MoneyNeverSleeps

Pete Townsend is joined by Eoghan Powell, who runs WorkIQ, a new innovation centre for founders and early-stage companies in Tallaght, on the edge of Dublin. This is Part 2 of a pair on the Irish startup scene, after Derek O'Doherty of West x West on the capital side. Where Derek covered how founders find the money, Eoghan goes underneath that, to where founders come from in the first place. They start with Ireland's reliance on a handful of multinationals for its tax base, and the thin middle in the economy between company formation and homegrown giants like Ryanair and Kerry Group. Pete pushes back on how exposed the country really is, given how embedded Apple, Google and Meta have become, and they land on the point that whether or not the multinationals pull back, the founder pipeline needs building either way. Then the heart of it: Eoghan's case that this isn't a money problem, it's an ambition one. A kid in Dublin 4 grows up seeing founders at the dinner table; a kid in Tallaght or Kerry or Mayo often…

Pete Townsend is joined by Derek O'Doherty, founder of West x West, the two-day tech, venture and culture festival in Castlebar, Mayo that brings Irish founders together with global investors. Derek spent thirty years in capital markets across London, Sydney and New York, and until last week a year inside Enterprise Ireland building international VC relationships for scaling companies. They get into why the Irish economy isn't big enough to carry a founder from pre-seed to Series B on home capital alone, the VC pecking order that sends founders abroad to raise, why Irish founders outside the US are second only to Israel in the share who raise capital, and why Derek left a state agency to build a festival that brings the funders to the founders instead. Plus the Nik Milanović super-connector path, why he's rooting it all in the West rather than Dublin, and what's on at WXW this October. Connect with Derek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-o-doherty-91669530/ More on West x West: https://westxwest.ie/…

Steve Whyman spent 20 years trading fixed income at Bear Stearns, ABN AMRO, and BlackRock, then ran digital assets and tokenization inside Fidelity International, before leaving in 2025 to build onchain-native. In this episode he makes the case for tokenization from the one seat almost nobody tells it from: the trading desk. What pulled him out was seeing blockchain put every instrument on the same settlement rail. The frustration is what came next, five issuers wrapping the same stock five different ways, none of them netting against each other, and issuers walking away when the wrapper carries no legal recourse. Also in this one: why a desk never actually buys technology, whether AI agents can settle 24/7 when a smart contract can't own a security, and Steve's "wings of finance" case that the real prize is financing and collateral, not the shiny tokenized equity everyone's chasing. Connect with Steve: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-whyman-210a6273/ Referenced in this episode: Semi Liquid:…

Justin Swart, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, joins Pete Townsend to make the case that tokenization is doing to finance what the shipping container did to global trade (standardizing the box, not the cargo - h/t Aleks Larsen, Blockchain Capital), whether that's real containerization or just the same fragmentation problem moved onchain, how BITKRAFT's early bet on Roundhill's record-breaking Memory ETF fits a broader thesis on personalized finance, and why trading itself is becoming the new competitor to gaming for consumer attention. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:24 Intro: Justin Swart and BITKRAFT 1:00 The container analogy, retold 3:58 Robinhood's own chain, and stablecoins at Visa scale 6:09 BUIDL, BENJI, and Robinhood Chain by the numbers 7:15 Is this containerization, or fragmentation onchain? 8:18 The consumer thesis: trading as entertainment 10:37 Gamification, streamers, and trading as esports 12:33 How founders should think about BITKRAFT 14:02 Where to find BITKRAFT Connect with Justin: LinkedIn:…

Andrea Miele is co-founder and CEO of Beezie, a gamified commerce platform Pete Townsend backed through Techstars in 2024, joins Pete to talk about why the "TCG" label never captured what Beezie actually is, what it took to raise a second round after some of the best-known funds in the space passed on her more than once, and what's next now that Beezie has expanded to Base and Solana. Connect with Andrea:X: https://x.com/AndreaMYellie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agriffin717/ Learn more about Beezie:Website: https://beezie.com/ X: https://x.com/Beezie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beeziedotcom/ Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:32 Intro: Andrea Miele and Beezie 1:22 What Beezie is, in plain English 2:07 The Claw and the cold-start problem 3:21 Why the TCG bucket undersells the vision 5:26 The pack rip smell, and trading it for liquidity 7:15 Building trust before asking for money 8:17 Fundraising through thirty no's 10:13 The lead investor who changed everything 12:26 Base, Solana, and what's next…

James McCann, CEO and founder of Everhaze, joins Pete Townsend to talk about the 80/20 problem breaking PR agency economics, how an agentic layer turns hundreds of daily regulatory mentions into a 10-minute digest for a fintech client, where the human side of PR (the trust, the intros, the relationships) still does the heavy lifting, and why VC skepticism about AI-wrapped software didn't stop him from closing his round. Connect with James: X: https://x.com/JimmyMcCann01 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmccann862/ Learn more about Everhaze: https://everhaze.com/ X: https://x.com/everhaze LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/everhaze/ Email: info@everhaze.com MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email:…

