MoneyNeverSleeps

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 internet. Mawari enables real-time 3D content streaming to spatial computing devices like the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 through a global network of GPUs, leveraging Web3...

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, ' Stablecoins: the Emerging Market Story '. Linda shares her background in financial regulation, blockchain, and AI, and offers critical insights into how stablecoins are resha...

Alejandro Gutierrez, CEO of npayme Labs and co-founder of ETH Dublin joins me again as guest co-host this week. In this episode, we recap our recent panel on ‘Finding Web3 Talent’ at Dogpatch Labs, touching on market sentiment, the cyclical nature of crypto investments, and strategies for early-stage startups. We delve into the concept of real-world asset tokenization, highlighting key initiatives...

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. Garvan is a strategist, innovator and transformation advisor whose career spans leadership roles in major corporations and working hands-on with startups, giving him a unique perspective on both sides of the entrepreneurial...

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 powerful API solutions, boasting clients like Ryanair. But Mark’s journey doesn’t stop there—he’s now leading Coras into a new frontier with Fida, a cutting-edge loyalty platf...

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. Laura and I worked together closely in the first two years of the Techstars Web3 accelerator, and she is a Techstars All-Star Mentor, advisor, founder, web3 O.G. and friend.   In this episode, L...

Pranav Kanade, Portfolio Manager of VanEck's Digital Assets Alpha Strategy joins the show this week. VanEck is an American investment management firm headquartered in New York City with over $100bn in assets under management. Although they’re well known for their passive exchange-traded funds or ETFs, they also manage active portfolios such as Pranav’s Digital Assets Alpha Strategy.   Pranav K...

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.  In this episode, Rita and I riff on her inspiration for writing Web3 in Financial Services and how she tackled the process of writing a book for the first time.  We also talk about the present and the fut...

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 centralized to decentralized models, the impact of decentralization on users and developers, and insights into decentralization in financial services. The episode also includes...

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 Techstars Web3 demo day on June 6th in NYC. We then cover the challenging venture capital funding market for Web3 projects, political and regulatory developments in the U.S. co...

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.  Antoni discusses his transition from technology marketer to blockchain, emphasizing the humanist aspect of technology and the broad scope of blockchain's potential applications. Piotr shares...

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 TON, iris and palm scanning, and how humans are incentivized to digitalize their identity. Mai and I explore the broader implications of digital identity on economic freedoms and...

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, Co-Founder and CEO of SportSyncTech , and Nick Mason, Co-Founder and CEO of ProofSpace . As William Gibson, author of the 1984 book Neuromancer, famously said: “The future is...

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 with huge opportunities for financial innovation.  We also look at the mainstreaming of stablecoins as the killer app for crypto and how stablecoins have only scratched the s...

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...

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...

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 Smyt...

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 developme...

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...

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 futu...

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 close...

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...

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...

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 Fitz...

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 id...