.com! I have the joy of speaking at conferences, parliaments, schools & universities, churches and youth groups locally and internationally. I also lecture on entrepreneurship and facilitate workshops. Speaking topics include: -How To Build A Tribe -Resident Alien -Start Now, Start Simple -How to Pitch -The Art of Personal Branding -The Ultimate Guide to Speaking

Paul Nunan from Link Asset Services joins us on the show to talk about entrepreneurial tendencies...and his love of juggling! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Link Asset Services is part of Link Group's Asset Services division and works in partnership internationally with almost 7,000 clients including asset managers and investors, business managers, asset owners, trustees, issuers and borrowers. We provide the infrastructure through which assets are secured or deployed in both regulated and unregulated markets. The 3,000+ members of our team deliver over 70 closely aligned services, helping capital flow through the financial markets by processing £45bn of payments annually; and protecting and safeguarding more than £600bn held in funds, entities and other instruments. We build longstanding relationships and our clients rely on us to provide robust and agile technology, combined with relevant, accurate and timely industry knowledge and expertise. We have partnered with some clients for generations; and the average tenure of our relationship management team often exceeds ten years. We are excited by the challenge and opportunity of helping our clients flourish as market dynamics play out; shifting regulatory frameworks, the search for investment alpha, the digitisation of the customer interface, the infrastructure funding shortfall, the pensions 'time-bomb' ¦and of course the socio-economic implications of Brexit and the broader geopolitical landscape. Our unique proposition enables us to connect the different aspects of the capital and financial markets and how they interact, helping enable businesses, individuals and institutions to fulfil their roles and objectives. Furthermore, our consultative client centric approach means we deliver tailored solutions. We help our clients to: Create sustainable returns by increasing end-to-end efficiency leading to less value leakage, faster speed to market and ultimately enhanced IRR Effectively manage financial resources by reducing administrative burdens, giving them more time to focus on value adding activity Mitigate market, regulatory, competitive and operational risks by applying compliance, legal, governance, audit and processing best practices, and safeguarding assets Improve decision-making and navigate the markets by providing access to our expertise and resources, helping them to achieve their business goals and investment strategies.

Matthew Le Merle joins us on the show to talk about angel investing, venture investing and why he's written a few books! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Matthew Le Merle is a superangel investor, board director, author, and advisor to leading companies including Alphabet, Google, PayPal, Shanshan and Talkweb. He is managing partner at Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has penned several books with his co-author and wife Allison Davis.  Check them out here on Amazon.com.    Matthew Le Merle is co-founder and Managing Partner of Fifth Era (www.fifthera.com) and of Keiretsu Capital - the most active early stage venture investors backing almost 200 companies a year. He is also Chairman of Linqto, Securitize (Europe) and CAH and an advisor at Warburg Pincus.     Matthew is an expert on corporate growth, innovation and business transformations having advised leading companies including Amazon, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, PayPal and many others on growth and innovation-related issues. Matthew is also an expert in economic value creation including revenue, cost and capital productivity programs – for example he drove annual savings of over $2 billion at a leading retailer and $1 billion at a leading bank. Matthew’s career has spanned being a global strategy advisor, professional services firm leader, corporate operating executive, private equity and venture capital investor, and board director. His board work has included Chairman or Non-Executive Director roles in 15 companies and active Advisory Board roles in a further 10. Matthew’s board experience includes a broad range of industries including Business Services, Consumer and Retail, Digital Content, eCommerce, and Fintech. Matthew has advised sovereign and regional economic entities on issues of innovation, entrepreneurialism and cluster growth. Clients have covered the globe from China, the EU, and the UK to the US including in his home state of California and the Bay Area/Silicon Valley. Earlier in his career, Matthew spent 21 years as a strategy, operations and corporate finance advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, and as a practice leader with A.T. Kearney and Monitor Group where he led both firms’ West Coast practices and at Booz & Company. He was also a corporate executive at Gap Inc. where he was SVP strategy and corporate development and SVP global marketing. Matthew is an adjunct professor at Singularity University, bestselling author (Blockchain Competitive Advantage, Corporate Innovation in the Fifth Era, Build your Fortune in the Fifth Era and Second Chance) and keynote speaker. He received a B.A. (Double First) and Master’s from Christ Church, Oxford, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was born in London, UK, and is now a dual US/UK citizen and lives in San Francisco and London, UK with his wife, Alison Davis. They have five adult children. For more information go to www.matthewlemerle.com