Elaine Deehan is back on MoneyNeverSleeps for her third appearance, and this one has been a long time coming. As Ireland Country Manager of Monzo Bank Europe, Elaine is doing what she's always done: building something that makes banking feel genuinely human, and genuinely Irish. Download the Monzo app and open your account at: https://monzo.com/ie Monzo went fully live in Ireland on April 14th with 100,000 people on the waitlist. But getting there wasn't a lift-and-shift from the UK. It meant walking the streets, talking to customers, and solving for the things that frustrate Irish people most about their banks. Elaine also talks about what the Irish playbook means for every market Monzo enters next. Connect with Elaine:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainedeehan/Monzo Ireland: https://monzo.com/ie Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294 Connect with Pete:LinkedIn:…

Sheila Lynch has been in the room for three of the biggest financial shocks of the last five years — COVID at CQS, the Russian invasion of Ukraine at BlackRock with live Eastern European assets in the funds, and the SVB collapse. When systems go under stress, what's actually there gets revealed. Culture, training, processes — either they hold or they don't. This episode is about what founders consistently get wrong before those moments arrive. Treasury after a raise, legal as a checkbox, wind-down plans that sit on a shelf and are never tested, equity structures that aren't optimised until it's too late. Sheila shares the story of a GC who called a law firm partner the day after closing a $50 million round to ask where to put the money. The room went silent. It's that kind of episode. Sheila Lynch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-lynch-27264726/ Partners for Growth: https://www.pfgrowth.com/ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:21 Intro…

How can you use the world's most powerful AI models without ever exposing your sensitive data? Rami Akeela has spent twenty years building privacy and cryptographic infrastructure that most people didn't know they needed yet, and now, as founder of Nera Systems, he's solving the conundrum that's about to define enterprise AI — the more valuable your data, the less you can use it. We dig into what zero-knowledge proofs taught him about the wall enterprise AI is hitting today, the use cases hiding in plain sight across banking, healthcare, accounting and private equity, and what's kept him building through the grind underneath it all. Rami Akeela: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramiakeela/ Nera Systems: https://nera.systems/ Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:42 What zero-knowledge proofs taught Rami about AI 02:05 Why it doesn't have to be a paradox 02:50 The biggest use cases: banking, healthcare, accounting, PE 06:40 Training for this problem his whole career 07:53 What's kept him building through the grind 10:13…

Citi Institute's "Tokenization 2030: Wall Street OnChain" puts a number on it: $5.5 trillion in tokenized assets by 2030. Alejandro Gutierrez, who leads Solana Superteam Ireland and returns for another appearance on the show, joins me to stress-test that forecast — what Citi gets right with DTCC, NYSE and Nasdaq embedding tokenization into core infrastructure, and what we think it misses, including the stablecoin-treasury flywheel, the pressure native issuers like Ondo and Superstate are putting on incumbents, Ireland and Luxembourg's combined funds industry as an underrated jurisdictional play, and why 24/7 markets are really built for AI agents, not retail traders. Read the full report, "Tokenization 2030: Wall Street Onchain," Citi Institute, June 2026: https://www.citigroup.com/global/insights/tokenization-2030 Castle DAO, the Solana builder residency at Slane Castle: https://tally.so/r/ODJv1k Follow Alejandro on X and LinkedIn:…

Martin Watkins is CEO of Montis Group, which is building a blockchain-native central securities depository — the settlement and issuance layer that makes tokenized assets work as real financial products. With 30 years inside Euroclear, AtosEuronext and EY, Martin chose to build the infrastructure the market was missing rather than keep advising on the existing system. We get into what a digital CSD unlocks for collateral mobility, why the ECB's DLT eligibility confirmation matters, and what Luxembourg's Blockchain Law IV could mean for Ireland's €5 trillion funds industry. Find Martin at info@montis.digital or visit montis.digital Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd CHAPTERS 00:00 The doom loop that tokenization solves 00:27 Introduction 01:13 Martin Watkins welcome 01:18 30 years inside the plumbing of capital markets 03:50 What a blockchain-native CSD does differently 05:48 The Friday afternoon collateral problem 06:22 The 24/7 problem in tokenized funds 07:46 The…

Pete Townsend is joined by Eric Ries, author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, for a conversation about the invisible structural forces that corrupt even the most mission-driven companies, and what founders can do about it before it's too late. Eric's new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, is out now. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Incorruptible-Good-Companies-Great-Stay/dp/B0FWZZBPZB Eric spent 15 years teaching a generation how to build fast and learn faster. Incorruptible asks the harder question: how do you protect what you built from the forces that will eventually try to take it from you? In this special double-length episode, he walks through the concept of financial gravity, the structural tools that the world's most durable companies have used for over a century, and why good intentions are never enough. Topics covered:– Why corporate corruption is a structural failure, not an ethical…

Pete Townsend is joined by Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN and Managing Partner at A100x Ventures, for a conversation about how to tell the difference between a token that represents ownership of the value-creating thing and one that's an accelerant bolted onto something else.Sal has been underwriting these decisions at A100x at the pre-seed and seed stage. He walks through what's actually changed in the market, what a defensible answer on value accrual sounds like in a pitch meeting, and why the race-to-TGE game that defined the last cycle is largely over. Topics covered: – Why the era of tolerating tokens with no claim on cash flows is ending – How to tell whether a founder has real conviction on decentralization or is bolting a token onto an equity business – The cap-table tensions between SAFEs, token warrants, and Series A investors who can't touch tokens – Why building the product before designing the token is the new discipline – The question Sal wishes more founders walked in with an answer to CHAPTERS:…

