MoneyNeverSleeps

This week, I’m sharing an episode of the ‘Venture with Hesus’ podcast that I recorded recently with the unstoppable Hesus Inoma, as he interviews me on lessons learned from being part of the startup ecosystem the last 8 years, the power of networks, 2022 token sale aspirations, customer validation, building for users vs building for yourself, usability vs. security in crypto, funding your go to market, pre-seed rounds vs seed rounds, what I look for in founders, mental models, flywheels, how to be successful in an accelerator, how to get excited about regulation, real-world assets and more! As Hesus wrote in his original ‘Venture with Hesus’ shownotes, “Buckle up and join us on this thrilling episode with our special guest, Pete, who brings his rich experiences from Boston to Ireland, and Bermuda to Galway. Witness firsthand the often-untold story of the startup ecosystem, the nitty-gritties of co-founder relationships and the transformative potential of Web3 technologies, as Pete lays it all bare.” Hesus Inoma is the founder and Head of Strategy & Innovation at i13 Ventures, a venture studio supporting entrepreneurs, startups, universities, corporates and governments to ideate, strategize, build, launch and scale products. Hesus originally founded an award-winning global fintech with WeSavvy, and is a well-respected leader within the Irish and European fintech ecosystem.  Hesus is passionate about the digitalization of financial services and the collaboration between the financial services and technology sectors with an excellent understanding of financial products and smart technologies underpinning emerging fintech solutions. LINKS: Original ‘Venture with Hesus’ episode page on i13 Ventures YouTube channel https://www.i13ventures.com/media/v/-venture-with-hesus-pete-townsend-and-the-techstars-web3-story- Connect with this Hesus Inoma on social media: -LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hesusci/ -X(Twitter) - https://twitter.com/hesusci? Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd -Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaaHrJjizUEd0-93mjCKsQ MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

I’ve brought together 4 of the founders from the Techstars Web3 class of 2024 to help me dispel some of the common misconceptions about web3 with the general public, including Julia Kemp, founder and CEO of Pawpass, Daniel Uribe, founder and CEO of  GenoBank. Tiago Ferreira, co-founder and CEO of FairAI, and Tom Daniel, co-founder and CEO of Ember AI. Even with an estimated 500 million crypto users around the world, the number of daily active users of crypto is less than 20 million, compared to 2 billion daily active users of Facebook, for example.  So, for those around the world who have heard of web3, blockchain, crypto, DeFi, digital collectibles, NFTs, etc., the vast majority are uninformed at best, and negative or fearful at worst.  However, they don't really need to be informed about how it works, in the same way you don’t need to understand SMTP to send an email or HTTPS to use a website.     In general, as early-stage founders, if you do put your head down and build, find customers and grow your user base, and hit the metrics to raise your round, you don’t have to worry too much about the general public for now - or do you?   What if you’ve just decided that building on blockchain technology and leveraging the trustless component of blockchain is the best way to deliver your value proposition to consumers? How will the uninformed react? How have you seen them react and what do you do about it? If what you’re building is more for the crypto-native, does it matter what the general public thinks about web3? To answer these questions and more, I asked Julia Kemp, founder and CEO of Pawpass, Daniel Uribe, founder and CEO of GenoBank. Tiago Ferreira, co-founder and CEO of FairAI, and Tom Daniel, co-founder and CEO of Ember AI, what they wish the general public knew about web3. LINKS: Connect with this week’s guests on LinkedIn -Julia Kemp from Pawpass:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kempjulia/ -Daniel Uribe from GenoBank:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/uribedaniel/ -Tiago Ferreira from FairAI:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlostiagoferreira/ -Tom Daniel from Ember AI:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/0xtomdaniel/ Follow this week’s guests on other social media: -Julia Kemp from Pawpass:  https://www.instagram.com/usepawpass/  -Daniel Uribe from GenoBank:  https://twitter.com/genobank_io?lang=en -Tiago Ferreira from FairAI:  https://twitter.com/getFairAI -Tom Daniel from Ember AI:  https://twitter.com/EmberAGI Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd -Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaaHrJjizUEd0-93mjCKsQ MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