Dean Klatt, founder and CEO of Irish startup Seed Golf joins us on the show to discuss building the next great golf brand from Ireland. Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Dean Klatt is the Founder and CEO of Seed Golf. Seed Golf Balls - Precision engineered tour-grade golf balls are usually expensive. Seed delivers tour-grade performance at a fraction of the normal cost. Cheap, not nasty. Look, we’re all going to lose a few balls out there, but it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice performance or use a secondhand ball to save money. The Seed SD-01 costs 50% less than the comparable market leader without compromising performance so you can play your game. How is that possible? We ship direct from the factory to you cutting out 2-3 layers of cost, we don’t pay million-dollar tour pro endorsement contracts and we haven’t spent our R & D money on a large range of golf balls models – just the best performing in each key category. Our balls are really, really tricky. Premium, professional-quality golf balls are really difficult to make. Our products are developed by a small team of young designers and experienced engineers. We are obsessed with performance and will make every effort to provide the best possible value for our customers, within an advanced design concept. Rather than offering ten different golf ball models, we focus on the best model for each performance category. This leads to significant cost savings in the development as well as in the production process. Our design process focused heavily around aerodynamic performance (fluid dynamics more specifically) particularly Magnus and aerodynamic force and the subsequent effects on lift and drag. For a golfer, this is translated into three important performance criteria – launch angle/ball speed, distance and spin/feel. To achieve our performance aims we worked within four key design elements – Core, Mantle, Cover and Dimple Pattern.

The second part of our interview with Mihai Alisie of AKASHA Foundation as he talks about future plans and his skill at poker! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Mihai Alisie is the founder of the AKASHA Foundation, a non-profit born at the intersection of blockchain and collective intelligence. We believe that humans are not problems waiting to be solved, but potential waiting to unfold. This is why we nurture projects helping individuals amplify their potential through open systems that expand our collective minds at local, regional and global scales. If this fires your synapses, we unpack it below and describe the behaviors we’ve adopted for the journey.

Mihai Alisie, Founder of the AKASHA Foundation, joins Pete Townsend on stage at Dublin Tech Summit to talk about collected vs collective intelligence, blockchain and humanity.  Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Mihai Alisie is the founder of the AKASHA Foundation, a non-profit born at the intersection of blockchain and collective intelligence. We believe that humans are not problems waiting to be solved, but potential waiting to unfold. This is why we nurture projects helping individuals amplify their potential through open systems that expand our collective minds at local, regional and global scales. If this fires your synapses, we unpack it below and describe the behaviors we’ve adopted for the journey.

Dan Calvert, Head of Partnerships at N26, joins us on stage at Dublin Tech Summit to talk about building a bank that everyone loves! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Dan Calvert is Head of Partnerships at N26 The N26 history 2013 - N26 was founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal—reimagining the retail banking experience for today’s mobile lifestyle. 2015 - Since the initial product launch in 2015, over 2.5 Million customers across 24 European markets have signed up for N26—with plans to enter the US in 2019. 2018 - The firm has raised a total of USD 215 million from some of the world’s most well-known investors, including Allianz X, Tencent Holdings Limited, Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, Valar Ventures, members of the Zalando Management Team, and Earlybird Venture Capital. N26 employs more than 1000 people and has offices in Berlin, New York and Barcelona. 2019 - N26 announces its $300 million Series D funding led by Insight Venture Partners. The round also includes participation from GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, and existing investors.

Sean Faughnan joins us on the show to discuss his stealth mode start-up, history, Hollywood, politics...and owning a castle! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Sean Faughnan is CEO for 'Project Salmon', a start-up aiming to become the WeChat of Europe. Sean brings us on a journey through his career, from a PhD in History in Cambridge through investment banking, writing and directing his own movie, and his role as a senior political strategist for the Irish Government.

Andrea Reynolds from Swoop joins us on the show to talk about her journey as an entrepreneur, pitching in Downing Street...and her love of Formula 1! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Andrea Reynolds is founder and CEO of Swoop About Swoop We've set up Swoop to help businesses successfully answer the question, "Where do I get access to funding?" With Swoop, we want to help businesses demystify this problem by showing them the broad funding landscape that currently exists across the UK and Ireland. Through a combination of our funding experience, our matching technology and our 1,000+ providers, we can assess your needs quickly and match you to the right funding solution. Apply for Financing in One Fell Swoop We are acutely aware that it takes time to find and apply for all these funding options, so that's where we'll come in to save you the time and hassle. Swoop's platform only requires you to fill in one super form in a few minutes and we'll be able to assess and match you to providers instantly. Not only that but as your information changes and the market changes, we'll be able to update you in real time with funding solutions that start to appear that best suit your business needs. Being apart of your funding journey At Swoop, don't look at us as just a platform. Our team of funding experts have been in your shoes and have been apart of thousands of funding journeys over the years. Pop over to our Team page and drop us a line if you need any help and assistance getting your applications together or advice on what the right path for your business should be.