You Can't Code Your Way Out | Amor Sexton, Blockdaemon In the last few weeks, Drift and Kelp lost $577 million between them. Neither one was a code exploit. Both were operational and governance failures. Amor Sexton, Chief Operating Officer at Blockdaemon, was last on MoneyNeverSleeps in October 2022 (EP 193) talking about how institutional client expectations of resilient processes would drive blockchain adoption. Three and a half years later, the industry just got an extremely expensive lesson in exactly that thesis. In this episode, Pete and Amor get into: - Why "this isn't a hack, it's a governance failure" is the conversation the industry isn't having - How compliance is a subset of risk — and why DeFi keeps confusing the two - The Web2/human layer compromise that exploits a legitimate Web3 feature - Pluto on Castle Island: "Everything that TradFi has built in terms of circuit breakers, we're just speed running relearning those things in crypto" - The Kelp configuration was a known vulnerability — and…

Dan Gold is founder and CEO of Stratiphy, and as far as anyone knows, the only platform offering tax-efficient crypto exposure to UK retail investors right now. The path got narrow fast. The FCA lifted the retail crypto ETN ban in October 2025. HMRC then closed the stocks-and-shares ISA route at the start of this tax year, leaving crypto ETNs eligible only for Innovative Finance ISAs, which no mainstream platform offered. Stratiphy re-opened the door, partnering with 21Shares to offer bitcoin, ether, and the new BOLD bitcoin/gold hybrid inside an ISA wrapper. We get into the regulatory maze, whether Bitcoin is a lottery ticket or a real line item, and what launching into a 35% drawdown tells you about who your customers actually are. Plus: why the IFAs will come around whether they like it or not. Follow Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-gold-5186091b2/ Learn more about Stratiphy: https://www.stratiphy.io CHAPTERS: 00:00 Tax-Efficient Crypto in the UK: The Short Story 00:25 The Regulatory…

Tokenization has a perception problem. The industry keeps selling it as an efficiency play — less friction, more transparency, better infrastructure. But if tokenization doesn't help you sell more of whatever you've tokenized, it's irrelevant. Alejandro Gutierrez leads Solana Superteam Ireland and has been building in this space since before most people knew what tokenization meant. Co-founder of the Defactor DeFi protocol. Creator of a blockchain-based supply chain financing application with Consol Freight. And the only builder on a KPMG panel last week alongside the Central Bank of Ireland, Invesco, and Dillon Eustace — in a room of over a hundred people from the heart of Irish financial services. The POC phase is long gone. Ireland has all the ingredients. Now it's time to move product — or get left behind. Also: Castle DAO is coming to Slane Castle. The TradFi Band is yet to be confirmed. Follow Alejandro on X and LinkedIn: https://x.com/A_gutierro…

Brian McNulty has been building toward this moment for a decade. When he co-founded the Post Trade Distributed Ledger Group with the London Stock Exchange back in 2015, he was helping the industry imagine what tokenized funds might one day look like. On April 21st 2026, he rings the bell at that same exchange to launch DVF — Lingfeng Capital's Digital Venture Fund — and the circle closes.In this episode, Brian and Pete trace the journey from FAC to the Apex exit to DVF, and dig into what VC 3.0 actually means: a venture fund first, a tokenized structure second, built to fix the distribution problems that have kept private markets broken for decades.They cover why the underlying investment case always has to come first, how Archax and LSEG's Digital Markets Infrastructure underpin the model, what structured transferability actually looks like in practice, who DVF is really for, and the real hurdles the industry still has to clear.DVF is Lingfeng Capital's $100 million regulated tokenized venture fund…

Who's watching the agent? That's the question at the heart of this episode — and it's one that's going to define the next decade of finance. Rob Viglione spent his career figuring out how machines make decisions in high-stakes environments. From the US Air Force to Afghanistan, and now as Co-founder and CEO of Horizen Labs, he's building the cryptographic trust infrastructure for the agentic economy. Every asset class will be tokenized. Agents will be trading 24/7 across all of them. Your data will be completely public. All the time. The guardrails don't exist yet — and the answer is Zero Knowledge Cryptography. The technology that lets agents prove they did what they were supposed to, without revealing how they did it. Find Rob at horizenlabs.io and follow him on X at @robviglione MoneyNeverSleeps is on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814And on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294 CHAPTERS: 00:00 Who's Watching the Agent?01:30 The Stakes of Agentic…

Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not. John Hill, VP of Story at Whop, has spent his career watching founders in Cape Town, Lagos, and Medellín build something real — and then hit a wall the moment they try to get paid. Whop is an AI-backed platform where anyone can build a digital business in minutes, and in February 2026 it closed a $200 million investment from Tether to embed stablecoin payments across 144 countries. The shift from finding a job to being the job is already happening. This is what the infrastructure behind it looks like. We cover What the wall actually looks like for a founder in Lagos, Cape Town, or Medellín Why talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not How Whop has removed the barriers that once kept entrepreneurship out of reach What Tether's $200M investment means for creators and builders outside the western financial system The shift from finding a job to being the job Why the Boston Irish diaspora is the original first dollar entrepreneur story How two…

