Money Never Sleeps

Money Never Sleeps

A weekly podcast that looks inside the minds of entrepreneurs and at the crossover of startups, enterprise, finance, technology and life as we know it, hosted by early-stage startup investor Pete Townsend.

Recent Episodes

Nov. 8, 2024

275: Web3 Fundraising Playbook | Pete Townsend | Raising Your 1st Round at the Frontier

We're diving deep into the fundamentals of fundraising for Web3 startups and early-stage ventures navigating their first capital raise. Fundraising is always challenging, but in web3, it’s a whole new frontier with unique hu…
Oct. 31, 2024

274: Filmmaker to Founder | René Pinnell and Artizen | Funding Human Creativity

René Pinnell is the founder of Artizen, a match-funding platform for human creativity, helping creators match fund new projects at the frontier of art, science, technology and culture. With over two decades of experience, Re…
Oct. 25, 2024

273: Mission Minded Founder | Niall Dennehy & AID:Tech | Fixing Humanitarian Relief and Digital Identity

Niall Dennehy is an Irish entrepreneur and the co-founder and COO of AID:Tech, who are bringing traceability and transparency to the flow of funds for governments, NGOs and charities with their payments and digital identity …
Oct. 18, 2024

272: Scaling Environmental Impact: Luca Franchi’s Journey with Ambient and DePIN Innovation

Luca Franchi is the CEO and a co-founder of Ambient, a decentralized network of air quality sensors.  Luca brings to Ambient over two decades of leading growth at several startups and large corporations in the US and Europe …
Oct. 6, 2024

271: Luis Ramirez and Mawari | Building the 3D Internet

Luis Ramirez is the Founder and CEO of Mawari, a pioneer in cloud rendering and streaming technology.  The Mawari team got started in Tokyo in 2017, and since then, the team has effectively built the foundation for the 3D in…
Sept. 27, 2024

270: The Stablecoin Revolution with Linda Jeng | Unpacking Castle Island Ventures’ Latest Stablecoin Report

Linda Jeng is the Founder and CEO of Digital Self Labs, and she joins me in exploring the evolving landscape of stablecoins. Our discussion focuses on our key takeaways from Castle Island Ventures' latest stablecoin report, …
Sept. 20, 2024

269: Working in Web3 | Real World Asset Tokenization in Finance and Beyond | Guest Co-Host Alejandro Gutierrez

Alejandro Gutierrez, CEO of npayme Labs and co-founder of ETH Dublin joins me again as guest co-host this week. We recap our recent panel on working in web3 (‘Finding Web3 Talent’) at Dogpatch Labs, touching on market senti…
Sept. 13, 2024

268: Garvan Callan | Be the Change You Seek | Founder of OneZero1

Garvan Callan is the founder of OneZero1, a company that’s redefining how startups and enterprises alike can navigate the complex world of digital strategy and transformation.
Sept. 6, 2024

267: Mark McLaughlin | Co-Founder & CEO of Coras | Building & Fundraising at the Intersection of Web2 & Web3

Mark McLaughlin is an Irish entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of the ticketing industry since 2006. Mark is the co-founder and CEO of Coras, a company that's been revolutionizing the ticketing landscape with its pow…
Aug. 30, 2024

266: Crypto Politics: Unpacking Trump's Campaign Promises

Returning from our summer hiatus, Laura Walsh joins the show again this week as guest co-host as we dive into Crypto Politics by unpacking Donald Trump's campaign promises involving bitcoin and crypto.
June 28, 2024

265: Keep it Simple | Pranav Kanade from VanEck on Liquid Venture Investing

Pranav Kanade is the Portfolio Manager of VanEck's Digital Assets Alpha Strategy. VanEck is an American investment management firm headquartered in New York City with over $100bn in assets under management. Although they’re …
June 21, 2024

264: Rita Martins | Author of Web3 in Financial Services

Rita Martins joins the show to discuss her new book, Web3 in Financial Services, which explores how blockchain, digital assets, and cryptocurrency are disrupting traditional financial services.
June 10, 2024

263: Decentralization: Do Or Do Not | Kene Ezeji-Okoye and Stella Dyer (Millicent Labs) | Ilya Orlov (FileMarket) | Rita Martins (Author, Web3 in Financial Services)

This week, we dive into decentralization with Kenny Ezeji-Okoye and Stella Dyer from Millicent, Ilya Orlov from FileMarket, alongside Rita Martins, author and Techstars Web3 mentor. The discussion covers the journey from cen…
May 31, 2024

262: Money Talks with Alejandro Gutierrez | ETH Dublin | ETH ETF | Web3 VC Climate | Crypto Politics

Alejandro Gutierrez, CEO of npayme Labs and co-founder of ETH Dublin joins me again as guest co-host this week. We start with Alejandro's Token2049 Dubai ‘tsunami-in-a-yacht’ story, the upcoming ETH Dublin 2024, and the Tech…
May 24, 2024

261: Building the Aleph Zero Ecosystem with Antoni Zolciak and Piotr Saczuk

This week, we dive into Aleph Zero, a privacy-enhancing layer one blockchain renowned for prioritizing scalability, security and speed, with co-founder Antoni Zolciak and Head of Investments Piotr Saczuk.
May 17, 2024

260: Money Talks with Mai Santamaria | The Human Side of Digital Identity

This week, I’m joined by guest co-host Mai Santamaria, the head of the financial advisory unit for the Department of Finance in Ireland. We delve into the world of digital identity, discussing the projects of World ID and TO…
May 10, 2024

259: Blockchain Going Mainstream | Andrea Miele - The Colony | Fabien Arneodo - SportSyncTech | Nick Mason - ProofSpace

I’m joined by three of the founders from the Techstars Web3 class of 2024 to help me identify the mainstream adoption path for blockchain technology, including Andrea Miele, Co-Founder and CEO of The Colony, Fabien Arneodo, …
May 3, 2024

258: Money Talks with Gray Webb | Bitcoin as a Long-Term Holding | Stablecoins Mainstreaming

Gray Webb is co-founder and CTO at Liquibit Capital, and we kick things off with a look at what’s happened with BTC since the latest bitcoin halving.  Gray and I then riff on the evolution of bitcoin into a long-term holding…
April 18, 2024

257: How I Got To Techstars on a Flywheel | Hesus Inoma Interviews Pete Townsend | Venture With Hesus

This week, I’m sharing an episode of the ‘Venture with Hesus’ podcast that I recorded in late 2023 with the unstoppable Hesus Inoma, as he interviews me on lessons learned from being part of the startup ecosystem the last 8 …
April 12, 2024

256: Common Misconceptions About Web3 | Julia Kemp | Daniel Uribe | Tiago Ferreira | Tom Daniel

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 U…
April 5, 2024

255: SBF Gets 25 Years | BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund | Copper’s Sushi Party | Fintech Funding vs. Crypto Bulls | Guest Co-Host Paul Smyth

Paul Smyth and I 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…
March 29, 2024

254: Psychology of the Hacked | Niall Mackey from Topsec Cloud Solutions

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.
March 22, 2024

253: CBDC Adoption | Who's Ahead of the Game? | Joaquim Matinero Tor

Joaquim Matinero Tor joins the show this week as guest co-host as we look at the likely paths to CBDC adoption (Central Bank Digital Currencies) in countries around the world making progress with these digital versions of fi…
March 15, 2024

252: Meet the Techstars Web3 Class of 2024

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.

About the Host

Pete Townsend Profile Photo

Pete Townsend

Podcast Host

Early-stage startup investor, MD @ Techstars Web3, founder of Norio Ventures, mentor, non-executive director, podcaster and bad guitar player.