Meredith Moss from Finomial joins us on the show to talk all things RegTech, to share her journey as an entrepreneur...and her love of composting! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Meredith Moss is founder & CEO of Finomial Finomial is the leading global Client Lifecycle Compliance platform. Finomial automates investor servicing from end to end, Finomial is transforming the buy side investment process by automating the manual hedge fund subscription process between investor, fund manager and administrator.  Finomial solves the challenges of data, documents, and forms that impede effective client onboarding, while ensuring rigorous compliance with regulations and delivering transparency. Finomial’s Client Lifecycle Compliance Platform provides automation and end-to-end workflows that streamlines processes to enable collaboration with managers and investors, helping to deliver a compliant and optimized investor experience that accelerates revenue, all within an integrated, scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

Simon Cocking from Irish Tech News joins us to talk all things technology...and his love of Ultimate! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Simon Cocking is Chief Editor for Irish Tech News. Irish Tech News is an award-winning online publication aimed at keeping you informed of all the latest news from the world of Technology. With the main focus on Irish-based news, we cover a wide range of topics from social media and smartphones to start-ups and SMEs. Now ten strong, we have assembled a talented team of writers, each experts in their own fields, helping us to cover as diverse a range as possible without losing focus or quality. At the beginning of 2014, we launched a new Business Showcase section on our site which features all sizes of companies, helping them gain exposure while introducing them to new customers and markets. Feedback has been excellent and there have been some great success stories from the 500+ companies since they’ve been featured. In October ’14, Irish Tech News won “Best Science and Technology” website at the 2014 Web Awards and we also won Silver in the “Digital and Tech” category at the 2015 Blog Awards and Gold at the 2016 Awards! Irish Tech News is also the Number 1 ranked Technology News site in Ireland according to the latest Alexa rankings.

A bumper episode this week with Pete Townsend joined by Paul Smyth, Laura Smyth, Lisa White and Vessy Tasheva to discuss all things diversity in the workplace and life. Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment This weeks episode is a bumper one, clocking in at almost an hour long. The extra time is much needed to tackle Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. We are joined on the show by: Vessy Tasheva (@vessytash), Founder of Vessy.com, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant, Author of "2019 Diversity in the Workplace Report" - an international and independent report covering 10 companies from 10 countries. Paul & Laura Smyth, co-founders of Top Tier Recruitment, who recently commissioned a report on Diversity & Inclusion for employers in the Irish financial services and FinTech industry (link to the online version (here)) Lisa White (@lisammwhite)- the founder of Spireworks. At once a Technologist, Transformation Manager, Consultant, Innovator, Program Manager, Evangelist, Entrepreneur, Team Leader and Follower, Security Specialist, Privacy Guru, Corporate Stooge, Cultural Sponge, Talker. Lisa's background in computer science and information security allow her to make technology work in complex, competitive and rapidly-changing organisational environments. But she has spent her career tackling the people and culture-centric issues that challenge most digital change. Enjoy the show!

Graham Rodford from Archax joins us to talk about building bridges between blockchain and the traditional investment world...and his love of MMA! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's Fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Graham Rodford is CEO of Archax. Archax is the first-ever digital securities exchange regulated by the FCA in London. Targeted at institutions, Archax also has its FCA brokerage, custody and cryptoasset permissions. Founded by experts from traditional capital markets and backed by an accomplished advisory board, Archax offers a credible bridge between the blockchain world and the existing investment space. The Archax team is used to working in highly regulated markets and has a deep understanding of the blockchain landscape and tokenisation too – as well as a vision of how to evolve them and open up digital assets to institutions in a transparent manner. Archax’s solutions are built using existing, proven, resilient, scalable, high-performance infrastructure, hosted in top-tier datacentre space, and integrated into the existing institutional trading workflow. As well as listing global digital issuances, Archax is also developing its own range of liquid digital structured products that will trade on its exchange.

