Pete Townsend
Feb. 21, 2025
285: Startup Smarts & Web3 Wisdom | Highlights from the Past Year
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, chock full of startup smarts and web3 wisdom!
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 hurdles. This session, originally presented at a Techstars Web3 Accelerator e…
Sept. 22, 2023
231: MoneyTalks w/ Alejandro Gutierrez | NFT Takedowns by SEC | Visa, Solana & Stablecoins | Mark Cuban Hacked | Citi’s Token Service
Alejandro Gutierrez joins the show as guest co-host in this Money Talks segment. Alejandro 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…
Sept. 8, 2023
229: Money Talks w/ Laura Walsh | Grayscale Spot Bitcoin ETF | Loyalty and Digital Assets | New Web3 VCs | Elon's Job Board
After intersecting stories of meeting Vitalik Buterin and Bono, Pete Townsend and guest co-host Laura Walsh take a look at the recent SEC ruling in favor of Grayscale that many expect will open up the floodgates for the trillions of institutional capital currently on the sidelines of crypto.
March 24, 2023
212: Money Talks: Opening the Bitcoin Floodgates | Grayscale vs SEC | Open Banking Meets AI
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend take a look at the aftermath of the American Bankpocalypse with contrasting views on bitcoin as a safe haven, and how a potential outcome of Grayscale’s lawsuit of the SEC may be opening the floodgates of crypto into institutional finance. Eoin and Pete also dig i…
March 16, 2023
211: Money Talks: Lessons Learned from 1,000 Startup Deals | The American Bankpocalypse
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend take a quick look at the triumvirate of bank failures in the US with Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank before Eoin asks Pete about his lessons learned from seeing over 1,000 deals in the last 18 months, so they riff on easy-to-remember mental mode…
March 10, 2023
210: Money Talks | Web3 Gender Gap | Pitching the Right VCs | Revolut’s Neo-Profits | WhatsApp Goes Big in Brazil
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend look at the outsized gender gap in web3, then riff on the realities of venture capital ‘dry powder’ and crypto VCs, before stepping through what’s wrong with Revolut’s neo-profitability, an unfortunate slip switch for railsr and WhatsApp B2B payments in Brazil as a…
Feb. 24, 2023
208: MoneyTalks: US Crypto Crackdown | Apple + NBA Top Shot | Solaris Setback | Revolut’s Irish Trojan Horse
Eoin and Pete riff on the latest US regulatory crackdown in crypto markets, how NBA Top Shot on the Apple app store is a leading indicator of our wider society’s digital asset adoption whether we realize it or not, trouble in Banking-as-a-Service land with Solaris, Nova Credit’s entry to the UK mar…
Jan. 6, 2023
203: MoneyTalks: 2023 Web3 & Fintech Predictions | Techstars Web3 Update | Using ChatGPT | Fintech & Crypto Leadership
This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on the latest on Sam Bankman-Fried before diving into a few of the fintech and web3 predictions for 2023 published recently, then we do an experimental walk-through of the AI bot ChatGPT. We finish up with a look at some of the January leadership ch…
Dec. 2, 2022
200: It Takes Two | Pete and Eoin’s Top 10 from the Last One Hundred Episodes
Holy Mackenzie, we just hit 200 episodes! When Eoin Fitzgerald said to Pete Townsend in early 2018, “Hey Pete, I heard you on a couple of podcasts, wanna help me start one?” never in our wildest dreams did we think this would become such an integral part of our week for the past, well, 200 weeks.
