Founder Episodes

Nov. 17, 2023

239: Web3 Wishlist | What Would You Like Web3 Founders to Solve?

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 - their web3 wishlist - focusing on topics such as user experience, digital identity, decentralized finance…

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Nov. 3, 2023

237: All Around the World | Lou Kerner | Crypto Oracle Collective

Lou Kerner is the founder of the Crypto Oracle Collective, a decentralized web3 advisory firm, and also the DAO for Crypto Mondays, which is the largest crypto meetup in the world with active chapters in 54 cities.

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Oct. 27, 2023

236: The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma with Somi Arian from InPeak

My discussion with Somi Arian is a deep dive into the entrepreneur's dilemma of solving problems vs. fulfilling desires, customer discovery, product building and pivots, all baked into a live startup mentoring session. This episode was originally recorded as an episode of the Somi Arian Podcast.

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Oct. 6, 2023

233: Money Talks w/ Elliott Griffin | Pete’s Path into Crypto | Ventu…

We’ve got a special crossover episode this week courtesy of our friends at the Irish VC podcast, with a big shout-out to Finn Hatherell for producing the initial episode on the Irish VC podcast channel over the summer.  The Irish VC podcast is produced by BVP, an Ireland-based venture capital firm …

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Sept. 15, 2023

230: Vision Clear | Asad J. Malik, Jadu and Bringing Augmented Realit…

Asad J. Malik is an augmented reality pioneer and the founder and CEO of Jadu, a next-gen multiplayer augmented reality fighting game for your phone launching this month.  In Jadu, players can settle or start rivalries with friends or compete against strangers for fame and glory in this combat game…

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Aug. 4, 2023

227: Encore | Eoin Fitzgerald’s Last Dance & Techstars Web3 Recap

We’ve been on a bit of a hiatus this summer, as we took a break to recharge after a few mad months, as sometimes, you need to go away for a while and dream it all up again.  In this episode we recorded on the Fourth of July, we pull the curtain off our upcoming plans, with a big announcement from l…

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June 23, 2023

226: Pursuit of Happiness | Neal Peters, JR Studio and Giving Game Cr…

Neal Peters is co-founder and CEO of JR Studio, a frictionless web3 gaming platform that gives game creators the superpowers to build, host, launch, manage, and grow their games and communities.

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June 20, 2023

225: California Love | Federico Panisi, Loki.code and Smart Contracts…

Federico Panisi is a co-founder and CEO of Loki.code, enabling simplified and intuitive co-creation of smart contracts with a collaborative web app for smart contract designers and developers.

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June 16, 2023

224: Power to the People | Tatiana Botskina, Mintycode and Fixing Ope…

Tatiana Botskina is the founder and CEO of Mintycode, a decentralized IP marketplace for software creators, bringing together software creators, software buyers, and software contributors. By building communities around software creators’ source code and enabling shared ownership, Mintycode helps s…

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May 26, 2023

221: First Chain | Greg Hannam, Peerkat, and the Power of NFT Data

Greg Hannam is the co-founder and CEO of Peerkat, a data analytics tool for marketers to help them understand their users, increase engagement and drive growth in their web3 strategies. In this episode, Greg chats with Pete Townsend about how his life experience drove him to the Peerkat vision, dri…

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May 23, 2023

220: The Message: Howie Young, Protico and the Universal Chatting Int…

Howie Young is the founder and CEO of Protico, a universal chatting interface that enables web3 chat on apps in seconds for enterprises that want to migrate business and engage customers at the web3 level.

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May 19, 2023

219: Footprints | Deb Pratiher and Quest Labs

Deb Pratiher is the co-founder and CEO of Quest Labs, building infrastructure enabling organizations to leverage data in a privacy-preserving manner to unlock powerful user experiences.