In this Money Talks segment, Paul Smyth and I kick things off with a look at Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence before jumping to the brighter side of things with BlackRock’s new tokenized money market fund.  We then time travel back to 2017 with Copper’s sushi party (or so we thought), and close things out by questioning the correlation between fintech funding and the crypto bull run. Paul Smyth is a specialist executive recruiter and executive coach within the fintech industry.  As a founder of two startups, Paul also has a unique view of 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.  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.   STORIES COVERED: SBF Sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried’s fate sealed by his own words (FT, 28-Mar-24) Where Is Sam Bankman-Fried Likely to Serve His Prison Term? (Unchained, 27-Apr-24) Sam Bankman-Fried’s Final Trip to Court (New York Magazine, 28-Mar-24)  BlackRock Tokenized Fund BlackRock Unveils ‘BUIDL’ Tokenized Asset Fund on Ethereum—With $5 Million Buy-In (21-Mar-24) BlackRock's Tokenized Fund Quickly Rakes in $245M, Right Behind Franklin Templeton's Older Offering (CoinDesk, 27-Mar-24) BUIDL: Blackrock's $10T Bet on Ethereum | Carlos Domingo (Bankless, 2-Apr-24) Etherscan: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) Copper’s Sushi Party Crypto group Copper launches review after ‘embarrassing’ sushi party (FT, 28-Mar-24) Crypto group Copper served sushi off partially clad models (FT, 26-Mar-24) Julian Sawyer’s Statement from Zodia Custody (2-Apr-24) Fintech Funding vs. Crypto Bull Run Fintech funding falls 42% to $35B in 2023, but downturn may be nearing end (S&P Global Market Intelligence, 14-Feb-24) LINKS: Connect with Paul Smyth on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsmyth1/ Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd -Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaaHrJjizUEd0-93mjCKsQ MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Niall Mackey, the Commercial Director at Topsec Cloud Solutions, joins the show this week as we take an inside look at how businesses cope in the aftermath of a hack.   Niall is a tech industry veteran with over 35 years of experience with Topsec, Nokia, Interoute (now GTT) and Bank of America.  With Topsec, Niall looks at commercial opportunities and influences the direction of service development to ensure they continue to bring value to their customers.  Topsec have been pioneering cloud-based email and web security for more than two decades, servicing the government, healthcare, engineering, and IT sectors.   In this episode, Niall sheds some light on the gradually-then-all-at-once impact felt by a business undergoing a cyber attack, from social engineering and phishing to ransomware attacks.  We talk through the psychological impact on those who were keeping watch, how those teams pick up the pieces, and the impact on customer trust LINKS: Connect with Niall Mackey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niallmackey/ Learn more about TopsecCloud Solutions: https://www.topsec.com/ Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd -Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaaHrJjizUEd0-93mjCKsQ MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Joaquim Matinero Tor joins the show this week as guest co-host as we look at the likely paths to the adoption of CBDCs (or Central Bank Digital Currencies) in the different countries around the world making progress with these digital versions of fiat currencies.   Joaquim Matinero Tor, or just “Quim” as he’s known to friends, is a lawyer with expertise in blockchain, digital assets, and web3 and a depth of experience in venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, derivatives and securities markets in general. Quim is a counsel at Ceca Magan in Barcelona, he serves as a lecturer at several universities and business schools, and he’s lent his expertise to CBDC projects for the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Singapore, the United Nations, and the World Bank. In this episode, Quim helps me to understand the view of the general public towards CDBCs around the world, and sort through some of my lighthearted distaste for CBDCs. We also look at what’s happening with CBDCs in Asia, and how the country-by-country consumer trends with fintech and smartphones may influence CBDC adoption in those markets. LINKS: Connect with Joaquim Matinero on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquim-matinero-tor/ Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd -Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaaHrJjizUEd0-93mjCKsQ MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