Markets don't close when the exchange does. They just move somewhere else. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Alex Pollak of 21Shares about why crypto ETPs are not just surviving the rise of onchain finance — they're about to become part of it. Alex Pollak is Managing Director and Head of UK and New Markets at 21Shares, which provides the largest suite of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products in the world. Drawing on over 20 years in the ETF and ETP industry, Alex explains why the wrapper that made crypto accessible to institutions is now evolving into something programmable, tokenized, and potentially tradeable around the clock. Across crypto, fintech, and traditional finance, the conversation around tokenized assets and 24/7 markets is moving from theory toward product reality. Exchanges, brokers, and issuers are beginning to ask what happens when the underlying assets never sleep but the fund structure still does. Rather than being displaced by direct crypto ownership or…

DeFi transparency means every onchain trade is visible. Which means the moment a strategy works, the market can copy it. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Matteo Manzi, co-founder and CEO of Orion Finance, about a structural challenge emerging in onchain asset management: the same transparency that makes blockchain markets verifiable can also expose the intellectual property behind trading strategies. Matteo describes this tension with a simple phrase: “transparency equals liability.” If every transaction is visible in real time, sophisticated traders — or automated smart contracts — can monitor strategies and replicate trades almost instantly. Orion Finance is building infrastructure designed to address this problem. The idea draws inspiration from the multi-pod hedge fund model used by firms like Millennium, where multiple trading teams run independent strategies while sharing capital, infrastructure, and execution efficiency. Matteo calls this concept “Millennium onchain.”…

Money doesn’t become digital overnight. It becomes digital when the rails of finance begin to change. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Emma Landriault of JPMorgan about why stablecoins and bank-issued deposit tokens may end up reinforcing, rather than replacing, each other. Emma Landriault is Executive Director at JPMorgan and global product lead for JPM Coin, a deposit token that enables institutional clients to move money between accounts in real time, 24/7. Drawing on her work building deposit tokens and financial market infrastructure, Emma explains why stablecoins, deposit tokens, and potentially central bank digital currencies represent different layers of the financial system rather than competing forms of money. Across crypto, fintech, and traditional finance, the conversation around stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and onchain settlement is moving from experimentation toward real financial infrastructure. Companies such as Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and major global…

Money doesn’t become geopolitical overnight. It becomes geopolitical when the rails start to change. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend is joined by Sean Lee for a focused conversation on what China is really building with the digital yuan and why this moment is about infrastructure, not currency replacement. Drawing on recent meetings with the People’s Bank of China, Sean explains how the digital yuan is moving beyond a domestic CBDC experiment toward offshore settlement, trade finance, and geopolitical optionality. Rather than replacing the dollar, China appears to be building parallel rails designed to keep trade moving in a more fragmented world. This is not a CBDC hype episode. It’s a grounded discussion about trade, trust, gold, and how digital infrastructure reshapes global money flows. We cover: • Why the digital yuan is shifting from onshore use to offshore settlement • How trade, geopolitics, and optionality are driving new money rails • Why gold still matters in a digital financial…

Scaling human expertise isn’t a technology problem — it’s a trust problem. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Joni Pirovich, founder of Crystal aOS, about where crypto and AI quietly hit their limits — and why human judgment remains the real constraint as systems scale. Joni explains how her background in legal and regulatory work exposed a simple truth early on: expertise doesn’t scale on its own. As crypto firms mature, the challenge isn’t avoiding regulation, but earning trust — proving responsibility continuously, with humans still accountable. This isn’t an AI hype conversation — it’s about judgment, guardrails, and the shift from heroics to systems that actually hold up under pressure. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oN7I1_FV14k More at https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294 Sharp riffs, big ideas, real insights — in 10–15 minutes. New episodes weekly. Hosted by Pete Townsend.

Surviving the hard days of startup life isn’t about working more - it’s about building the right support around you. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Ollie Walsh, founder of Pipit Global (exited to Qenta), about founder burnout, resilience, and what actually helps founders get through the hardest stretches. Ollie explains why cutting hours helped more than pushing harder, how peer groups and a supportive board mattered, and why resilience is built quietly over time. This isn’t hustle culture - it’s endurance. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DiwWvnygiwI More at https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast… Sharp riffs, big ideas, real insights - in 10-15 minutes. New episodes weekly. Hosted by Pete Townsend.

