Moneyneversleeps

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 diggi

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 dri

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

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

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

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 | Spo

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 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/support

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 U

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 n

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@moneyn

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 W

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 Money

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

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 Mon

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 mini

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 fu

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 ‘bui

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 g