Jennifer Hourihane from Oathello joins us to talk about bringing technology to the execution of legal documents....and her love of farming! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s Fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Jennifer Hourihane is founder and CEO at Oathello. Oathello accelerates the signing, execution and completion of documents online for the financial system, operating a database that combines leading technology with industry intelligence to provide solutions for every instance where signing, execution and completion of documents is legally required  for the movement of assets, debt, capital and transactional efficiency within the financial system       Oathello is a Barclays Techstars Alumni Company (2018 cohort) and has been cited as one of the market's most promising FinTech and RegTech products to emerge from Ireland and the UK with Global potential. Our established partnerships with major financial institutions and other technology firms has ensured Oathello is leading the way in modernising the notary and document certification market.

Andrew Patrick White from FundApps joins us to talk about his travels as an entrepreneur over the past 9 years....and traveling to over 113 countries! Kindly sponsored by Ireland’s Fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Andrew Patrick White, CEO of FundApps joins us on the show this week. In our previous companies, we saw the pain that installed compliance software caused. We disliked telling prospects that they’d need to buy database licenses and hire IT staff to run & monitor our system. We felt guilty charging clients to upgrade their software to the latest version (especially if they got no added value from the upgrade) and it was embarrassing to have clients wait years for the features they had requested. FundApps is unique as it provides both technology and content. We make white-hot technology written by some of the best developers around, but we also partner with the most respected content providers in the industry and our experts deliver the rules & updates which happen so frequently in financial regulation nowadays.

Pete Townsend gets into the hotseat to talk about working with startups, how being helpful is in his DNA....and his love of baseball and statistics! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's Fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment Fintech founders and leaders of financial services firms partner with Norio Ventures to develop a customer base in new markets, get their products to market, and secure funding for their vision. Our clients further benefit from our ability to build synergies between startups and established players through a global network across Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific. Our clients are representative of our deep expertise in financial services, including specialties in fintech, digital assets, blockchain/DLT, venture capital and the investment funds industry. Our clients benefit from our expertise through an advisory relationship with us or by appointing our founder, Pete Townsend, as an independent board director. In short, we find economic reasons to be helpful.

Stefan Uygur joins us from 4Securitas to talk about a lifetime of cybersecurity, gardening analogies...and flying military helicopters! Kindly sponsored by Ireland's Fintech and financial services recruitment specialists: Top Tier Recruitment 4Securitas are on a mission to simplify security. Their product - ACSIA (Automated Cybersecurity Intelligent Application) enables organizations to protect themselves against hacking, malware, fraud and cybercrime - intrusions, data leaks. Their world-class and global technical team will help you to secure your digital assets. With decades of experience in cyber security, network administration, hacking, penetration testing, Linux and open source their team includes PhDs and former employees of Fortune 500 companies.

Rich Corbett, founder of THESTARTUP.com joins us on the show today to discuss supporting start-ups, lessons learned...and his new-found love of hurling!! THESTARTUP.com partners with entrepreneurs to start, grow and scale their ideas through personalized guidance, digital tools and customized resources. Our proven model accelerates growth while saving time and money in a completely safe environment. Our key offerings include: Private Incubator: A new kind of incubator that helps our founders avoid mistakes and maximize time while maintaining a balance of life, business and the idea. The Ideasphere: The world’s only educational testing system built to vet an entrepreneur’s ideas and startups. The Ecosystem: A web-based, customizable command center providing digital tools and human guidance to help entrepreneurs test their ideas, plan, launch and manage their business, and connect their startup to valuable resources. Media: A media division which currently includes THESTARTUP.com’s weekly radio show and podcast as well as video and written curriculum designed to engage, educate and propel an entrepreneur’s ideas and startups forward.

We've pulled together some of the best soundbites from the first 30 episodes of Money Never Sleeps into a bonus year-end episode...enjoy! Running order for featured soundbites: Brian Norton - The Re-up Mai Santamaria - Started From The Bottom Chris Adelsbach - Angels Niall Dennehy - Power To The People Lisa White - Pay It Forward Paul & Laura Smyth - In My Feelings Greg Chew - The Crusader Vanessa Tierney - Work From Home Bradley Tusk - Politics As Usual Helen Fullen - Why Not Me? Emerald de Leuuw - Can't Tell Me Nothing