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May 12, 2023

218: Dollar and a Dream | Igor Khmel and SaveChain

Igor Khmel is the co-founder and CEO of SaveChain, the borderless banking app. SaveChain features a self-custody 'stablecoin-only' wallet with a banking interface for the global underbanked, with the option to open an FDIC-insured bank account for non-US residents. In short, SaveChain is Metamask m…

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April 20, 2023

215: I Left My Wallet | Jesse Phillips and TrustWare

Jesse Phillips is the co-founder and CEO of TrustWare, one of the 12 founding teams forming the Techstars Web3 accelerator.  Jesse and Pete Townsend dig into how Jesse got into crypto, the TrustWare vision he formed with co-founder Jonathan Frazier, adjusting to some of the crypto curveballs the wo…

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March 3, 2023

209: Word is Bond | Liang Wu | Writing and Investing in Web3

Liang Wu is the Co-founding Managing Partner at Eleven26 Capital, an early-stage VC fund investing in diverse founders on the evolving Internet across Web2 and Web3. In this episode, Liang riffs with Pete Townsend on his one-year reflections on writing his weekly Life in Color blog, including thou…

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Jan. 27, 2023

206: Sure Shot | Dee Coakley and Boundless

Dee Coakley is the co-founder and CEO of Boundless, the operating system for your international team, which she co-founded with Emily Castles in Ireland in 2019. Boundless is ‘global employment made simple, with benefits, share options and payroll in one neat platform’.

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Jan. 20, 2023

205: Memory Lane | Sam Williams and Arweave

Sam Williams is co-founder and CEO of Arweave, a blockchain protocol allowing us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. In this episode, Sam shares the inspirational story of how Arweave got started, their life-changing experience with Techstars Berlin in 201…

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Sept. 16, 2022

190: Sky’s the Limit: Owen O’Driscoll and PlanDail

Founder and CEO of PlanDail, Owen O’Driscoll, riffs with Pete Townsend on PlanDail’s mission to build Europe’s premier cross-border, seamless, regulated crowdfunding platform, powered by carbon-neutral Algorand technology. PlanDail’s aim is to connect high-impact focused entrepreneurs with ESG/impa…

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April 8, 2022

177: What’s the Scenario? | Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Cla…

What a week! Techstars kicked off the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator this week in Dublin and they’re already moving at a breakneck pace. With that, we’re taking the opportunity to introduce our MoneyNeverSleeps community to the ten amazing founding teams that make up Techstars’ first chain-a…

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March 4, 2022

175: My Philosophy | Nik Milanović, This Week in Fintech and The Fint…

Nik Milanović is the founder of This Week in Fintech, a global digest of fintech news, and General Partner at The Fintech Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund. In this episode, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald talk to Nik about what influenced his modus operandi, the big opportunity with fint…

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Feb. 18, 2022

173: Mainstream | Adam Bialy, Fiat Republic and Bridging Banks and Cr…

Adam Bialy is the founder and CEO of Fiat Republic, the compliance-first, API-driven and highly secure and scalable bridge between banks and crypto. In this episode, Adam and Pete Townsend talk through the Fiat Republic vision, the current state of play between banks and crypto platforms that make …

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Feb. 11, 2022

172: Step Into the Realm | Matthew Larby and Realm

Matthew Larby is the founder and CEO of Realm, a blockchain metaverse ecosystem where you can create and explore your own play to earn microverse. In this episode, Matthew and I talk through how the Realm experience works,  how to make the metaverse more accessible, transitioning from a web2 founde…

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Jan. 14, 2022

169: Tim Bos | ShareRing, Building in Web3 and the Sharing Economy

Joining the show this week is Tim Bos, founder and CEO of ShareRing, a blockchain-based company that's focused on changing the landscape of the fragmented sharing economy. In this chat, Tim and Pete Townsend talk through Tim’s crystal ball-like experiences in deep tech in the ’90s, how being a thir…

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Dec. 10, 2021

167: Techstars Tag Team | Isaac Kato and Pete Townsend on Web2 vs Web3

Isaac Kato, who leads the Filecoin Techstars Accelerator program in Seattle joins Pete Townsend on this episode originally recorded as part of the Techstars Web3 Convo Series of fireside chats powered by the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator program in Ireland. In this chat, Isaac and Pete riff…

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