Crypto doesn’t win in 2026 by being louder - it wins by becoming boring.In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend is joined by Alejandro Gutierrez for a sharp set of 2026 predictions on where crypto, onchain finance, and AI actually go next, as the hype keeps fading and the infrastructure takes over. This is Alejandro’s 11th appearance on the show, and the first in the new era of MoneyNeverSleeps: sharper, faster, and YouTube-led.We break down: - Why the next onchain breakout won’t look like a product, but a primitive - Why blockchains weren’t built for humans — and why AI agents may be the real users - Why privacy is coming back, driven by institutions and regulators, not consumers - How quantum risk is moving from theory to something protocols must address now - Why HTTP 402 and internet-native payments will finally resurface for the modern web. Alejandro brings deep experience from the Solana ecosystem and years in crypto, DeFi, and fintech, offering a grounded view on what’s maturing, what’s…

Why are stablecoins suddenly a geopolitical issue? Pete Townsend and Garrett Cassidy break down dollar dominance, EU pushback, AI’s role in digital money, and the future of global financial rails — in one fast 14-minute riff. We cover: • Why dollar-based stablecoins are spreading globally • Why European policymakers are pushing back • What Martin Wolf gets right (and wrong) in the FT • How AI could become a major stablecoin “super-user” • The real near-term use cases for consumers and enterprises • The future of onchain finance and global money rails Sharp riffs, big ideas, real insights — in 10–15 minutes. New episodes weekly. Hosted by Pete Townsend.

Hey there, I’m Pete Townsend, and this is MoneyNeverSleeps - where we look inside the minds of entrepreneurs and at the crossover of startups, enterprise, finance, technology, and life as we know it. This one’s different. We’re live from The Podcast Studios at HeadStuff HQ in Dublin - the legendary former Westland Studios where artists like U2 and Hozier recorded in the past - for Episode 300. Seven years. Three hundred episodes. Hundreds of conversations with founders, investors, operators, technologists and builders. One story ends, another begins. To mark the moment, I’m joined by Mai Santamaria and Alejandro Gutierrez, two of the rocks who’ve carried the show forward in the post-Eoin Fitzgerald era. We look back on how it all started with “two mics and a backpack,” revisit some of our bold 2025 predictions, riff on tokenization, stablecoins, and AI, and reflect on what this community has built together. Big thanks to Search4Less and Barry Darmody for sponsoring this episode, to Conan Brophy for seven…

Alejandro Gutierrez joins me to talk Solana in Ireland, stablecoins, and tokenized securities - plus I share the launch of Norio Ventures Fund I and what’s ahead for Episode 300. 🔹 Scaling Solana Superteam Ireland and building community across the island 🔹 Stablecoins moving mainstream + tokenized securities gaining momentum with Nasdaq 🔹 My launch of Norio Ventures Fund I and what’s next for MoneyNeverSleeps 🔹 Plus, we look ahead to the Payments Innovation Roundtable in Dublin, and CryptoMondays Belfast About MoneyNeverSleeps: I’m Pete Townsend, host of MoneyNeverSleeps and General Partner of Norio Ventures. With nearly 300 episodes, this show dives into the minds of entrepreneurs at the intersection of startups, finance, technology, and life as we know it. References: Solana Superteam Ireland Norio Ventures CryptoMondays Ireland rwa.xyz (on tokenized securities) LINKS: Solana Superteam Ireland: Website | X/(Twitter) | LinkedIn Alejandro Gutierrez: X/(Twitter) | LinkedIn Leave a review & subscribe on: Apple…

This week, we're doing something different on MoneyNeverSleeps. You're coming inside the room for the Techstars Web3 Demo Day 2025, recorded live at Civic Hall in NYC during NY Tech Week, where we brought 5 incredible Web3 startups to the stage for a standing-room-only crowd of founders, investors, and builders. These aren’t founders chasing hype - they’re building with traction, with purpose, and with an eye on the next version of the internet. Along the way, you’ll hear: A powerful fireside chat with Clarisse Hagege, founder and CEO of Dfns, on her journey from TradFi to web3 and the reality of raising in tough markets Startups introduced by their mentors and customers, not just the usual emcee banter Closing thoughts on what Techstars Web3 has meant to me and to Hugh McGirr, my partner in building this since 2021 You’ll hear from: 🧠 Autonom – web3’s first full-context real-world assets oracle 🛡️ DABL – the essential risk layer for onchain hedging 🔐 Nera Systems – privacy-enhancing tech for secure data…

This week, I caught up with Jesse Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Trustware, and one of the most quietly determined founders I’ve ever backed. I invested in Jesse and his co-founder Jonathan Frazier through the Techstars Web3 accelerator in 2023, and since then, Trustware⁠ have done what most early-stage startups only dream of—shipping a real product, signing real customers, and generating real revenue… all on just $400K in capital and a team of six. In this conversation, Jesse and I get into what it really takes to build through the mud - when you’ve got more vision than runway, and the only way out of the mud is through the mud. We talk about the early decisions that shaped Trustware’s roadmap, the week Jesse had to tell his team he couldn’t promise their next paycheck, and why raising less money actually made them a stronger company. Trustware is building what Jesse calls “a switchboard for crypto” - a way for wallets and apps to exchange any asset for any other asset(s) across chains and identity layers.…

This week, I sat down with my longtime Techstars colleague and friend Allard Luchsinger, Managing Director of the ABN AMRO + Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator in Amsterdam. Allard and I have been on each other’s investment committees for years, so this conversation hits a bit differently. We’ve traded notes across dozens of startups, and we’ve seen each other call the shots on what makes an unstoppable founder. That theme became the golden thread through this episode. We get into Allard’s journey from building startups during the dot-com era, to co-founding a zero-commission trading platform years before Robinhood, to leading one of Europe’s most respected fintech accelerators. We also dig into: His experience investing in African fintech and why mobile-first changed everything The early signals from AI and how they mirror fintech’s formative years The conviction you need to invest at pre-seed when all you have is a deck, a founder, and a feeling The power of mindfulness, presence, and early-morning…