Martin Cass from Barclays joins us on the show to talk about banking, working with startups...and his one foray into the boxing ring! Martin is a Director in Barclays Private Bank and a Mentor for the Barclays Techstars Fintech Accelerator. Barclays is a British multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in London. Apart from investment banking, Barclays is organised into four core businesses: personal banking, corporate banking, wealth management, and investment management. Barclays has over 4,750 branches in about 55 countries and of which about 1,600 are in the United Kingdom. Barclays traces its origins to a goldsmith banking business established in the City of London in 1690. James Barclay became a partner in the business in 1736. In 1896 several banks in London and the English provinces, including Backhouse's Bank and Gurney's Bank, united as a joint-stock bank under the name Barclays and Co. Over the following decades Barclays expanded to become a nationwide bank. In 1967, Barclays deployed the world's first cash dispenser. Barclays has made numerous corporate acquisitions, including of London, Provincial and South Western Bank in 1918, British Linen Bank in 1919, Mercantile Credit in 1975, the Woolwich in 2000 and the North American operations of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Barclays has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Qatar Holdings, an investment vehicle of the State of Qatar, is the largest shareholder of the company.

Helen Fullen from NDRC joins us on the show to talk about supporting entrepreneurs of all sizes and stages...and breaking the mold in London! NDRC sources and builds young digital companies to invest in. Ensuring digital entrepreneurship is a vibrant and growing part of the economy. Funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) and established in 2007, NDRC finds, builds and invests in digital companies and startup teams with the potential to grow internationally. NDRC has invested 255 companies including Nuritas, Logentries, Bizimply, Newswhip, Tandem and SilverCloud Health. To the end of 2017, NDRC supported companies have raised €192 million in follow-on investment and employ almost 1,000 people directly.

Kevin Feeney from DataChemist (now TerminusDB) joins us on the show to talk about his mission to make data meaningful...and traveling the length of Africa on public transport! Data is the new oil and DataChemist is the refinery. DataChemist makes the complicated simple: we transform the messy, inconsistent data sets of the real world into clean, structured and integrated data. Our customers improve decision-making and reduce costs as a result. DataChemist was founded with a simple goal: to make data meaningful. As a team we’re entirely focused on helping our clients make sense of their data and build structured, consistent data stores that support decision-making and business intelligence. We're united by one belief: that the way the modern enterprise handles data is no longer fit for purpose. We're building a new database and a new way to think about data. If you're interested in coming along for the ride - or in us helping your business, we'd love to talk.

Bradley Tusk joins us on the show to talk about saving start-ups from death by politics...and Operation Sandwich! Bradley is a venture capitalist, political strategist and writer and author of 'The Fixer'. Bradley is the Founder and CEO of Tusk Holdings, which includes Tusk Ventures, Tusk Strategies, Kronos Archives, Ivory Gaming and Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies. Tusk Ventures is the world's first venture capital fund to work with and invest solely in high growth startups facing political and regulatory challenges. Previously, Bradley served as campaign manager for Mike Bloomberg, as Deputy Governor of Illinois and as Communications Director for Senator Charles Schumer. Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies, Bradley's family foundation, funds and runs campaigns in states across the U.S. to increase funding for anti-hunger programs like school breakfast and food stamp enrollment. They are also working to create mobile voting so people can vote in elections on their phones. Bradley writes a regular column for The Observer, hosts a podcast called Firewall, and has a book coming out this September about his adventures in protecting disruptors from the bad guys. Bradley is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he received his BA and has a JD from the University of Chicago Law School. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.

Ann O'Dea from Silicon Republic joins us on the show to talk about journalism, inspiring people....and bird-watching! Since going online in 2001, Siliconrepublic.com has gone from being Ireland’s No 1 resource for technology news, with countless awards to its name, to one of the leading online publications in Europe with over half-a-million pageviews each month and growing. We have become the ‘go to’ destination for those seeking to be informed on all things tech and innovation in Ireland, Europe and further afield. Our award-winning team of journalists have always chronicled the technology landscape in Ireland and abroad diligently as it grew apace and, today, thousands of readers from Ireland, Europe, Silicon Valley and the rest of the world come to Siliconrepublic.com every day to stay informed on vital issues impacting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). Be it the latest gadgets, hottest start-ups, cutting-edge scientific research or the tech trends shaping the world – you’ll find it here on Siliconrepublic.com. We cover entrepreneurs, academia, infosec, IT strategy, consumer tech, online trends, space exploration, comms, earth sciences, renewable energy, the internet of things and all things STEM because this is what we love to do. As well as news and video reports on the shifting technology landscape, we also provide our audience with information on jobs and careers in STEM. We are long-time champions of diversity in STEM with initiatives like our Women Invent campaign and Inspirefest 2015, our major international sci-tech event with over 70pc women leaders on-stage. When we began, the internet was a desktop experience, Facebook didn’t exist and Google had only embarked on its commercial model. Today, we are in a world where more than 2bn people are online and the majority of their browsing is set to take place on mobile devices. The revolution began in 2001. Stick with Siliconrepublic.com as we guide you through the choppy waters of change and the incredible years ahead in what is truly the century of innovation, collaboration and communication. If it happens, you will find it on Siliconrepublic.com, keeping you up-to-date with the fast-moving and ever changing world of technology, business, science, innovation and new thinking. Visit our Subscribe page to find out all the different ways you can connect with us, or Advertise if you want to discuss partnerships. Or simply find out how you can drop us a line on our Contact page.

