Startups Episodes

From Lean Startup to Incorruptible | Eric Ries [EP. 316]
May 27, 2026

From Lean Startup to Incorruptible | Eric Ries [EP. 316]

Pete is joined by Eric Ries, author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, for a conversation about the invisible structural forces that corrupt even the most mission-driven companies, and what founders can do about it before it's too late.

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Talent is Equally Distributed, Opportunity is Not | John Hill | Whop [EP. 309]
March 27, 2026

Talent is Equally Distributed, Opportunity is Not | John Hill | Whop …

Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not. John Hill, VP of Story at Whop, has spent his career watching founders in Cape Town, Lagos, and Medellín build something real — and then hit a wall the moment they try to get paid.

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Why Working Less Saved My Startup (EP. 303)
Jan. 19, 2026

Why Working Less Saved My Startup (EP. 303)

Surviving the hard days of startup life isn’t about working more - it’s about building the right support around you.

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296: The Unstoppable Founder | Allard Luchsinger from Techstars
June 13, 2025

296: The Unstoppable Founder | Allard Luchsinger from Techstars

This week, I sat down with my longtime Techstars colleague and friend Allard Luchsinger, Managing Director of the ABN AMRO + Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator in Amsterdam.

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295: VC For the Rest of Us | Shuttle | Scott Ashmore and Rob Halligan
May 30, 2025

295: VC For the Rest of Us | Shuttle | Scott Ashmore and Rob Halligan

This week, I’m joined by Scott Ashmore and Rob Halligan, co-founders of Shuttle - a platform giving individuals access to venture capital deals that have traditionally been reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

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294: Superteams, Startups and Stablecoins - Solana’s Bet on Ireland is Already Paying Off
May 23, 2025

294: Superteams, Startups and Stablecoins - Solana’s Bet on Ireland i…

This week, I’m joined once again by Alejandro Gutierrez, now officially leading Solana Superteam Ireland, a new initiative powered by the Solana Foundation to accelerate Web3 innovation across the entire island of Ireland.

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288: Anthony Rose, SeedLegals | 99 Problems (But My Legals Ain’t One)
March 28, 2025

288: Anthony Rose, SeedLegals | 99 Problems (But My Legals Ain’t One)

Anthony Rose is the co-founder and CEO of SeedLegals, the #1 platform for startup funding and legals in the UK. But long before he was helping tens of thousands of founders raise capital and avoid legal potholes, Anthony was in the digital trenches – first turning the music industry on its head wit…

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286: Introducing the Techstars Web3 Accelerator Class of 2025
March 18, 2025

286: Introducing the Techstars Web3 Accelerator Class of 2025

In this episode, we’re announcing the Techstars Web3 Accelerator Class of 2025 featuring founders from the six web3 startups that Techstars are investing in and accelerating in 2025 and beyond. Get ready for insights from: S...

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285: Startup Smarts & Web3 Wisdom | Highlights from the Past Year
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!

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283: Arabian Prince | The N.W.A Pioneer Empowering the Next Tech Generation
Jan. 31, 2025

283: Arabian Prince | The N.W.A Pioneer Empowering the Next Tech Gene…

This week, we’re tapping into the intersection of hip-hop, technology, education and startups with a true pioneer—Arabian Prince.If you know your rap history, you know Arabian Prince as one of the founding members of N.W.A, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group that redefined music and cultu…

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281: The Art of Startup Exits | Brian McDonald from Bay Advisory
Jan. 17, 2025

281: The Art of Startup Exits | Brian McDonald from Bay Advisory

Brian McDonald is a partner at Bay Advisory, a corporate finance firm helping founders navigate funding, scaling, and exiting their businesses. Brian first joined the show in 2021, and now, four years later, he returns to share updated insights on startup exits, valuations, and the evolving market …

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

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249: Bridging the Gap | Connor Murphy | One Problem, Two Ventures and Bridging Networks
Feb. 23, 2024

249: Bridging the Gap | Connor Murphy | One Problem, Two Ventures 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.

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236: The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma with Somi Arian from InPeak
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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150: Growing Up | Brian Kenny and MiniCorp
Aug. 13, 2021

150: Growing Up | Brian Kenny and MiniCorp

Brian Kenny is the CEO and Founder of MiniCorp. Brian left the Lego behind at an early age and started building through code. We go deep into how Brian thinks about leading MiniCorp and what makes MiniCorp unique, how his modus operandi has evolved during his career in tech, the critical task of tr…

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104: Money Talks #23: European Startup Scaling and TransferWise in the Money
Sept. 25, 2020

104: Money Talks #23: European Startup Scaling and TransferWise in th…

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!

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086: Money Talks #14:  Pizza Arbitrage | Doordash | Uber | Grubhub | Growth at All Costs
May 22, 2020

086: Money Talks #14: Pizza Arbitrage | Doordash | Uber | Grubhub | …

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…

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082: Money Talks #11: Startup Support, Marc Andreessen's Build & Survival from NFX
April 24, 2020

082: Money Talks #11: Startup Support, Marc Andreessen's Build & Surv…

In another edition of our Money Talks segment, Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald air their thoughts on the startup support plan announced in the UK, Marc Andreessen's 'Build' essay, and NFX's recent post on how startups can survive a downturn.

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079: Cryptic Wisdom - Colin Platt
March 27, 2020

079: Cryptic Wisdom - Colin Platt

Colin Platt joins the show to talk to Pete Townsend about leaving behind his early career in the capital markets, the crossover of solving entrepreneurial problems and solving global political problems, the professional merits of podcasting, hating and loving writing, his view on economics....and h…

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067: Startup Insights #2:  The Unexpected
Dec. 8, 2019

067: Startup Insights #2: The Unexpected

In this special segment, we feature four founders sharing how they dealt with one thing they didn't expect to face as a founder - Martin Brown from Unitek, Lizzy Hayashida from Change Donations, Andrew Mullaney from Premind and Paul Smyth from Top Tier Recruitment.

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062: Money Talks #3:  Joining a Startup, Scaling It and 'Adminovate'
Oct. 18, 2019

062: Money Talks #3: Joining a Startup, Scaling It and 'Adminovate'

In this next edition of our Money Talks format, Ciaran Walshe from Fund Recs joins us to talk about joining a startup, scaling it, the origins of the Adminovate conference and what to expect for Adminovate 2020.

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060: Money Talks #2:  Startup Marketing and Raising Capital from VCs
Oct. 3, 2019

060: Money Talks #2: Startup Marketing and Raising Capital from VCs

We continue this week with our second edition of Money Talks - Rachel Kenny from HubSpot covers the basics of startup marketing and Bernadette Wijnings from Blanco tells her story about digital asset management and raising capital from VCs.

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058: Talk Up | Jo van de Velde and Pete Townsend | Working with Your Investors
Sept. 20, 2019

058: Talk Up | Jo van de Velde and Pete Townsend | Working with Your …

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.

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054: Startup Insights #1:  Hard Decisions
July 26, 2019

054: Startup Insights #1: Hard Decisions

The MoneyNeverSleeps crew picked out six founders from past episodes talking about the hard decisions they've made along the way, including taking the leap, operating without a playbook, building teams, penetrating new markets, and finding your way home from the middle of Cambodia!

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