This week, I’m joined by Scott Ashmore and Rob Halligan, co-founders of Shuttle - a platform giving individuals access to venture capital deals that have traditionally been reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Scott and Rob are best friends of 25 years, first-time founders, and the type of guys who rolled up their sleeves, built something that didn’t scale, tore it all down, and came back with something far more powerful - and regulated - with Shuttle. We get into: Their early days of investing together that kicked it all off That raw turning point moment at Web Summit 2022 when they knew the original plan wasn’t going to work What it took to get regulated and launch a platform built for the digitally-native, tech-savvy retail investor Why retail investors should have a front-row seat to venture capital opportunities—and how Shuttle is making that happen This is a story of friendship, frustration with the status quo, and the belief that access to financial upside shouldn’t be limited by your net worth. Learn more…

This week, I’m joined once again by Alejandro Gutierrez, now officially leading Solana Superteam Ireland, a new initiative powered by the Solana Foundation to accelerate Web3 innovation across the entire island of Ireland. In this conversation, Alejandro and I go deep on how Solana Superteam Ireland came to life, why the momentum is building so quickly, and what this means for Ireland as a Web3 hub. Alejandro shares how he went from convincing Dogpatch Labs to give him a table and a few chairs to creating a thriving Talent Hub that’s now attracting builders every Friday. That energy evolved into the Dublin BuildStation, a collaborative space supporting 19 project submissions to the recent Solana Colosseum Hackathon. From stablecoin payments and agentic AI to health tech and startup funding, we talk about the intersection of talent, ecosystem development, and the future of digital finance on Solana in Ireland. In this episode: How Alejandro kicked off Solana Superteam Ireland from the ground up The role of…

Simon Brown joins me to share how his role at Consensys has evolved since his last appearance in January 2024 and why he’s now leading the charge on the Consensys Network State. It’s all about reconnecting the sprawl of the Ethereum ecosystem, reinforcing the cultural gravity that made Ethereum magical in the first place, and creating a more cohesive network of builders, founders, and ecosystem experts. In this episode, we dive into how the Consensys Network State initiative is setting the stage for Ethereum’s next decade, how it’s bridging gaps between projects and people, and what it means for the future of decentralized coordination. We also get into some big-picture thinking around the evolution of Ethereum, the rise of network states, stablecoin growth, and what it takes to keep that cultural gravity intact as Ethereum continues to grow. Resources Mentioned: Sobol Agreements Protocol Consensys Network State Flashbots BuilderNet Pectra Upgrade Connect with Simon Brown and Consensys: Simon Brown:…

This week, I’m welcoming back Ollie Walsh, formerly the co-founder and CEO of Pipit Global, and now, the President of Qenta, following Qenta’s recent acquisition of Pipit. This is Ollie’s fourth appearance on MoneyNeverSleeps, making him the all-time guest record holder on the show. This conversation is a special one. Not only has Ollie been building something purpose-driven and globally relevant for over a decade, but I’ve also had the privilege of sitting on Pipit’s board since 2019 and seeing the full journey from the inside. In this episode, we dive into the first public conversation about Pipit’s acquisition by Qenta. US-based Qenta is rethinking how money moves around the world, blending fintech, blockchain, and impact into one powerful payments platform. In this episode, Ollie and I get into the weeds on what it really takes to build a startup with social impact at its core, what it feels like to finally get a deal across the line after years of trying, and how it all unfolds when you're leading with…

This week, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Fergal McGovern, founder and CEO of VisibleThread, for one of the most enlightening founder chats I’ve had in a while. Fergal’s been building for decades—starting with enterprise systems in the '90s, then launching and selling his first startup SteelTrace, and eventually pivoting VisibleThread through the 2008 crash into a trusted platform serving global leaders like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Comcast, and government agencies across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. What I loved about this conversation is how practical and honest Fergal is—especially when it comes to the real story behind fundraising. He’s been through the early seed round, the post-pivot rebuild, and the tough decision to fuel growth with debt instead of chasing a VC path that didn’t quite fit. In this episode, we get into: - Why 50% growth year-over-year is solid—but not VC-sexy - What makes a startup truly “VC-eligible” (and what doesn’t) -How Fergal built a repeatable sales…

This week, I sat down with Yev Broshevan, co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer at Hacken, a leading blockchain security firm focused on making Web3 a safer, more trustworthy place for everyone. Even better? Yev’s birthday is the same day this episode drops - happy birthday, Yev! Yev’s story goes way back to her early days as a cybersecurity engineer in Ukraine, where weak institutions and a hacker’s curiosity led her deep into the world of Bitcoin back in 2014. Since then, she and her Hacken co-founders have been building a mission-driven business around ethical hacking—using a mindset of creativity and values to secure everything from smart contracts to crypto exchanges. In this episode, we get into: Why the hacker mindset isn’t just about code, it’s a way of living—and solving problems How HackenProof, their bug bounty platform, now has over 45,000 ethical hackers keeping Web3 projects secure Why smart contract audits are just one layer—operational security and key management matter just as…