Eoin Fitzgerald is a Senior Development Adviser – Fintech for Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is the Irish Government agency responsible for helping Irish companies scale and internationalize and invests in 200+ companies per year. Eoin works with a portfolio of Fintech clients across areas such as Blockchain, KYC, Payments, P2P Lending, Trade Finance, etc. Eoin previously worked as Fintech Lead and Product Manager in Deutsche Bank. Prior to that, he worked as Head of Underwriting for Future Finance, a large Irish Fintech start-up which raised over €100m for its online lending platform Eoin is also co-host of the popular podcast ‘MoneyNeverSleeps’ which aims to go inside the mind of entrepreneurs and figure out what makes them do what they do.

Shane Brett, CEO and founder of Gecko Governance, joins us on the show this week to talk about using blockchain to put the 'fun' into funds management...and his love of death metal music! GECKO Governance is a RegTech fund management regulatory solution that allows users to schedule, manage and monitor a large portfolio of investment fund’s regulatory & compliance requirements in real-time. GECKO Governance gives users the “Big Picture” by providing them with a live Birds Eye view across all their funds compliance requirements from one central dashboard. GECKO Governance has built the first solution for managing fund compliance. Clients uses our multi award winning technology to manage the full end-to-end fund compliance process ànd operational workflow. Fund companies use GECKO to manage AML/KYC, Operational Due Diligence (ODD), Fund Launches and Investor On-Boarding. GECKO Governance offers a suite of unique integrated products which hugely improves our client’s operational efficiency, cost effectiveness and compliance security.

Elaine Deehan from Pocketwire joins us on the show this week to talk about her soon-to-be launched money management product, her journey from banker to entrepreneur...and being fluent in Spanish! Pocketwire is a money management app for parents and children aimed at promoting responsible money management to kids through an app that allows parents top-up and monitor the spending. Elaine has previously worked for Citi and Currencyfair (Irish Fintech start-up).

Pete Rose from TEKenable joins us to talk about becoming an entrepreneur out of necessity...and being a trained midwife!! TEKenable is an Irish technology company, focused on custom software solutions, mobile application development and IT consulting. Headquartered in Dublin, we also operate from regional offices in the UAE and Pakistan. We commenced business in 2002 and we now have a strong market presence, with particular focus on four areas, Financial Services, Agribusiness and Retail, Health Care, and Government. Reflecting the growing importance of smartphones and tablet devices, we are regularly engaged by clients to deliver mobile solutions. Vodafone Ireland recognise our expertise in this area and have appointed TEKenable as a mobile enterprise applications development partner. Here at TEKenable, we pride ourselves on the quality of our work and our software developers and business change consultants are among the best in the market, with deep technical skills. Our place at the leading edge of software design is confirmed annually by our short-listing for the Tech Excellence Awards and our ISO9001 and ISO27001 certifications. We face the future with confidence. We continue to add clients in both the Private and Public Sector, and look forward to finding creative new technology solutions for our customers' most pressing business needs.