Nov. 18, 2022
199: Money Talks #57: FTX WTF | Musk Monetizing Twitter | UK Tech Nation Revolts | Big Tech vs. Irish Startups
This week, Eoin and Pete take the inevitable plunge into what to make of the FTX mess and then resurface with some of the scenarios unfolding on what Elon Musk has in mind for the 250 million daily active users of Twitter. The guys also look at the hubbub around the control of Tech Nation in the U…
Nov. 11, 2022
198: MoneyTalks #56: Techstars Web3 | FTX Rant | Block’s Flywheel | Fintech+Crypto Apps HoF | Apple vs. NFTs & Reddit
This week, Pete gives some insight into the new Techstars Web3 accelerator and goes on a quick rant on FTX before he and Eoin riff on Block’s flywheel and their ambitions with Cash App, then they go through a hall-of-fame list of fintech and crypto apps from Rex Salisbury, and finally dive into NFT…
Oct. 14, 2022
194: MoneyTalks #55: FTX and Visa | Google Cloud Goes Crypto | Mumsnet and Community Fintech | Public Fintech Utilities | Meta’s Metaverse Mess
This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto exchange FTX’s partnership with Visa enabling users to spend crypto anywhere Visa is accepted, Google Cloud enabling customers to pay in crypto in partnership with Coinbase, the state of ‘community fintech’ through the lens of Chetwood Financial’s deal with M…
Sept. 30, 2022
192: MoneyTalks #54 | Crypto Regs vs. Crypto Failures l Sam Bankman-Fried to the Rescue | Walmart in the Metaverse | Goldman Goes Mobile
This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto asset service provider regulation through the lens of Revolut, the trifecta of crypto market failures in Voyager, Celsius and Terra, how Walmart’s metaverse play with Roblox feels like the right platform vs. Decentraland or Sandbox, credit as a service player…
Sept. 23, 2022
191: MoneyTalks #53 | Ethereum Post-Merge l Revolut Pay Later Trial | a16z Funds Sequence and Sardine | Bored Yachts
Eoin and Pete talk through the aftermath of the Ethereum Merge, some pandas and goofy songs, an early-morning Bankless livestream of the Merge, and critically, a 99% more energy-efficient blockchain. We also look at the new Revolut BNPL product live in Ireland, two new funding deals that a16z did o…
Sept. 9, 2022
189: Money Talks #52: Metaverse Infrastructure | ETH Merge | Wayflyer Flying | Alloy’s Big Round | Bradley Tusk & DAOs
Eoin and Pete dive into the shortcomings of Metaverse graphics through the lens of Metaverse deep-thinker Matthew Ball and his new book on the Metaverse, what’s up with the Ethereum Merge, the big fundraisings of Irish unicorn Wayflyer and Techstars grad Alloy, the death of ING’s Yolt, Block’s Cash…
Aug. 5, 2022
188: Money Talks #51 | Revolut on Tour | Starling Flies | Vitalik on the Metaverse | Crypto Regulation & Talent | Umba’s Big Deal
This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on Pete’s trip to the US last month with the sheer ridiculousness of the 8 different combinations of point-of-sale authorizations he experienced with a single Revolut card, Starling Bank’s re-prioritization of a presence in the Irish banking market,…
July 8, 2022
187: Money Talks #50 | Techstars Demo Day Recap | Building the Bear | EU’s MiCA | Web3 as Embedded Finance
This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend recap Techstars’ first-ever demo day in Dublin as part of the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, look at crypto winter with FTX, BlockFi and Voyager, Klarna’s down round, Revolut’s new card reader, Algorand bringing Napster back to life, MiCA (Market…
March 25, 2022
176: Money Talks #49 | Ramp Goes Up | JPM Go West | Going Ape with Yuga Labs
This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend return from a 2-week hiatus and look at what’s driving Ramp forward so quickly with their $8bn valuation, the JP Morgan deal for western Ireland-based fintech Global Shares, and the latest with ApeCoin, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and Yuga Labs.
Feb. 25, 2022
174: Money Talks #48 | SoFi So Far | Circle and Stablecoins | Crypto Ads | Apple Pay and Stripe
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on what started out as a student lending platform in SoFi now becoming a full-service digital finance player, Circle’s new SPAC deal in the context of stablecoins, advertising and naming rights in crypto and a long-term view on what Apple could be up to with S…
Nov. 5, 2021
162: Money Talks #45 | Pete Townsend’s Irish Tech News Interview on Digital Finance | Rory Galvin on the Finsight Series
Suzanna Hayek from Irish Tech News interviews Pete Townsend on Pete Townsend on financial trends, digital finance and investing in startups. This interview was originally aired on Irish Tech News in early September, and they kindly gave us permission to share the content. We also brought Rory Galv…
Oct. 15, 2021
159: Money Talks #43: Launchpool Web3 Techstars AMA | Stripe Goes Crypto Again | Stories from Token 2049
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive headfirst into insights from the first AMA session on the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, then look at Stripe’s re-entry into crypto and what they’d miss if they stayed on the sidelines, Pete shares some stories from the Token 2049 conference last week …
Oct. 1, 2021
157: Money Talks #42: Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator in Ireland | Chase Goes UK | AngelList Gets Stacked
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive into the big news for Ireland’s startup ecosystem as Techstars come to Ireland with the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, along with the news on Pete leading the program, then we get into how we think Chase’s digital bank might fare in the UK, and also An…
Sept. 3, 2021
153: Money Talks #41: Amazon-Affirm BNPL | USDC and Stablecoins | Visa, CryptoPunks and the World of NFTs
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend walk through Amazon’s new partnership with BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) player Affirm and what this means for the Amazon flywheel, and then answer the question ‘what’s a stablecoin?’ in the context of USD Coin and the Centre Consortium, before diving into the world of …
Aug. 27, 2021
152: Money Talks #40: Chime and American Neobanks | Facebook’s Wallet Relaunch | Amazon’s Crypto Journey | LendingClub Turnaround
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend unpack the shiny new $24bn valuation for Chime in the context of the American neobank landscape, Ron Shevlin’s concept of neobank-driven deposit displacement through the lens of Bank of America, Facebook’s relaunch of their crypto project, the potential impact of A…
Aug. 20, 2021
151: Money Talks #39 | The First Edition of the Finsight Series
Recorded during the recent Finsight Series virtual event that Pete Townsend moderated (hosted by Navirum and Salesforce), this episode features an all-star cast with Rory Galvin from Navirum, Bryan Clagett from Moven, Cory Haberkorn from Salesforce and Niall Twomey from Fenergo. The main theme we c…
Aug. 6, 2021
149: Money Talks #38: Starling Up, Monzo Down | Square’s BNPL Deal | Amazon, Shopify, Revolut and Fintech Flywheels
Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dive deep into the annual results from UK neobanks Starling and Monzo and what’s next for both, before getting into Square’s deal for BNPL (buy now, pay later) player Afterpay and how the integration will lead to a ‘fintech flywheel’. They then dive even deeper int…
July 23, 2021
147: Money Talks #37: Revolut’s Big Raise | Square’s Crossover | Robinhood IPO | Fintech Flywheels
Eoin and Pete mine a motherlode of fintech hotspots this week starting with insights into Revolut’s latest $33bn valuation, Square’s quest for crossover between creators, crypto and small businesses, then we dive deep into the upcoming Robinhood IPO and our developing thesis on fintech flywheels.