This episode features an introduction to the 12 founding teams that form the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2024, with each of their founder/CEOs giving you a quick look inside what they're building. Meet the companies!  Artizen - Match-funding platform for breakthroughs in human creativity.  Founder locations:  USA / UK | Featured Founder/CEO:  Rene Pinnell The Colony -  Shaping the future of collectibles through blockchain technology. Founder locations: USA / Canada | Featured Founder/CEO: Andrea Miele Ember AI - AI DeFi companion that understands what you want and helps you do it securely, without new apps or hardware. Founder locations: USA / Colombia  | Featured Founder/CEO: Tom Daniel FairAI - Fueling democratized open-source AI through a decentralized marketplace with digital property rights.  Founder locations:  Portugal / USA | Featured Founder/CEO: Tiago Ferreira FileMarket - Multichain data tokenization protocol for storage and P2P digital goods trading. Founder location: Hong Kong  | Featured Founder/CEO: Ilya Orlov GenoBank - Ensuring the privacy and data ownership of your genetic information. Founder location: USA | Featured Founder/CEO: Daniel Uribe Lantern Finance - Custodial staking and lending services for the everyday investor. Founder location: USA  | Featured Founder/CEO: Jung-Won Kim Millicent -  The open smart contract platform for compliant real-world DeFi. Founder locations:  UK / USA | Featured Founder/CEO: Kene Ezeji-Okoye PawPass - Digital identification for animals. Founder location: UK | Featured Founder/CEO: Julia Kemp ProofSpace - No-code platform for reusable identity.  Founder location:  UK | Featured Founder/CEO: Nick Mason SportsyncTech - Empowering amateur sports organizations and athletes with innovative, data-driven solutions. Founder locations:  France / USA  | Featured Founder/CEO: Fabien Arneodo  Savvy - Interest-free lending protocol with overcollateralized deposits and self repaying loans. Founder location:  USA  | Featured Founder/CEO: Roman Giler LINKS: Learn more about the Techstars Web3 Class of 2024: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/web3 Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Laura Walsh joins the show again this week as guest co-host as we explore the potential link between digital identity and decentralized social media through the lens of the Forecaster protocol, its challenges, user growth, and the future potential of a decentralized online ecosystem. Laura is the Chief Marketing Officer and part of the founding team of Kaskade Finance, and we worked together closely for the past two years on the Techstars Web3 accelerator.  Laura is a Techstars All-Star Mentor, advisor, founder, web3 O.G., and friend. LINKS: Learn more about Kaskade Finance:  https://www.kaskade.finance/ Connect with Laura Walsh on social media: -Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralwalsh/ -Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheOGLauraWalsh Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

Brian Zwerner is the President and Founder of W3 Studio, and a VC and Founder of Beyond the Game Network.  As the President and Founder of W3 Studio, a 501c3 non-profit venture studio, Brian and his team help diverse founders in Atlanta build startups in web3. W3 Studio partners with corporations and provides grants to startups to fund the launch of their first products. With his role as a VC and Founder at Beyond The Game Network, Brian teams up with a venture group of athletes that invest in Seed to Series B consumer startups in sports, media, web3, and fitness. Brian Zwerner was previously the founder of Sportal, a startup in the sports industry. He managed the growth of Aquina Health through a Series A capital raise. He has invested in or held senior roles with several companies and funds and previously spent 20 years in investment banking roles in the US and overseas.  In this episode, Brian and I riff on what led him to scratch his entrepreneurial itch in the first place, his experiences as a founder, and the symmetry of his leadership across Beyond the Game Network and W3 Studio.  We also take a look at the market for sports-themed digital collectibles since the 2020-2021 bull run, how to build a more sustainable business at the intersection of sports and web3 by focusing on fandom rather than speculators, and how his advice to founders has evolved with the comings and goings of bulls and bears. LINKS: Episode title inspired by ‘The World is Yours’ by Nas Learn more about W3 Studio:  https://w3studio.us/ Learn more about Beyond the Game Network:  https://thebtgnetwork.com/ Connect with Brian Zwerner on social media: -Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/w3studioatl -Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-zwerner/ -Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianZwerner -Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bzwerner/ -TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brianzwerner Leave a review and subscribe on  -Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1455819294 -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack: https://moneyneversleeps.substack.com/ MoneyNeverSleeps website:  https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ Email us at info@norioventures.com Follow on X(Twitter):  -Pete Townsend: https://twitter.com/petetownsendnv -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://twitter.com/MNSshow   Follow on LinkedIn: -Pete Townsend: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-townsend-1b18301a/ -MoneyNeverSleeps: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28661903/admin/feed/posts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message

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 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

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