This week, I’m joined by the ever-insightful and gloriously unfiltered Laura Walsh for a whirlwind spin through the crypto-political multiverse. From BlackRock’s Larry Fink flirting with Bitcoin as the next global reserve currency to Trump-World and Cowboy State stablecoins, this episode has more layers than a Siberian haplogroup. What’s inside? Larry Fink’s crypto come-up – From “index of money laundering” to “Bitcoin might dethrone the dollar”? BlackRock’s shifting narrative and what it really means. Bitcoin as collateral – Is BTC ready to step into the reserve asset big leagues, or are we still in the pool noodle phase of macroeconomic modeling? The Trump Token-verse – Meme coins, stablecoins, and the political gamification of crypto. Spoiler: It’s not a joke just because it’s April Fool’s. The great stablecoin expansion – From USD1 to USYC, Pete and Laura unpack where stablecoins are headed, why transparency matters, and how to make sense of the growing crowd — without losing your shirt. Ondo’s liquidity…

Anthony Rose is the co-founder and CEO of SeedLegals, the #1 platform for startup funding and legals in the UK. But long before he was helping tens of thousands of founders raise capital and avoid legal potholes, Anthony was in the digital trenches – first turning the music industry on its head with Kazaa, then helping reinvent online streaming at the BBC with iPlayer, before building and selling a few startups of his own. In this episode, we go deep into what it really means to have founder-problem fit, the magic of applying a product mindset to gnarly challenges like startup legal docs, and how Anthony is now taking SeedLegals across the pond to crack the US market. We also talk about reinventing yourself as a founder, knowing when to build vs. when to sell, and why your legal docs should be like the owner’s manual in your car – built on all the ways things can go wrong. If you’ve ever tried to sell an unfinished product, pitched into skepticism, or had a strange love affair with a weirdly specific problem…

In this week’s episode, I’m joined by my good friend and returning guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez, and we get into the thick of what I like to call “worlds colliding” — the convergence of Web3 and TradFi that’s playing out in real time. From Robinhood stepping into prediction markets, to ETF filings for Solana, XRP, and even Sui, and even the Fed making front-page crypto headlines, this one's packed with all the signs that the walls between the old and the new are coming down fast. What we cover this week: ETH Dublin is back and bigger than ever – With Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Aave founder Stani Kulechov confirmed to speak, the Irish Web3 scene is officially on the global map. Crypto Mondays Ireland kickoff – We kicked things off with a great crowd, bridging Web2, Web3, TradFi and crypto over pints and pizza (note to self: apply for a PizzaDAO grant next time). Robinhood enters prediction markets – A natural next step as U.S. regulatory winds start shifting, and another signal that…

In this episode, we’re announcing the Techstars Web3 Accelerator Class of 2025 featuring founders from the six web3 startups that Techstars are investing in and accelerating in 2025 and beyond. Get ready for insights from: Satyam Agrawal, founder of 0xBridge, enabling seamless, non-custodial, and efficient two-way Bitcoin movement across blockchains, allowing users to mint 1:1 pegged BTC without relinquishing control of their original assets. Ry Leong, co-founder of Autonom, powering perpetual trading of real-world assets (RWAs) by incorporating a decentralized system to detect and resolve data inaccuracies, enabling seamless integration of market utilities into crypto economies. Mike Maguire, co-founder of DABL, a real-time monitoring and automated hedging platform that uses institutional-grade models to enhance risk management for crypto lending platforms and traditional financial institutions in digital assets. Rami Akeela, co-founder of Nera Systems, a comprehensive Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET)…

This week, we’re taking a look back at some of my favorite moments from the past year—the conversations that stuck with me long after we hit stop on the recording. If you missed them the first time around, now’s your chance to catch the highlights! And here’s the kicker—every one of the eight segments I pulled together features a mentor from the Techstars Web3 Accelerator that I lead. It’s part highlight reel, part "thank you" to these incredible people who help founders navigate the startup grind. A huge shoutout to Mai Santamaria, Patrick Pinschmidt, Hesus Inoma, Rita Martins, Alejandro Gutierrez, Laura Walsh, Philipp Pieper, Timo Lehes, and Arabian Prince from NWA for sharing their wisdom. A number of these guests will also be joining us at the Techstars x Crypto Mondays Ireland event that Hugh McGirr and I are hosting in Dublin on Monday, March 10th at Toner’s Pub. If you’re around, come reconnect with old friends, meet new builders, investors, and operators across Web2, Web3, and enterprise, and hear…

Alejandro Gutierrez joins me once again to dive into some of the biggest conversations in crypto right now, including: The fallout from Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the debanking of crypto startups—what it means for the industry and how regulatory shifts in the U.S. and Europe could reshape the future of digital assets. Why Solana is having its moment—how Solana's DEX volume is outpacing Ethereum’s and what this means for the long-term viability of the network. The rise of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and why Uniswap launching its own Layer 2, Unichain, could be a game changer. Institutionalization of crypto—how Solana ETFs and BitGo’s rumored IPO are bringing more traditional finance players into the space. The evolving regulatory landscape—what the SEC’s new stance on crypto, led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, could mean for the industry’s future. Plus, we share the details on an exciting new event—Techstars and CryptoMondays Ireland are teaming up for a first-of-its-kind gathering in Dublin on March…