July 2, 2021
144: Money Talks #36: Visa Goes Tink | Binance’s Troubles | Revolut’s Results and Rolling into a Rundle
In this Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend start with some insights on Visa’s deal for Tink and how the European context of Tink differs quite a bit from the US context of Visa’s dead deal with Plaid, then we look at Binance’s recent troubles before rounding out with Revolut’s r…
June 18, 2021
142: Money Talks #35: Stripe Gets to Know You | Netflix and Flywheels | Bitcoin Highjinks in Miami
In this Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend start with their insights on what Stripe’s latest product could mean for their long-term plan, then they think through flywheels with Netflix finally getting into merch, before heading south to Miami for the outtakes from Bitcoin 2021.
June 4, 2021
140: Money Talks #34: Ireland’s Startup Ecosystem | Fintech in Africa | European Banks Attack!
In this Money Talks segment, we take a deeper look at the startup ecosystem on this island that we call home, then head south to Europe for a constructive look at the European Payments Initiative, and then head further south to Africa for the story of Chipper Cash and the fintech opportunity in Afr…
April 23, 2021
134: Money Talks #32 | Coinbase Goes Public | Goldman Backs Starling | Predicting the Next Apple Rundle
We’re back with another Money Talks segment this week, and we get into the story of Coinbase going public and the cryptofication of fintech, Starling Bank’s big investment from Goldman Sachs, the credit-building appeal and 'rundle' potential of the latest Apple Card feature, and buckets more!
March 26, 2021
129: Money Talks #31 | Stripe’s Double Irish | Revolut Does America | Season of the SPAC | DeFi vs. Mainstream Crypto
SOUND QUALITY WARNING: You know how Marc Andreessen said 'software is eating the world'? Well, software ate this episode, please excuse the underwater sound and we'll be back to normal next week! In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin trade ideas on the impact of Ireland’s investment in Stripe…
March 12, 2021
127: Money Talks #30 | Starling Goes Unicorn | Roblox Goes Public | Walmart Feeling Super | Square Goes Tidal | Ireland Accelerates
In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin trip through the wires of Starling Bank’s latest fundraise, investing in Roblox’s direct listing, Walmart’s SuperApp vs. ‘The Bank of Walmart’, the Square-Tidal / Jack Dorsey-Jay Z tie-up, and Ireland's new national startup accelerator, international start…
Feb. 19, 2021
124: Money Talks #29 | Clubhouse | Jay Z, Jack Dorsey and Bitcoin | Fintech SPACs and Digital Assets
In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on Pete’s first experience with Clubhouse, Jay Z and Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin Trust for Africa and India, fintech valuations and SPACs, Citi’s fat finger, efficient crypto markets and grief for Revolut over raising fees.
Jan. 29, 2021
121: Money Talks #28 | GameStop and WallStreetBets | Visa-Plaid Deal Dead | Buying Monzo
In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on GameStop and WallStreetBets, the Plaid-Visa deal falling apart, spitballing ideas on who might buy Monzo, a Cambrian explosion at the intersection of money and society and RIP Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.