Aine Mulloy from GirlCrew joins us this week to talk about empowering women, building communities, her journey as a co-founder...and unfortunate injuries! What is GirlCrew? GirlCrew is a platform for women to make new friends. Not keen on going to a concert solo? Find a crew with us. Want to book a vacation but your friends are all coupled up? Find a group of girls to travel with. Whatever you can dream up, you can do with the crew. Members can participate in online group chat and offline events, and many friendships have formed. How did GirlCrew start? GirlCrew began one Friday night, when Elva Carri really wanted to go out dancing, but had no one to go with. All her friends were either busy or tired. Believing there had to be other women in the same position, she put a call out for some platonic dancing buddies on Tinder. She had no idea she would quickly garner more than 100 enthusiastic matches. She added everyone to a secret Facebook group in Dublin, where she was based, and GirlCrew was born. Having gained lots of new friends, and a jam-packed social calendar, Elva was going to need help. She teamed up with Aine Mulloy and Pamela Newenham, and the three co-founders began growing GirlCrew groups in cities all over the world, launching an app in the summer of 2017. How does GirlCrew work? GirlCrew operates through an app available on iOS and Android, and on desktop. Women simply join the group for their area such as Dublin, Melbourne, Austin or London, and there they can see what events are happening, read posts and comments from other members, write posts themselves and create events. They can also join international GirlCrew groups such as Trips & Travel, Careers, Entrepreneurs, Fashion & Beauty, Fitness & Wellness, Bloggers, Dating Advice and Staying In. In the groups, members share tips, advice and knowledge on everything from getting a new job to finding a good restaurant for a first date. How big is GirlCrew and what's next? GirlCrew has more than 100,000 members in over 50 cities worldwide, including Dublin, London, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Edinburgh and Melbourne. In the summer of 2017, the company launched an app. The app is available on iOS and Android, and will be rolled out worldwide on a city by city basis The summer of 2018 will see the app expand across 14 cities in the US including San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio and Oklahoma. [Unfortunately, GirlCrew closed down in October 2020] www.girlcrew.com | Facebook.com/GirlCrewHQ | Twitter & Instagram: @GirlCrewHQ | Pinterest: GirlCrewHQ

Greg Chew, founder and CEO of QPQ, joins us on the show this week to talk about blockchain, smart contracts...and trading bananas! QPQ is uniquely positioned to be the key enabler of digitalisation. As such, the development of our technology and platforms will have enormous financial, social, and commercial impacts. Backing up our unique technological and business proposition, we have assembled a core team of highly experienced professionals who straddle the digital and traditional divide. This underpins our ability to translate fluently between the new digital frontier and traditional enterprise. The architecture of our technology and business planning are fully developed, customers are ready to utilise our platform and services. We are now seeking the necessary investment and partnerships to rapidly develop and deploy our platforms and services. .

Des O'Donohoe from FundRecs joins us this week to talk about learning to be an entrepreneur...and his love of gaming! Fund Recs was founded in 2013 when the company founders were approached by a large bank to develop a new reconciliation platform for it's Fund Administration unit. With over 25 years of operational and technology experience between them, the team are building a platform to transform how data is managed, processed and leveraged by the Funds Industry. Fund Recs recently launched VELOCITY platform for Fund Administrators empowers Administrators to process valuations faster and with increased oversight. Taking the latest technology and approaches from the best-loved consumer software applications, the Fund Recs team are combining consumer user experience and interfaces with enterprise accuracy, security and availability. The team at Fund Recs believes that the software we use in day-to-day business activities should be as well designed and easy to use as the consumer applications we enjoy every day in our personal life. By combining ease of use with powerful processing, flexible data import and key Industry knowledge we have set out on our mission towards developing the most efficient, powerful and cost-effective reconciliation software available.

Kris Koik from Flender joins us on the show, fresh from raising €10m in debt funding to support SME's through its platform. and also shares his story on how tennis helped him as an entrepreneur! Flender is a peer to peer lending platform aimed in particular at social lending - people looking for a loan from friends and family or a local business looking for a loan from the local community who may be anxious to support the business. The company believes there is a niche in supporting and putting some structure on lending in social circles. Flender provides an alternative source of finance to SME’s. It aims to solve the problems associated with dealing with traditional lenders such as: length of time to get approved, poor experience, no understanding of the business, etc. By allowing companies to approach family, friends, customers, etc, Flender also increases the connection with the customer as the customer has a chance in supporting the growth of the business.

Husband and wife team, Paul & Laura Smyth, join us this week to talk about their journey as partners in life and business, and why entrepreneurship was the natural fit for both! Top Tier Recruitment is a specialist Recruitment Consultancy servicing a blue-chip domestic and international client base across Finance and FinTech.​ -Funds, Operations, Middle & Back Office -Developers, DBAs, Architects, Engineers, Testers -Corporate & Leveraged Finance, Private Equity -Front Office, Trading, Research & Investments -Project Managers, & Business Analysts (IT & Ops) -Compliance & Risk -Banking & Treasury -Quants, BI, Research & Analytics Founded in 2016, Top Tier Recruitment has quickly established itself as a key recruitment partner to several clients across Finance & Fintech. Their success hinges on their ability to quickly understand requirements and use their deep and active candidate networks to match the right candidate with the right role. The team's commitment to developing long term relationships with both candidates and clients drives them to deliver in a consistent and timely manner and operate with honesty and integrity without exception.