This week, we’re tapping into the intersection of hip-hop, technology, education and startups with a true pioneer—Arabian Prince. If you know your rap history, you know Arabian Prince as one of the founding members of N.W.A, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group that redefined music and culture. But what you might not know is that he’s also a lifelong technologist, entrepreneur and futurist—a kid from Compton who got his hands on a computer early and never looked back. From songwriting, rapping and DJ-ing to producing electro-funk beats and Grammy-nominated #1 hit song Supersonic to leading innovation in 3D animation, video games, and blockchain, he’s been pushing the boundaries of technology for decades. In this episode, we talk about how a chance encounter with an N.W.A-inspired crypto-merch baseball cap led to this conversation, and from there, we cover everything—his early love for tech, how music and technology shaped his career, and his mission as founder of INov8 Next Open Labs and co-founder of…

Laura Walsh returns this week to help me unpack the whirlwind of events shaking up crypto, finance, and politics—from Trump’s memecoin antics to regulatory shifts and the ever-increasing adoption of crypto by institutional finance. Laura Walsh is a Techstars All Star Mentor, advisor, founder, web3 OG and friend, and in this episode, we dive into: Trump’s Memecoin Playbook – How the former U.S. president’s memecoins raked in millions in fees and what it says about crypto speculation today. Gary Gensler’s Exit from the SEC – What his departure means for the regulatory landscape and whether this signals a new era for crypto. Institutional Finance Embracing Blockchain – The latest on Circle’s acquisition of Hashnote’s tokenized money market fund and why crypto natives, not TradFi, are fueling the real-world asset movement. Regulatory Clarity & Crypto Adoption – How the SEC’s new crypto task force led by Hester Peirce is changing the conversation around compliance and innovation. Lessons from the Irish Whiskey…

Brian McDonald is a partner at Bay Advisory, a corporate finance firm helping founders navigate funding, scaling, and exiting their businesses. Brian first joined the show in 2021, and now, four years later, he returns to share updated insights on startup exits, valuations, and the evolving market landscape. From the importance of staying true to your business identity to understanding deal structuring and negotiation tactics, Brian breaks down what founders need to know before, during, and after an exit. He also shares his thoughts on current trends, including valuation shifts, the rise of AI-driven businesses, and the significance of knowing when to walk away from a deal. If you’re a founder planning your next fundraising round or thinking about an exit, this episode is packed with actionable advice and real-world examples that you won’t want to miss. Key Takeaways 1. Stay True to Your Business Identity: Many founders feel pressured to present their business as a SaaS or AI-driven venture to attract…

In this special year-end episode, Pete Townsend is joined by returning guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez for a wide-ranging conversation about what the future may hold in 2025. Together, they explore transformative ideas, emerging trends, and groundbreaking technologies that could shape industries, disrupt norms, and redefine global innovation. From traditional finance’s embrace of tokenization to the rise of AI agents, the duo covers it all—including a bonus prediction from a mysterious contributor. Tune in for an exciting glimpse into 2025 and get ready to peer into the crystal ball with Pete and Alejandro. What You’ll Learn: Tokenization Takes Center Stage: How traditional finance is poised to fully embrace tokenization, opening up new markets and investment opportunities. Stablecoins in E-commerce: The role of stablecoins in reshaping online payments and the potential for major adoption by e-commerce giants. Decentralized Identity: Why verifiable credentials and self-sovereign identity could become…

This week, I interviewed serial entrepreneur Nigel Eccles. Known for his role as co-founder and former CEO of FanDuel, Nigel shares his incredible journey of launching and scaling multiple ventures, including his latest projects BetHog and BetDex. Nigel dives into the pivotal moments that defined his career, lessons learned from raising over $450 million in venture funding, and his insights into the evolving landscapes of crypto, Web3, and gaming. Nigel’s candid reflections on timing, co-founder dynamics, and building resilient startups are a must-hear for founders, investors, and anyone curious about how to stay ahead in the world of tech and entrepreneurship. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: A speedrun through Nigel’s backstory The early days of FanDuel and lessons from building a billion-dollar business. Insights into raising capital—from seed rounds to $450M in funding. Why timing and market dynamics matter more than ever. The role of ethics and trustworthiness in choosing co-founders and investors.…

This week, I’m joined by the brilliant Mai Santamaria for a far-ranging discussion inspired by Ian Goldin’s concept of The Butterfly Defect — a thought-provoking take on the risks and interconnectedness of our global systems. We dive into how this idea resonates with the evolution of crypto, web3, and the financial markets, and explore how the convergence of traditional and decentralized systems could reshape the future. Mai, an award-winning fintech and financial policy expert, has been a trailblazer in shaping regulatory and strategic frameworks in Ireland. With deep expertise in digital finance and a passion for innovation, Mai brings her unique perspective to our conversation, exploring the challenges—and opportunities—of hyper-connectivity in our global economy. It's a deep and engaging conversation that offers insights into how globalization, technology, and finance intertwine IN THIS EPISODE: - The Butterfly Defect: How hyperconnectivity increases systemic risks and the lessons for crypto and…