Dec. 31, 2020
117: Money Talks #27 | Big Valuations | Stripe | Bitcoin Scarcity | The Next Frontier of Money | Rundles
In this special year-end Money Talks segment, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend wax lyrical on big valuations in the 'Fintech Year in Review', Stripe and the next stage of B2B financial services, the long-term economic impact of bitcoin, optimism for the next frontier of money...and of course, the …
Nov. 20, 2020
112: Money Talks #26 | Dalio vs. Druckenmiller on Bitcoin | Angel Investing and Unit Economics | AirBnB vs. Ant Financial IPOs
Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald take a look at Dalio vs. Druckenmiller on Bitcoin, how angels invest in startups, Tinkoff Bank and the 'Rundle', and AirBnB vs. Ant Financial in the Battle of IPOs.
Nov. 6, 2020
110: Money Talks #25 | Digital Awakenings | Blockchain Rabbit Holes | Present and Future of Digital Assets
We’ve flipped the tables this week, with Ken Coyne from OpsTalent interviewing Pete Townsend on his own digital awakening, insights on the startups he’s working with, the origins of enterprise blockchain, the present and the future of digital assets…and who stole Pete’s car stereo in 1990!
Oct. 9, 2020
106: Money Talks #24: Breaking Big Tech | Catch-22 of B2C Fintech | How to 'Love the No' from VCs
This week, Pete and Eoin take look at what to do about the condemnation of Big Tech’s alleged monopoly powers according to US lawmakers, the catch-22 of consumer fintech, Apple One and ‘Rundles’, getting something from VCs if not a check….and godspeed, Eddie Van Halen.
Sept. 25, 2020
104: Money Talks #23: European Startup Scaling and TransferWise in the Money
This week, Pete and Eoin take another look at the TikTok deal as a bellwether for change in how entrepreneurs outside the US look at the American market, a peek inside the now-profitable fintech unicorn TransferWise, the Nikola scam, the Yandex-Tinkoff tie-up, YCombinator’s acid test….and Cobra Kai!
Aug. 28, 2020
100: Money Talks #22: Challenges of the Challengers and Top 10 Episodes
For the 100th episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Eoin and Pete dive into their favorite topic – the challenges of challenger banks – and look back to the first 99 episodes to build out a list of their Top 10 episodes.
Aug. 7, 2020
097: Money Talks #20: Microsoft Goes TikTok and Monzo on the Clock
This week, Pete and Eoin dive into the curious deal brewing between Microsoft and TikTok, a crystal ball view into what's going on with the challenger bank Monzo, all topped off with the recent news on Square and piped-in crowd noise for Pete's beloved Boston Red Sox.
July 24, 2020
095: Money Talks #19: Twitter Hacked | Ant Goes Marching | Instagram Goes Shopping | Robinhood Goes Home
In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dig into the recent Twitter Hack and how it might have been much worse, the Ant Group IPO and their status as the 'online mall for everything', Instagram's opportunity to become America's favorite shopping mall and Robinhood drop…
June 19, 2020
090: Money Talks #16: WhatsApp | Backstage | Revolut | Olivia
On this week's episode, Pete and Eoin dive into payments on WhatsApp, the paradox between investing in underrepresented founders and the current demographics of venture capital, and getting digitally closer to your spending through Revolut and Olivia.
June 5, 2020
088: Money Talks #15: Digital VC, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
IIn this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dive into the difference between video and live interactions between startups and their investors, the role of Twitter and Facebook as arbiters of the truth, a look back at the demographics from the first two years of this podca…
May 22, 2020
086: Money Talks #14: Pizza Arbitrage | Doordash | Uber | Grubhub | Growth at All Costs
In this week's Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald dig into a slice of "Pizza Arbitrage" from the Margins blog by Ranjan Roy and Can Duruk on the Doordash, Uber and Grubhub strategies of growth at all costs, and delve into the importance of recharging yourself, work-life and pand…
May 8, 2020
084: Money Talks #12: Challenger Bank Brands - Bó, Revolut & N26
In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on the shutdown of the RBS challenger bank brand 'Bo', Revolut's M&A ambitions, what N26's latest fundraising means in the great universe of challenger banks.... and their latest reads!
Dec. 13, 2019
068: Money Talks #6 | The Seed 2.0 | Pete Townsend on Seed Investing
"Pete Townsend goes solo" would have been a better headline in the '70's, but our Pete takes the mic in this episode to unpack the realities and economics of funding pre-seed and seed-stage startups through the lens of Finn Murphy from Frontline Ventures
Sept. 20, 2019
058: Talk Up | Jo van de Velde and Pete Townsend | Working with Your Investors
In an excerpt from Flagship Marketing's webinar "How to Survive and Thrive with Your Investor", Jo van de Velde from Euroclear and our own Pete Townsend talk about how important it is to communicate with your investor to maximize the value they can add.
Feb. 6, 2019
034: DNA | Pete Townsend and Working with Startups
Pete Townsend gets into the hotseat to talk about working with startups, how being helpful is in his DNA....and his love of baseball and statistics!