Vanessa Tierney, co-founder of Abodoo, joins us this week to talk about building communities and educating the masses about the idea of smart working! Abodoo was created (like most well-meaning ideas are) to solve a problem. How to fix the issues around sourcing great talent without being restricted by sq footage or commuting. Through smart working we believe that companies can grow and communities can thrive by allowing professionals the freedom to work and live where they choose. Technology now allows that choice and through Abodoo we aim to offer real life changing opportunities and true work-life harmony. Abodoo has recently teamed up with Vodafone to promote and support remote working for Irish businesses. The two companies will work together to educate employers on the benefits of smart working, including attracting and retaining talent, promoting diversity and inclusion, and a healthy work-life balance. The Wexford-based tech firm has been recently granted €100,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland following its recent expansion into the UK market. Enterprise Ireland has designated Abodoo as a 'High Potential Start-Up' (HPSU). The company has now secured over €400,000 in investments to date. Voxpro founder Dan Kiely - who sold his company last year for an estimated €150m - invested €200,000 in the budding site at the start of the year. Tom O’Neill, New Work Junction and e-learning company Laragh Courseware also invested in the tech startup.

Chris Adelsbach, MD of Techstars, joins us to talk about his journey from entrepreneur to angel investor, and supporting founders as an investor, mentor and occasional agony aunt! This week we are joined by Chris Adelsbach (@ChrisAdelsbach). Chris is a London-based entrepreneur, fintech investor, advisor, and mentor. He is a Managing Director at Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. He had an 11 year career at GE Capital before co-founding a specialty finance company in 2006 that became one of the UK's fastest-growing privately held companies. In 2014, Chris and his co-founders sold their business to a NASDAQ listed entity and large U.S. Private Equity group. Subsequent to the sale, Chris has been an active private investor, focusing primarily on disruptive fintech companies. He is an angel investor in over 50 companies including Atom Bank, Smart Pension, Atlas Money, Post Quantum, Everledger, Cuvva, Simudyne, Railsbank and Shieldpay to name a few. Fintech Global recently named Chris as the the most active Fintech angel globally over the past three years. At Techstars, he spends time meeting founders, mentors, partners, and funders to help accelerate the growth and success of early stage FinTech companies. He mentors FinTech founders in London, New York, Tel Aviv, Dubai and Cape Town.

Lisa Smith from EngageSmith joins us on the show this week to talk about becoming an entrepreneur and to how to speak the language of Millennials!

Emerald De Leeuw joins us this week to talk about making the change from studying law to becoming an entrepreneur and fighting the good fight for GDPR!

Enda Leahy, founder and CEO of Courtsdesk, joins us to talk about his journey from journalist to entrepreneur and all the lessons learned on the way! By centralising data and providing tools for easy search and analytics, Courtsdesk supports users in their research, monitoring, KYC, and AML functions. Our users benefit from access to data from the UK and Irish Upper Courts, Lower Courts, Company Registers, Government Gazettes and more.

Big thanks to Niall Dennehy from AidTech for joining us this week to talk about bringing Blockchain to the masses...and his career as a busker singing U2 songs! AID:Tech develops identity-focused solutions that enable people to own, control and manage their own data, you can learn more about what they do on their website.

We are joined this week by Hesus Inoma of WeSavvy to talk about how changing his lifestyle led to him changing the insurance industry!

Jacob Claflin joins us this week to talk about his journey with Cambrist...and the last time he cried!

Lisa White joins us this week to talk about transforming organisations and mental health challenges.

Barry McCarthy, founder and CEO of Assure Hedge, joins us this week to talk about bringing foreign currency hedging to the masses...and getting his boat licence!

Karen Malone from Centaur Fund Services joins us to talk about constantly trying to stay like a start-up while building a large global business....and the challenge of hiring the right people.

Mai Santamaria joins us this week to talk about how she fell into accounting and used it as a stepping stone to drive change across many organisations....as well as sharing an unfortunate translation mistake!

Sean Murphy and Ed Barrett-Shortt join us this week to talk about how Simpler is going to change the mortgage broking business and how they haven't had any arguments...yet!

Niamh Bushnell joins the show to talk about TechIreland, her journey to the US and home...and the art of storytelling!

Barry Brennan joins us this week to talk about going from the corporate world to advising and investing in start-ups.....and his love of musical instruments!

Brian Norton, co-founder and CEO of Supply Finance, joins our first episode of MoneyNeverSleeps to talk about what drives him, how he has had the entrepreneur 'bug' since college, going again with start-up number two....and his love of Lego!